USING REAL MEDIA TEXTS TO RESEARCH MY TARGET AUDIENCE

Takers

RESEARCH INTO REAL MEDIA TEXTS..

The research begins with the movies ‘Takers’ . It is a hybrid of action, crime and thriller. I see it as one of my trailer’s competition in terms of audience.

Plot summary for takers. A seasoned team of bank robbers, including Gordon Jennings (Idris Elba), John

Rahway (Paul Walker), A.J. (Hayden Christensen), and brothers Jake (Michael Ealy) and Jesse (Chris Brown) Attica successfully complete their latest heist and lead a life of luxury while planning their next job. When Ghost (Tip T.I. Harris), a former member of their team, is released from prison he convinces the group to strike an armored car carrying $20 million. As the "takers" carefully plot their strategy and draw nearer to exacting the grand heist, a reckless police officer (Matt Dillon) inches closer to apprehending the criminals .

After watching both movies, I decided to create a mood board to reflect both movies “look or feel” that I felt represented the genre.

MOODBOARDS

The gun gives off representations of violence and action

Money gives off representations that both movies are about getting rich or making money illegally. This is typical of most crime-action movies.

The 6 males and 4 females in the films connotate power in both sexes

The police reinforce that both movies are following the lives of the law breakers; re iterating the crime aspect.

The two major cities of New York and London connotate a movie fast paced and high

action.

A breakdown:

Media Theories- Target Audience

As a media producer I need to know the: ·         income bracket/status ·         age ·         gender ·         race ·         location of my target audience. - employment statusOf my potential audience, a method of categorizing known as

demographics is going to be used. Once I know this I can begin to shape my trailer to appeal to a group with known reading/viewing/listening habits.

·         Whilst making our trailer, it was important for me to that have an audience in mind. That way we could tailor it to their needs and wants. We used our two models of “4321 & Takers” to give us a guideline of the type of people who watch action/ crime/thriller movies.

Takers: Demographics After watching the film and trailer, me and my group did a quick

brainstorm in terms of who the target audience is. This is some of our thoughts :

Takers: in terms of age we decided that it was more likely to appeal to the 16 to 30 year old range, predominately females. This is because the cast are well known male actors who are known for their good looks. This is the movies USP and distinct it from other movies in its genre. They are likely to be from a range of ethnic backgrounds as the films shows societies contemporary multiculturalism and also the cast represent a variety of ethnicities. We all agreed that in terms of income or social status that it would appeal to only the working class as the film features some illegitimate means of money and success; something that the upper middle classes attitudes and values would not relate to. However, we all noted that unemployment or employment wasn’t really a issue with such a film. It will appeal to either section.

To back up our assumptions I interviewed 5 different people who have watched Takers to see if they fit my demographics….

My initial thoughts..

Takers: Demographics

Jennifer Eloisa Lewis Taku

Takers: Demographics

Asking 3 key questions:

Have you watched Takers? And does it appeal to you? Would you consider yourself as it’s target audience? What other films would you compare Takers to, or do you see as

competition? I interviewed 4 people. Jennifer,18, Black ( British-African), Female, Student, from Streatham Eloisa, 19 , Other(Filipino), Female, Dancer& Student , from Morden Lewis,24, Male, Other( African-Croatian), Entrepreneur, from Taku,18, Male, Black( British-African), Student from Brockley.

Here are their thoughts…

Takers: Demographics

Jennifer,18, : “ I love Takers. I would watch it again and I would say that the film is aimed towards me as I can relate to the characters and cast as I already knew them before the movie. I would compare Takers to 4.3.2.1. for the simple fact that it has that gender dominated feel in the movie like 4.3.2.1. and they are in the same genre. ”

Keeley, 26: “ I think Takers is a film aimed at young people due to the young, celebrity cast and fast paced action. It didn’t suit my granddad when I was watching Chris Brown running, I enjoyed it though. Definitely recommended other young people to watch because the cast are people we all know love and fancy!” I would compare Takers to a comedy genre, with a well known ensemble cast such as Madea’s Big Happy Family only because that would be it’s competition in terms of the cast.

Lewis, 24: “ I watched Takers, but more to see if my assumptions on celebrity males acting in action films were right and they were! It wasn’t the best action movie, so I wouldn’t recommend it to a friend. Personally, it didn’t appeal to me. I didn’t like the cast much and the narrative could have been better. I guess, if I had to compare it with another film it would be something like Transformers. Like Takers, it has a specific audience.”

Michael, 18: “ I am a fan of Takers. I like heists and the cast, I am a fan of all the main characters so it was nice to see them do something else than their forte. I was only drawn to the movie because of the cast to be honest. I would recommend it to people who are fans of the cast. I would compare Takers to 4.3.2.1., because it’s the whole boys vs girls theme.

ANALYSIS OF RESULTS

After my initial theories and interview results, the target audience I had first outlined appears to be the real target audience for Takers. The film didn’t appeal to the male gender so much, as they thought it was either a bad narrative with inexperienced actors or a movie they thought would be worth watching because of their previous readings of the cast. None of the male gender was drawn to the film for the itself. All of my interviewees are from different ethnicities so I think that allows me to generalise and say that it is mainly the Black ethnicities that are more likely to enjoy the film, however, other ethnicities may also be inclined to watch the movie, but I believe this will only be a small percent. I think that Takers is more attractive to a younger audience as the older people of the young adulthood didn’t really find it appealed to them or catered for their needs even though the film had young adult issues such as relationships and drug abuse featured in the narrative.