Stephen- Mixtape Analysis

Mix tape- Audience:

From watching the short film Mixtape, directed by Luke Snellin, I can very easily tell the target audience for this film. The film features two young teenagers enjoying the prime of their life; and this undoubtedly will bring back, fond, memories of the older generations.  The film is set mid 1980’s, as it centres on a young boy’s joy in finding old music from his dad’s old vinyl records, and also his joy of sharing the music he finds.  The main piece of music featured is from The Kinks, a band that many fathers will remember fondly. The song itself was released in 1965- about 20 years before the film is set, this gives it enough time to be forgotten by some but remembered by those who loved it- namely the target audience. The target audience are fathers in their 40s to 60s, who can remember their times as a child attempting to ‘woo’ girls fondly, and who love a bit of reminiscing.

This is a unique short film in that aspect, as it brings the audience in to watch the film with rapt attention if they’re remembering their times as a child. As compared to myself, for example, the short film is bland and not a true ‘film’ in the way it doesn’t have a plot in my opinion. However, my father would watch it and continue watching it, for the music that he enjoys and also the memories that he had as a child the age of Ben Miller’s character.

Looking in terms of age, we’ll be expecting the target audience to be between their 60s to their 40s, using the time The Kinks were a successful musical group and the release of their single in the 1960’s shows what type of age we’re looking at, definitely not a young adult or child. It’s also a mature film, with subtle comedy instead of outright jokes that a younger audience may not appreciate as much as the older generations: The use of editing in the short walk between the houses which has slow pace and slow-motion, with a dramatic non-diegetic sound. The camera angle also helps with the vibe, with a low angle giving him power- something that all teenagers aspire to have.

In terms of gender, it is definitely suited more to a male audience, but a female can most certainly laugh along at remembering the times like shown as well. Looking at the setting; a Victorian suburban semi-detached houses; with freshly painted, ‘in the times’ colours, the dark red painted bricks contrasting to the un-painted pale bricks. The colours show significance because of the family’s inside the house- the mother seems to be the only adult in the girl’s house, and so it makes sense that, in a way, that the decoration is far better than that of the male household- whom we only see Ben Miller’s character live in. This is reminiscent of the pubescent days of the male target audience: the lack of wanting to do manual labour (painting) is something that the male population all share in common.

We see Ben’s character lying in bed reading a music magazine (a prop with such little screen time it may not be worth mentioning if not for this), the magazine has his full attention: when the audience were in their teenage years they will definitely remember doing this. Then, when the diegetic music plays through the building’s walls, he drops the magazine and discards it to sing and dance along to it- unaware that the girl is doing the same. Or, perhaps that it didn’t actually happen, instead he imagined it and hoped she was doing the same- perhaps it was actually his attention span to the magazine dropping and he replaced it with his imagination. The audience will reflect on their own childhood romances, and they’ll come to their own conclusion about it- but, the way the final piece of editing and camerawork was done, it’s hard to distinguish if it really happened so synchronously, or if it was the memories of a 40-something year old man looking back on his teenage years. In doing this, it forces the audience to remember their childhood, whether it was happy or not, and this is unique. It’s unique because this short film doesn’t show the audience a plot that compels the audience but instead causes the viewer to remember their earlier years- and that is the plot. Reminiscence.

The social class this film is aimed at is working class and middle class, with aspects of both incorporated into the film. The working class is represented by the hand-me-down music- Ben Miller’s character hasn’t gone and bought new music, instead using his father’s old vinyl records (shown by the use of props). The setting itself is middle class to working class, depending on the city that it’s set in. No matter the city, however, they’re still large houses which have been kept in good condition, a sign of a middle class household. Additionally, Ben’s room is filled with posters and he has good technology, with no props worn down- middle class. However, I’m sure that if they’re the right age any social class will enjoy the film.