Target Audience

(I created this diagram on pages, showing how audience, semiotics and representation are connected.)

Why do people watch films?

1) Entertainment

2) Interests/relate to characters for example

3) Escapism (escape reality)

4) Inspiration

5) Increase knowledge and understanding on an area you know little about

6) To relax or as a pass time activity

Uses and Gratifications (In order of importance - my opinion)

1) Entertainment: Sometimes we simply use media for enjoyment, relaxation or just to fill in time.

2) Personal identity: We may watch the television in order to look for models for our behaviour. So for example, we may identify with characters or they may help us to decide how we feel about ourselves and if we agree with their actions. If they succeed we feel better about ourselves.

3) Integration and social interaction: we use media in order to find out more about the circumstances of other people. Watching a show helps us to empathise and sympathise with the lives of others.

4) Information: We want to find out about society and the world - we want to satisfy curiosity.

I did some research on BFI and found some facts and statistics on films within our particular genre.

Firstly, in 2014, 15-24 year olds made up the largest proportion of the UK cinema audience, at 31%. Along with this, according to BFI, a wide range of genres appealed to women, whereas men were drawn to films with a strong action element. And finally, the top watched film by males in 2014 was fury (action film).

In terms of deciding our target audience, taking into account the fact and statistics, the target audience will be 15-24 male, with a secondary audience of females. The reason for this is males in this age range are the largest proportion of people who view this genre of film, and it will make it easier for us to relax to this audience as we as individuals in the group fit into this bracket of people.