Evaluation: Part 4 and 5: Audience Identification and Appeal

Part 4 and 5: Audience Identification and Appeal:
Who would be the target audience for your media product, and how did you attract/address your audience?:
We have given our film a rating of 15. This is because our film contains sex, drugs, swearing and violence due to it being a film based on HIV/ AIDS and including a gay relationship which we will show sexual scenes about. Also, our film will show scenes with drug use as one of our main male characters comes from a family who uses drugs (this is how the HIV/ AIDS is contracted initially).  Additionally, we will also include scenes with violence, an example of this will be when the family of our main male character, Henry, who comes from a strong Christian background, find out that their son is gay and has contracted HIV/AIDS, these scenes will also include swearing. We feel as though our film will be mostly targeted towards people who are in their teens (15+) and early twenties. This is due to results showing that in America approximately 1.1 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with more than 50,000 becoming infected with HIV every year and twenty-five percent of them being between the ages of 13 and 24. Therefore, to help raise awareness of HIV/AIDS and hopefully prevent it from spreading, we will be aiming our film at this age group. Also, when looking at other films of a similar nature, such as Dallas Buyers Club, they were also had a 15 certificate therefore we decided to give our film this too.

Here is a group of teenagers 15+ and people in their young twenties from a mixture of genders. This is who we will be aiming our film at.

When contemplating which audiences and demographics our film will be best suited for, we thought that our film will mostly be applicable to the demographics, free spirits, funseekers and armchair rebels. Free spirits are laid back people, who reject the ideas of marriage, shopping, cosmetics, children and capitalism. They are interested in social matters and care about the environment. Over half of them are male and are teenagers. We think this will appeal to them as they are interested in social issues and drugs are a pressing issue of todays society that teenagers need to learn about from a young age. Additionally, AIDS is a big issue that isn’t really talked about but largely affects teenagers, and we hope that from watching this film it will give them information on the subject. We think our film will appeal to funseekers because they work hard, play hard and spend hard. They also consume more media then other groups, therefore are likely to watch a film based on key issues. We believe that armchair rebels will watch our film as because they are likely to consume drugs and are young, with an average age of 15. Therefore, as they take drugs, they may be more likely to watch a film concerning the topic of drugs. We also thought that leaders might be a group that would possibly watch our film as they frequently go to the cinema, therefore may watch our film if the topic interests them.

We believe that the key audience for our film will be women. We think this as our film includes romance, which stereotypically we would associate with women enjoying. However, we do hope that men will also be largely be interested in watching the film too as the main characters are male, therefore this may appeal more to them as they will hopefully see it as more relatable. Additionally, we believe that our film will mainly appeal more to lower classes as the issue of HIV/AIDS stereotypically affects lower classes as they are the main class that we would involve with drug use and poverty.

If these social groups enjoy our film, then they may also enjoy other films of a similar nature such as Dallas Buyers Club, An Early Frost, Parting Glances, etc, which are all films based on HIV/AIDS, with some also including a gay couple/ person as the main focal point of the story. They may also enjoy watching films based around other illness and that are of the drama genre, for example, Still Alice, The Theory of Everything, Extraordinary Measures, etc. Or films of the hybrid romance, drama genre such as The Notebook, Titantic, Pride and Prejudice, etc. In the UK, research has shown that between 2010-12, films of the drama genre was what the majority of UK film institutions were making, with around 20% of all UK films being in this genre. Consequently meaning that around 28% of films released in UK cinemas are of the drama genre between 2003-12. This shows how we are following the stereotypical British film genre and creating a drama film.

When considering how we are going to attract and appeal to our audience, we thought about Blumier and Katz’s Uses and Gratification theory of 1924. This had four main points, including:
  •    Diversion (escapism)-audience using media as an emotional release, diverting them from everyday pressure
  •    Personal relationships- audience needing companionship with a known TV character(s) or programme(s) as well as the interaction with others who watch it
  •    Personal identity- comparing one’s own life to a characters life (relatable) therefore gaining perspective on one’s own life
  •    Surveillance-  being given the opportunity to see what else is happening in the world
 These points are all things we had to consider when creating our opening scene and planning our plot for our film as we want to keep our audience gratified. For giving our audience a diversion from their every day pressures, this film is good at focusing on someone elses’ life disasters, therefore distracting the viewer and giving them an emotional release as this film has a very emotional and turbulent plot, with violence, upset and even a death at the end. When gaining a personal relationship with the character and film, we have done this through making our characters relatable to the viewer. Although this may not be happening to them (although if it is then it is very relatable to them), the characters are very ordinary people, showing that it really can happen to anyone and allowing the audience to connect with the characters. Similarly, although viewers may not have HIV/AIDS, this storyline can connect with people’s own personal identity as they may have been through a life threatening illness or even had turbulent, ruff times with their partner and therefore from watching this film, they may have gained perspective on life and subsequently realise what they need to do in their own life now. Finally, when relating to surveillance and seeing what else is happening in the world, this film/ film opening very much does that as it allows the audience to be educated on HIV/AIDS, something that they may have known little about before, and therefore allows them to gain knowledge and understanding on this subject, thus influencing them to see what else is happening in the world.

Additionally, we also considered Dyer’s Utopian Solutions to help attract and appeal to our audience. Dyer’s Utopian Solution states that, “The notion of entertainment as in some sense utopian- expressing ideals about how human life could be organized and lived -is implicit in what the most widespread assumption about entertainment, namely, that it provides ‘escape.’ Entertainment offers the image of ‘something better’ to set against the realities of day-to-day existence.” It also studies 3 main reasons why audiences choose to consume media:
1) social tension
2) inadequacy
3) absence
When considering how our film opening/ film will provide an ‘escape’ for viewers, as previously mentioned when considering Blumier and Katz’s Uses and Gratification theory, our opening gives the audience a diversion from their every day lives/pressures and the ‘social tension’ that they feel, as it focuses on someone else’s disasters in life, therefore distracting the viewer and giving them an emotional release. Our opening/ film may also show them something ‘better’ to focus on other than ‘the realities of day-to-day existence’  as, particularly near the start of the film, where the relationship between Henry and his boyfriend is blossoming, this presents to people a happy relationship which may provide a happy escape for our audience to view and allow them to enjoying themselves, potentially lifting them from an ‘absent’ feeling. By watching the film, the viewer may also feel as though they are becoming involved in the plot as they loose their self in it, therefore making them feel less ‘inadequate’.

This is our audience focus group questions and answers

As the main age group of the audience we are aiming our film at is predominately late teens and early twenties as this age group is mostly targeted by HIV/AIDS, we asked 3 people in this age bracket what they thought of our opening scene. We also predominately asked the questions to women (2 out of the three people we asked were women), as the film is of the romance genre which women usually prefer to watch over men. When asking them what they enjoyed about our film opening, one person said that they believed it to be a ‘really good representation of the gay community’, which is helpful to hear as we are hoping to target and break discrimination’s and stereotypes of the gay community through this film. Therefore if our audience feel that we are presenting the gay community realistically, this is very positive. When asking them ‘What specific parts did you like?’, we gathered responses such as, ‘The doctors waiting room scene was really good’ and ‘I liked it when the camera panned across the grave yard’. This feedback is good to hear as it shows our presentation of Henry’s present and past is being positively received and that people have liked the different shots and settings we have chosen. Overall, feedback from our audience focus group tells us that our opening is very ‘professional’ and that all three audience members would be interested in watching the rest of the film. This shows us that we have been successful in targeting our main age group as well as appealing to both males and females.