In order to make a successful film or film opening, research must be done in order to get a better insight into the target audience and to make sure that the film or film opening consists of key elements that appeal to the target audience.
Audience Research: Communication research that is conducted on specific audience segments to gather information about their attitudes, knowledge, interests, preferences or behaviours with respect to presentation issues. Segments may be based on various grouping strategies such as race, ethnicity, age, education or family income. Some refer to audience research as "Formative" or "Elicitation" Research.
There are many categories in which audiences fit into such as:
Audience Research: Communication research that is conducted on specific audience segments to gather information about their attitudes, knowledge, interests, preferences or behaviours with respect to presentation issues. Segments may be based on various grouping strategies such as race, ethnicity, age, education or family income. Some refer to audience research as "Formative" or "Elicitation" Research.
There are many categories in which audiences fit into such as:
- Religion
- Age
- Gender
- Ethnicity
- Marital Status
- Demographics/Geodemographics
- Profession
- Income
- Behaviour
My Target audience is young adults aged 16 - 25. However my opening sequence can apply to those older than 25 because it may attract those who are older than my specific target audience. I decided to make this my target audience because those under 16 may be too young to understand the concept of my opening sequence and may be too young to watch it as it is a psychological thriller and will consist of gory scenes. Also, people in this age group enjoy watching psychological thrillers as they create a sense of fear and excitement all in one which most people enjoy experiencing.
Audience theory is an element of thinking that developed within academic literary theory and cultural studies. There are three theories of audience that we can apply to help us with our understanding of our relationship with our target audience:
The Effects Model or Hypodermic Model
The Effects Model: The consumption of media texts has an effect or influence upon the audience. This effect is normally considered negative as the audience are powerless and passive to prevent the influence. The power lies within the message of the text.
The Hypodermic Model: The messages in the media text are injected into the audience by the media. The audience is powerless to resist these messages. Therefore, the media works as a drug by injecting these messages into the audience and the audience is drugged/addicted to these messages.
The Effects Model or Hypodermic Model
The Effects Model: The consumption of media texts has an effect or influence upon the audience. This effect is normally considered negative as the audience are powerless and passive to prevent the influence. The power lies within the message of the text.
The Hypodermic Model: The messages in the media text are injected into the audience by the media. The audience is powerless to resist these messages. Therefore, the media works as a drug by injecting these messages into the audience and the audience is drugged/addicted to these messages.
Evidence for The Effects Model: The Bobo Doll Experiment (1961) Conducted by Albert Bandura
During this experiment, children watched a video where an adult violently attacked a clown toy (Bobo Doll). The children were then taken to a room with toys that they were told they could not touch. The children were then led to another room with Bobo Dolls. 88% of the children imitated the violent behaviour that they witnessed in the video they were shown. 8 Months later, 40% of the children reproduced the same violent behaviour. This concluded that children will imitate violent behaviour they see in the media, for example:
- Severance (Film) = The murder of Simon Everitt
- Child's Play 3 (Film) = The murder of James Bulger in 1993
- Manhunt (Game) = The murder of Stefan Pakeerah in 2004
During this experiment, children watched a video where an adult violently attacked a clown toy (Bobo Doll). The children were then taken to a room with toys that they were told they could not touch. The children were then led to another room with Bobo Dolls. 88% of the children imitated the violent behaviour that they witnessed in the video they were shown. 8 Months later, 40% of the children reproduced the same violent behaviour. This concluded that children will imitate violent behaviour they see in the media, for example:
- Severance (Film) = The murder of Simon Everitt
- Child's Play 3 (Film) = The murder of James Bulger in 1993
- Manhunt (Game) = The murder of Stefan Pakeerah in 2004
The Uses and Gratifications Model The Uses and Gratifications Model is the opposite of The Effects Model. The audience is active and the audience USES the media text rather than being USED by the text therefore, the audience uses the media text for pleasure, gratification, Diversion, Escapism, Information and so on. The audience has the power and control and the consumption of the media helps people with issues such as learning, relaxation, emotional satisfaction, personal identity issues, social identity issues and aggression and violence issues. This theory argues that the consumption of violent images can be helpful rather than harmful. It also suggests that audiences act out their violent impulses through the consumption of media violence. |
Reception Theory
This theory was developed by Stuart Hall at Birmingham University in the 1970's. It considers how texts were encoded with meaning by producers and then decoded (understood) by audiences. This theory suggests that when a producer constructs a text it is encoded with a meaning/message that the producer wishes to convey to the audience. Sometimes audiences will correctly decode the message/meaning and understand what the producer was trying to say or the audience will either reject or fail to understand the message correctly. Hall identified three types of audience readings/decoding of the text: Dominant or Preferred, Negotiated and Opositional.
This theory was developed by Stuart Hall at Birmingham University in the 1970's. It considers how texts were encoded with meaning by producers and then decoded (understood) by audiences. This theory suggests that when a producer constructs a text it is encoded with a meaning/message that the producer wishes to convey to the audience. Sometimes audiences will correctly decode the message/meaning and understand what the producer was trying to say or the audience will either reject or fail to understand the message correctly. Hall identified three types of audience readings/decoding of the text: Dominant or Preferred, Negotiated and Opositional.
Our Questionnaire
We created a questionnaire to get some information: Gender: Male: 9 Female: 12 What is your age group? Under 12: 2 13-16: 9 17-20: 6 21-24: 0 25+: 4 What is your ethnicity? White British: 3 White Other: 4 Black British: 3 Black Caribbean: 3 Black African: 3 Indian Asian: 2 Middle Eastern: 0 Other Asian: 3 Mixed: 0 How often do you go cinema a month? 0 times: 5 1-3 times: 14 4-6 times: 1 Over 6 times: 1 What makes you want to watch a film? Famous Director: 0 Famous Cast: 5 Storyline: 4 Genre: 5 Good Trailer: 6 Other: 1 Where do you watch the majority of films? Cinema: 5 DVD's: 1 Internet: 12 Other: 3 Do you like psychological thrillers? Yes: 12 No: 9 |