Chugley Film Club
Subject: Media
Topic: Film Festival, Audience, Genres, Education, Marketing, Industry
Audience: KS3/KS4
Question: Which film would be suitable for Mr. Spine to show at the next ‘Film Evening’ and why?
Author: Elizabeth Doyle
Description
This resource is designed to help students apply their knowledge of the concept of target audience and demographics. They do this through the scenario of Mr. Spine who lives in a village called Chugley and runs the local film club. Students are asked to help him decide on a suitable film for the other residents.
It is hoped that this will help students to identify the different factors, such as income, education and age that are taken into account by the marketing industry, and consider how these things could influence a decision-making process such as this.
Before the students are introduced to the material, a homework task could be set to ask them to compile a broad list of films of various genres and types. They could form the basis of their choice as they would then be able to discuss and comment upon these in class. If more research is needed, the class could have online access to resources such as IMDB.
As well as the main question, there are additional sub-questions suggested which help students break down the task or encourage them to think about specific points.
Easy difficulty level - in the most basic form, students are given a lot of information on the village of Chugley including the age and occupations of some residents. This is so they can assess what demographics they are, then discuss and match up suitable film choices.
Medium difficulty level - additional slips are included to help students focus on the economic profile of the people of the village, and its appearance as a very ‘up-market’ place, although with a sizeable number of people on an average income. They could be encouraged to ask what assumptions could be made about the tastes and habits of wealthier people.
Hard difficulty level - the brightest students may want to extend their consideration to the possible political views of the population, and whether this would suggest a more ‘liberal’ audience or a more ‘cautious/conservative (with a small ‘c’)’ one.