EVALUATION PART 4 AND 5:

AUDIENCE IDENTIFICATION AND

APPEAL

WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR

MEDIA PRODUCT, AND HOW DID YOU

ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

• The audience for our media product would be those who fit into the ‘working class’ level in

the socio demographic, these are the partially or unskilled section of the world. This sis

because it provides thrills and danger they might not usually experience in their day to

day lives. The product represents a social group of teenagers, as it appeals to the age

range of 16 to 19 year olds. It specifically targets white, middle-classed teenager girls as

they should be able to relate to the characters the most as they are very similar to the

protagonist and victim and can relate to the problems faced by them.

• The products appeal to gender is through the female protagonist, as it would more than

likely bring in females as it makes them feel empowered and brings something new to the

genre. They can also relate to them as more than just a helpless victim. Other films withy

strong female roles, such as ‘Tomb raider’ brought in more females to an action film than

those before it; however this film was not in our genre and was an action film where our girl

is not an action hero. A psychological thriller/horror film with a lead female role is ‘Carrie’

but this was very dark and the main character didn’t allow viewers to relate with her a lot.

However did have a lot of other stereotypes that are mainly found in schools, such as the

popular yet rude girls. This is were our film is different to those and is almost a first in its

genre were we break stereotypes and have the protagonist mas a young girl who can be

related to.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dz2gdXP6Zs

• Males may also feel as if they want to see it, as it still keeps the dark and mysterious

ways of the genre like other before it. It also has attractive female leads which may also

draw male attention to it more. They may still find it appealing but it is mostly aimed at

females.

• The film doesn’t really fit into the top two bands of the social demographic as they would

prefer higher end drama where they can relate to problems that the slightly richer may

face. It can appeal to other groups such as C1 and C2 as it still provides that sense of

action with a dark and thriller narrative to drive it.

• The product would probably appeal to lower classes such as E as they could relate to the

characters needs. The state of the character and the issues she faces may not be that far

from real to some people and therefore a larger audience is gained even if its aim was

niche.

• Other media texts our audience would like are films such as ‘Carrie’, due to its

thriller/horror story but is also lead by a female protagonist. It is set in a school and has

the same age grouping as our film with a niche audience and so will appeal to the same

target audience.

• Another media product that our viewers would like is ‘Shutter Island’ as it is a

psychological thriller the whole way through and has large actors in it to sell the movie.

This film does; however, appeal to a mass audience and so will attract a larger range of

viewers. It has a lead male role but I don’t think this will push away any viewers as most

films of this genre have male actors driving the storyline.

• ‘Memento’ is a thriller but it is largely mixed with action and so probably wouldn’t draw in

as many female viewers, although it has a mass audience it is still very action based with

the thriller element intertwined with the story. Due to this I don’t think our viewers will like

the film that much or be able to relate to it, like they can with our protagonist.

• To attract an audience you needed to establish who they our. Once we had decided who they were we realized they were mainly those of ‘working class’ in the socio -demographic model. Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of needs’ states the things we need in movies that we may not get from day to day life. His model has 5 levels of which increase in importance in ascending order. We wanted to appeal to the 2nd level, of safety, to create a slightly nervous and tense atmosphere so audiences would feel in danger as if they were part of the action and in the protagonists place. We appealed to security of body and health, as people in the working class would probably not have this feeling on a normal day.

• We also appealed to the top level, self-actualization, and to a certain part of it. We tried to appeal to the need for problem solving, giving them a puzzle/mystery to solve or figure out. However this was done it a way that wasn’t like the viewer was a cop/detective but a victim trying to remember what happened, how it happened and why? Giving a new perspective. The film provides the need for knowledge as viewers will start off confused and throughout the need for problem solving kicks in and the audience will start to solve it but wont require much more information to understand the story so far.

• As the film has a female lead, it would need to appeal to men in a different way than it

does to women. Men would need to be drawn to the film due to a ‘male gaze’. Laura

Mulvey stated that during films women are often looked at from bottom to top through the

eyes of a hetro-sexual male, this is to make women look more appealing. Through camera

movements their figure is shown off to the audience.

• Although we didn’t use this in our introduction, it could've been introduced later on and

then it is likely to have been more appealing to a male audience. However that isn't what

draws in a male audience and so may not have drawn in a larger audience.

• This idea of a male gaze can be turned into a ‘female gaze’, making any lead male roles

later on in the film seem more pleasing to women and appeal to them even more, if it was

used during the course of the film.

• 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.” -

Richard Dyer

• The theory suggests we want to see things on TV and film that we don’t have.

• So as seen in the chart if we have exhaustion we want to see Energy from the characters

on screen. We haven’t shown anything thing in dyers utopia solution as the genre doesn’t

allow for it. The films opening is meant to show a struggle for recollection and that she is

trapped, unable to escape.

• This could; however, allow people to feel better about their actually lives, but that then

becomes part of Maslow’s hierarchy.