Wednesday 30 October 2013

Rom-Com Target Audience

A romantic-comedy film mainly targets 13-18 year old women although sometimes they can be older. This is because women like to see a perfect relationship or imagine themselves be swept away by a prince charming kind of character. Teenage girls are targeted most as they are an age group with the highest number of single people who would like to imagine a perfect romance. Men are stereo-typically against romance films as films of this genre are always more feminine and a man would be less inclined to see it as it would make him look effeminate. The date scene is also a target of this genre as they hope couples that are out on a date will see a romance based film.

The lead character in a rom-com will almost always be constructed to reflect the audience as close as possible. A young, single woman with a relatively boring life and a tendency for getting into awkward situations will either match most of its target audiences lives or be worse than them. If the audience sees someone who is worse off than them getting into a relationship the film can act to inspire the audience and that they will also find someone, so reassurance is a major reason people like to see these kinds of films. Another reason this genre appeals to certain people would be how these films play on certain themes that the majority of the audience would be concerned with.

Never finding a partner may be of concern to a lot of teenage girls and this is raised and subverted in the common rom-com. Getting into awkward situations and moments are also a major concern of a lot of women and rom-coms always feature a scene where the lead will somehow be embarrassed in front of a room full of friends and family. Seeing a character in an embarrassing situation that exceeds all of the audiences in terms of level of embarrassment comforts the audience, as they can see someone that is worse off than them. The more socially awkward the lead is the more effective their romance is on the audience.

No comments:

Post a Comment