LO2 Task 3: Audience

Hi everyone, it's Lauren again from Education wise and in this video, we will be talking to you about the relationship between film producers and their target audiences. In this video we will link scenes we saw in the previous video and use them to show why they did certain things to appeal to the target audience.

Now, first tings first, from the imaginative entity we created for the film Tyrannosaur is a 20year old male with a National Readership Survey category of H/I. He also fits in a DE profile.

My Target Audience profile:

Perry is a 20 year old male who grew up in a deprived estate in Sheffield. He knows the ways of the street and has a part time job at the bar at his local men's club and enjoys listening to the drunken cat calling in the evenings after a good story about what the older gents got up to when they were his age.

He has just decided that he wants to be a chef so is trying to resit his A-Levels so that he can get into collage for is degree in cooking.

When he is not pouring a mean pint of Carling he is practicing his  cooking or playing Fifa on his games console.

Ien Ang (1991) and John Hartley (1987) were both theorists who say that producers need to know their target audience by creating an invisible entity/ invisible fiction before creating a media product/ film.

Examples of aspects in the film that are aimed towards the main audience gender (male):

The first example of gender in the film trailer is where it shows the male protagonist drinking what we assume is tea in the charity shop. It is shown at 00:11 in the trailer. This is because. it shows the female protagonist in a more traditional role (looking after a male). This shows a stereotype of the female protagonist as being a mothering figure and looking after a man. 

This appeals to the male audience because it shows that they do not always have to be strong and it is okay to submit and be taken care of, rather than being the dominant one all the time (which some males can relate to).

The second example of gender in the film trailer is where the male protagonist is shown hitting a broken down, metal structure. It is shown at 00:30 in the trailer. This is because it shows the stereotype of because he is male, he must be violent. It also shows the stereotype that men can't handle their emotions.  John Berger (1972) theory men act, women appear is suitable for this scene because the male protagonist is doing heavy work (acting) to show the characters frustration. Whereas the female protagonist is not present, meaning that she is only seen to appear in scenes rather than be involved in action.

This appeals to the male audience because they often play violent video games and many believe that violence and masculinity are intertwined/ connected.

The third example of gender in the film trailer is where the male antagonist is speaking to the female protagonist in a very patronising way. This is a sign/ mode of verbal abuse. It is shown at 00:41 in the trailer. This is because it shows the stereotype of women being submissive to the dominant male character.

This appeals to the male audience because it shows dominance (although not in a nice way) and it creates an emotional response from them that is predominantly negative towards the antagonist.

The fourth example of gender in the film trailer is the costume of the antagonist. It is shown at 00:48 in the trailer. This is because it shows success and creates a feeling of dominance over the female protagonist. In a twisted way it may  cause the audience to see the negative impact of this and it may educate them on how not to treat women.  This example links in with the theorist Claude Levi Strauss (1958)- Binary opposition theory. This is because it shows the binary opposition (male vs female) in a very confrontational scenario that later in the film leads to abuse (to the female protagonist, by the male antagonist.)

The fifth example of gender in the film trailer is the male protagonists costume of tracksuit bottoms and a large coat. It is shown at 00:20 in the trailer. This is because it makes the film relatable to the working class, who are the films target audience.

Age:

The first example of age in the film trailer is the violent nature that is interwoven throughout the film narrative. This is because in an age of video games, males of around the age of 20 have become desensitized to much of the violence that occurs in everyday life so the casual violence (like that between the male protagonist and un named male character with the dog) will be entertaining, whereas the violence from abuse will be more shocking to the audience.

The second example of age in the film trailer is verisimilitude within the film. This may be because it is more relatable to some members of the audience (because of past experiences, which are either done onto them or they witness abuse onto others).  Age may also be a factor when it comes to verisimilitude because the location of the film is very accurate as to show social realism within the film and this may educate them on the way lower class people live.

The third example of age in the film trailer is the darker, more muted tones throughout the film. This is because the film is for a more mature audience. As well as this, the colours reflect the film narrative.  For example the male antagonist, who inflicts the abuse upon hannah, wears dark clothing, which reflects the dark nature of his actions and this is a the that is shown throughout the film.This may have been done in relation to age to help the audience understand the dark nature of the narrative, rather than saying that it is sad.

The fourth example of age in the film trailer is the age of the actors. This is because the main protagonists are 56 years old (male) and 41 years old (female). This links with the age of the audience because it could be used too show the alteration of life in a difficult environment as they get older and could be used to scare the audience into trying to make something for themselves. This may also relate to our target audience because many of them seem too be more mature than others and may view the film with a different light than a less mature audience member of the same age.

Spending Power:

The NRS social grade for this film is DE (Working class/ Those at lowest level of income).

The first reason why the film would represent the people in this category is that the characters do not have that much spending power themselves. This helps the audience better connect to the characters and thus they can feel more involved in the story, rather than feel alienated because of different social status.

The second reason why the film represents people in this category is that the audience are most likely not going to be able to afford merchandise (if there was any) so the tickets to view the film would be quite cheap, in order to allow them, to view it. This would be because they would watch the film online because it is cheaper (more affordable for them.)

The final reason why the film represents people in this category is that the characters in the film are all relatable to the audience in some way (you could know them or see them in the street). This can be seen through the way they dress (in tracksuits and very often un branded clothing. Also the houses/ area they live in is shown as deprived (as if being left to fend for themselves by the rest of society) and this mirrors the way certain depraved areas in the UK are actually like (this links with Warp Films topic of social realism. This makes the audience more likely to see the film because they are able to further emerge themselves in the narrative. Therefore they are more likely to use their limited spending power/ disposable income to watch the film.

Lifestyle:

The NRS stands for the National Readership Survey and they find out about the target audience/ audience of a film. They do this through distributing surveys and questionnaires.

My target audience for the film Tyrannosaur falls into the NRS categories H- produces and I- hard pressed families.

This is shown in the film with the use of a more lower class area.  This may have been done to make the film more relatable to the audience in terms of the environment that they are living in. Also, the fact that the area is not grand at all not only links with the target audience, but fits in with the film companies specialty of social realism.

Another way the film may show that the target audience has a lower NRS grade is because of the clothing that the characters wear in the film (they are not very expensive looking or branded). This links with the target audience because  people of these categories often wear these things e.g. Tracksuits as they are cheap to buy and makes it easier for them to work quickly, most likely in a low paid job.

The final way the film represents the lifestyle of the film is the way the characters talk (their accents) This is because the characters use a sort of broken slang that is often heard in lower social, economic parts in England. Also, the characters speak in a more familiar way to one another. This may be because they grew up around one another like is often the case with our target audience in their own communities.

Denis McQuail (1972) is a theorist that says that there are four pleasures that the audience gets from viewing a film. These pleasures are Surveillance, Escapism, Building Personal identity and Building personal relationships.

Surveillance is shown in the film because it causes the audience to realise that Olivia Coleman's character Hannah is the victim of domestic abuse and this affects the audience because it shocks the reader (because she is seen as a good person). Also the overriding violence of the male characters can be quite shocking to the audience and links in with this topic.

Escapism is shown in all films because it is a way for the audience to get away from the drudgery of everyday life and the happenings within them. This is especially true in this film because although the setting may be similar to that of which they already live, the narrative will often be different and make them feel as if they are apart of the story.

Building personal relationships is a part of the film because it has shocking themes (such as domestic violence) that cause others in the community to talk and in term this brings people closer together. As well as this, the film brings more awareness of the signs of Domestic violence and helps to give the victims of such a thing a voice in order to seek help and gain justice (if possible).

As well as this, Denis McQuail's theory (1972) is shown because the film is based on social realism so to be true to this the happenings have to be as realistic as possible in order to draw the audience in to the narrative diegesis of the film.

Thanks for listening I will see you all later in the next instalment about the film Tyrannosaur.