Questions 4 and 5 of the evaluation.

1. Whowould be the audience for your mediaproduct and how did you attract/address your
audience?
In the followingessay,Iwill be answeringthe questionsstatedabove.Todoso,I will be analysing
and evaluatingthe choiceswe made duringourplanningandproductionstage regardingaudience in
our openingsequence of Cultivation.Iwill alsobe goingintodepthonthe improvementswe could
make if we were to create thisproductagain.
In our researchstage,we createdanonline questionnaire togaininformationonthe genderof our
audience.We askedthe same amountof boysand the same amountof girlsto make sure our results
were notbiasedtowardsone gender.Fromthe results,we gatheredthatmore womenwantedto
watch our openingsequence,opposedtomen.Thisisbecause onour questionnaire we only
mentionedtwothingskeytothe plot; the main protagonistisafemale,andthe basicoutline of our
dystopianplot.We thinkthatthe reasonfor more womenchoosingtowatchthe openingsequence
isbecause of the leadof our storyis female,andasthe filmindustryiswidelydominatedbymale
leadprotagonists,theywantedtosee someone of theirgenderthattheycouldrelate to,onscreen.
The primaryreasonfor the lessernumberof male resultsisdue tothe genre of the film.The boyswe
askedto complete ourquestionnaire,andsaidnoto watchour openingsequence,thensaidthat
theywouldratherwatchan action or comedybasedfilmthansomethingof the dystopian.Itwas
justa preferenceof genre.
As the majorityof our audience isfemale,we addressedthe audienceimmediatelythroughhaving
Cassiopeiaasourleadprotagonist.We alsotriedtomake her a fully-fledgedcharacterthroughthe
small runningtime of ouropeningsequence byhavingherdisplayawide range of emotionssuchas
anger,fearand apathy- throughthe use of close upsof her face to show her expressions,andwide
shotsto displaybodylanguage- sothatwe couldshow heras a real female,andnotjustsomething
that wasquicklythoughtof and taggedontothe endof planningbecause we thoughtwe neededto
widenouraudience.Thiswasn’tthe case,we believethathavingafemale protagonististhe most
importantaspectof our openingsequence.We alsodressedCassie andNoahingenre,weatherand
terrain-appropriate clothing.Notonlydidthisaidourdystopianstory,italsodid notsexualise the
characters,whichoftenhappensinthe filmindustrywhenafemale isgivenarole, (e.g. Mikaela
Banesfromthe Transformers films).Instead,ourclothinggave ourcharactersa realisticedge,as the
clothingthatfitthe dystopiangenre alsocouldbe wornnowadays,makingtheirattire relatable to
the female audience.Withthe basicclothestheywere dressedin,bothNoahandCassie were able
to performtasksfromthe normal to the action-packed.The clotheshelpedtogive ourcharacters
interestingplotmoments,givingouraudience of womenandthe filmindustryingeneral female
actionwithoutthe sexualisation.Anotherthingwe didtoattract our female audience wastoaddthe
secondfemale character,Noah.Primarily,Noahwastobe a male character,(hence the name we
didn’tchange) sothat Cassie andNoahwouldhave hada friendshipturnedromance.After
complicationswiththe actorwhowouldhave playedNoah,we changedthe genderof thischaracter,
and realisedthatthischange was verybeneficial forourfemale audience.Withtwofemales,we no
longerkeptthe plotline of romance,butinsteadfocusedwhollyonfriendship.We didthisbecause
too manyfilmshave focusedonhavingthe femalecharacteras a romanticinterest,onlyto serve her
screentime inaidingthe fallen,hurtmale hero. CassieandNoah’srelationshipshowsjustasvalid
platonicmoments,theystill care foreachother,helpeachotherin timesof need(office scenes) but
thistime theyare equal to one another. We hope that thisaspectattracts our mainlyfemale
audience,aswe have womenbeingwomen,notjustthe characterthat isonlythere to give a
romanticplotline orto be beneaththe male character.

2. Whenresearchingthe age of our audience,we alsoused aquestionnaire togatherdata.Overall,we
producedthe age range from15-20 yearoldsthat wouldbe bestfittedtowatchour opening
sequence,asthe agesgivenandthe people whosaidthattheywouldlike towatchouropening
sequence fell betweenthis range.Asabit of extraresearch,I lookedupthe age range for other
dystopianfilms,namely TheHungerGames.Asthe storywas firsta Young Adultbook,the firstfilm
was mainlytargetedatteens/youngadults,justas Cultivation is.Withthe popularityof the films,
theirtargetaudience age range widenedtoincludepeople overthe age groupof ‘youngadult’.
Withoutpopularity,we cannotwidenthe age range like TheHungerGames did,sowe tookthe
primaryinformationfromwhenthe filmwasfirstreleasedandappliedthattoourown opening
sequence.
We attracted15-20 yearoldsthroughour maintask byhavingboth of our mainprotagonistsas
teenagers,specifically16 and17 yearsold.Thismade bothcharacters relatable tothe 15-20
audience,asthere islittle difference inbehaviourandinterestsgenerallyfromtheseranges.To
showtheiryoungage,we gave both charactersclose-upstoshow theiryouth,andwe alsoshowed
the characters makingmistakes- like Cassiegettingcapturedastheycannotescape- toshow that
youngpeople domake mistakesanditisnormal (howeverbig,we obviouslyamplifiedthe mistakein
Cassie andNoah’scase).We alsoaddressedthe age of the audience throughtheircostumes.We
dressedthemmodestly,astheyare still minors.Thisisalsodue tothe genre and the plotof our
story.Also,the clothesthatCassie andNoahwear are plain,sothat theycan blendinwiththe
backgroundand hide efficientlyfromthe antagonist, butapplytothe fashiontrendsseeninyoung
societytoday.Trainers,baggyjumpers,oversizedjackets,all of these itemscanbe seenbeingworn
regularly,butalsofitourdystopiangenre perfectly.Thiswaythe charactersbecome relatable,but
alsofitintothe storyline.
Lastly, we have targetedouropeningsequencetoa skilledworkingclass group.We didthisby
includingtwoprotagoniststhatwere targetedbythe government,livinginunsafe conditions,and
whilstthisplotpointmaybe exaggerated,somepeople inthisclass(whichishardlyused togroup
people byanymore) mayfeel victimisedbyourcurrentgovernment,likeCassie andNoah. We
wantedtoshowlack of basichumanrights,speakingtomore of the lowerclassthanmiddle,aswe
showCassie squattingan uncleanroomwhere she feelsunsafe andwithlittle toeat.We thinkwe
alsoaddressthe lower/middleclassbythe clothesCassie andNoahwear.EventhoughIpreviously
mentionedthatthe baggyclothingwasinfashion,itisnotjusta fashionstatement,itisalsodue to
warmthand durability.BothCassie andNoahwearjumpers,Noahgoingfurtherbyhavingaheavy,
thickdenimjacketon.Denimjacketsare knownfortheirhard-wearingquality,meaningthatyou
buyone,whateverthe price asusuallythe qualityisthe same,andyoudon’t needtobuy another.
Meaningthat if you’re a little shortformoney,asituationwhere some inthe skilledworkingclass
may be,youneedonlyinvestonce,savingmoneyoverall.Iwouldnotchoose togroupour audience
by social/economicclassidealisticallyasitcan be offensive tothe audience,butforthe purposesof
evaluationitishelpful tosee howouraudience affectedourchoicesthroughout Cultivation.