We can catagorise audiences into groups based on:
- Age – it sounds obvious, but a film with lots of talking animals and cheesy musical numbers won’t appeal to an older, more mature audience in the same war that a war film won’t attract the attention of a young child.
- Gender – it is really stereotypical to say this but men tend to like action and thriller films while females like romantic-comedies and feel-good movies. There are, of course, exceptions to the stereotypes such as myself but unfortunately, the industry tend to base their audience profiles on stereotypical ideas.
- Class – the film industry have two classes of audience based on their economic status, ABC1s and C2DEs. The ABC1s are the more middle to upper class people who have more money to spend on leisure activites. The C2DEs are lower middle to working class people who have less money to spend on leisure activities. Abraham Manslow defined the class system by a hierarchy of needs with people earning less income dubbed less likely to see films or more independent films and people earning more income dubbes more likely to see films and more experimental movies.
- Stereotypical groups (chavs, emos, goths, indie kids etc.) – depending on your social status, there will be certain types of films that you will not see. For example, goths don’t tend to watch musical films.
- Educational or leisurely films will be watched by different people – e.g. a documentary may be used more in a classroom than a horror film
- Culture/beliefs – Culture and beliefs hold a big influence into what people will go to see, for example, a devout Christian probably won’t watch films like Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels due to the large amount of swearing and use of violence.
- Personality – a person’s film taste is based on their personality usually. Happy, bubbly people may like rom-coms, funny, down to earth people may like thrillers etc.
After learning about how audiences are catagorised, we (in our pairs) had to come up with a couple of audience profiles based on the different stereotypes of people that the film industry uses.
- Actualisers: successful, wealthy, dynamic people for whom image is important as an expression of their individuality.
- Fulfilleds: mature people who are well-educated professionals. This group values order, knowledge and responsibilities.
- Achievers: successful and career-orientated people. They are politically conservative and value the status quo. Image is important to them and they tend to buy established, well known products.
- Experiencers: young, impulsive and rebellious. They like new products and styles but soon tire of them and search for new novelties. They spend as much as they can afford on clothing, fast food, music and films.
- Believers: conservative people who believe in traditional institutions, such as the Church, and in the importance of the family and community. Their lifestyle tends to be very routine. Their income is small but sufficient.
- Strivers: tend to be unsure of themselves and have a low income. They are striving for approval from others, which the fell they could gain by ownership of possessions, most of which they can’t afford.
- Makers: do-it-yourself enthusiasts and tend to live a conventional family life.
- Strugglers: on the lowest income and tend to be loyal to their favourite brands.
Audience profile: CATHY: a believer
 |
| An idea of Cathy with husband, John |
Cathy, 45, is a mother of four and lives with her 49 year old husband, John in a small village away from bigger towns. John runs a small but successful shop in their village selling organic produce to the villagers while Cathy volunteers in her children’s primary school as a classroom assistant. Because her children are young, Cathy has to get up at half past six every morning to make her children’s lunches and pack their bags before sitting down at the table and eating Bran Flakes while reading the EDP to catch up on local events. While not volunteering, Cathy likes to knit and she is currently making new cardigans for her children to wear to school in the cold winter weather. She is Christian but not devout though tries to go to church with the rest of her family at least once a month. Now and then, she will treat herself to a copy of Good Housekeeping magazine to read when she gets some alone time at home.
Audience profile: LAURA: an experiencer
 |
| An idea of Laura |
Laura, 19, is a first year fashion student at the University of Teesside in Middlesbrough. She is very fashion conscious, sociable and likes nothing more than going out with her friends to nightclubs in the city. Because she likes to maintain the image of the latest fashion, Laura doesn’t save up much money and is rather reliant on her parents. She will go to the cinema a few times a month with her group of girlfriends to watch the latest rom-com or feel-good movie.
Because I have a basic idea of what my final production is going to be like, I made an audience profile for what the audience of my films may be like.
Audience profile: DYLAN
 |
| An idea of Dylan |
Dylan, 25, is a graduate music student from the University of East Anglia. He now works full time as a shop assistant in a music shop in Anglia Square in Norwich and this job is enough to pay his share of the rent of his flat, food and other necessities and still have a little left over. He lives in a flat in Norwich with his girlfriend Sarah who is training to become a primary school teacher. They met at University and have now been together for four years. Dylan goes to the cinema twice a month, once with his mates and once with Sarah. Him and his mates go to Cinema City more than Odeon as they like to watch more independent films and are not concerned about whether a film is confined to a genre or not. With Sarah, Dylan will usually go to Odeon or Vue as Sarah is a far more mainstream fan though he will sometimes take her to see something less mainstream.
No comments:
Post a Comment