2. What is an audience?
"a particular group at which a product such as a film or advertisement is aimed"
A target audience is usually an age range set by a client
that the producer then has to cater their product to for
example Peppa Pig is aimed at 3 to 4 year olds whilst
Antiques Road Show is aimed at 68 year olds. The job
of the producer is to decide what content is suitable
and will engage their intended audience and make sure
it hits the criteria in order to create something the
client is happy with. My target age demographic is ages
16-25 year olds, this age demographic is a bit more
complicated than normal as it crosses over the line od
child to adult therefore I have to make sure that the
content suitable for the 25 year old is suitable for the
16 year old and vice-versa.
3. Psychographics Psychographics is the
qualitive methodology
of studying audiences
based on psychological
characteristics and traits
such as desires goals
interests and lifestyle
choices.
My main target
audience
demographics
This could be part of my
target age demographic as
the client didn’t specify a
class of demographic of
person therefore although
they will not be my main
priority, I will keep them in
mind when creating my
product as they could fall
into the category.
4. Demographics
Although not specified by the client one
can assume that the demographic of the
audience would be young people who
are still in or have just finished
education and are still developing their
goals and minds. As there are no
specifics from the client on targeting
specific gender socio economic status
religion family life cycle or income it
means that I have been given quite a bit
of freedom when creating my product
therefore my only restriction is sticking
to the product brief of a short film or
documentary and making sure
my product will engage 16–25-year-olds.
5. Regulations and age
restrictions
Brackets my audience fall within
Upon researching further into the regulations and
age restrictions set by the BBFC regarding content
that can be included in short films and
documentaries for an audience we can see there is
a cross over of two age brackets for my intended
audience however when thinking about my
documentary/short films some themes such as
suicide and mental health issues may feature
however as this is classified as okay in the age 15
bracket it will be suitable content for the intended
target audience to view.
Themes that may be discussed or featured
6. Google Forms Research
Upon conducting research among the target
audience, I found that 100% of them did watch
documentaries with a further 6 out of 7 of them
having watched true crime previously. I also asked
for their opinion of true crime for example what
they liked and did not like about it. The general
consensus was that even though they liked the
narrative it can be too morbid and praise criminals
for their crimes. I also found that the audience
think that the documentaries can drag and
become boring. I will aim to take this information
on board when creating my documentary and
create a documentary that maintains the
audience's engagement with the product whilst
getting across the appropriate information for the
case. Based on my initial idea it is a mystery and as
there is no confirmed outcome to the case it
means that audiences can become more engaged
in the product by trying to work out not only what
happened but who or what did it.
7. Focus group
Upon conducting a focus group with people who fit the target age
demographic I found that all of them said they had visited
Sunderland Empire at some point in their life this is positive for
me as it means there is already a connection between a key
location in the documentary and the audience. There was also a
great interest in the paranormal within the focus group another
positive as my documentary will feature the hauntings of Molly
Moselle in the Sunderland Empire. Out of the five people in the
focus group four said they watch and listen to True Crime with the
other person saying that they would consider watching it. With
80% of the focus group already watching and engaging with true
crime this documentary will have an existing audience meaning it
is more likely to be successful with a wider range of people in the
target age demographic based on an 80% pre-existing audience.
8. Audience profile in association with my idea
My idea is to create a documentary short film about what led up to the disappearance of Molly Moselle and the place she is
now said to haunt.
96% of 16-24 years old own a
smartphone, 95% a laptop, while over
a third (39%) claim new technologies
are what excites them the most about
the future.
18-29 years old are
more likely to tune
into a show about
true crime, with
41% saying they
regularly do so.
11. Evaluation
By conducting this research, I was able to gain a deeper
understanding not only of my audience as a whole but their
preferences and dislikes when watching documentaries
specifically true crime documentary. This has allowed me to be
able to have the knowledge going forward to be able to
properly cater my documentary to my target audience making
a product that will not only interest them in the subject topic
but engage them in the documentary genre, as I have learned
that even though everyone who took part in the survey had
watched documentaries, they could find them boring and long
therefore to make a product to suit both the audience and the
client, going forward I need to keep these opinions in mind and
try to create something that beats the stereotypical
conventions of a documentary in order to engage the audience
whilst also following some of the conventions rendering the
product recognisable as a documentary.
