Question 1B: Audience

Firstly how did you take into account audience in planning and researching for your video?

Intro:

For my main project in my AS foundation portfolio I created a film opening named Only Business based in the crime genre. The basic plot follows a youth who attempts to sell some drugs at the request of his friend, however things do not quite go to plan and the plot see's a twist as the youth flees the location after he is attacked at the scene where the drug deal is supposed to take place. I will be talking about this film opening which I created in regards to audience, how I took them into account and how taking audience into account allowed me to produce an effective crime film opening.

Para 1:

Firstly it was important to establish my target audience before audience as a whole could be taken into account. I was able to identify my target audience by carrying out a short face to face questionnaire in my research stage of the task, where by I asked peoples age and gender, and whether they enjoyed watching crime genre based films. My results proved that on average the age range of people whom enjoy crime genre based films is between 16 and 40, amongst both male and female sexes. Taking audience into account meant that it would be easier to create desire as I would know exactly who to aim my film production towards, Metz's theory would suggest that this is important as he says 'no one is forced to go the the cinema' yet without ticket sales films would not be made, thus desire for consumer to visit cinema and see film must be created.

Para 2:

When looking at my film opening, I took audience into account further during research and additionally planning stage's prior to production. This is firstly evidenced by a photograph of a written tally chart which I posted on blogger showing a list of possible film titles and results of which titles my audience best liked. This resulted in the name Only Business being chosen as my film title. Such a strategy of taking audience into account should hopefully mean that the chosen film title was the one on the list that will best appeal to an audience, making them want to see the film. Additionally in the research and planning stage of my film opening, I came up with a list of possible names for my protagonist and antagonist, I then asked my audience (people aged 16-40) which names they thought would best suite these characters within my particular genre and presented the findings in a Word document. This meant that the audience also had a say over the names of the characters meaning that these names chosen should be the ones which best help audience identify the characters to the genre, whilst making the audience feel more engaged with the film opening. However Blumler and Katz Uses and Gratification's model would suggest that not all audience will associate the chosen character names or film title to the genre, as 'audience is free to use or play with the texts meaning'.

Para 3:

Additionally I have shown that I took audience into account in the production of my film opening as I have conformed to some basic conventions of my chosen genre, in order to appeal to my target audience, as they will be able to connect the action to generic conventions of crime genre making them want to keep watching and perhaps see the entire Only Business film. I was able to show the genre and thus appeal to the audience mostly through mise-en-scene, by including props such as a knife and illegal recreational drugs, not to mention deprived run down setting. I felt it was important to allow audience to identify the genre in order to make capturing their attention easier. Ien Ang's theory reinforces this idea as he said that 'audiences must be constantly attracted and lured'.