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The Niche Film

The Niche Film

The niche audience is a small, select group of people that have unique interests.

It is a fraction of a total market or audience. It differs from the mass market audience of film such as comedy.

Currently Hollywood is appealing to a very specific audience such as the geek, comic book crowd, this is a niche market. In recent year’s comic book and graphic novels adaptations have been bought by production companies in bulks. Films such as Kick-Ass, The Losers and Scoot Pilgram Vs the World were adaptations from graphic novels with small but dedicated fan bases. The three films were considered underperformers at the box office but still gained reasonable amounts of profits, with The losers grossing $23 million in the US, Kick-Ass grossing $28 million in the US, and Scott Pilgram Vs the World grossing $30 million in the US.

Since the release of the film The Blair Witch Project 1991, other film studios have strived, and failed to replicate the groundbreaking internet campaign that made the film a marketing phenomenon. The new ad campaigns on the internet suggest that studios are becoming more determined to identify and reach niche audiences online.

My film Classmates has an audience of a niche market as it targets specific people who would be interested in two homosexual main characters. This could be a gay audience.

 
The niche market

The Indie film

The Indie Film

Also known as independent film, the indie film is a independent feature film that is produced mostly outside of the major film studios. They are often subsidiaries of major studios and are sometimes distinguishable by their context and style and the way the filmmakers personal vision is realized. Indie films are made with considerably low budgets than major studios films.

Well known indie films include The Texas Chainsaw Massacre which grossed around $140,000, The Blair Witch Project which had a budget of a mere $35,000, and Monty Pythons Life Of Brian which grossed a large £4 million.

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My film Classmates falls under this genre of film as it was produced on a very low budget and has a unique storyline targeting different audiences, mainly aimed at the teen Romcom audience but also the niche and gay audience.

The 1990s saw the rise and success of independent films not only through film festivals but at the box office as well as established actors such as Bruce Willis and John Travolta who found success in independent films and Hollywood studio films. The success of Teenage mutant ninja turtles 1990, grossed over $100 million making it the most successful indie film in box office history.

 

 

The Gay audience

The Gay Audience

  

The gay audience as a whole is a niche market, usually 

produced by independent film makers on low budgets which is what my romantic comedy Classmates has in common with the gay film market.

Like many representations in film, the depiction of homosexuality has been generally distorted over the years, when it hasn’t been ignored altogether.  Jan Oxenberg states that people are “starved” of images of themselves in film and this is why the famous actor and play writer Harvey Fierstein suggests that the gay viewers have to learn to read mainstream films in a certain way in order to actively find representations on themselves to identify with.

Steve Drukman wrote the formulation of a “gay gaze” in order to address gay and lesbian spectators and their identification with what is seen in film.  Drukman also says that gay spectators are already used to modifying their gaze to the codes of traditional filmic narratives but that they want to make this gaze “centric” In other words, Drukman agrees with Fierstein’s comment that gay audiences have to translate mainstream texts in order to find the films more relevant to them and to be able to identify with characters onscreen.

Famous films marketing at gay audiences include

 A Single man (2009) which grossed $9,166,863 in the US,

 Brokeback Mountain (2005)which grossed a large $83,025,853 and Milk (2008) which grossed $31,841,299 in the US.

The London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (LLGFF) takes place every spring in London. It began as a season of gay and lesbian films at the National Film Theatre in 1986 and 1987 under the title "Gay's Own Pictures", curated by Peter Packer of the Tyneside Cinema. The festival showcases some of the best gay cinema from all over the world.

I have included to do research on the gay audience as my romcom Classmates includes two main characters that are homosexual. They will appeal to a gay audience as well as a heterosexual audience as gay people can relate to the homosexual characters portrayed in the film. The lesbian characters portrayed in my film are not stereotypical lesbian characters you would expect to see in other films. Lesbian couples are usually portrayed in the film industry as their being one more masculine female taking on the male stereotypical role in the relationship, and the more feminine female, who is more typically female. However in my indie film both female characters are typically feminine and womanly. This is not

stereotyping gay females that the film industry usually takes part in.

Classmates audience feedback

Audience Feedback Romcom Questionnaire

Romantic Comedy Questionnaire

     1.       Do you feel that you are targeted as a teenage audience for some romantic comedies? If so why?

     2. Who would you watch a teen romcom with?

3. What types of stereotypical characters would you expect to see in a romantic comedy?


4. Who do you think the targeted audience is for a romantic comedy?


5. From what social backgrounds are the typical romantic comedy characters from?


6. What sexual orientations do you usually acknowledge in teen romantic comedies?