Audience theories provide frameworks for understanding how people interact with and interpret media content. The Gratification theory, for instance, emphasizes the active role of the audience in selecting media to fulfill specific needs, suggesting that media consumption is more about what people do with media than what media does to them.
TAP
A TAP is the target audience profile which as a group we created based on the typical audience viewer who would see our film.
To view our TAP just click on the scribd icon attached to this box!
What is the BBFC?
To Start with the BBFC stands for British Board of Film Classification who are responsible for all the film classifications in the Untied Kingdom, protecting citizens from films which aren't appropriate for their age bracket.
Click the little blogger icon on the side of this box to be sent to an earlier post of mine which is all about the BBFC and the classification of films.
Audience Theories
Audience theories are representations which are open to different interpretation that audiences might feel and have towards media contexts. For example one of the main audience theories is the Gratification theory which is a popular approach in understanding mass communication. This theory is more focused on the consumer and the audience consuming the media context instead of the actual message which the media context is trying to convey, in the words of Katz its about what the people do with the media rather than what the media does to the people. The theory is all about how the media might of been chosen by audiences to meet their specific needs and that audiences use the media to fulfil specific Gratifications meaning that audiences are unaware that they are using the media to interpret and integrate into their own lives.
Another popular audience theory is the opposite to the Gratification theory which is called the Effects model. This is where the consumption of media texts has an effect or influence on the audience, this is normally seen as a negative effect because audiences are unable or powerless to prevent the influence from the media text, and ultimately the power lye’s with the message the media text wanted to portray.
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Pearl & Dean Evidence
Although the BBFC website gave us a lot of insight and validation that the 15 rating was the most appropriate rating for Enigma, the Pearl & Dean website justified our decision further by the evidence we found relating to thriller films and the 15 age bracket.
With the 15 age bracket being the highest to see te similar films to Engima solidated further that the 15 rating for Engima was the right choice, not only this but if we also know that the 15 age bracket love the stereotypical thriller based narrative which Enigma follows. This is because all three films which the evidence is based from, all surround around a house where the antagonist is terroying the protagonist which is the same for Lauren and Beth. With the 15 age bracket seeing these type of suspense building thrillers holds great hopes for Enigma because it follows the same conventions hopefully enabling the most 15 year olds and older to watch Enigma which reflects well on the group. Click on the purple dot for the profile of No Good Deed on the Pearl & Dean website.
As clearly seen from the evidence the three films which as a group we chose to look at were Obsessed, No Good Deed and The Boy Next Door and just from reading the titles of the films they all have something in common and that's there all thrillers which some kind of stalker in them just like Enigma. The age brackets vary due to The Boy Next Door and No Good Deed being a 15 and Obsessed being a 12a, however with this being said hopefully with the evidence provided it was noticed that comparable profiles were attached to each film. This is where the Pearl & Dean website have matched similar films to the ones chosen and provided age brackets of which age range viewed the films the most and out of all three the 15 rating was the highest. Click on the Purple dot for the profile of obessed on Pearl & Deans website.
Justification of Enigma being a 15 rating
It's appropriate to say that with the examples given of where the nudity, violence and strong language as well as others could appear in Enigma, the 15 rating is the safest for viewers aged 15 and above. This is because with the issues outlined such as a homosexual relationship convention, needs maturity to understand that relationships are not just man and women and if the film was aged any lower than a 15 I don't think the film would be consumed with the same level as maturity and could become comedic for viewers aged younger.
As well as younger audiences finding comedic value some of the issues raised would not be appropriate for younger audiences and they wouldn't understand the issues either. Not only this but the violence and nudity which would be displayed could harm younger audiences who are not use to those visuals making it more set in stone that Enigma is a 15.
The first instance of violence in Enigma is when Lauren discovers the knife in the kitchen which is place by Beth because essentially Beth wants to harm / hurt Lauren for not engaging in a relationship with her anymore which could result in a bloody battle between the two later as the film develops.
For example strong language would be used in a number of ways, for instance in flashbacks where it is displayed to the audience where the relationship started to turn sour in a heated argument between Lauren and Beth. Not only this but strong language could be used to express the confusion, anger and emotional state which Lauren is in due to Beth playing on her mind.
An example where nudity could be shown is where again flashbacks could occur during the movie to unravel how Beth and Lauren met and how they evolved a relationship together. As well as this more minor nudity could be displayed for example Lauren could be taking a shower while being paranoid that Beth was In the house.
A 15 rated film is obviously not for children below the age of 15, this is because the following are displayed in a 15 rated film; strong violence
frequent strong language
portrayals of sexual activity
strong verbal references to sex
scenes of sexual violence or verbal
references to sexual violence
discriminatory language or behaviour
