Research into Film target audiences

When looking at target audiences for films and genres there are certain question that are asked to ensuer the film is targeted at teh right audience.
Theses are known as Audience Demographics:

By asking  these questions, market research companies on behalf of the film production company will conduct surveys/questionnaires to find the traget audience of the film:

• Sex? Male Female
• Age: Child Teen 20’s 30’s 40’s 50’s 60’s
• Status? Single Married Divorced
• Education: High school College Graduate
• Income: Low Average High

 I used a website called Raindance I found an article on "8 Questions writers must ask when developing and audience profile" by Elliot Grove in Indie Tips,Screenwriting Tips. Point 1 clearly stated the importance of Audeince demographics and ensure that you ask the right question to achieve your target audience profile. 

In Point 2 the articel went on to state what type of person you are aming your film at and what kind of influence they have, this is known as 'audience power level'. For example- if the films story line is aimed at Teenagers in high school, what kind of student are you aiming the film at: the leaders or the followers? The 'geeks' or the sociable? Could your story be opened out at all by being more inclusive of broader groups?

Question 3 of the 8 states "Give me a day in the life.." This is an optional approach when creating a audience profile. The idea of this exercise is to create a "diary" of a typical day of a person in your target audience, various questions are created to help structure this "diary". Such as-

• When do they usually get up
• What do they wear?
• Where do they lunch and do they have any bad personal habits?
• Who would they rather spend time with? 

The more of these kinds of questions you/the market research team can answer, the easier it is to build up an audience profile. 

Part 4 talks about the 'Owchers and wowchers', this is the idea that you must think about the things thta could possibly turn your audience 'off' but also what they enjoy and will enage in. At this stage in the research for an audience profile there are various variables to conider and it is best to spend time thinking creatively. 

In Point 5  it beings to talk about asking "how do they vote", not politically but what he target audiences moral values. 

Sections 6 is one of the most important when it comes to an audience profile, as it questions "How do they thrill?" suggesting to look at what your audience are looking for. for example a 'great night out'. Also what they are expecrting from a film and a key point is what kind of emtional experinece are they looking for. For an example Women go to watch, Romantic, Chick-Flick dramas, not because they want to seek action thrilling entertainment but because they feel an emotinal connection with those sorts of film genres that usualy result in a tear-jerking ending. 

7 looks at the the likes and dislikes of the traget audience, the question states "Let's be negative". If a market research team succefully find out the likes/dislikes of their audience they may even figure out how to overcome any audience objections. For exmaple that it isn’t just going to be a typical horror story, but rather a brand new film and different elements that should be on the top of everyone’s must see list.

Finally question 8 - "Idenitfying your audience".  After looking meticuosly into what makes your audience tick

This knowledge helps to create an audience profile that will speak directly to them. you have learnt al the key points about your audience such as age, roles, values and likes/dislikes. This process enables a good relationship between the maket researchers and audience and allows them to tell the story consistent voice. 

 
Theatre audience by race/ethnicity:

•  Hispanics were the most freaquent visitors to the cinema,they represented 18% of the population
• However accounted for 25% of all films seen. 

 

From research into audinces and audience profiles for film and media, I now have a wider idea about what target audience I will have for my film  and how to better my presentation when trying to grasp my audiences attention to watch my film. I now know how to construct my own audince profile and how to collect the data I recieve from it and how this will inform my decsions on my film trailer,poster and magazine.