My Target Audience
My initial target audience would be males and females aged between 15-19 years old.However it could also appeal to those younger/older than my target because of the broad sub-genres of thrillers. Then again some of the sensitive elements of my movie (e.g her parents being murdered and other scenes of violence) would not be suitable for those younger than 15, therefore my film would be a 15 in the movie classification set by the BBFC.
My movie would appeal to those who are interested in old style (Film Noir) thrillers, as well as those who are interested in modern thrillers with a mystery to the plot. My movie has a female protagonist which is quite rare to see in thrillers and so my movie would be an interest in females who don't usually watch thriller movies due to the fact the main character is a headstrong young woman and not a man.
My target audience as well as females would be young males due to the idea of the male gaze. The character Roseanne is a young female who is portrayed as being very beautiful and would attract the attention of the male audience due to her looks and her personality.
Therefore, my target audience will be much broader then I initially intended as people aged around 60 would enjoy the Film Noir aspects of my movie whilst younger adults ( aged 16-25) would enjoy the fact that the main character is young and in the same age range as them.In conclusion, my primary audience will be young adults aged 16-25.
Uses and Gratification theory
There are 3 main stages as to how media/ my movie can influence the audience, these are having a :
- Strong influence
- Medium influence
- Weak influence- supported by the Uses and Gratification theory (U&G)
The U&G theory states that it's what people do with the media rather than what the media does to them ( Blumler&Katz). As the audience takes an active role in choosing what media they use in their everyday life and how it can fulfil their social (active) needs rather than their passive needs
Maslow's Hierarchy of needs can be used to explain how my movie can affect their social needs (not physiological):
The audience could use my thriller movie as it has the idea of family running through out, Roseanne's parents were murdered and that creates the need for safety of the family as in most cases it would make the audience feel like they should appreciate the fact that their family is safe and okay unlike Roseanne's. My movie also achieves the idea of family in the 'love/belonging' section because although Roseanne has no parents, she lives with her Grandmother and the love between them may not be shown physically but their is a strong bond between them as they only have each other now. Roseanne keeps a photograph of her and her parents on her desk and shows how happy she was belonging to someone who love her very much. It also fulfills the need for actualization as there is a lack of prejudice towards women, unlike in most thriller movies a female protagonist is used rather than a male one and so it would appeal to females and influence them to watch my movie.
The U&G suggests there are 4 key reasons as to why people use media/ how the audience would use my movie:
- For information- The audience could use my movie to satisfy their curiosity and general interest of thriller movies. They might have an interest in Film Noir style thrillers and could watch my movie to satisfy their need for this.
- For personal identity- The audience could use my movie to reinforce their personal values or for gaining insight into one's self. Although my movie is about revenge, it also has the theme of family running throughout and the audience could use this to see how family affects them.
- For integration& social interaction- They could use my movie to gain a sense of belonging and for finding a basis for conversation and social interaction. They could do this by watching my movie with others and talking together about the themes and mystery behind the movie plot.
- For entertainment- This could be to get an aesthetic enjoyment from my movie and for emotional release. The audience would enjoy watching my movie with an interesting and gripping plot as well as feeling an emotional bond towards the characters. For example, when Roseanne is in danger, the audience may also feel a sense of danger or when Roseanne is feeling sad, the audience may cry.
Mass Audiences
Most media is experienced alone and is very personal to each individual but wherever they are the audience for that media receive the same type of message,images,sounds etc and therefore become part of a mass.Herbert Bloomer (1950) said that during the war Hitler and Stalin attempted to use the media (speeches and through posters mostly) to persuade mass audiences to follow their policies (propaganda).
Except for the internet, which is not a mass audience but rather specific smaller groups of audiences, it is believed that the mass audience:
- Comes from all walks of life
- Are an anonymous group
- There exists little interaction or change of experience between members of the mass.
- Are loosely organised and don't act in unity.
Demographics
Demography is the study of the human population and is filtered by:
- Class
- Age
- Occupation
- Religion
- Disability
- Race
- Sexual orientation
- Gender
As well as lifestyle: Values, likes,dislikes,interests, hobbies and beliefs.
Within these filters there are sub-categories such as with age there are those aged:
- Under 5
- 5-10
- 11-15
- Under 16
- 16-19
- 20-30
- 31-45
- 46-59
- 60+
There are many categories that the audiences can be filtered into such as:
- Main Streamers-Those who like security and belonging to a group.
- Aspirers- Those who want status and esteem of others e.g- status symbols and designer labels, also they live off credit and cash.
- Succeeders- People who already have status and control.
- Reformer- Define themselves by self esteem and self fulfillment.
There are also Family life cycles:
- Singles- Young single people living alone
- Newly married couples- Young people with no children
- Full nest 1- Young married couples with youngest child under 6.
- Full nest 2- Young married couples with youngest child 6 or over.
- Full nest 3- Older married couples with dependent children.
- Empty nest 1- Older married couples still in workforce, no children living with them.
- Empty nest 2- Older married couples retired, no children living with them.
BFI Yearbook 2014 research
Source:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-statistical-yearbook-2014.pdf
What genre of films are audiences watching?
From this table of the top 20 films released in the UK and Republic of Ireland 2013, 5 of the movies are thrillers. This shows that people are watching thriller movies when they are released in that year. The opening weekend grosses are all above 1 million pounds which shows that thrillers are making good money due to the fact that they have targeted the right audiences who have payed to watch this movie when it first came out.
What age classification are thrillers most likely to be?
From the table above, I can gather that the top performing thrillers ( World War Z and Filth) are of the age ratings of 15 and 18. This is due to the elements in the movie e.g- strong violence, frequent strong language,drug taking etc. My movie would be classified for a 15 as 45.3% of UK film releases are of that classification and because of the strong violence that would be in my movie. This means that my target audience would have to be aged 15+.
From this table I can see that 4 thrillers are included that were watched by an audience aged between 15-24. This suggests that thrillers released in 2013, were very popular among the young adult audience.
This table shows the top 20 films for an audience aged 25-34. There are 5 thriller movies shown, which shows that middle aged audiences watch thriller movies a lot and would therefore be a suitable target audience to aim for as they would pay to watch a thriller movie at the cinema/ buy the DVD when released to own.
The table above shows that 2 main thrillers were watched by 35-44 year olds, with animation being the more popular choice, possibly because they have young children who enjoy watching cartoons.
The table shows that 3 thrillers are included with an above-average audience in the 45-54 age group. This suggests that within an audience watching a thriller movie there will be more than average members aged between 45-54.
The table above shows that only one movie with the genre 'thriller' was watched by those aged 55+ whilst the others are more romantic movies or musicals. This shows that although thrillers were and are still popular with those of this age range, in 2013 only one thriller was able to make this list as it didn't appeal to many over 55's.
This table helps me gather an idea of what genres of movies both genders tend to watch. The male audience watch more thrillers and action movies which shows that males tend to watch these genres. Whilst female audiences watch more animation or romantic films with no thrillers. Therefore I could take this research and make a movie with a female main character to appeal to the female audience.
From the graph above, it is clear to see that an audience of between 15-24 have watched movies at the cinema more than any other age group. It reached it's highest ( 35% ) in 2011 and is now slowly declining back down to 30%, this could be because there aren't many films targeted at that age group in recent years and so a movie targeted at them would increase the number of admission by 15-24 year old. In 2010, there was an increase in admissions by 25-34 year old but a decrease in the number of 7-14 and 35-44, which could suggest that a particular movie in 2010 was targeted more at the 35-34 age group and was therefore watched by them more.
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