Use Two Films To Present a Reasoned Argument For How Content and Style Determines the Audience

As the film industry as progressed, producers have found it more and more necessary to develop new ideas and techniques in order to appeal to a particular audience. Thrillers are no exception to this, and has adapted greatly to various types of people by creating sub-genres, as well as developing new ways of making the film itself. To give examples of this, I am going to analyse ‘Fight Club’ (1999) and ‘Alien’ (1979).
First I will look at the content of the two films. Content is things such as the dialogue, the narrative and the plot which are what is in the actual film. Alien would have come under the thriller genre, as well as the sub-genres of Sci-fi, Horror, Psychological, and ‘Creature-Feature’. Sci-fi fans would have been attracted to the film, due to the film being set in space and on a spaceship, with a killer alien on the loose. Horror fans would like it for the gore; an example being when the alien bursts out of the person’s chest cavity. Psychological and ‘Creature-Feature’ fans would perceive it as a standard ‘creature hunts down and kills off prey one by one’ and would go to see how that would happen. Generally, it has conventional content so would attract a much more traditionalist audience; however it does break conventions of the time by having a woman as the main hero/heroine, so this may appeal to a modernist/ post-modernist audience as well.
Fight Club also so came under the Thriller genre, and well as Action and Psychological. Action fans would be attracted to it because of the fight scenes, as well as several other stunt and action scenes within the film; such as the car crash and the ending, which is full of stunts and explosions. However Psychological film fans would be interested in how this schizophrenic character progresses throughout the film, as well as very interesting characteristics within ‘Tyler Durden’, the narrator’s other personality. People who read the book may also have gone to see this to see how it compares to the novel. I believe it may also be considered a Political thriller due to its very unique view on society and how ‘Corporate America’ runs. I’d consider the content to be generally for a post-modernist audience due to the very original plot and how the narrative itself is told. At the same time, people may have seen it for the action, but would have left the cinema realising the film is not a standard Action film.
Next I will look at the style of the film. Style is how the actual film is put together; like camera, settings, effects. Alien had many standard camera angles for a creature film, such as point-of –view of the alien, as it is hunting down someone. This is conventional for that type of film, and would therefore be more for traditionalists who like seeing things they are familiar with. The settings are very advanced and original for the time, because although it did not use CGI, the spaceship, planet and the alien itself were designed in great detail by artists before being made. This would not usually have been the case before, so would interest modernists who wish to see up-to-date styles of film. The effects were usual for the genre, suck as gore for the ‘chest-bursting’ scene, and steam coming from the spaceship, so this would be more for the traditionalists of the perspective genres.
Fight Club does a lot of standard camera shots for action scenes such as in the fights, but it also does some very interesting things with the scenes which are CGI, which are very free-flowing and 360 degree. These were new, and would interest post-modernists. The surroundings are generally conventional of thrillers; having dark rooms and secluded buildings (eg: their home on Paper St), but also has a lot of familiar surroundings so the audience can relate. The effects were advanced for the time and CGI was highly detailed in scenes such as zooming in/out of a CGI trashcan, as well as the ‘catalogue-home’ scene; where entire surroundings are CGI and layered perfectly. This is also visible in the finale, with the buildings exploding/collapsing- it even goes as far as to have a CGI sex scene. These were all very new and original ideas, so would target a much more modernist and post-modernist audience.
After looking at these, it seems clear that the way in which a film is produced is crucial to how an audience is going to react to it. Different ways of producing results in different target audiences, or in many cases a combination of them. in the same way, different people will want to go see different things, so films are made considering this.