Unit 1 - Work to Complete and Completed

ALL COMPLETED

FINISH VIDEO 2

L04 Task 5 - Ethical, Legal and regulatory issues

a) Impact and effect on the audience

Films can be represented in many different ways to the audience. Some people may see them actively; as a way to relax and get away from the working world temporarily - and others can see a film passively; as a way in which they believe it is possible to re-enact what occurs during the film. This can lead to the hypodermic syringe theory stated by Theodore Adorno in 1930. The theory states that a mass audience believe anything they see/hear and this can have a negative impact in the media industry; similar to being injected with a needle.

The media classify audiences of films in two sections; passive and active. An active audience is one in which views a film for pleasure or entertainment purposes only. This relates to the escapism theory Dennis McQuail which means for a viewer to escape the current working world, allowing recreational time for the viewer; however an active audience member would not take what happens in the film and apply it to a real life context. A passive audience member however, contrary to the word's meaning, means that the viewer will put the film's content into practice, which can lead to a negative influence on the media if the film contains violence or sex etc. 

The film contains violence through men and apes having war, which could be negative to a passive audience as a passive audience is more likely to go out and turn the films actions into the real world. This could lead to people believing violence is acceptable or potentially good.
The film also suggests about having no trust, with the humans being welcomed into the ape settlement on the condition that no guns are brought into the camp. Contrary to the decision a human brings a gun regardless which connotes being untrustworthy. This may impact upon a passive audience due to portraying no trust to be acceptable. 

The film however has positive impacts on the audience also. Overall the film shows the end of the war being brought to in a well done, civilised manor, with evil being removed and the 'good guys' taking everything right again. To the audience this shows that everything can become perfect in the end, and all wars can be defeated. This suggests living a more vigilant and active lifestyle; and also being more positive overall. 

b) Representations 

Films can easily portray stereotypes and representations which can lead to negative or positive impacts. A representation is a way that a certain group or type of person is portrayed in film or in a media product. This links to Stuart Hall's theory in 1980 about all representations being mediated. In which he used the word `mediated` to suggest the media create representations of purpose to portray their point. This can also be linked with stereotypes which can be justified as an oversimplified image or idea of a particular person or thing. Tessa Perkins in 1979 stated that not all stereotypes are false. In many films the stereotypes of people can be true of many people. For example it is stereotyped that men are more dominiant than women overall; and although this is not true in all cases, it is more common for a man to be more dominant in a household than a female.

In the film Dawn of the Planet Apes, a positive stereotype can be seen at around 1hour 31minutes in the film in which Ellie takes care of ape protagonist Caesar. This is a positive stereotype as it shows love and care towards Caesar and also provides the stereotype of women working in hospital/taking care of patients etc. Also in the film there is a negative stereotype of men causing war. It can be seen in the film that there are two men with beer and guns etc. This stereotype is negative as it perceives that men don't care about violence and see it as fun.
The film also contains a counter type. This is a feature that opposes a stereotype and counters the theory by Tessa Perkins in 1979 who stated 'not all stereotypes are false'. It also counters the binary oppositions by Levi Strauss. The counter type in the film Dawn of the Planet Apes is that Malcolm, the main protagonist, counters violence, wanting to stay peaceful compared to that of Koba, the main antagonist. Due to the stereotypes of men being violence, Malcolm is a counter type.

c) Legal and Ethical issues 

Most of the time, a film will use content such as music or locations that are not owned by the company. This means the company will require appropriate pemission to do as such without causing legal unrest. Copyright infringement is the name given to when a person or company uses content that they don't have permission from the author of said content to use. If the company or person proceeds to copyright infringe, though any way, it can be classed as stealing which can lead to being sued by the contents owner or legal prosecution. 

In the film Dawn of the Planet Apes, the location manager had to get permission from local authorities of New Orleans East to arrange three month long street closures for filming purposes. The team had to get permission for this as street closures would lead to disruption in transportation which is why the company had to pay for this. 

Also in the film Dawn of the Planet Apes, copyright would have had to be resolved for the songs played in the film. The film used the song 'The Weight' which was performed by The Band courtesty of Capitol Records, LLC. This song was licensed to be played by Universal, suggesting that money went to a close competitor of 20th Century Fox. 

The film also has a rating by the BBFC of a 12, (the BBFC being the British Board of Film Classification) which suggests that the film contains content that only a 12 year old or above can watch. This most likely will be due to violence in the film which is portrayed all throughout the film. It also could be due to some offensive language within the film however this is more common to make the film a 12a rather than a 12. A 12 or a 12a means the film may have some prolific language such as the world 'F***' however, it must not appear many times or be used acting as a common word. This is true within the film as only a few times do prolific words appear, such as 'oh s***' about half way through the film.

d) Regulatory Bodies

Film companies require a regulation board to view advertisements and films before release to suggest who the film can be watched by, or which print media is deemed acceptable. For reviewing films in the UK, the BBFC (or British Board of Film Classification) uses a set of pre-defined rules to give the film an acceptable age rating. The BBFC was an NGO (non-governmental organisation) founded by the film industry which is responsible for classification and censorship of films within the United Kingdom.

The age range of my film is a 12 which suggests that the film can only be watched if the viewer is 12 or older. This is due to moderate violence and prolific language within the film. Some of the trailers for the film were, however, classified for PG which means Parental Guidance or 8+ in age rating. Although this seems strange it is common for film pictures to have trailers this way, as overall it can attract a larger audience if the final film rating was a 12A.

Films may also not maintain the same rating over time, or within different countries which was the case for the film Dawn of the Planet apes which received a 12 rating in the UK by the BBFC, but a PG-13 rating by the MPAA which is the American film classification board, similar to the BBFC. 

The film keeps up to these guidelines set by the BBFC by only containing infrequent and small usage of prolific language, as well as only moderate violence with no major showing of blood and/or gore

Another regulations company is the ASA, which stands for the `advertising standards authority`. The ASA is a UK based company which was invented to regulate the content of advertisements through all different media. This includes monitoring adverts to take action against misleading, harmful or offensive material. The ASA also ensures every advert is responsible for being presented, which in turn protects the public to viewing unlawful material. The ASA also use third party sources such as advertising codes to provide a platform to judge adverts against. These advertising codes are used to judge non-broadcast media (such as print media) and also broadcast media (such as radio or television). Some of the advertising codes for print media include regulating misleading advertisements, preventing harm and offence in too much detail, creating relevant and appropriate advertisements for children, as well as ensuring privacy rights are kept to.

In the harm and offence section of the advertising codes for non-broadcast, harm and offence section 4.2 states that 'Marketing communications must not cause fear of distress without justifiable reason'. This suggests that no violence can be shown in the poster of the film as this violence in the film is un-justified which means that by portraying this violence in a film poster would be unnecessary as well. This links to the target audience of teenagers to young adults who have a stereotype of being quite violent. This makes the film more challenged to create content that could make teenagers more violent proving the stereotype to be true; for this reason there is a restriction harm and offence that can be shown to teenagers or young adults

Section 4.5 also states that Marketing communications, especially those addressed to a child, must not condone or encourage an unsafe practise. As the film is aimed at 12+, some may argue this is invalid although, by definition, a human remains a child until the age of 18 suggesting violence should not be shown as violence could be classified as an unsafe practise.

Section 5 for children also applies to the film as the age of 12 can still be classed as a child. Section 5.1.4 states that children must not be encouraged to copy practices that might be unsafe for a child. In the film Dawn of the Planet Apes where Koba is plotting to raid the human armoury, two men can be seen drinking alcohol and holding guns, which by definition suggests unsafe practise. The violence in the film is also an action that should be not undertaken or though of as correct by children which is hence the reason why the poster cannot portray violence or drinking or both at once.

Finally section 18 for advertising codes states about alcohol, and how it should not be used to observe dangerous aspects or encourage drinking in the poster of a film. In section 18.11 of the advertisement code, it states that marketing communications must not feature alcohol being handled or served irresponsibly. As the film Dawn of the Planet Apes contains the scene of the men drinking alcohol whilst handling guns, this falls under the handled irresponsibly section of this rule which means that and print media generated by 20th Century Fox for Dawn of the Planet Apes should not convey drinking irresponsibly as it would be seen in places aimed at a mass audience.

Thank you for listening to my fifth and final video on behalf of educational company Education Wise, which provided you the viewer/reader with a sample analysis of content in the form of and interactive style presentation or video. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and thank you for watching. I've been Matt Milan, good bye. 

L04 Task 5 - Ethical, legal and regulatory issues [Notes & WriteUp]

Ethical Issues => Representations i.e Gender, Age
Legal => Copyright (music/soundtrack), Certifiation (age rating); BBFC [British Board of Film Classification], also comes under regulation. UK has higher certificate for violence compared to America, however opposite for sex in same countries.
ASA -> Advertising Standards Authority


Active audience => Links to users and gratifications. (form of pleasure)
Passive audience => "Copycats"

a) The product's impage and effect on the audience
=: 1) passive -> hypodermic syringe (Theodo Adorno, 1930's) - media has a negative impact. Mass audience believe everything they see/hear.
\ issues about violence
\ isues about representation
\ passive may try and re-inact the above \

=: 2) active

positive impact/role model
we are able to filter and adapt to content in media (Gauntlett). We have uss and gratifications thory - people use media for their own purposes.

b) relevant issues of representation
c) relevant legal and/or ethical issues
d) role of relevant regulatory bodies


Active and passive task:
1.) Explain what the hypodermic syringe theory (Theodor Adorno 1930) is about.
2.) Define what a active audience is.
3.) Define what a passive audience is.
4.) Give two examples of how your film could have negative impacts on the audience.
5.) Give two examples of how your film could have positive impacts onthe audience (role model coluld be one example).

b) Representation.

Who is being represented?
All representations are mediated -> Done on purpose (Hall, 1980)

Is there use of stereotypes/ countertypes (Perkins 1979). Not all stereotypes are false.

Representation of women - are they objectified (Mulvey 1975). Representations of men (Earp and Katz, 1999) - `equation of masculinity with pathological control and violence.` <-- men being dominant. COMPLETE OPPOSITE IN FILM

Alvardo (1987) = ethnicity 'exotic, dangerous, humorous, pitied'.

representation questions

1) What does representation mean (Stuart Hall 'Mediation' 1980)
2) Explain Tessa Perkins (1979) theory about stereotypes
3) Give examples of your film of 1 positive, 1 negative stereotype in your film, and the effect on the audience.
4) Are there any countertypes in your film?


c) Legal and Ethical

- Legal - Copyright infringement? - main worry in film industry is illegal downloads? 

Copyright infringement - using content that you don't have the rights/permission to use.

To prevent copyright infringement, permissions are created. -> Can lead to being sued or legal prosecution for `stealing`. 

- Ethical - offensive material? Sensationalism? Censorship - has the film been censored?

-- offensive material: racism, sexual content, strong langauge, violence, drugs. }link to passive audience. Age also. 

-- Sensationalism -> treating something bad as good. (e.g sex in James Bond movies).

-- Censorship -> Removing or changing content that is deemed in-appropriate based on the content in the film. 

QUESTIONS FOR C_

1. Define what copyright infringement is.

2. Give 2 examples of things that the film would need to get permission for.

3. Is there any offensive material in your film like sex/drugs/violence/language etc). Link to the BBFC age certificate of your film. 

d) Regulatory Bodies

Questions-:

BBFC:

1. Who are they? http://www.bbfc.co.uk/
2. What is the age range of your film?
3. Did the age range get changed at any time?
4. Is it different to US? Why?
5. How does the film keep to the BBFC guidelines it has set for the film?

ASA:

1. Who are they? http://www.cap.org.uk/Advertising-Codes.aspx
2. Which CAP codes regulate print material?
3. Show the codes on your vlog – how does the marketing in a poster for your film  adhere to rules set?

ASA -: 

L03 - Task 4 : Advertising and Promotion NOTES

Advertising and Promotion - Means marketing the film to create maximum awareness to a specific target audience. 

Synergy; through owned media products
TV advertisement, Radio, Games, Sponsoring (paid for advertisements), Magazine articles. Trailers. Poster. Merchandise. Website banners. Bus Posters. Social Media. Interviews from actors. Billboards[Mass audience].  

David Gauntlett (2002) - discussed the rise of web 2.0 ; rise in prosumers (producers and consumers) - `This is the change in the internet being a static, one way form of communication to a two way interactive medium`

How can the audience interact with the marketing of the film>

L03 - Task 4

Introduction

Hi my name is Matthew and welcome back to my 3rd video on behalf of educational company Education Wise. Today I will be looking at how 20^th Century Fox distributes media (especially my chosen film ‘Dawn of the planet apes’ to its target audience and also how the company distributes its products as a whole.

The word ‘distribution’ means getting a product to its audience, but also means advertising or promoting a product. This happens with media producers to get their products to the consumer; and in recent years has become a lot more of a digital (and therefore cheaper) process.

Distribution through technological convergence

In recent years, technology has improved massively over all different products. One product that has become a lot cheaper to distribute has been film. Films were at first analogue products meaning that they were distributed using film reels – heavy disks which consisted on the film being imprinted upon it. These film reels were expensive to manufacture and distribute, costing 10’s of thousands of pounds to transport to cinemas. More recently due to the technological convergence, cinemas were installed with 4k projectors allowing transportation of films on hard drive disks (HDD’s) rather than the older film reel, being cheaper and re-useable.

Another way the film industry has been impacted by the switch between analogue and digital, was the release of web 2.0 in 2004, in which the web was revolutionised so that people of all ages could access it. This meant that the production of films could be advertised and distributed to online retailers (including online streaming sites) making for a larger audience reached and more revenue gained.

Distributed locations

The film ‘Dawn of the Planet apes’ is viewable over different platforms, allowing a wider target audience to be reached maximising its view count and therefore escalates the amount of sales, leading to the company (20^th Century Fox) earning more money overall. The film was first released in cinema (which is a form of converged technology) on July 14^th 2014 in the UK, but now has been released on multiple other platforms, including: Sky Store, iTunes, Google’s Play Store, Blu-Ray and DVD and on DVD.com (owned by Netflix).

The film being released in cinema allowed 20^th Century Fox’s subsidiary Sky, to premiere the film before its initial release. This increased the advertisement of the film through synergy (more later) and also allowed more people to know about the film’s existence which is good as the film is targeted towards a mass audience, meaning a global audience, allowing people to realise about this 20^th Century Fox Blockbuster.

The film was also released to rent on iTunes, Google Play and DVD.com all of which are a form of technological convergence; that is, because the film can therefore be downloaded and watched on any form of `smart` device, including tablets, smartphones, computers and now ever TV’s. For example, the film could be purchased to view for 7 days, and then downloaded on a smartphone to be watched whilst away from home. Upon returning home Dawn of the Planet Apes could then be downloaded on a smart TV and watched from the point the viewer ended at earlier. This new technology allows more viewers to consider watching films, as it provides more opportunities to watch the film than ever before.

The film was also released on DVD and Blu-Ray, two major forms of media distribution. This allowed people to watch the film who had missed it at cinemas, or who simply enjoyed it so much they wished to watch it again. Although the domestic box office revenue generated ~$208,545,589, the film being released on DVD increased revenue domestically by ~$22,544,899 and a further approximate $17,896,526 from Blu-ray sales. Compared to the films budget of $225,000,000 the selling of the DVD’s plus the Blu-Ray allowed just domestically for the film to break profits, allowing all international sales to be additions to the profit margin. Unfortunately no statistics were available for online sales, but this will have also been a large amount.

Advertising for `Dawn of the planet apes`

Marketing a film is almost as important as its distribution, as without correct marketing no-one would know about the film, causing minimal profits to the company and failure to the film. New forms of marketing have also allowed companies to view who is watching the adverts, allowing them to generate a mock target audience for future films, benefiting the company greatly. Due to Dawn of the Planet Apes being a blockbuster and aimed at a mass audience, 20^th Century Fox decided to take a bold approach when advertising the film; to which the advert was displayed on ITV during the half time advertisements for the semi-finals of the 2014 world cup. This huge advertisement was backed with a five day print and broadcast campaign, including a cover for the chocolate bar ‘Timeout’ and AV output to major radio stations such as KISS UK, Kerrang!, Planet Rock and Absolute radio. Furthermore the film was advertised on global social media site YouTube, showing examples of technological convergence.

20^th Century Fox really headed for advertisements on new media rather than traditional old media such as print or radio; and this could be due to the target audience selected for the film as many teenagers would prefer to sit and watch television rather than read a print advertisement. Nevertheless 20^th Century Fox did still advertise on traditional old media such as radio and print to promote the film a bit more, allowing more profits to be earned overall.

Viewing figures heavily show the success of international advertisement with an overall net worldwide gross of $710,487,433 generated for the film. This shows the success of the advertising as without worldwide distribution/marketing, the film only domestically generated $208,545,589 which put the company ~$16,500,000 down due to a huge film budget of $225,000,000. Furthermore, advertising will also generate ‘hype’ for a film, meaning more people will want to view the film upon initial release, which can be shown as successful due to $72,611,427 being generated for the film within the first week! Showing success in the marketing of the film.

Most of the time, advertisements can be more successful if partnered with a subsidiary of the company or in a joint venture/cross promotion with another company. Dawn of the Planet Apes followed this advertisement strategy and teamed up with online internet security company ‘Bulldog’ to offer a Dawn of the Planet Apes themed competition where winners could win a film themed holiday to Spain as well as one year’s Bulldog internet security. This allowed for the Dawn of the Planet Apes film to be noticed by more consumers who may not have heard of the film already, leading to a higher view count for the film therefore leading to more revenue being generated. 20^th Century Fox also took another bold move by partnering with games developer ‘Ndemic Creations’ to add purchasable downloadable content to their hit mobile game ‘Plague Inc’. The download allowed players to create their own virus to take over the world in the style of the virus in the Dawn of the Planet Apes movie. This partnership was widely successful, as a Google searching the game lead to a page for Dawn of the Planet Apes being suggested, which would in turn catch the eyes of more potential viewers. Finally 20^th Century Fox also worked with FOX TV (a subsidiary of 20^th Century Fox) to promote their film as a ‘summer blockbuster’. This is an example of cross-promotion and also a form of synergy.

Due to recent technological advancements of the internet, and release of web 2.0 in 2002, film companies have been able to benefit greatly in the means of promoting, distributing and communicating about products created by the company. Communication was one of the greatest features of this allowing the audience of films to feedback to the companies in the form of social media, film ratings and much more. 20^th Century Fox’s film Dawn of the Planet Apes was no exception to this, having multiple occurrences of marketing on the modernised web. An interactive website allows viewers to take a quiz about the film, which suggests what character in the film they are most similar to based on their answers. 
This not only allows 20^th Century Fox to survey its target audience, but also acts as an advertising technique, making people want to watch the film if they haven’t already by providing them with character information which they might not be able to relate to until they have watched the film. 20^th Century Fox also promoted the film through social media, with Dawn of the Planet Apes having a Twitter and Facebook Page, as well as a YouTube Channel. This once again does not only act as marketing technique, but also allows the audience of the film directly communicate with the people who made the film, allowing more specific target audience criteria to be input into further sequels etc. The company also uses well knows cast/crew to speak about the film as a form of indirect promotion. An example of this for Dawn of the Planet Apes comes from Matt Reeves, who is the director of the film and who posted an interview on the Dawn of the Planet Apes YouTube Page. Finally well-known film review site ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ allows users to interact with the film by providing reviews on the film that may affect sales, viewing figures or overall company reputation. It also again allows an indirect film promotion, with examples for Dawn of the Planet Apes being SciFiNow who commented ‘This is a confident sequel from Reeves and company; gripping, moving and recommended’.   

Overall this new form of marketing has proven extremely successful with film companies and many other companies as a whole. It can only be expected to be improved upon in the future, with the IoT (internet of things) soon to become a reality.

Once again I’ve been Matthew Milan and thank you for watching this educational resource.

END 

L02 - Task 3 [Writeup]

Introduction

Hello viewer/reader, I’m Matthew and today I will be showing you about how the film ‘Dawn of The Planet Apes’ is pushed towards the male audience, but also has some female reasoning in there as well. Ien Ang and John Hartley discussed (1987 & 1991) about how producers create invisible fiction or imaginary entities before creating a media product. This is important for media producers as it gives them an imaginary statistic board with estimated sales, viewers, ratings etc that their media products would generate. Reasons for doing this means a media producer can create correct advertisements and maximise net revenue for their media product. The media age for the target audience of the film is around 16-18 at around 50% of their viewers. For this I generated an imaginary entity (a randomly created person who fits the media products correct target audience.) ‘Duncan, a 16-year-old male loves to spend time with his friends whilst also playing on his games consoles. He also takes his education seriously but at the same time doesn't mind spending time with his family and friends. Duncan also spends most of his time keeping up with the latest technology and uses his small income from his job to help fund - along with the money his parents give to him - all the latest tech. He also doesn't mind splashing the cash on high end teenager clothing such as vans or converse, but also likes to keep a formal side with smart casual clothing from top-man. 

He enjoys listening to the latest pop music and spends money to have subscriptions with all the chart music playing applications, like Spotify and Apple Music. Duncan also loves playing sports like football, in which he plays on a weekend and with his friends. At this time Duncan loves to eat with his mates at McDonalds or Nando's.

Finally, he has a high social life. He is a socially high up within his friend group and a natural leader.’

Gender

I think that based on the film ‘Dawn of The Planet Apes’ the target audience between males and females would be around 90%. I say this due to the heavily male based characterisation of the film. This could be an example of John Berger (1972) as in this film men act the majority of the roles, whilst women don’t really appear except for sections in which they are stereotyped for (example includes the female nurse).

At 1:04:49 in the film planet of the apes, the men are drinking alcohol whist sitting with guns. This appeals to the male target audience as it is very stereo-typical of men to have alcohol and enjoy messing around with weaponry, without thinking of the damage that could be done to others or themselves. By mixing these two props together you get a characterization that is heavily stereotypical for males; hence challenging the ideal self-theory by Carl Rogers (1980) as the men then proceed to be shot by an Ape, as they are distorted by the alcohol putting a real life principle into a film situation. This might have a negative influence to the audience as it suggests drinking alcohol is good.

At 24:45, the male character can be seen as a leader for others. This portrays a male film as men are stereotyped as natural leaders. This once again connotes bravery and leadership, which can be seen as part of the John Berger theory (1972) in which the males are leaders and are acting to save the human settlement, women however are not seen which hence suggests that they are not appearing, backing up the theory even further. This may influence a passive audience member to become more dominant which could either be positive or negative depending on the status of the viewer.

At 1:30:46 the main protagonist can be seen on a self-generated pursuit to gather medical supplies to save Caesar, the Ape leader. In this mission the main protagonist Malcolm connotes stereotypical male traits; being courage, strength and independence. This can be linked to the Binary oppositions theory by Claude Levi Strauss of gender, as women are perceived to always require help (mostly by male characters) when conducting a mission; however male characters can carry out pursuits without the use of another individual, showing independence. This may have a negative influence by suggesting passive audience members to take more risks but may also have a positive influence by suggesting being strong and to have independence.

At 1:18:14 proof is shown towards the film being aimed at a female audience as well. As the human settlement is preparing for war the camera pans left to right showing a woman holding a gun before showing a man preparing for war. This uses the Carl Rogers (1980) theory for women to see an ideal self, as the shot connotes women independence and equality compared to males, it also shows women to be what they believe, even if it is counter stereo-typical. This also challenges the Claude Levi Strauss (1958) theory of binary oppositions for women, as the woman comes before the man in the shot type therefore connoting more bravery and strength than the male next to her. To a female audience, this may influence them to be more independent but also that to a male passive audience, women are not just sex objects which counters the Male Gaze (Laura Mulvey).

At 1:29:33 Malcolm (main protagonist) says to the Ellie that he will go and look for supplies as it is too dangerous for a woman to go back to the location. This backs up the Binary oppositions of gender suggested by Claude Levi Strauss (1958) in which the males appear more powerful and more willing to do a dangerous task; this could be seen as a stereotypical male trait. This has a negative influence on women as it suggests that the stereotypes are true and that women are too ‘weak’ to do tasks on their own. For men however this may be influential to complete more challenging tasks.

Age

At 1:14:57 in the film, Dreyfus is denoted walking to his iPad after the power had just been restored. The use of an iPad connotes knowledge of technology which appeals to the target audience of 16-18 as they might own, or be thinking about owning an iPad or tablet and also due to the fact that young people like having the best technology. In terms of the audience, the targeted audience could be classed as a digital native audience – this is due to the audience growing up within an age of technology.

At 1:18:41 in the film, the diegesis denotes the start of the war between humans and apes. This connotes action and hostility, which is targeted at 16-18 year olds as they enjoy action in their everyday lives. The audience enjoy this type of film as they have an active life which means the film can link to the audience.

At 59:40 in the film, the apes Caesar and Koba are denoted to have a fight which connotes power and aggression. This links to the target audience as 15-18 year olds are becoming more mature and are at the top of the school hierarchy in terms of school years. The audience can also relate to this as 16-18 year olds are known to get into ‘play-fights’ with their friends which furthermore makes the film link to the audience.

At 1:04:23 a man is denoted holding a M4A1 assault rifle which connotes war and action. This links to the audience of 16-18 year olds they might enjoy doing extreme sports which could include paintballing or airsofting. The film also links to the age set due to them having an active life.

At 31:08 in the film, the diegesis denotes the main protagonist (Malcolm) and his wife/girlfriend are hugging. This connotes love and care. For a 16-18 year old they may be thinking about getting into a true long term relationship and henceforth the film is aimed at these people.

Lifestyle

The NRS is an organisation specialising in demographic surveying and information. The specific lifestyle I have chosen for my film is E-Urban Ventures. I chose this as the target audience I have defined for my film is of the teenage population (16 to 18 year olds). At this age the profile decided by the NRS directly correlates to that of the target audience for the film. The film, being set in the present day/future uses technology which directly correspond to what the audience may spend their money on (further in spending power). The secondary lifestyle could also be D-Nest builders. This is where families may just begin to be developed and the film also shows Malcolm and Ellie in a (what could be classed as post-apocalyptic world) starting to build their family. This gives inspiration to new families as it connotes that through difficult times, a family can still be developed/work, which corresponds to the most likely low income they are receiving in their lifestyle. Dennis McQuail (1972) theorised that media products consumed by the audience has an impact on their lifestyle through four reasons (Surveillance, Escapism, Personal Identity and building personal relationships). This reflects the ‘urban-ventures’ and ‘nest builders’ by using the idea of escaping the real world of jobs and work, and providing a small amount of time to relax. The film also uses the idea of the protagonist’s best friend (Koba) turned antagonist to provide a talking point about the film. This helps the audience to build a personal relationship with one another hence changes a consumer’s personal identity to maybe make them more social to others or talkative. The films also contains star character cast such as Jason Clarke who plays Malcolm in the film. This associates with the Richard Dyer theory of star persona.

Spending power

I have stated that my target social grade for the film would be D or E but could also potentially be aimed at the C1, C2 section of population as well. I selected these as I previously selected ‘urban-ventures’ or ‘nest builders’ for the audience’s lifestyle. This means that as the audience is aged roughly 16-18, they may only just be getting jobs or furthering education, therefore disposable income would be little to none existent in comparison to that of someone with a grade A or B social grade. This doesn’t however mean that the teenagers have no income at all. The spending power of a teenage audience it little but due to social trending, most consumers will keep with technology of the time; the film demonstrates knowledge of this by inputting up-to-date technology such as the Apple iPad within the film, which further provides more reasoning to be socially trending technology. Spending power of the audience can also be somewhat decisive due to the extent of the film’s success. Many teenagers who enjoyed the film and are within a friend group that enjoyed the film will purchase merchandise to keep their social position. This suggests that a consumer will have money to spend on merchandise even though they may have no full-time job. Another example of the film’s audience associated spending power includes the scene in which Malcolm and his team finally gets the electricity working and are seen outside of an abandoned petrol station. Within this scene the music turns on as part of the diegesis which suggests that the target audience may spend a lot of money on the latest music, e.g. on subscription applications like Spotify or Apple Music. This also links to other applications that a teenager might use to watch the film such as Netflix or Amazon prime.

Another feature of the film which connotes the lower spending power of the target audience is the broken down landscape of the film. The technology although somewhat to today’s standards is limited within the amount of people in the film. This suggests that although many teenagers want to purchase all of this technology it may be difficult for them to afford one. The spending power of a C1, C2 is somewhat higher than the D,E ratings, however they may only be able to upgrade technology (such as a photo, or tablet) every few years due to the expensive price of up keeping the latest technology; contrasting against teenagers at the D,E rating who spend money as soon as they get it, to maintain the social profile of having a lot of money.

L02 - Task 3 [Audience Profile for Dawn Of The Planet Apes]

Audience profile For Dawn of the Planet Apes

Imaginary entity for Dawn of the Planet Apes

Duncan, a 16 year old male loves to spend time with his friends whilst also playing on his games consoles. He also takes his education seriously but at the same time doesn't mind spending time with his family and friends. Duncan also spends most of his time keeping up with the latest technology and uses his small income from his job to help fund - along with the money his parents give to him - all the latest tech. He also doesn't mind splashing the cash on high end teenager clothing such as vans or converse, but also likes to keep a formal side with smart casual clothing from top-man. 
He enjoys listening to the latest pop music and spends money to have subscriptions with all the chart music playing applications, like Spotify and Apple Music. Duncan also loves playing sports like football, in which he plays on a weekend and with his friends. At this time Duncan loves to eat with his mates at McDonalds or Nando's.
Finally he has a high social life. He is a socially high up within his friend group and a natural leader.

What does the term demographic mean? L02 Task 3

The term demographic is the splitting of a set population size into categories. It is commonly used in marketing with the categories A, B, C, D and E. Where E is unemployed and A is a high level job. Other examples include Area, Age, Gender, Lifestyle, Spending Power (Disposable income), Ethnicity, Education.