Similar Audiences - Titanic

In the midst of our research into our audience we had discussed who we thought would like our movies. It got  me thinking about films that have a similar audience to ours and the movie that crossed my mind was Titanic. I thought about how although the initial audience may be women [as the storyline is based around romance and the struggle of a relationship that so many women can relate to and enjoy watching as they feel they can connect with the characters] the movie does have a very broad audience overall. The action scenes appeal to the men whilst the romance keeps in touch with the women. There are many other reasons why titanic has such a wide audience; 

The struggle and divide between the lower class and higher class means that people of different classes in the audience can relate to the different characters. Molly Brown (Kathy Bates) is a prime example of a character who breaks conventions of what an audience expects, her high status doesn't stop her from being friendly to everyone, an important character in the movie who sets a pleasant tone but also reminds the audience of their pleasant feelings to the two leads, Jack and Rose. Molly represents the audience in some ways as her views would fall similar to the typical viewer but she has also been specifically given a quality that sets them aside from the rest of the characters - her more plump look immediately gives her a less threatening vibe, setting her aside from the rest of the higher class passengers abroad. This is something that was carefully thought out for her character to emphasize her qualities as the real Molly Brown is much more slim.

The male role in a movie is one that you have to think of carefully, the male audience can sometimes be more touchy or easily offended than the girls and to create a character that can threaten them would put them off of a movie. An exception to this rule would be James Bond as it does not have this effect on men, I would put this down to the fact that the series of movies are so iconic that men have grown to idolise James Bond and not be ashamed for it. In a movie like Titanic, the good cop bad cop theory is put into place and a man such as Carl is a good example of someone who the audience love to hate. Jack, on the other hand, is a character that is introduced as a happy go lucky man with nothing to show for himself other than his drawings, he doesn't threaten the audience with rich and pompous characteristics. He shows no judgement which many would at the time of the film, being friends towards people of all backgrounds and all classes throughout the film. Another reason why men like him is that he does not shy away from any action in the film and is many a time rushing down corridors with Rose by the hand, like a hero.

Moving onto the female audience, again, a very touchy part. Women are famously known for being judgemental towards other women in television and movies. Picking holes in one another comes very naturally whether its the way they act or the way they dress, women are much more analytical and at the same time critical compare to men. The character of Rose is perfect for this movie, she is introduced focusing very closely to her social class through her costume and facial expressions being very pristine and posh. Within minutes we are aware of how trapped she is in her social class to the point she is driven to attempted suicide, because her character is so vulnerable it is easy for us to be sympathetic towards her and when Jack comes along and saves her from herself it can only be pleasant to watch their growing love on screen.

After realising this it became more apparent how similar the movie is to our storyline, our femme fatale is trapped in the stereotype that is sexy, promiscuous etc. and our anti-hero is a lower class male who lusts for her. There relationship is very Jack & Rose under different but at the same time similar circumstances. We wanted to break the conventions of a romance appealing to a female audience which is what Titanic achieved, film noir had a very specific audience at the time, focusing mainly on adult males, Titanic is a model frame of a movie that reflects how we are breaking this convention and making a film noir modern in this day and age but also modernising the target audience.