Certification

As part of our audience research we must obviously find out who our target audience, and if applicable, an obvious niche audience who we will be catering towards. In order to gage what sort of certification we should be aiming towards, we should first look at films in a similar genre to ours. On the whole, as the below collage shows, popular films of the genre very much take a norm of the 15 rating. The main exception to this is Eastern Promises, which can be explained by its sub genre as a gangster/mob film with the violent and graphic scenes commonly expected. 

The specifications for films attempting to be a 15 are shown at the bottom of the post, and we will very easily be able to have our trailer fit these specifications, however what would differentiate our film from one such as Taken (12A) is that we wish to set our film in darker areas of London, with more emphasis being placed on the psychological. In terms of accessibility, making our film a 12A or 12 would obviously increase the age range of our viewers, however older/more experienced film fans may not be enticed by the idea of a serious crime thriller as a 12A. This would lower our viewing figures in the elder age groups, and with the 15-24 bracket being who we are aiming for this would not be beneficial. Having the film as 15 allows for the guidelines of a 12 to be broken, making the film darker and more sinister while still maximising the age range of audience. It is also well known that people younger than the legal age sneak/are allowed to see 15 films so we could include a niche audience of a younger generation.

There is also the perk of being able to conform/replicate some of the things seen in our trailer inspirations mentioned in a previous post, as these are all 15 rated. If we were inspired by 18, the tone and even some of the things shown would not be able to be replicated and as such we would have to be completely original, not taking inspiration from anywhere. 

15 Film Guidelines -