What truly directs the decisions behind the films everyone is watching today, is the production studio's consideration of their market. I completed a short essay last year, researching the causes of today's unoriginal market, on whether audiences are still interested in original ideas or if they actually are only interested in sequels and remakes. I concluded that audiences are eager for original stories over something they've seen before, but executive's are now starting to redirect their vision to meet this standard. My film is an original concept based off of a true story, one of the main marketing features of this film will be it's fidelity and core beginnings. Audiences, these days, naturally gravitate toward 'true stories', you can see success in films like The Social Network (2010), or more recent successes such as Oppenheimer (2023) or Napoleon (2023); all films inspired by true stories, and all films that financially thrived. I think the fact that this story is true is enough credit that producers would admire to begin marketing the film. But I don't want to stop here, I want to find a nicher audience to establish a deeper connection with certain types of people; to really drive home a message and a theme that will resonate with people and get them thinking.

​

Pen Portrait

A perfect audience member for this film would be an adult 35 year old male, on the cusp of fatherhood. They would be a Christian, white, middle class Welshman living in suburban Cardiff who is an avid fan of the the Six Nations and the Rugby World Cup, supporting Wales and part of the local club. He's just discovered that his pregnant, 37 year old wife, of five years, is having a son, this would be his first child. He isn't too sure how he feels about becoming a father, none of his friends or siblings (two brothers) are father's so he's never had experience as an uncle. He would also attend, and be heavily involved, in his city church, where he shares mutual friendships among the congregation of roughly five hundred. The majority of his core friend group, however, are non-Christians from his work as a successful physiotherapist. He would be someone who doesn't feel completely ready to welcome a son into the world but wants to make sure they do it right. Fatherhood is one of the central themes that this film will follow, it shows the importance of being daring but also the necessity for responsibility even when it seems unfair. The film also revolves around the pursuit of a rugby career. This audience member would arguably be similar to this as well, he would need to also relate to Noah, as well as Nick, in terms of who this man wanted to be when he was a child, at Noah's age.

​

Primary Target Audience

The audience I want this film to appeal to the most is fathers. Specifically, fathers with young children. The film's leading protagonist matches this description, which is why I think the audience that will relate to the film the most will be that character type. Philosophically, the narrative of this film focuses on family, and parenting themes to be more specific. Throughout the film, Nick is constantly faced with the decision to give his son his dream or face his son with reality, a choice that a lot of parents can relate with. Often, those two pathways don't walk hand in hand, the typically contrast each other, as they do in this film. The real life Emma and Nick certainly related to this when discussing with me about the story before this project had even begun. A father with a young child will certainly relate to this choice, especially if they fall closer to the circumstance represented.

​

Noah has Perthey's disease. This is a disease which is most commonly found in children, that does its damage to the person from a young age which then slowly progresses positively into adulthood; the only downside however, is that it has already stalled development since childhood, leaving behind nasty repercussions in later life. But since the disease is at its worse when between the ages of 6 and 12, the parent is the only one mentally exposed to the disease's effects. I say this, because when talking with my cousin, Noah, he said that he doesn't remember much of his time with Perthey's and, personally, he doesn't feel as impacted by the story compared to his parents. Since he was miraculously healed from such a young age, he never really had to deal with the traditional 'aftermath' that comes with the disease. Which is why when I'm considering my primary audience, I'm conscious of the sensitivities surrounding parenting a child with a disability. The parent is sometimes arguably just as affected by the condition as the child, purely due to the mental pressures and responsibilities they must be going through. By considering this, I will need to be sensitive and accurate in how I represent Nick and Emma's struggle as parents, because they aren't just parenting a normal kid. I need to consider Emma and Nick's actual experiences as well as how that would resonate with this specific target audience.

​

Secondary Target Audience

Generally, parents that have children will watch this film as it will speak to them the most. Not the children, but the parents. When researching targeting parents as a primary audience in film, I learnt something quite interesting which led me to settle on my secondary audience.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Stephen Follows published a short research article (https://stephenfollows.com/what-older-cinemagoers-are-watching/) in 2016, which gathered box office numbers and compared the age demographics that made up the total figures proportionally. In his findings, was a clear indicator to what parents suggestively watch - whatever their kids are watching. Every film outside of the 35-44 bracket seemed predictable accept this one outlier. Comparing it to the 7-14 bracket and seeing how they both share an animated film, I've concluded that parents are forced to watch whatever their kids are watching at the time. This research caused me to consider my secondary target audience.

​

If I'm going to appeal to parents then I must ensure that the film is suitable for children as they will be watching it too. Not only will they be watching it, but to get the parents in the seats of the theater, I'd need the children to be able to relate to it on some level as well. I can't use expertly complex dialogue, bad language, I can't show violence or immediate threat, these are things which I now need to consider knowing that if I'm targeting parents as my primary audience, I must also accommodate for their children - appealing to them.

​

Tertiary Target Audience

The next bracket down from my central audience will generally appeal to those who have a keen interest in short form content, as well as an interest in the coming-of-age, sport drama genre. For this section of my research, I will look into age demographics and explore which ages are more likely to watch these types of films. When looking into different ages at the cinema, categorized by genre (https://stephenfollows.com/do-older-audiences-want-to-watch-older-actors/), I was surprised to see that the sports genre is evenly covered by almost all ages.