Introduction
Hello my name is Keenen Jeremiah Smith, and I have been asked to assess the
age and gender of my chosen film in order to get a better
understanding on what kind of viewers my chosen film is trying to attract. Ien
Ang and John Hartley suggested that film producers create invisible entities
before they undergo the pre-production stage of creating their films. The
reason why this is important is because it allows the producers to imagine what
their desired character will look like and what his nature is in terms of how
they will affect the diegesis. Because if you create a film without thinking
out an imaginary entity you won’t be able to get a clear understanding of
the characters back story.
The target audience for my chosen film is based around people over the age
of 12; this is due to the fact that some of the scenes within the film are
considered inappropriate for younger viewers, therefore making the target
audience an older audience.
Gender
'Star Wars Episode III' is a sci-fi film set in a distant dystopian future,
we are following the story of Anakin Skywalker as he goes down his dark path
towards the dark side. During this film there are quite a lot of action scenes.
In terms of the gender of 'Star Wars Episode III' I have come
to understand that the primary target audience is aimed at males.
I know this due to the fact that the main characters within
the diegesis of this film are males. This is due to the fact that
stereotypically male characters are considered more dominant than the female
character, therefore attracting a larger male fan base. Carl Rodgers
'1980' suggested that characters within a film are sometimes looked up to by
their target audience as an ideal self, this suggests that the target audience
would like to aspire to be like the main character therefore drawing in the
male audience more by having Anakin Skywalker as an ideal self
for the male viewers.
Another example on why 'Star Wars Episode III' primarily focuses on a
male target audience is due to the fact that male viewers are more interested
in action scenes, the best example of this is the final scene during the film
where Obi-Wan cuts a rage driven Anakin in half. This creates spectacle
which draws in a larger audience and due to the fact that male viewers tend to
enjoy violent scenes more than female viewers.
The third reason why I believe that this film is targeted at male viewers is
because this film includes an ideal partner who is projected as a female. This
means this is the character within the diegesis which the audience feel as if
they are attracted too, and due to the fact that Padme Amidala is a female the
primary people that will be interested in her as an ideal partner will be
males.
Looking more into the technological side of 'Star Wars Episode III' I have
come to an understanding that the target audience is based around males due to
the fact that when it comes to technology male viewers seem to be more
interested. I know this because during the film quite a lot of the technology
was controlled by the male characters within the film, and when the male side
of the target audience see this they will feel more enticed in terms of their
interest in the technology being used.
Age
I have come to understand that the age which 'Star Wars Episode III' is
aimed at are people from the ages 18-26, this is due to the fact that a lot of
the problems that occur during this film are relatable to people roughly within
this age range. The best example of this is the political views which this film
consists of, the reason this relates to people within this age range is because
this is roughly the beginning of their political life's, meaning the will have
to make decisions which also occur during the diegesis of this film.
Another reason why I believe 'Star Wars Episode III' is aimed at an older
and more mature audience is due to the fact that there are quite a lot of
violent scenes that are seen as highly inappropriate for younger viewers, the
best example of this is during the final scene in the film where Anakin is
hacking and slashing people in half, therefore this film is made for an
older audience.
I believe 'Star Wars Episode III' has been produced for an older audience
due to the fact that the diegesis really well structured in terms of how it
relates to our modern world, therefore an older audience will have a better
understanding due to the fact that war is a common issue between both our world
and this diegesis world. Due to this I believe that the older viewers
would have a better understanding of this.
'Star Wars Episode III' is designed for an older audience due to the
religious aspects that occur during the film. The reason why I believe that
this is designed for an older audience based on this is because, older viewers
will have a better understanding on religious aspects, for example the force.
Lifestyle
The NRS or National Readership Survey Ltd is an organisation that specialise
in demographic information.
Looking at my target audience and judging them based on their chosen film
style I can understand that the lifestyle category which the target audience
for 'Star Wars Episode III' are between the Settled Suburban's and Nest
Builders category within the demographic classification category. I have also
come to an understanding that the people who are interesting in my chosen film
are preferably people that are interested in Science Fiction films.
Settled Suburban's: Examples from the film that influence them - families?
Nest Builders : Examples from the film that influence then: young, teens, just starting out (new responsibility - career, ideal self )
The way in which 'Star Wars Episode III' connects to an audience member within the demographic category of a Settled Suburban's is through the representation of families throughout the film. Throughout this film you can denote Anakin and Padme holding each other, this to a Settled Suburban audience connotes love and happiness due to the fact that they can relate to the romance which is projected within the film.
'Star Wars Episode' also has a connection to Nest Builders, this is due to the fact that Nest Builders are young people that are starting out a new position or responsibility. The reason why I have said that 'Star Wars Episode III' connects to Nest Builders on the demographic scale is because within the film Anakin has been granted a promotion to have his own Padawan
One of the reasons why I believe that the target audience will be
placed in these categories is due to the fact that these people will have a bit
of disposable income due to them being employed. Through having is disposable
income there's fans of the film franchise are able to purchase products that
relate to the franchise, this helps bring the audience closer to the films
franchise without it affecting their finances.
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I also believe that my audience would be into quite a lot of sci-fi games
with quite an in-depth back story, this is because verisimilitude a game has
the closer the audience will feel when playing the game. Due to this my
target audience will be experiencing another style of escapism through playing
sci-fi games such as 'Star Wars Battlefront' by taking their players to another
world through gameplay.
Another interest my audience may be into is reading comic books, the reason
why I believe this is because 'Star Wars' as a franchise has a lot of back
story and history which is now primarily found in the comic books which cannot
always be found within the films.
In terms of the lifestyle of the audience I believe that the audience will
be into cosplay due to the fact that it will allow them to imagine their selves
within the lives of their favourite sci-fi characters.
Spending Power
In terms of categorising my audience based on their social NRS social grade,
I believe their spending power would be between B and C. The reason I believe
that my target audience will fit into this social grade is based on the fact
that my chosen film franchise has quite a lot of merchandise which means if
they wanted to purchase it they would need a fair bit of disposable income in
their pockets.
Another reason why I believe that my target audiences' social grade
spending power is the B and C section on the demographic scale is because
it is mainly considered a luxury to be able to buy things such as
DVDs. This connotes to me that being able to buy the DVDs
of the franchise you would need a fair amount of disposable income which would
be considered quite a lot to a person outside of the ABC1 category of the
demographic scale.
What I connote from the information that I have gathered from my
audience is that they will have enough disposable income to be able to do
whatever they want to a certain extent. The people within the C1 category
will be able to afford more of the merchandise in comparison to my target
audience within the C2 category, this is only based off their income
and disposable, from this I have a clear understanding what my audience is
able to afford in comparison to the others.
Thank you for watching my video based on my target audience. I hope
this video has given you a deeper incite on how I have come to understand what
my target audience for my chosen is.
Keenen Jeremiah Smith
