“Who would be the audience for your media product?”

1. EVALUATION QUESTION
FOUR
“Who would be the audience for your media product?”

2. OVERVIEW OF THEORIES
A look at different audience theories before applying them to our piece

3. OVERVIEW OF
PSYCHOGRAPHICS/DEMOGRAPHICS
There are two main methods of gauging what kind of audience is looking for our film, and they are
demographics and psychographics. Demographics is the measure of a groups economic situation in
alignment with what kind of media they consume, and psychographics is the more individualistic
measure of a particular persons motivation for watching films. They can be seen below:

4. DETAILED LOOK AT
PSYCHOGRAPHICS
Full picture to give more detail

6. OVERVIEW OF
MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
This psychological theory states the order in which people need various aspects of life, ranging from
simple (and often short-term) self-fulfilment, to the very basic desires of safety and survival.

7. OVERVIEW OF
USES/GRATIFICATIONS THEORY
This is the theory that audiences were made up of individuals who actively consumed texts for
different reasons and in different ways. Researchers Blulmer and Katz expanded this theory and
published their own in 1974, stating that individuals might choose and use a text for the following
purposes:
• Diversion/entertainment - escape from everyday problems and routine.
• Social solidarity – some of our personal relationships centre around the media. We might chat to
people about what we watched on the TV the night before, or become friends with people who
enjoy the same music or films… Chatrooms and social media brings people together (in a virtual
way) and provides them with a space to discuss/debate and communicate about things that matter
to them.
• Personal identity – we use the media to create or maintain a sense of who we are. Lifestyle
magazines; seeing role models in the media; seeking help from manuals, self-help books and
magazines.
• Surveillance – using the media for information which could be useful for living (e.g. weather
reports, financial news, holiday bargains, local and global news) and for personal education.

8. RESULTS
What can we see from factoring in results from our survey?

9. OVERVIEW OF RESULTS
When looking at the results we got back from our online survey, we wanted to target the areas that we
considered the most important, such as this question above. We believed it vital to make sure we don’t
get too wrapped up in our own ‘vision’ and still communicate a good and enjoyable opening to the
viewer.

10. OVERVIEW OF RESULTS
This question was also important to us, as it raised some key areas we needed to focus on in terms of
pace. In order to reach our target audience effectively, we need to ensure that we know what kind of pace
they want at the start. Thankfully, however, it seemed as though they mostly didn’t mind as long as it fit
the story.

11. APPLICATION
What groups does our media product target?

12. APPLICATION OF PSYCHOGRAPHICS
We believed our main groups to be
the reformer and the explorer.
This is because our project deviated
from normal conventions and also
engages our viewers mentally to
watch it.
This is exactly where the explorer
would fit in. This group would be
looking for films that try different
things and deviate from normal
conventions as they are looking to
discover new and interesting ideas.
The reformers are relatively similar,
but are less bothered about whether
the film is new or not. Both of these
align with our typical audience
member; one that is engaged in the
film and constantly asking questions
as to what is going on and why.

13. APPLICATION OF
DEMOGRAPHICS
The main demographic groups we
considered where the social grade
C1 B and A ranges.
These groups have increasing levels
of disposable income and leisure
time, and as such would be more
likely to explore new films. An E or
D grade member, for example,
would prefer to rely on mainstream
entertainment as they have a lack of
income and leisure time, and as
such would not be willing to risk
either of these things to explore
indie films or the like.
This group was our target from the
very beginning, and is great because
they are actively engaged in finding
films that challenge the norm.

14. APPLICATION OF
MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
When looking at this triangle, our group thought that
it would be best if we focused on the top two areas
more than anything else, as our production would
definitely not fit into the lower three groups. We
decided to include the esteem area because, in
relation to psychographics, audience members who
are explorers/reformers may feel a sense of
accomplishment or satisfaction for watching and
supporting an indie film like Badlands that would –
most likely – be shown at a local cinema that relies a
lot on donations to fund its operations.
Also, the Self-Actualisation rung was included
because we feel as though someone would
(hopefully) like to watch our piece and get inspired.
That, or they would just enjoy the experience.

15. APPLICATION OF
USES/GRATIFICATIONS THEORY
Our piece applies to all but the surveillance category of the uses and gratifications theory. This is
because nobody would watch Badlands to get the news; it doesn’t contain any information that
pertains to the real world.
• Diversion/entertainment – This definitely applies to ours, as we made the piece – primarily – with
the purpose of entertainment. In fact, for most films/film/media texts, this is the number one goal.
The entertainment industry is a service industry, and the service they are providing is (mostly)
entertainment.
• Social solidarity – Our group would like to think that (once again, with psychographics in mind)
audience members of the reformer/explorer groups would watch Badlands in groups in order to
confirm or debate their opinions about it. We targeted this group especially, because we didn’t think
mainstream audiences would really like to watch a film like ours, and, therefore, there would be no
desire for social solidarity among this audience type.
• Personal identity – For this area, we would hope to target a very specific group; the aspiring
filmaker. A member of this group might watch Badlands to be inspired themselves, or maybe even
take into account some of the mistakes we made when making their own openings

16. APPLICATION OF RESULTS
The results that we got back from this question showed a few
important things we needed to consider.
For instance, during planning and filming we were really
conscious of how much the camera was shaking in a particular
shot. It was hard to find a balance between the quick pace we
wanted and the stability in our shots. Smoothness was the
ultimate goal, but we didn’t want to solely rely on our tripod
when filming. However, we did end up using a majority of
tripod shots simply because they were often better looking
than the handheld work.
The second point was an area I also considered. I originally
wanted Isaac Cutting to play my role, but complications forced
me into it. Overall, however, I think I did an ok job, but it was
helped by my lack of dialogue. I made sure to include Alex for
narration/some of the more difficult performances, as I knew
that he had learnt drama and acting techniques. Overall, I was
glad with the result. We didn’t try to do anything acting-wise
out of our reach. We hoped that our target audience would be
the type to appreciate a decision like this.

17. APPLICATION OF RESULTS
The final set of results was also very important for us, as
this was, obviously, the focus of our piece.
After receiving this information, we decided to take a
long look at the overall pace our piece was shaping into.
We didn’t want to bombard the audience with action,
but we knew that there would be no sense of threat or
urgency if we didn’t have at least a small part of our
character desperately running through the woods. In the
end, we settled on what suited the story best; a balance
between the two.
During the editing stage, we kept pace in mind as much
as we could. I think that the ‘room’ shot is at an
interesting pace, and nicely offsets the proceeding shots
of the character running. Overall, I was happy with the
ending pace, and I hope that our target audience
would’ve been happy with it too.