Question 4 media coursework
- 2. C2-E income bracket White 15-24 Female Heterosexual Mass market We still believe that this is an appropriate audience as we wanted to attract the mass market (C2-E, white). Also, our actors and actresses are aged 15-24 so we wanted our primary audience to be the same age to create realism and personal identity. In addition, since we are an independent company and our budget is low, we used Web 2.0 to help us market our production, this is a good way to attract the younger audience as most of them are digital natives. Our main protagonist is female so we chose our primary audience to also be female to create more personal identity. Since sexuality was not important in our production we just chose an audience of heterosexual as the mass market is mainly heterosexual.
- 3. B-C2 White 25-35 Male Heterosexual Urban intelligence We still believe this audience is appropriate. We chose to make our secondary audience more sophisticated as independent films stereotypically attract a sophisticated audience due to their clever and intellectual narratives. We also decided to make our secondary audience older and mature. We also chose a male secondary audience as we would go into depth about the lives of the two males that drowned within the full narrative. As well as this, there is also the indication that there is a human threat that is causing our female protagonist distress. This would stereotypically be a male due to the strength needed to kill four people. This idea supports the traditional, positive stereotype that males are strong which would appeal and therefore attract the male audience. Again, Sexuality isn’t really applicable to our production, however we chose our primary audience to be heterosexual as, the mass market is made up of more heterosexual people. Finally, we all agreed that if we were to do this production again we would change the race to mixed as we have a variety of nationalities/races starring in our production.
- 4. Audience Feedback We created an online questionnaire for our target audience to answer so we could receive some feedback of their thoughts after watching our opening sequence.
- 9. From the results of the survey, we can see that our audience found our opening sequence engaging. 94% said that they would want to watch the whole film after watching our opening sequence because it was so gripping. 84% said that they would recommend the film to other people. 87% said that the music we used was effective, we agree that the music was effective due to it being very well fitted alongside the video. 90% of our audience said that they were happy our protagonist was female which I found surprising due to our secondary audience being male, however we were happy with this result as our primary audience is female. 83% said that they liked how the characters were of a similar age to them, we wanted there to be some sort of similarity between the audience and characters in order to create personality identity and the age group did the job. Finally, 88% liked the simplicity of our opening sequence. This is good, however we believe that the audience may have missed the idea of a possible antagonist. This would be something we could look into if we were to do this again.
- 10. Our results show that 39% of our audience did not understand the opening sequence so we could tweak a few things in order to make it more understandable. However, the group and I argued that the fact the opening sequence was a bit confusing grabbed the audiences attention more and created more enigma for them, leaving them with suspense as to what happens next. 70% of the audience said that they could not relate to the opening sequence which is understandable as we just focus on the death of the teenagers at the beginning, we believe that they would relate to the rest of the film and this can be backed up by questions 7 and 9 as they liked the choices of characters because of all the similarities. Overall, I believe our opening sequence was a success with only a few things that we could change.
- 11. Since some of our audience found our opening sequence confusing we could have included things that would have explained it a bit better, for example some dialogue from the protagonist speaking about what her feelings and emotions were. However we believe that if our audience watched the whole film it would clarify any questions they had about the opening sequence. We would not change our target audience based on the feedback we got because overall the feedback was pretty positive. In spite of a large amount of the audience saying they did not find the opening sequence relatable, the characters we chose to include proved to be a good choice as most of the audience liked the fact they were of similar age.
- 12. Yes, our certification is 15. This is appropriate because our primary target audience is 15-24 and therefore our certification allows this age range to see the film. As well as this, a certification on 15 would still attract an older audience because it shows that the content is not ‘childish’. We couldn’t have any lower certification due to the realism within our production and also because of the idea that our film ends on a disequilibrium (conventional for independents.) This idea is too scary for younger children as it doesn’t have a ‘happy ending’ and also the lack of A-list actors would disengage them as there are no familiar faces shown. Finally, we could apply the hypodermic syringe theory to a younger audience as they would copy something they see in our opening sequence and not need to think about what they're doing, they just imitate it. For example if they saw the drowning scene they could copy this and then create unnecessary danger for themselves and possibly for others.
- 13. 15 – Suitable only for 15 years and over No one younger than 15 may see a 15 film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a 15 rated video work. Discrimination The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour, although there may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory themes and language. Drugs Drug taking may be shown but the work as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse (for example, through instructional detail). The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable. Imitable behaviour Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Whether the depiction of easily accessible weapons is acceptable will depend on factors such as realism, context and setting. Language There may be strong language. Very strong language may be permitted, depending on the manner in which it is used, who is using the language, its frequency within the work as a whole and any special contextual justification. Nudity There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context. There may be nudity in a sexual context but usually without strong detail. Sex Sexual activity may be portrayed, but usually without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable. Threat There may be strong threat and horror. A sustained focus on sadistic or sexual threat is unlikely to be acceptable. Violence Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but the depiction of sexual violence must be discreet and justified by context.