Task 2 - Identifying audience

Peter Pan

Peter Pan as a character first appeared in a novel for adults called ‘The Little White Bird’ which was published in 1902 by J.M Barrie, in 1906, ‘Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens’ was published as a children’s story book. Since then there have been a few adaptations of this story.

The 1953 adaptation of this story is the most known, it was published as a colour animation by Walt Disney, it is based on the story of ‘Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens’. The plot of this particular film is that the Darling family are well off and living in London, the parents (George and Mary) are preparing to go out to a party when the two boys (John and Michael) are acting out a pirate scene from the book Peter Pan, that Wendy had read to them, George Darling gets mad and says Wendy has to move out of the nursery and have her own room. That night George and Mary go out and Peter Pan visits them, chasing his shadow, Wendy discovers him and Tinkerbell, he teaches them all how to fly with fairy dust and they fly to Neverland. Captain Hook (has one hand as a hook after Peter fed it to the crocodile) and Mr Smee are planning on finding peter and killing him, they take Tiger Lily, an Indian, to try get her to tell them where he is, Peter takes them to meet the lost boys. The lost boys (who look up to peter) take John and Michael to meet the Indians, instead they’re captured and told they would be burnt at the stake unless Tiger Lily is returned to them by sunset, Peter meanwhile takes Wendy to see the mermaids when they see Tiger Lily, they release her and return her to the tribe, Tinkerbell reveals the location to Hook and he traps her, he tries to kill Peter but Tinkerbell comes to the rescue, however Captain Hook has captured Wendy, John and Michael and the Lost Boys and wants them to walk the plank, Peter saves them and there is a big fight, ending with Captain Hook being eaten by the crocodile. The children return to London. It takes elements from that but also changes some parts to appeal more to the younger audience, for example, Peter Pan is seen as a 10+ year old in the film adaptations whereas in the original books he was a baby/toddler. Instead of starting with a back story like in the original books, Disney decided to get straight into the shadow chasing scene in the Darling children’s bedroom, saying that the back story could be made into another film of its own; these are only a couple of the minor changes Disney made to the film from the book to make it more appealing and exciting for the younger target audience as well as setting up the opportunity to make sequels. This film is primarily targeted at children and is a well-known children’s story that you grow up knowing. It is Disney, so very sweet and innocent and language used for children to understand, with the typical children’s fantasy plot of a magical place with a girl and a boy and an enemy that tries to capture the boy. The appeal to boys is that there is adventure, fighting scenes, pirates, boats and swords which is exactly what boys at an age under 10 enjoy, and there being fairies and mermaids as well as a possible romance, it appeals to young girls that believe they exist; young girls dream and wish to be fairies and mermaids and so these creatures in the film captivate them, as well as all children’s wishes for the ability to fly, this brings the story to life and makes it realistic to them. The ages of the children also matter, the targeted audience is under 10, the oldest children characters are aged 10-15, this will be who the children look up to, almost as idols, the girls idolising Wendy and the boys Peter, the younger brothers of Wendy would be similar ages to the children watching it and so they will be relatable characters who are likable and seen as the children’s ‘friends’.

 

The colours used on the front of the DVD case are iconic and stand out, the Yellow font against the blue sky makes the title and Walt Disney stand out, the font is kind of Old-style and formal, what you would typically expect from an adventure, children’s film, it is a font used quite often with Disney films. As you can see the most important elements of the film are on the cover, all the main characters (it shows them flying which entices children), Captain Hook in the back fighting the crocodile, giving us a hint of what is to come, Neverland behind (with the star) shows the setting of the film and on the back page, there is a fighting scene, this will immediately grab the attention of young boys, who are the target audience, as they love swords, fighting and pirates so this is perfect for them. The majority of animation films or television shows are targeted at children rather than adults, and so this will be an obvious sign that it is made for children although adults also enjoy is as it is seen as a classic. Although there are fighting and battle scenes, it is not in any way explicit or shows any injury, this reflects on the target audience as you can’t expose injury like what it would be to young children. The editing is quite fast but at a slow pace in most parts, I have said the editing is fast as the shots change to each character to gain their reaction and follow them, making it easier for the audience to follow and understand the scene, the characters emotions etc. (an example of this is when Tinkerbell is yelling at The Lost boys).                                                                                                                                              

The production budget for this film was a minor $4 million but made $87,404,651 (in total, after two re-releases), this made significantly less than Hook, but this was most likely due to time of release (not as popular to go to cinema/too expensive perhaps) however the film initially made $7 million and was the highest grossing film of 1953. Re-releases have been made and tied along with other events such as a sequel or the 60^th anniversary. We can see the positive audience feedback and love for this film, firstly it being called a ‘classic’ shows how popular it was all over the world, it is a known and loved children’s story, as well as the many re-releases proving that people do want to see the film and it is still as popular as it was 60 years on. It has got 75% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes to this day and has been released on different formats. Despite the praise and fact that this film is a classic, it has also been critiqued for being racist and stereotypical, calling Native American’s ‘Indians’ as well as other names such as ‘Redskins’ and ‘savages’, it also portrays them almost as animals and wild, violent and talk in a stereotypical way saying words like ‘How’.

 

Hook on the other hand is completely different to any of the previous and current Peter Pan stories, in this remake we see Peter as an adult, living in America with a wife and two children, they go to London to visit Moira (Peters Wife) grandmother, Wendy Darling. Peter and the two children go to Neverland where Peter has to then convince the lost boys and tinkerbell that it really is him and he relearns everything he had lost when he left Neverland to grow up, peter has to rescue his kids from Captain Hook and through the lost boys and tinkerbells help, there is a battle between Peter and Hook.  It was produced in 1991 and directed by Steven Spielberg and written by James Hart and Malia Scotch Marmo however the characters and basic storyline is based on the original book by J.M.Barrie, It also has the famous Robin Williams playing Peter Pan alongside other co-stars such as Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts and Maggie Smith.  This film is targeted at older children, unlike the 1953 animation aimed at 3-10 year olds, Hook is aimed at 8 – 15 year olds, we can see this as the language and story line is more complex and although it still has fairies and pirates, it is very much a more grown up adaptation with the fairies being full grown adults and a more twisted, darker tale with more bad characters, which has a psychological effect on the characters as well as the audience. It is not a jolly adventure and excitement, it is a lot scarier than previous adaptations and there is so much more going on (Peter has to battle with Rufio to become the leader of the lost boys, while tinkerbell is in love with peter, while the kids are being enticed by Hook, it is no longer the simple story) and as it a film with people acting rather than an animation, I think that appeals more to older people and less to the younger generation maybe because it is  harder for young people to relate to, firstly because the main character is a man and so is tinkerbell, the lost boys are older and more aggressive and not so sweet as well as the problems of life he is experiencing, even though the target audience haven’t gone through them, they have an understanding of them whereas it would be too complex for younger children to understand. Also Peter, as a character, has no imagination which kids will find hard to understand as they are so imaginative and so into all the magic and he is opposing that, not only that but because it is such a different version of it, children might not understand why it is so different although it is the same characters and same place, it is completely different to other versions and so it might not appeal to them the fact it’s completely different, which older people will understand.

As you can see by the DVD cover, it is targeted a lot more at older children as there is still all the elements of mermaids and pirates but it is a lot darker and doesn’t look as appealing, the look of Captain Hook with the Hook being the main feature of the cover, it is a lot scarier and you can see immediately he is someone to be feared. Unlike the cover of the 1953 Peter Pan, it doesn’t show adventure and fun and flying, which is very simplistic, this is very detailed and illustrated. The background is of a map, putting forward again that this is a pirate story, the characters in front are obvious to the audience of who they are however it is a different look that challenges the way we stereotype Peter Pan as being. The font, this time being more Piratey and Old-Fashioned (stereotypical font of a pirate) which is in Red, not only does this make it stand out, but the colour red makes us think of warning, danger, blood and so just by using this colour it gives us a hint of what is to come in the film, on the other hand Peter Pan 1953 version has a complete different colour scheme with warm colours that draw you into it, one that is calming and is almost ‘child friendly’.  Hook shows more violent scenes, has more aggression and you’re really not sure all the way through if everything is going to be okay because it is a challenge and Peter has a time limit to be able to get his children back, where we see them being brainwashed by Hook and being taken away by the pirates. The editing is quite slow paced with a lot of different angles and panning, instead of fast cuts to see every angle, the camera instead follows the character for a bit until it needs to cut to a different angle, for example when Rufio first comes in, the camera pans and follows him as he goes around the track before panning down to Peter and having an over shoulder shot of Rufio with a sword to Peters neck, the camera follows as they walk around. Unlike the animation of Peter Pan, because it is acting and real camera’s it is more accessible to get all these different shots and make a more creative film; the slow cuts also show that it is aimed at an older audience as the fast cuts are not always needed (the creative, diverse shots can make up for where it would be cut) and also older generations don’t need action and a fast pace constantly so the slow pace suits the target audience.                                                                                                                

The production budget for this film was $70 million, $66 million more than the 1953 version, but it is there as a big budget Hollywood film that is made for worldwide success, but it also made a gross profit of $300,854,823 worldwide, it was more popular internationally than domestically in the USA, with 60.2% of the profit coming from there. In the opening weekend they made $13,522,535, ranking number 1, it remained number 1 in the box office for 3 weeks, however it was highly viewed for months before not being as popular, we can see from this that not only was marketing correct in getting people to go see the film during the opening weekend, but it must’ve been liked and people must’ve told their friends to see it as it stayed in the cinema with high ratings for a few months, on Rotten Tomatoes, the audience review of it is 77% which is good, the reviews say how it’s exciting and has everything a Hollywood film needs with Hook being the perfect recipe. Another appeal to the audience to see this film is the actors, Robin Williams, Julia Roberts, Dustin Hoffman and Maggie Smith, all very famous and well liked actors, if you were a fan of any of these actors then you would be more drawn to see the film, an advantage of it not being animated is that you can get a lot of promotion for the film through the actors and their endorsements (We can see these famous actors on the front of the DVD cover, with their names in matching red underneath, this immediately draws someone in to buy the DVD if it has a big, Hollywood actor). It was also directed by Steven Spielberg who is a major, successful director and so if you are interested and like certain directors, than this can also be an appeal; this is another reason why we can see it is not aimed at a younger audience, younger audiences do not care about actors or directors, all they care about is the content of the film, they also don’t take notice of things like camera angles and music unlike older children and adults who do notice the creativity of the making of it.

We can gather audience feedback through different methods, such as reviews, focus groups, reception, test screenings and box office, as well as others. Firstly there are test screenings, this is where they bring in an audience before the film is complete to view the film and then give feedback to what they could improve and what they liked, this way the directors can decide what to change about the film before completion. Often there are preview sessions of the film so film critics can review it for their paper or website, consumers of the newspapers or viewers of the website can read what the critic has said about the film and then decide whether they want to go see that film as well, depending on whether it had a good or bad review (if the film gets a bad view, it is more likely that less people will go see the film as they trust the critics judgement). Websites such as Rotten Tomatoes is where you can see reviews not only from film critics but from members of the public, to get a wider overview of the response to the film, however it is up to the public to decide whether they want to see the film or not. Us and Directors can get an idea of how successful a film has been in the cinema through box office, if, in the opening weekend, the film has been a success however over the next couple of weeks if, in the box office, it is less successful, it gives us an idea that people went to see the film after successful marketing however it was disappointing and so they didn’t tell their friends to watch it or it got bad reviews etc. whereas a film that might not have great marketing and not great success in the opening weekend but then increasing box office sales over the weeks/months in the cinema, it means that it wasn’t that appealing to watch but people enjoyed it, heard good reviews about it and were told about it by their friends, it would go around by word and mouth about how great it was, therefore attracting a wider audience after release.  Audience feedback is an important part of the success of a film, depending on the feedback it can determine the success of the film, and there are different ways of both getting feedback and analysing that feedback through film reviews, box office sales and test screenings.

Both of these films are iconic in the series of remakes of Peter Pan, the first, 1953 animation, is a family classic and is what everybody thinks of when Peter Pan is mentioned and this has set out the iconic look of Peter Pan, although this is a family classic, it is targeted at a young child as it is an animation, it is magical and has adventure and is perfect for both boys and girls whereas Hook is a twist of the story and is unique in the series of sequels, it doesn’t follow the usual pattern of the story although takes the basic storyline and elements from it. Hook is based at the older child and I would say it is more targeted at boys over girls as there is more fighting rather than magical creatures or a love story however girls will also like the film, so in conclusion, we can tell they are targeted to different audiences as one is an animation and has elements that all children would love and the other is a Hollywood film with famous actors that has a darker side and unique twist, however both have a wide, international audience and anyone of any age would enjoy them.

Task 1 - Audience Research

Media Producers use many different ways to identify and target their audience, by doing this they can see who reads/watches their magazine/show and so how to market to them particular people.

The first way to identify an audience is through Demographics, this defines the age, gender, social class and race of the public. Using this, media producers can find out what age bracket watches their show, this gives them an indication of which direction the show should go as well as what advertisements to place. Also gender, you can identify a genre of a film or show by who is the main audience, and so what conventions it should hold e.g. an action film will appeal more to males than to females. An example of the use of demographics is the advertisements during day time television, these tend to be products for elderly people, children or house wives, this is because these are the people who would most likely be watching and so the product is more successfully advertised than late at night. Another example is Closer magazine, they can identify that their readers are predominately female and so this is who they want to target. Ways they could find out who they were selling to could come from looking at statistics, giving out a survey, through social media or purchases, advertisers can look at this also to see what adverts would be most successful, after identifying the target audience they can shape the content around this, e.g. fashion pages, gossip, celebrity interviews, weight loss help etc.

Another way to identify an audience is through psychographics, this identifies what the audience’s interests are, their lifestyle, attitudes, beliefs or their personality. This is useful particularly in marketing and advertising campaigns because they can shape it around the lifestyle of the targeted audience, for example the main consumer of energy sport drinks are people who love to exercise and are fit, in the advertisement they could have an athletic celebrity sponsor or someone running. Another example is high-top trainers, these are aimed at teenage boys/ young adults and so with research they could make a campaign with a sport orientated lifestyle such as someone playing football in them or at the skate park as a sport lifestyle is stereotypically male. We can categorise audiences and put them into Mainstream, Explorer, Reformer, Aspirer, laggers etc. through Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation. We can see statistics on BARB that show us what programme is most popular on each channel, showing us the amount of viewers, what day and time it was shown; this helps us identify the demographics and psychographics of a programme. We can see on BARB how many viewers, an example is on BBC1, 'Call The Midwife' was the most viewed programme on this channel in the last week of January, with 10.83 million viewers. It was shown on a Sunday at 8pm, this tells us exactly who the viewers are, it is a programme targeted at women primarily but is a drama, the producers know that women will be home on a Sunday evening, as well as their families to settle down and watch this programme. The second highest viewed show on this channel is 'The Voice UK' which shows on a Saturday night at 7pm, it had 8.86 million viewers; this show is targeted at families, women and children, this time is perfectly timed as younger children will be able to watch, as well as families will be in on a Saturday night, it's a reality show and so indulgent. Although teenagers are apart of the target audience they are less focused on as it is more likely that they will be out and not in to watch the show; BBC1 is more family and adult orientated and this shows in the ratings, as it is more popular to a mass audience. On the other hand, Channel 4's highest viewing on the same week was 'Benefits Street' shown on a Monday at 9pm, it got a total of 5.56 million viewers, half of that of the highest viewed programme on the BBC, this is because this channel is aimed more at teenagers and young adults, rather than families. 'Benefits Street' was a funny documentary of a life on a street in Birmingham where most of the residents are on Benefits; it does not portray these people in a good light where we should feel sympathetic for them, instead they're doing themselves no favours and portraying themselves as the stereotypical people we perceive are on benefits. As Channel 4 have not shown them in a good light they would most likely lose these people and others on benefits as viewers, these people are put under the 'struggler' on demographic tendencies (Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation), and so are the smallest sector, so Channel 4 can afford to lose this audience (to entertain the mass audience). The audience for 'Benefits Street' are teenagers, put into the Explorer category, this means they're adventurous and have a lot of freedom, not afraid of change and so watching Benefits it is almost entertaining to see people who are not apart of that same group etc. Using the Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation, we can identify what certain groups of people in certain situations are most likely to feel and think and want to watch e.g. Mainstream and Succeeders are more likely to opt for security and to be well resourced whereas Explorers and Strugglers are more for freedom but are less resourced; also Mainstream are more likely to resist change and like it how it is however Explorers will be the first to except change and we can see this through young people, how they change and 'go with the flow', learn new things constantly rather than the older generations who are resistant and slower to follow. Using demographics does help identify what age, gender or race the audience is, using psychographics you can segregate these categories further and so target a smaller, niche audience for your product rather than a general advert to target a mass audience.

Next is Geodemographics, this identifies the audience through region and location, this is a more uncommon way of researching your audience for most companies although it can be good to research which region most enjoys the product and so helps with where to place more/less advertising and products (e.g. a specific, niche television show could have double the viewers In the north over the south, they could either advertise it more in the south to get more viewers or focus their attention primarily on the north). It is particularly useful for newspapers, it varies between regions what is published and what are the main topics discussed are as well as the dialect used. Obviously local newspapers report completely different new, The Northern Echo reports for the North-East, the news reported is not reported in the south, so we get different news however the Northern Echo’s headlines are mainly on crimes, police, court or sport as well as stories on local schools and businesses, these are big stories and create drama and something to talk about however The London Evening Standard’s stories are mainly focused on estate, legal issues as well as politics – I think this is because a lot of business people work in the city or commute and so want to know what is going on in the financial and business world as well as knowing what is happening in the capital rather than stories of local people or schools. They are advertising to different audiences, the main readers of The Northern Echo would be local people, families, local businesses, the elderly whereas The London Evening Standard are aimed at the young – middle aged business people, predominantly male. This is also reflected in the language used, The London Standard uses very well-spoken, formal language whereas The Northern Echo is more laid back. On television, specifically the news, the country is segregated by regions, such as London, The South, Midlands, Yorkshire etc. Each have their own news for their own region after the National news, this is where you can find out information specific for your area and so not showing news stories that aren't relevant to you. One example is the South Today News on BBC, the first 15 minutes is the whole of the South region, as the capital of the South region, and all the main cities and towns are along the South Coast, this means this is where the main audience is and so where the South Regional News is based, with stories about the weather, sea and local towns. Because Oxford is the north of this region, it is not very relevant to us, therefore we have a dedicated news for 15 minutes after the 15 minutes of South Today News (will go on for half an hour if you live on the south coast), here we get relevant stories to our location, and they tend to be small stories, such as a teacher walking out of a school because disruptive students or the success of a local boy. In comparison, the news in London was taken over by the story of tube strikes, this is because the tubes are a huge part of the life of commuters, business men and tourists and so it has had a major effect on the city and transport, other regular stories on the news are about murders, violence etc. you hear about this less on the news in other parts of the country, this is because there is a lot more people in London than anywhere else therefore it is more likely to happen and so isn't headline news, unlike if it were to happen in Oxford for example. On BBC's Look North news in the North East and Cumbria, the main headline on the local news was about a new sports facility which is going to be built in Middlesbrough, which will help the local community etc. The next story was about a missing woman and how a body has been found, then about improvements that need to be done to the schools, to then talk about Chinese New Year Celebrations in Newcastle - these stories would not go near to reach national news as they're not big stories and so aren't relevant to the majority of the country however to that region, it is important because it is local - the stories are captivating and make you feel sympathetic, they are small stories that lots of people like to follow as it means a lot to them.

Lastly there is socio-economics, this is where people are put in 6 groups depending on their job title/earnings, and these are:

·         A – High managerial in a company (chief executive etc.), professional (surgeon, GP)

·         B – Intermediate managerial (bank manager), professional (teacher)

·         C1 – Junior manager, supervisor, clerks – bank clerk, sales advisor, a supervisor

·         C2 – Skilled manual workers – builders, plumbers, electricians, brick layers

·         D – unskilled or half skilled manual workers – messengers, assembly line worker

·         E – unemployed, pensioners – living off benefits or pensioner not on private pension

These are helpful for companies to know, if they can identify which category their main target audience is then they know the money they should have to spend on the products, what interests or lifestyle they could possibly have or seeing who they need to target and what advertisements can fit with this information. For example Waitrose, they sell food that is more expensive than supermarkets such as Morrison’s or Aldi and have special ranges, through research it has been found that people in groups ABC1 are more likely to buy food from more expensive supermarkets unlike those in groups C2DE who would not be willing to pay more. Companies can find out information through The National Statistics website and through the census as well as on BARB universe, this is based on television homes and who is in that household, surveys are sent round often and this keeps data up to date and this is where you can find demographic information also. Through finding out who their target audience are, they can presume the socio-economic group their audience is most likely to be from, e.g. the channel BBC4 shows dramas, documentaries, foreign shows or films as well as current affairs and original programmes as is said to be “an alternative to programmes on the mainstream channels” their target audience for their programmes is primarily those of middle age to the elderly rather than the young generation, so that helps them identify what kind of socio-economic group they are in, what products should be in the advertisements etc. Although this classes people by what they earn, doesn't mean the people who work in C2 etc. earn less than those in A or B,  because in fact they earn just as much, being self-employed, however their income is not stable and so that is why they are classed lower. The trouble with using socio-economic as a way of defining an audience is that it doesn't show you what any of personalities, likes and dislikes are, it is simply based on what job role/amount earned and although this can give a slight idea of interests (a builder might like a show about houses and a chef, a programme about food), so it is not as useful as other audience research techniques.

Some of the issues with companies defining their audiences through these categories are that not every person who watches or reads the programme or magazine is part of the category, it depends on the person and so defining their target audience and only focusing on that audience could restrict the people who could or want to view that product or miss them out completely through advertising and so they are only appealing to certain people which could have an effect on the popularity of the product. Also just because people fall into a certain category it does not mean they all like the same thing, for example an action film will make it appealing for men to watch through advertising (pretty women, car chases, fights etc.) however some girls will enjoy those types of films over romantic comedies which the majority of women enjoy and vice versa with men and magazines targeted at women, there’s nothing to say men won’t want to read it to but making the product look like a woman only product it sets up prejudices for men if they want to read it. Although these ways of finding who is interested in a show or magazine and sets up a guideline for who to target, it doesn’t mean these are the only people you can target, you can appeal to a larger audience and not leave out possible audiences.