Evaluation 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

By Myles Egan

My Product• My product belongs to the social realism genre, this is a genre with a

smaller audience of people compared to more mainstream genre.

• Social realism is known as a niche genre as only a small specific type of people are interested in these types of films.

• Although, belonging to this genre and being ‘true to life’ creates aspects of relatability and can sometimes address more than just the usual social realist fans.

• My product also contains two protagonists, who are in a love relationship and this adds elements from the romance genre, although combines the two genres together due to the unpredictability of it.

Theatrical• Due to social realism being a niche audience and therefore reaching out to a smaller amount

of people compared to mainstream films, this is often the reason why mainstream cinemas like Odeon, Empire and Cinemax don’t provide these types of films.

• Although with Social Realism attracting a certain type of audience, this still creates a gap in the market for demand. Therefore there are very little amount of places around the UK that provide this type of entertainment, but here are a few: The Arnolfini Centre (Bristol), The Corner House (Manchester), Nation Film Centre (London), Every Man Cinema (Film chain) and Picturehouse (Film chain).

• As you can see by the location of these theatres that they’re usually based in easy-access locations and are all near universities. These types of theatres need to be easy-access due to the wide demographic of their audience and low competition, by placing it in a main area with a lot of transport options this makes it easy to attract consumers to come to their theatre. The reason these theatres are also by universities is that social realism is a genre usually watched by an audience who are more educated to media and being near a uni will mean they’re closer to their target audience.

• This is why the mainstream film chains often don’t provide this entertainment as their audience is usually younger and less media educated and therefore not interested in this type of genre.

Theatrical

Providers of social realism• As you can see there is a certain

type of more artistic and formal look to these types of buildings and this symbolizes the type of audience they would attract and are hoping to attract.

Mainstream film chains• Here you can see the simple, clear bold

lettering of their brand and use of simplistic structure when it comes to the buildings. Aesthetically they can’t be too boisterous as they must cater for a wider audience, hence the reason they’re so aesthetically plain.

Online• The online market is expanding in recent times at an unpredictably rapid rate due to the

everyday advances in technology, more and more sites become available due to such high-demand from consumers of the easy accessibility of streaming films. The accessibility of these types of companies is a really unique advantage compared to other areas of the market, who don’t provide this type of selling point, although may provide a better experience.

• Another advantages of online usage is the cheap costs of it, as when using sites such as Netflix and LOVEFiLM the consumer receives an account to which they pay a small monthly rate in comparison to the rate of buying the actual film or going to cinema and this allows them to watch an unlimited amount of films to which these companies provide.

• LOVEFiLM and Netflix both target very mainstream audiences and this is due to the increased amount of mainstream genres and although it has a huge variety of mainstream genre films, this leaves their more niche genres like social realism quite scarce. They only really provide a small amount of social realism films such as; Kidulthood, Adulthood, This is England and Fish Tank.

Online• Although there are other sites, which are less mainstream and less known; for example,

MUBI is one. It could be seen similar to LOVEFiLM, but isn't as popular and is described as more of a niche film site. On MUBI there are less mainstream films; you can watch the best classic, independent and foreign films. They describes themselves as 'Movies for people who are passionate about film' this shows that it covers all areas of the film industry and provides a range of genres and not only a range of genres, but also a variety of films from the genres. It also shows that they’re targeting themselves at a specific audience and with the use of the word ‘passionate’, this is likely to mean they want an audience who are more media educated and will utilize their site to the full potential. For example, MUBI have set up an option so that users are able interact by sharing opinions and reviews on the website; being able to discuss these types of films and gathering each others opinions is often what people do when they’re more educated to media and want to discuss the film intelligently and into more depth.

Looking at this advertisement, the words discover and discuss support my point in that MUBI are looking to attract a more media educated audience.

BBC TWO – Social Realism DocumentaryIn 2007, BBC Two aired a documentary called ‘British Film Forever’ the synopsis contained this:

‘Programme Three in BBC TWO's landmark series on the history of British Film takes a look at the most British of genres - Social Realism. There was a revolution in British film at the end of the 1950s: working people and the realities of their everyday lives started to appear on the big screen. Hardship, Humour and Heroes traces the evolution from Billy Liar to Billy Elliot via Saturday Night Sunday Morning, Kes and Trainspotting.Featuring original interviews with Ewan McGregor, Jamie Bell, Rita Tushingham, Malcom McDowell, Phil Daniels, Danny Boyle and Johnny Vegas - as well as the directors who have shaped the genre: Ken Loach and Mike Leigh.’

This does not mean that they specifically air this type of genre, but what it does show is an interest in more of the educational-side of media and the audience that BBC Two have are ones who would be similar to the audience that I’m targeting my product at.After researching BBC Two more extensively, I found out that there was a period of a week where they showed purely Social Realism films and no other genre of film, this was the third part out of a seven part series of a project they were doing at the time. They showed popular social realist films such as; Billy Elliot, A Way of Life and Trainspotting.

Television

Here is the project page from 2007 named ‘British Film Forever’

BBC2 TWO – Social Realism DocumentaryTelevision

BBC Four

Television

BBC Four shows a wide variety of programmes including drama, documentaries, music, international film, original programmes, comedy and current affairs an alternative to programmes on the mainstream TV channels. So really BBC Four is similar to MUBI in the sort of things they broadcast/provide and as MUBI is known to be quite a niche company and withholds a wide variety of films, some being social realism, the two companies are very similar in catering for the smaller audience who are interested in less mainstream films.

Also, BBC Four is required by its license to broadcast at least 100 hours of new arts and music programmes, 110 hours of new factual programmes and to premiere 20 international films each year; this means that my independent niche product with a factual storyline about the overwhelming effects of new responsibilities at young adulthood and how new legal activities can cause turmoil in peoples lives. Further more, with the element of my product being ‘true to life’ it would also be factual to peoples everyday lives, and this is why I feel BBC4’s audience would be people who are also interested in my product.

Television

Film 4Film 4 did not originally focus on broadcasting blockbusters, but nowadays broadcasts many mainstream Hollywood films. The channel frequently has themed nights or seasons in which it will begin to show a number of films centered around one genre, director or actor. As Channel 4 also owns a film production company (Film 4 Production) it shows many of its own productions.

After reading about their themed night organization, this tells me that their audience are interested in experimenting with film and are interested in a variety of films and tells me that their audience must be educated to media for these reasons, this provides sufficient information in that I believe Film 4’s audience would also be interested in my film.

Radio

BBC Radio 3 ‘The cultural movement labeled 'kitchen sink realism' gave urgent, vivid expression to the reality of post-war Britain, through film and the arts.’

Is what BBC Radio 3 said when posting about a huge variety of Social Realist films such as; Looking Back in Anger, The Wednesday Play: Up The Junction, John Bratby – The Toilet and Women in a Dressing Gown.

All of these films were exhibited by BBC Radio 3 and with this in mind, you can start to see certain similarities between BBC Radio 3 and BBC4 in that they provide similar material and have therefore got a similar audience that connect with them. BBC4’s audience were usually people who cared more about a variety of film and were often more media educated, this gives me the impression that as the audiences are similar that BBC Radio 3’s audience would also be interested in my media product.

Radio

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 along with Open Cinema helped to host a screening of ‘Sweet Sixteen’ which Ken Loach and Paul Laverty attended at the Pearce Institute in Glasgow, 17 January 2011. This shows the organizations support for this film and this type of genre, as hosting a screening of a film isn’t a regular thing for BBC Radio 4 and to display a social realism film shows that their audience is interested in this type of genre and are open to a variety of different films, showing they’re more media educated.

Therefore accounting these factors, BBC Radio 4’s audience would be interested in my media product as it displays a lot of themes and issues which are true to life and this is something you don’t get in mainstream films, as my media product belongs to the niche genre of social realism, which is something that BBC Radio 4’s audience has made clear interests them.

Print

Sight & Sound MagazineJudging by the layout and colour scheme of this cover, it is very simplistic and not very eye-catching. I feel that these features portray a sense of formality and maturity of the consumer. As it isn't bright, loud and in your face - it is targeted at people who already know or are a fan of this magazine; hence not a mainstream audience. When looking inside of the magazine you can start to notice that the language is aimed at a media educated audience with the constant use of media specific terminology, as using these sorts of words in a mainstream magazine wouldn’t work as a lot of the mainstream film audiences are not media educated. This tells me that the audience for Sight & Sound Magazine is a very niche audience and those of who are media educated. Often audiences who are more educated to media want to explore a variety of film genres rather than just one, this tells me that Sight & Sounds audience would be interested in my media product.

Print

Sight & Sound MagazineAs you can see from this Sight & Sound Magazine cover, it already has advertised a Social Realism film called ‘Fish Tank’ this tells me that the audience of Sight & Sound Magazine are interested in the Social Realism genre and as my media product belongs to the Social Realism genre, I feel that Sight & Sound Magazine’s audience would also be interested in my media product.

Print

QuantitativeWhen researching my target audience, I gave my quantitative questionnaire out to around 20 people; after concluding my results, I found these two answers very interesting as it tells me that 91% of people had not seen a social realism film at a cinema/theatre and 80% of people did not find social realism films easily accessible, therefore with this in mind places such as The Arnolfini Centre, National Film Centre and The Picturehouse may not have the best audience for my product and as my audience are looking for more accessibility, an online software Programme like MUBI’s audience may be more suitable.