Target Audience

My target audience for my film is focused on young girls and boys. I wanted to create a romance movie as I really enjoyed the short film 'signs'. ( http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=uy0HNWto0UY )  I wanted to do as much research as possible on my target audience, so I browsed over some of the comments on the film which were all very positive and the majority of them referred back to their own relationships. So it made the audience think of what they have and how lucky they are to have the ones they love, which I particularly liked as it was obviously pulling at the heart strings of the viewers. I knew from the comments that I had read, that the age group varied from both the young and old. It clearly varied from 13 to 40 plus. My target audience  loves a romantic film and after reading lots of comments of short films I know that I have picked the right theme. I liked the idea of taking something so simple and making it into a film. I wanted to draw the audience in with the music and  characters. I didn’t really want much dialogue in the film as I know that it is quite effective in 'signs'.  There had been several comments on it and how it worked well with no dialogue.
 The research I have done from various websites has taught me that the codes and conventions of any genre have three distinctive groups. Technical, symbolic and written/audio. Group one, technical consists of your camera techniques and a variety of shots. For example, close ups of your two main characters together. This could show the build up of their budding romance. It could also be a close up of their body structure, how they stand around one another and if they are holding hands etc. Group 2, Symbolic consists of your clothing, colours and props. A good setting needs good colours to represent their feelings and the feelings that you want to share with the audience. Group 3, Written/audio consists of the soundtrack and the actors/actresses voices. For example, if the girl is mumbling it could suggest she is shy and that she is nervous,  you can tell this without having to see the actress, you don't need to see the person, only hear them to understand their emotions and the music also does the same, happy jolly music suggests happiness and the same for misery, gloomy dark music represents a dark gloomy atmosphere. I also found from my research that the codes and conventions of a romance film say that things like wedding bells, hearts, flowers, roses and presents should be shown throughout the film and be the main props, I wanted to challenge that by using Post It notes. They are linked to the age of my actors and actresses as they represent what is used in lessons quite regularly for taking notes and leaving pointers, they are a metaphor for relationships as they are easy to throw away, just like (paper) post it notes.

The company that I think would publish my short film would be Dreamworks or Warner. These two companies are extremely successful and between them have published thousands of films. I would use these companies as I think they have a similar target audience. The two companies that I have chosen are both American a competing British company I would also use is the BBC short films company. Although they are only a small company, they have a lot of shows in the UK at peak TV times. 

Sources : http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_codes_and_conventions_in_media 
http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=uy0HNWto0UY