LO2 - Task 3: Audience

Introduction:

Hi, I’ve been asked to talk to you about the demographics of gender, age, lifestyle and spending power for the film The Day After Tomorrow. Producing the film for the correct audience is an important factor as producing a film for a specific audience may not bring in enough revenue but producing one for all audiences may let some part those people down. John Hartley (1987) and Ien Ang (1991) suggested that producers create invisible fiction or imaginary entities before creating a media product. This audience profile that I created shows the type of ‘ideal audience’ that the producers were aiming the film at. This imaginary entity also describes how an ideal viewer of The Day After Tomorrow might live. (Put in entry here).

Gender:

In the first section I’ll be talking about the gender representations in my chosen film, The Day After Tomorrow. There are many examples in the film but I have selected two that I will be talking about in particular. The first example I’ll be discussing is the scene where Sam, (played by Jake Gyllenhall), rescues Laura, (played by Emily Rossum) in the streets of Los Angeles when she goes to retrieve a handbag from a taxi just as the tsunami approaches. This is a typical representation as the male is rushing to save the female and is portrayed as the hero. This is influential for the audience as the male is an ‘ideal self’ for the male viewers in the audience.

The second example of gender representations is when at the after party of the competition; the well-built, good looking man flirts with and intimidates Laura (the main female character). This is a standard representation in films as the women in blockbuster films normally get together with big, “hunky” men; this stereotype has become widely used in other Hollywood franchises such as James Bond. This example could have a negative impact on the female audience, making them feel that they, their friends or their boyfriends are less worthy than the characters in these films like The Day After Tomorrow.

The third example that I will be talking about is at around forty two minutes into the film, where the males are leading the conversation over the computers. The lone female in the scene mainly just listens in and doesn’t get involved too deeply in the talk. It is stereotyped that males are the leaders and this scene supports this. However, I think there are more scenes in The Day After Tomorrow in which the males are dominant. For example when Sam is talking to his Dad over the phone in the library, he is constantly ignoring the claims of Laura to hang up and get to safety. This influences the audience by making them feel slightly uncomfortable while watching this certain scene as it is something they wouldn’t like to see or do personally.

Age:

Here I will be discussing why and how The Day After Tomorrow appeals to its ideal audience. I have found out that the median age for viewers watching this film is around 15 years old. One example of how it appeals is how the audience would like to be the like characters in the film. The actors and actresses could be seen as role models to the targeted younger audience. Jake Gyllenhall, who plays Sam, is an aspirational role model for teens whether it be males or females! An example of where this can be seen is in the scene where Sam makes a final phone call to his parents before the water cuts him off; this shows that he is dedicated to letting them know he is doing and signifies the close relationship that he has with them. This also indicates their busy city lifestyle and how much they rely on this kind of technology.

Another example of how the film appeals to the audience is its genre. Teenagers love lots of action and adventure and The Day After Tomorrow certainly doesn’t disappoint. Scenes of explosions, high risk decisions and 60 foot tsunamis are guaranteed to fulfil a teenager’s wish in this film.

The iconic cities in where the scenes are set would also appeal to teens as it’s where they would like to go when they’re older perhaps. Places like Los Angeles hold incredible feats of architecture like the Empire State Building and The Statue of Liberty. These monuments give inspiration to the younger audience and leave them in a hurry to visit them when they’re older.

Lifestyle:

The NRS stands for the National Readership Survey Ltd. They are a separate organisation that specialise in giving demographic information. They use different summary headings to describe the lifestyle types in the UK. In terms of my film, The Day After Tomorrow, I would place this audience under headings C – Settled Suburban’s (families with a semi-detached house perhaps, a nice lifestyle and are happy and comfortable with their lives), D – Nest Builders (families that are working towards he settled suburban’s stage) and E – Urban Ventures (outgoing teenagers living in big cities).

I can infer this for the Settled Suburban’s by using the example of when Sam, Laura and Brian take part in the school competition. I can imagine the settled suburban’s children going to school, having good knowledge and perhaps could even be taking part in similar competitions.

In terms of the Nest Builders, I believe that the group around the computers at around 28 minutes into the film represents the kind of people that could come under this heading. The nest builder audience members could relate to the characters and their jobs.

For the Urban Ventures heading I believe that the teenagers watching The Day After Tomorrow can take inspiration from the main characters Sam and Laura. Sam is an ideal older boy for the urban adventurers as they can relate to him as someone that they could imagine hanging out with, playing baseball down at the park or even going to the cinema. Laura is a role model for the urban adventure girls as she is a strong, gentle yet emotional character and it seems like she could get on with anybody.

I can relate all of this to McQuail’s 1972 theory of uses and gratifications. Dennis McQuail listed four reasons why people consume media products and the pleasures that they gain from them. These are ‘surveillance’, ‘escapism’, ‘building personal identity’ and ‘building personal relationships’.  I will now talk about these in terms of The Day After Tomorrow.

For surveillance, some audience members could gather news and information relating to climate change before they watch the film, so they are prepared with knowledge on why the tsunami is happening for example.

For escapism, it gives the audience the chance to forget about what they have been doing and relax after either a hard day’s work at school or at work. Watching films like The Day After Tomorrow allow them to be transported into completely different surroundings and unknown territory. This is good as it gives them the experience of leaving their lives and changing into the life of the characters from the film.

For building personal identity, it allows the audience to be taken to completely different locations and into the lives of completely different people. As some of the actors and actresses are also well-known, this gives the opportunity of looking into the life of a famous Hollywood ‘movie star’. I can relate this to Carl Roger’s theory of ideal self as the audience members would feel different after washing the film and could be inspired perhaps to either watch a film related to the one they’ve just watched or researching some of the actors or actresses in the film itself.

For building personal relationships, The Day After Tomorrow would allow the audience members to have something to talk about when they next either saw their families or friends. They could even recommend the film to others and encourage them to watch it too.

Spending Power:

The NRS also have a system for demographic profiling; this is often called social grade definitions. This system is well-established and widely used throughout the industry. For my film The Day After Tomorrow, I would grade the audience as B (middle class) and C1 (lower middle class). This is because the film is quite intellectual and requires understanding of current events to grasp the storyline. People described as in other classes like C2 (skilled working class) and D (working class) may not enjoy the film as it is very factual and complicated in places.

Some examples that I can back this up with to do with my film is that the middle and lower middle class would be able to buy the DVD of the film if they would like to watch it again in a family environment at home. The working class people may either download it online or watch on a streaming service like Netflix as it would be cheaper overall.

The middle class families could afford to buy and merchandise that would come onto the market following the film’s release. Toys like figures of the characters or posters that have been made available in the shops. These kind of families could also be moved deeply by the film so could donate some money to aid the research into climate change or help by adopting a polar bear.

I hope you enjoyed this video and I hope you learnt something that will be useful to you. See you next time for another video very soon!