FREE Thinking Kit activity - Chugley Film Festival

Chugley Film Festival activity

In our free Thinking Kit App, you can download activities created by us, those shared by other educators (or even learners) or those that you have created yourself. To do so:

1. Download the app (click here or search Thinking Kit App on the App Store).
2. Launch the app, tap Educator, then New Session then 'Download task'.
3. Enter the Task Code (7785 for Chugley or click here for other activities).

More information about the Chugley Film Festival activity

Subject: Media
Topic: Film Festival, Audience, Genres, Education, Marketing, Industry
Audience: 14 - 16 year olds
Question: Which film would be suitable for Mr. Spine to show at the next ‘Film Evening’ and why?
Author: Elizabeth Doyle
Task Code: 7785

This resource is designed to help students apply their knowledge of the concept of target audience and demographics. They do this through the scenario of Mr. Spine who lives in a village called Chugley and runs the local film club. Students are asked to help him decide on a suitable film for the other residents.

It is hoped that this will help students to identify the different factors, such as income, education and age that are taken into account by the marketing industry, and consider how these things could influence a decision-making process such as this.

Before the students are introduced to the material, a homework task could be set to compile a broad list of films of various genres and types. These could then form the basis of their choice as they would then be able to discuss and comment upon these in class. If more research is needed, the class could have online access to resources such as IMDB.

As well as the main question, we have included some additional sub-questions below, which help students break down the task or encourage them to think about specific points:

• Which demographic groups are represented by the people in the village?
• Which films would be completely unsuitable?
• What time of day should the show be scheduled to start?
• Which films would appeal to the broadest possible audience?
• What evidence is there to suggest there are some quite wealthy people in Chugley, as well as people on more modest incomes?
• What risks would Frank be taking if he chose a film rated 12A or above?
• What assumptions could be made about the residents of Chugley?
• How might the residents of Chugley defy expectations?

Learning outcomes

With a free 30 day trial of the Thinking Kit Creator, you can open up this activity and delete or add any cards you like. Students could add in the films of their choice too and give out their activity code to others to share what they thought was the right film. This is our guide to difficulty levels:

Easy difficulty level (cards 1-18): in the most basic form, students are given a lot of information on the village of Chugley including the age and occupations of some residents. This is so they can assess the demographic then discuss and match up suitable film choices.

Medium difficulty level (cards 1-22): extra slips are included to help students focus on the economic profile of the people of the village, and its appearance as a very 'up-market' place, although with a sizeable number of people on an average income. They could be encouraged to ask what assumptions could be made about the tastes and habits of wealthier people.

Hard difficulty level (cards 1-24): some may want to extend their consideration to the possible political views of the population, and whether this would suggest a more 'liberal' audience, or a more 'cautious/conservative (with a small 'c')' one.

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