Unit 6: Critical Approaches

Within the media industry there are multiple ways to find out what the specific audience that the producer or director are aiming at. This is referred in the film industry by various forms of primary research technics such as demographic scale, quantitative data research, qualitative data research, audience profiling i.e. mainstream, alternative, niche, gender, age, socio-economics data (class), psychographics, geodemographics, etc.

MainstreamThis is any movie that is aimed at a wide range audience and created by one of the big names in the cinematic industry e.g. Paramount, Disney, Lions Gate, Universal Pictures, etc. A few examples of mainstream films are:

Jaws.This is a mainstream film as it production team is made up of a famous director (Steven Spielberg), a new writer (Peter Benchley) and a good soundtrack made by a famous composer (John Williams). The production company who made Jaws possible were Universal Pictures.

Harry potter and the prisoner of Azkaban.This is a mainstream film as it was produced by a big production company (Warner Brothers) under the directions of a famous director (Alfonso Cuarón) and adventuress music composed by a famous composer (John Williams).

Star Wars: A New Hope.This is a mainstream film as it was created by a large production company (20th Century Fox) directed by a famous director (George Lucas) and includes adventuress science fiction music composed by a famous composer (John Williams).

AlternativeThis is a film that is made by a smaller company and aimed at a smaller audience this can be companies like marvel studios, Sony pictures and DC Entertainment. A few examples of an alternative film are:

Avengers: Age of Ultron.This is an alternative film as it`s produced by an alternative category (Marvel Studios) to gain the attention of people who like comic book characters who fight with in the content of the film.

Suicide squad.This is an alternative film as it`s produced by an alternative category (DC Entertainment) to gain the attention of people who like comic book characters who fight with in the content of the film.

Transformers: Dark Of The Moon.This is an alternative film as it aimed towards people who like to watch science fiction films. Although, it was made by Paramount it was aimed at a smaller audience who like science fiction films with giant robots from outer space in it this was way it was classed as an alternative film.

NicheThis is typically a very small audience as it aims towards a selected group of people e.g. people who are fans of a certain area this could be people interested in bands (Queen/ Muse), footballers (Messy), rappers (Professor Green), boy bands (One Direction), etc.

Demographic scaleThis is the classification of the public due to the scale between various codes which represents the income of a single person in a household. The whole demographic scale is shown below with a short break down of each one.

A – Upper middle class: Rich, higher managerial, administrative or professionals.

B – Middle class: Intermediate managerial, administrative or professionals. C1 – Lower middle class: Supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professionals. C2 – Skilled working class: Skilled manual workers. D – Working class: Semi- and unskilled manual workers. E – Those at lowest level of subsistence: Pensioners (elderly people) or widows (no other earner), casual or lowest grade workers (unemployed) and students.

Quantitative dataThis is a numerical ordered research that is measured by a company in various forms.

Qualitative dataThis is information that cannot be measured so is written down as a possibility of what can be found.

Audience profilingThis is how a director or producer finds and figures out what the appropriate audience is for the film that is being/ been created this can be spilt into subcategories for what they are looking at for the audience profiling. GenderThese are products that are aimed to either female or male or both. This is so they can taller for either gender for what they are showing.

AgeThis is the representation of age to the viewer. This refers to if they can show certain scenes within a film e.g. incessant exposure

Socio-economics data (class)This is the data that refers to the demographic scale so what class one person comes under within a household.

PsychographicsThis is what makes a person want to succeed in life. What is going on in the person`s brain what their likes and dislikes are.

GeodemographicThis relates to where the person is from in relation to growth of an area. This is normally asked when people are trying to get an idea of your livelily hood by looking at the area that surrounds your home.

Sexual orientationWhat someone’s sexual interests are to a gender i.e. bi-sexual, gay, strait. This is only asked when people are trying to build up an understanding of a person`s identity, thoughts and interests.

Regional identityWhat the area is known for and what income is there around your home. What someone refers to when they say a location.

Mise-en-sc è ne This is everything that is in a scene (in front of the camera) this is everything from lighting, clothing, actors, props, etc.This is important to the creation of a film as it makes up what the conventions of a film are if you had some object normally found in a science fiction film in a horror film it would not work as it does not fit the story that is trying to told.

The Gutenberg principle

The Gutenberg principle is how the audience samples a piece of work and how it is seen by the viewer. Gutenberg says that everyone see a picture in the same way starting at the top left aka the primary optical area then following the reading gravity' you next see the bottom right aka the terminal area which is followed by the top right (the strong fallow area) then finally the bottom left (the weak fallow area). This principle can be used by media analysis to analyse posters. This is shown in Gutenberg`s diagram above.

This can be refer to in the poster of Blair witch as in the Primary optical area you see the start of the title of the film then when you follow the reading gravity you see the tagline which says "there`s something evil hiding in the woods". Under which we get the information of when it was released into cinemas and the production company that is responsible the making of the film (Lions gate).

Modes of addressThere are multiple modes of address within a poster which are formal, direct, informal and indirect.

AnchorageAnchorage is how the juxtaposition of images and text or sound help to define meaning for the audience. This can be related to the use of celebrities, genre colouration text and the overall look of the poster i.e. is it eye catching (bright colours, bold text and presentation of the characters).

Poster analysis

When analysing a poster, you should consider the following: What are the main colours used in the poster? What do they connote? What symbols are used in the poster? What are the main figures/objects/background of the poster? Are the messages in the poster primarily visual, verbal, or both? Who do you think is the intended audience for the poster? Why?

Given that the aim of a film poster is to get audiences to go and see the film - what persuasive techniques are used?

Which genre conventions are referred to? Is a star used as a USP? Are there quotes? Whose quotes? How is attention gained (humour, shock, surprise familiar face of a star)? How does the tagline work? (humour, pun, alliteration etc.)

In this poster we see there are reds, blacks, blues and greys for the colour representation as this tells the viewer that there is going to be lots action some blood shed a bit of mystery that takes place in the realm of the Avengers. It also tells the viewer what the genre of the film is in this case the genre is action science fiction.The representation of the avengers in the sky symbolises that they are god like, as they are on top of everyone and it shows the logo of the film within the title to have an impacted on the viewer. The main figures used in this poster are the made up superhero group known as the avengers here we see Iron man, Captain America, The Hulk, Hawk Eye, Black Widow, Thor, Nick Fury, Vision, Wanda Maximoff and Quicksilver. The message used in the poster is primarily

visual as it shows the Avengers preparing to fight something or someone as a team. I believe that the poster is aimed at teenagers that like science fiction films as they are the ones who would make up most of the audience for this style of film.

The genre references in the poster are shown by the freeze frame of action emphasizes that there is going to be a lot of action involving the Avengers throughout the film. There are many celebrities that are used for the U.S.P. such as Robert Downey Jr. as this will bring in a certain audience that like films that include Robert. There are no quotes used in the poster due to it being a teaser poster. The attention for the poster is gained by the use of famous faces. There is no tagline used in the poster so it is just information about the film.

Trailer analysis

Blair Witch trailer analysis – YouTube trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kok693DxwVo

Within the trailer of Blair Witch there are many examples of Nick Lacey`s repertoire of elements which can be thought to be the basic plan of a film. This includes iconography, character representation, narrative structure, setting/s of the film and style. As the audience will look for anything that will tell them the genre of the film, the character stars used and noticeable locations used.

The iconography of this trailer are presented by the use of a haunted house, running, blood, dark clothing, dark settings and death as this brings a setting of style to mind for the audience. It also tells the audience what genre of film it is by the different uses of iconography.

The styles of the trailer are various as it needs to grab the attention of the audience this is done by the use of the narration during the break of the fourth wall, constant scary music in the background, clips edited to the beat of the music, dark coloured titles, voice overs by the characters, crackling wood (diegetic sound), dark coloured clothing and the use of blood on people.

For the narrative you can tell it will be a linear narrative with use of found footage as this gives the audience the eyes of a character it is done to make the audience fell connected with each of the characters individually. It also allows the audience to look at what each person sees through the cameras.

The settings that we are given during the trailer are limited as it would spoil the rest of the film if they gave to much away. The setting we are given are a haunted house, Black Hills Woods and a bedroom to create anticipation in the audience for its release date.

The character representation during the trailer are realistic as we are shown three female characters, three male characters none of whom want to be in the woods looking for one of the character’s sister and one monster that we never see but we know it is there by a door being broken down by a force that we cannot see. This allows the audience to know how many characters that will be in the film and lets them know what stars are going to be in it.

Exit poll

I created an exit poll to gain knowledge of the marketing complain of Blair Witch. This form of primary research is done through the website http://www.surveymonkey.com as then all results

Below are the screenshots of the layout of the survey done on survey monkey.

My results that I have gained from the exit poll are shown below this also shows the percentage of the questioned people and the frequency that were asked and answered.

For the first question within the survey I asked the people questioned if they were male or female. This was so I could get an understanding of the psychographics of each gender.

My findings from the questionnaire show that 75% of the questioned where male so I am going to refer to the answers with a male bias look due to the findings.

For the second question within the survey, I asked the people what was their age as this would have told me what their interests are just by looking at what the age range is.

I have found that the majority of the people asked where in the age range of 18 – 20 this tells me that older teenagers prefer to watch Blair witch this will be down to wanting to get scared by what is in the film. This result is told to me by the percentage of 75%.