Pride Appeals

There are many appeals of Pride, one of these is the typical expectations of the Comedy Drama hybrid genre. These have been met by the conventions of the genre, because there plenty of dramatical scenes in the film, such as Mark’s speeches, that are saturated with comedy scenes, like when Gwen and the other older ladies discover the sex toys that the youth are using. Comedy Drama’s typically follow the same story arch, and Pride is no different. The encoders of the film possibly tried to give the indication that this is a film for the Mainstreamer, because these scenes were used for the trailers to market the film, they tried to target the Mainstreamer, the most popular group, in an attempt to try and widen their target audience. The posters for the film, although it tells the audience that it is “something different”, they reassure the Mainstreamer that the film is worth it, using plaudits that say “Irresistible!”. However, it could be argued that the film is more suited to someone in a different group, such as the Explorer, or the Aspirer. For the Explorer category, it’s argued they would be targeted primarily due to the cast, it’s something extremely unusual for a film to have such a diverse cast, the vast majority of the protagonists, like Mark, Joe etc, are all in the LGBT Community, and this could be seen as something different, it would allow the Explorer to discover something different from a film. The Aspirer may also be targeted by the film, because the characters in the film are trying to be equal, they are all aspiring to achieve one goal, and although their core need is to have status (something the characters lack in Pride), the fact the characters are aspiring themselves to have some status in life is possibly a reason why the Aspirer would be targeted. The fact that the story is based on true events would also be a reason for why people would be targeted, Audience meme era are much more inclined to see a film if they know it is depicted on true events, because they can use to it to enhance their knowledge on the subject, and also possibly use it as a sense of nostalgia, especially those who lived through the 1980’s in Britain, or if they are part of the LGBT/Mining Community. Characters in the film can also be identified with and this can heighten the emotion of the film due to it being based on a true story. This is why Marks death being announced at the end was quite a sad scene, because he was the protagonist, the majority of the audience identified with him it made it much more emotional. The way Pride is told is quite conventional in its storytelling and narrative techniques, the film is created in a Cause and Effect model, meaning that one thing leads to another, and another, and so on, so forth. The cycle continues throughout the entirety of the film, everything that happens in the film has a purpose to advance the storyline, nothing in the film is there for no reason. This is extremely conventional, and while this is because it was Stephen Beresford’s first film in which he was a director, it means that the audience can predict what is about to happen. Sometimes they can be accurate, such as when the two homophobic lads burst through the doors, it was obvious they wouldn’t be successful due to how popular the LGBT Community are. However, the audience can be wrong, such as when Carl stands up to meet Mark, the audience were possibly expecting a fight to break out, or for Carl to react in a similar way to the Pedestrians by spitting on Mark, however he puts his hand out to create solidarity, and this was unexpected, meaning that the audiences expectations can be broken. The film appeals to the audience through the use of characters that they fictionally created, named Bromley and Maureen. Joe was created by the encoders, and this was quite unusual, as for a real life story to have a fictional protagonist could be seen as contradictory, however it meant that the audience could easily identify with Joe, the audience can put their characteristics and views onto Joe, and they can essentially be apart of what Joe is doing in the film. Maureen was slightly different, she was created purely to enhance the dramatic spectrum of the film, because everything she does is seemingly very dramatic, and leads to problems for the LGSM Community. But, her views are quite popular, especially in the 1980;s and serve as a purpose to remind the audience that not everyone was willing to accept the LGBT Community. Plus, her views are typical of the “Older” generation, who stereotypically get more conservative as they get older, and a lot of the audience members can relate her to a family member, who they know wouldn’t be open minded and accepting to the LGBT Community. So, the film had a variety of ways in which is targeted different audiences, because it potentially appealed to 3 of the 4 models created by Young and Rubicam, and they chose wisely to fictionally create 2 characters in a story that was depicted on true events.