MS2 EVALUATION: Research

When looking at true story films, I looked at the target audience for ‘The Lovely Bones’, which is mainly the female population, ages 13-20+. It would also target crime/mystery lovers, true movie fans and fans of the original book.

Using the website http://www.barb.co.uk I found that ‘Call the Midwife’ had a ratings of 10.18 million viewers on 30^th December 2012 and 10.85 million viewers on the 3^rd February 2013. This shows there’s a huge audience out there that enjoy watching films/TV programmes based on real life. This research helps with my marketing campaign as it shows that I need to persuade a wide audience range to see my film.I also found the last ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ rating was 42,000 viewers on 28^th March 2010, which again shows there is   a wide audience range.

Questionnaires for my focus group

I undertook primary research through a focus group by asking them questions about my idea, noted down their answers and adapted my work towards their responses. From this I decided to target my film towards the female population aged 12 +. Using the website http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/12a-and-12 I looked at the requirements of the 12 age rating. I kept this age rating as it allows me to retain most of the real story, without offending the audience. 

As my film covers a range of genres, it will appeal to the general population. My primary target audience is the female population aged between 12-30 years old, as the protagonist is shown through the stages of her life as she grows up, and true movie fans as this is a different type of true story. My secondary target audience would be fantasy-drama lovers (mentioned above), and would appeal to them through the concepts of the film. 

I went on the look at audience demographics. Using; http://www.howtodothings.com/business/a3607-how-to-identify-a-target-market.html helped me to justify my target audience clearly. Everyone in the world is categorised into a ‘class’ which are:  upper class, who are the very rich e.g. The Queen, middle class who have enough money to live a luxurious life style e.g. Manager, and working class, who are average/everyday, people e.g. shop assistants. Due to this their incomes are considerably different which would affect my target audience of my film.  My target audience involves the working class more as they would understand the plot line more and are more likely to have gone through something similar/ know someone who has. I’m going to target mainly the female population, as the film is female based, aged between 12-30. This is my primary audience. I also looked at the psychographics for my film.The personality of the audience is significant as the more ‘timid’/shy person is more likely to watch my film than a ‘bold’/outgoing person. The interests/hobbies of the audience is significant as not everyone likes true story movies.

Knowing  target audience, I researched audience theories. The one that applies to my work is the uses and gratification theory because it reflects my work and it shows how an audience relates to what they see, which is how I want my target audience to react to my film.