Target Audience Brainstorm

Audience Mood Board

This is our mood board showing the genre of Urban Drama that significantly relates to the target audience. I have incorporated many images that our audience finds appealing. These images consist of the clothing, foods, music and technology the target audience relates to signifying .

8 Mile - Poster Analysis

8 Mile is a film that relates massively to my genre ‘Urban Drama’. This is a poster that depicts many aspects of the genre of drama. The main image is of the main character ‘Eminem’ who will definitely be a massive selling point of the film. The image is a mid shot of Eminem which dominates the whole of the poster indicating that he is the main focus. It shows Eminem in sitting down position, with his head tilted downwards with no eye contact with the camera, as he is writing lyrics on his hand. This shows emphasis not only on the story line of the film but also the genre of the film giving it a distinctive factor. The fact that he is writing rap songs on his hand again highlights the poverty which pollutes the inner city areas making it difficult for young people to follow their dreams, almost giving you an insight into the film.

The colour scheme of this film poster relates significantly to the urban genre. The dark black, grey, and yellow shades allow for this urban drama feel, as it resembles the lifestyle he experienced within the beginning of the film. These dull colours of black and greys allow for the yellow/orange title and white taglines to standout.

The placing of this poster would be in magazines, bus stops and cinemas. This is reinforced as the image is the main focal point and these places are where the public will be able to grasp the full effects of the image such as the writing on the hand. Also, the poster credits displayed at the bottom, illustrate that it is one of the last posters displayed before the release of the film.

The Taglines will significantly influence the audience as it involves other A-list celebrity names like Kim Basinger, Brittany Murphy and Mekhi Phifer. This gives the audience a slight insight into the film, as it alerts them of the genre of the film just through what these actors specify in. This could  also attract another audience that are fans of these actors which would be another selling point incorporated in the poster.

The target audience of this film would be predominantly aimed at males but can appeal to females depending on interests. The age group will be approximately 15-25  years old as this age group is more appealing to this generation.

Repertoire of Elements of Urban Drama Genre

Character: Typically in a Urban Drama movie there is generally three groups of characters; The Gangs, The Police, Innocent Civilians, along with these group of characters there is also typically a ex gang member who gets dragged back into his old gang life. Normally the female characters are stereotyped to be ignorant and to be used for sex appeal and the men are usually the gang members. Children appear very often in urban drama films as it gives the film a sense of how the innocence can be twisted to become involved in a gang or can also be used to show how a gang could be ruthless in killing a child.

Audience: Men seem to be one of the main audiences for Urban Drama Films as it's exciting and ruthless and gives the audience an insight on gang life. Also young adults from 14 upwards possibly from London would be interested possibly by the Urban Drama genre as it shows them what actually occurs near where they live.

Settings: For the majority of Urban Drama films the setting is quiet similar, there is generally always a dull, rainy day and a council house around an area which you can tell is full of crime e.g. graffiti showing vandalism. Popular settings also include London Streets, alleyways and Council.

Themes: For an Urban Drama film to be successful it needs to conform to some of the typical themes, themes such as Evil vs. Good, Misunderstood children, Dark Lives, Sin vs. Purity and even death.

Style: Conventional lighting for an Urban Drama film is quite low key, dark and gloomy with a dull, cold feel to it. They have a lot of use of close ups and a variety of low and high angles shots, to create tension. Another way of creating tension is through the use of sound, typically you'd get a lot of rap, grime, and nowadays even dubstep playing, this also gives an insight of what the gangs of today like listening to, in terms of music genre.

Iconography: An iconic item you'd find within a Urban Drama film would be some form of knife or gun, and of course most defiantly blood. In terms of clothing, Hoodies, Snapbacks and tracksuits are worn to represent how gangs dress.

Narrative: Typically the narrative of a Urban Drama film would be to have some sort of gang with gang members and gang leaders established, so the audience get an insight of the hierarchy of power within the gang, there is usually also a police group who the gang are running from at some point within the film, there is also usually a misunderstood gang member who believes he is doing or not doing the right thing by being in a gang.

History and Background of Urban Drama