Target Audience & Demographic
August 25th 2017
Target Audience: A specific group of consumer in which a company will be aim its product or service at.
Demographic: Refers to a specific characteristics of that target audience E.g. Animated film has a target audience of all ages but has a demographic of young children.
Demographics can then be divided into sections with the abbreviation of LCAGES
All of this must be taken into consideration of the thought process of the short film. We then looked at two more short films which was called "Portal: No Escape" and an animation called "Spellbound". Whilst watching we must analyse their demographics appeal.
PORTAL: NO ESCAPE
Life Style - Lifestyles of people who watch this short film are most likely movie geeks and gamer
Class - Mostly aimed at the demographic of school life to working ages as beyond that may not find it interesting
Age - Teenagers and adults who has interests in movies, video games and pop culture
Gender - Mostly male due to the fact that less female play video games although with a female protagonist it might be able to draw attention from female demographic
Ethnicity - The institution does not aim for a universal appeal; they are mainly targeting the pop culture side of the audience
Spending Power - The spending power varies as people who are into pop culture has a range in income
SPELLBOUND
Life Style - Early school life, has an older or younger sibling reason being as the sibling in the animation represents children growing up
Class - Middle class due to the setting of an ordinary house in a neighborhood which are typical living situations of middle class of the population
Age - Audience are likely to be children to young teenagers
Gender - This animation is more likely to attract the audience of females as there are two female protagonist which. However, males may also be slightly drawn into the animation due to the antagonist being a monster
Ethnicity - Whites
Spending Power - As this animation is mainly to target young audiences, their spending power are likely to be low
How does this link to GratiFly?
Having studied Business Studies before, I'd of course heard of the term "target market" before, this means I already have some idea of what to know, I found LCAGES to be quite an interesting way to remember the demographics. We then tried to figure out the demographics of our short film.
Mainstream & Niche Audience
August 29th 2017
MAINSTREAM AUDIENCE: is known to incorporate a wide range of people, something with popular appeal. They are easily available screened at lots of cinemas all over the world. Story is most of the time on a linear structure which means that the story is easy to follow. As for release dates, they'll often release during the holidays in order to gain the most amount of profit possible.
What does mainstream involve?
This audience would be involved in texts for entertainment or social integration, some may feel they need to watch mainstream media texts because it makes it easier to be involved in conversations with friends, family and any type of social life.
Appeals to mass
Easily accessible
EXAMPLE: PACIFIC RIM
Title: Pacific Rim (Mainstream)
Production Company: Legendary Pictures
Released Date: July 1st 2013
Directed by: Guilermo del Toro
Actors: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Rob Kazinsky, Max Martini, Ron Perlman
Genre: Scifi Action
Country of Production: USA
Runtime: 132 minute
Target audience: teenagers/ mostly monsters movie fans
Synopsist: Long ago, legions of monstrous creatures called Kaiju arose from the sea, bringing with them all-consuming war. To fight the Kaiju, mankind developed giant robots called Jaegers, designed to be piloted by two humans locked together in a neural bridge. However, even the Jaegers are not enough to defeat the Kaiju, and humanity is on the verge of defeat. Mankind's last hope now lies with a washed-up ex-pilot, an untested trainee and an old, obsolete Jaeger.
Box office: $411 million
Budget: $190 million
NICHE AUDIENCE: This refers to a specific, particularly small, group of people. The media product would be unpopular. Due to this, the movie will only be screened for a short period of time or not be shown at all and just go straight to releasing it online and physically.
What does Niche involve?
These tend to watch media texts that are interesting to them in particular. Media texts may be more than difficult to access and have less coverage across media platforms. Niche audience tend to be people that are more individual in their tastes and opinion.
Appeal to less
Less accessible
EXAMPLE: SHIN GODZILLA
Title: シン ゴジラ [Shin Gojira]
Production Company: Toho Studios
Released Date: July 25th 2016
Directed By: Hideaki Anno
Actors: Hiroki Hasegawa, Yutaka Takenouchi, Satomi Ishihara
Genre: Tokusatsu
Country of Production: Japan
Runtime: 119 minute
Target Audience: Monster fans
Synopsis: A mysterious monster emerges from Tokyo Bay and wreaks havoc upon Japan.
Box office: $77.9 million
Budget: $15 million
Tokusatsu isn't that big in the Western media world therefore here's the definition for it!
However, Tokusatsu did see two mainstream film release earlier this year and in 2014. This was Power Rangers which was originated from the Japanese show "Super Sentai" and GODZILLA 2014
How does this link to GratiFly?
Once again, I have studied niche and mainstream in Business Studies, the only difference being mainstream being called mass and the product is now in the context of films. Our short film will be a mainstream comedy film as we think that the concept of Hegemony in which the power bloc oppresses those lower classes can apply to the majority of the audience.
Media Convergence
August 30th 2017
How production companies use a variety of media platform to display their product in order to the mainstream audience. This means audience are influenced by the media text and are more likely to consume the product.
Why is Cross Media Convergence Possible?
Cross media convergence is made possible by Technological development and convergence. Technological convergence is how technology allows media texts to be produced and distributed on multiple media device.
Mobility
Size
Access
Speed
Ease
Distribution
Interaction
Pacific Rim had converged with so many media platform therefore the film was a huge success earning up to $411 million world wide box office even though their main target audience were monster movie fans which is a very niche target audience.
Gratifications of Films
August 31st 2017
Why do people consume media text?
Blumler & Katz 1974 - Their ‘Uses and Gratifications theory’ suggests that media users contribute and have an active role in the media.
Colour may also influence the audience without the audience even having to think about it. Looking at Plutchik's Color Wheel I am able to gain a wider understanding of this. This makes it easier for the audience to understand the tone of the short film and also make it easier for me when it comes to colour grading the film.
I knew that colour can manipulate humans feeling from a documentary I watched a while back but I didn't know that there was a theory for it.
To expand upon Plutchik's Colour Wheel, I watched a Thai short film called "Rhod Jok" which means "Flavour of The Porridge" when translated directly. The short film is simply about a friend who is researching for a project he's doing, whilst conducting this project to his friend, he asked her who her first love was; in the end, the girl confess that her first love was him. The use of colour was quite interesting as seen in the diagram I did below.
The Short Film:
THE END OF AUDIENCE SECTION