Audience Research
According to the answers from our survey on survey monkey our audience is 37% male and 58% female with the other 5% identifying as other, according to graph 1 shown in the presentation below. This shows how we are more likely to have a higher female audience as over half are female identifying. The survey results, seen in graph 2, shows that 26% of our audience is 12-16 years old and equally 26% of our audience is 36-45 years old. We have a wide variety of ages in our audience with 3 of the people being 46 years or older, 4 of them being 22-35 years old and only 10% 17-25 years old. The results we gathered indicate that there is a wide variation of people in different age groups and genders that are possible audience members of our film, however, our target audience does not include all these variations.
Our target audience is middle aged people of all genders as our character is a middle aged man therefore they will be able to identify more with the protagonist and gain more narrative pleasure. We believe our audience to be part of a niche market because they are least likely to be 'mainstreamers'. According to Young and Rubicam's theory, they are a group of consumers that seek security in conformity and are frequently families. As our film covers the delicate, rarely spoken about, taboo subject of mental illness and this group of people is unlikely to actively want to see our film. Furthermore, according to this theory, they are unlikely to be 'Aspirers' as this groups motivation is status and as gritty realism is unlike blockbuster films and Hollywood films they are not likely to gain anything they desire from watching our film. They would only become part of our audience if the film became a trend as they are strong followers of social media crazes. On top of this our audience is equally as unlikely to be 'Succeeders' as they are people who have succeeded and what to keep control of that so they are dubious to watch a film about a lower class man who is grade E on the Socio-Economic scale if they are upper class, which is not on the Socio-Economic scale. However, they may also be apart of our target audience because viewing a under-privileged character may satisfy their need for verifying their control and authority. Our main target audience will be part of the group 'Reformers'. This group have the aim to make the world a better place and often work in services, frequently educated professionals. This means they are more likely to watch a film in the gritty realism film as they care about social issues, such as mental illness which sub-sequentially our film is about. Because of our target audience section they would be most usually middle aged people. This means our film has a larger target audience because according to graph 2 of our survey answers 11 people out of 20 in total were over 22.
Our film is setting out to fulfill various needs for the audience. According to Blumler's theory of Uses and Gratifications our gritty realism film will attain all of the four categories he describes. First, just as all successful films should, our film hopes to succeeding in the 'Diversion' audience need. This is the audience's need to be entertained and watching a film acting as something to do and something relaxing. We will do this by ensuring the film keeps the audience interested and focused on the film by keeping the plot complex and the characters relatable. Next, the second use and gratification our film should achieve is the 'Personal relationships' which is when the audience becomes involved in the social lives of the characters or people within the media text. This means that they will be able to learn something about the dynamics of social interaction from the characters within a film. To ensure this we will have our protagonist overcome certain issues within their life which the audience will be able to put into action if they ever come across a similar problem and how the protagonist acts around people whilst overcoming this problem will similarly help the audience develop knowledge of interactions between people as well as empathy and sympathy. Thirdly our film should succeed in fulfilling the 'personal identity' use and gratification which is when the audience can identify with the characters presented in the film. We can consummate this by having the character struggle with an illness that many people experience in Britain and across the world so many of the audience will be able to identify with the character, even if they do not suffer from that specific illness. Finally, the last type Blumler suggests, 'Surveillance' will be easily attained in our film because it will ensure the audience will feel informed on the point of view of a person suffering from the mental illness, which our protagonist suffers with. They will also be informed on the lifestyle of the protagonist and the group of people the protagonist represents: working class and mentally ill people.
We believe our film will appeal to our target audience by educating them on a different perspective of mental illness. This will be done by showing the protagonist's views on his schizophrenia and how he copes with out as well as how his family copes with it. This will appeal to our audience as they are often a audience sector associated to being educated and it would appeal to them to receive knowledge and insight to a type of person represented by our protagonist. Furthermore, remaining true to gritty realism conventions, it will not be a glossy hollywood-esque type film that includes a simple plot (according to Todorov's narrative theory). Instead the plot will be realistic and will not be easily predictable. This will entice our target audience because they are an educated audience sector they like to be challenged when watching a film, thus our film will attract them by not following this theory.
Reviewing Survey results in accordance to what the audience want to see:
Our audience are expected to enjoy our film as 40% of the people who answered our survey, according to graph 5 on the presentation, picked the narrative description for out film (35% selecting the other narrative idea with the remaining 25% of people choosing neither). This means our film is going to have a larger amount of audience that will see our film.
However, only 25% of the people we surveyed, in accordance to graph 6, selected the option of wanting the protagonist of a film being a middle aged person which may have an affect on the amount of people that want to see our film.
We believe our film will appeal to our target audience by educating them on a different perspective of mental illness. This will be done by showing the protagonist's views on his schizophrenia and how he copes with out as well as how his family copes with it. This will appeal to our audience as they are often a audience sector associated to being educated and it would appeal to them to receive knowledge and insight to a type of person represented by our protagonist. Furthermore, remaining true to gritty realism conventions, it will not be a glossy hollywood-esque type film that includes a simple plot (according to Todorov's narrative theory). Instead the plot will be realistic and will not be easily predictable. This will entice our target audience because they are an educated audience sector they like to be challenged when watching a film, thus our film will attract them by not following this theory.
Reviewing Survey results in accordance to what the audience want to see:
Our audience are expected to enjoy our film as 40% of the people who answered our survey, according to graph 5 on the presentation, picked the narrative description for out film (35% selecting the other narrative idea with the remaining 25% of people choosing neither). This means our film is going to have a larger amount of audience that will see our film.
However, only 25% of the people we surveyed, in accordance to graph 6, selected the option of wanting the protagonist of a film being a middle aged person which may have an affect on the amount of people that want to see our film.
WWW: The presentation of the graphs at the end works well. You refer to the questionnaire results and use theory.
ReplyDeleteEBI: Take care not to contradict yourself. For example, You say you don't have a specific audience (in P1) but then go on to say that your target audience is middle aged people. Also, you might want to give more information about how your film idea will appeal to the audience (be specific).