EVALUATION Q2 audiences (engagement), distribution

Evaluation Q2: How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

This blog post covers:

• Our target audience
• Audience theories
• How it would be distributed as a real media text

I saw / I did:

Video essays are a great way of using imagery and audio files to back up your argument. They present complex topics in a digestible format. For example this video by Mina Le:

I took a similar approach when responding to the evaluation question:

Transcript: 

 

Hello, in this video we will be covering who would be the audience for the film The Trees Have Eyes, how they engaged with their audience and how it will be distributed?

 

Well before we could decide on that we have to look at some active audience theories to see how different audiences would respond to our text.  

Dennis McQuail’s Uses And Gratifications Theory is an active audience theory which comes from a passive audience theory Hypodermic Syringe Model. The hypodermic syringe model believes that the media can have a direct and immediate effect on the audience. This model sees the audience as a ‘homogeneous mass’ (all the same), as passive and believing what they see in the media without questioning the content. The five needs from the original classification – cognitive needs, affective needs, the need for personal identity, integration and social interaction and escapism.

So if you look at the film opening primary audience of the film its targeted towards age 15-24+  so this would link to personal identification for the audience since the characters fall in that age range. The creators conducted an audience survey, which found women to be less interested in horror, and the slasher genre, but found female targeted horror films appealing .The primary audiences of horror are males 15-24+ and they will find this film appealable cause of the gore and male gaze . The female protagonists in this film opening are highly sexualized for the male audience, short skirt and bright makeup.  Laura Mulvey, a feminist critic, argued that audiences are typically positioned as male; the camera lingering on a female body positions us as a male, heterosexual viewer.

 

People often watch horror for escapism as it provides them the gore and scare factor that make them forget about their personal problems. The psychology behind horror providing escapism is that it triggers the fight-or-flight response, which comes with a boost in adrenaline, endorphins, and dopamine. 

 

Katz & Blumler’s variation of the theory

Users take an active part in the communication process and are goal oriented in their media use.According to their research for media use can be grouped into five uses. 

The audience wants to:

1.         be informed or educated

2.         identify with characters of the situation in the media environment

3.         simple entertainment

4.         enhance social interaction

5.         escape from the stresses of daily life

 

 

Stuart Hall’s Audience Readings Theory

Another active audience theory 

preferred reading is how creators want someone to respond, 

negotiated/contested reading where some part of preferred reading is rejected or not recognized 

oppositional reading consciously rejecting or mostly not recognizing preferred reading

To follow the preffered reading in the film opening the viewer would need to have a very good understanding of horror as there are references to cult classics and more modern teen horrors.

 

So the preffered reading of the film opening would be that the all layers of audiences would pick up on the intertextual details in the film. A negotiated reading would be an older audience not picking up the Jennifers body references and a younger audience not picking up on the psycho references. An oppositional reading would be someone who wouldn’t understand any of the intertextual details.

 

As mentioned before the primary target audiences age os  an indie filmmaker making a slasher film with a primary target audience of 15-24+ and the secondary target audience is 25-45+ since the intertextual references would appeal to them.

It was aiming for the 15 BBFC classification. An 18 rating would 

commercial prospects and theatrical distribution. 

 

The film generally follows all the rules for it to be a 15 rated film. The teen rom-com hybridity of the film is also highlighted with the at times cringy humour like your mom and maybe you should stop trying to find x and start trying to find a boyfriend, but it is what ultimately anchors it as a teen slasher. 

 

Publicity wise the film had some flaws and some successes as a self distributing film.

But first we need to know what is distribution?

Distribution is in the middle of the production, distribution, exhibition film cycle and it is basically the process of making the film available for audience viewings.

 

 

If this film had an over 100 million it would be part of the tent pole model, also known as the Blockbuster theory by Anita Elberse. It basically is  investing a lot of money in a few movies or shows in hope for a hit rather than many low budget films.

 

In her book Blockbuster Elberse explains the entertainment industry's blockbuster strategy '' a as risky approach that involves large resource allocation to acquire, develop, and market concepts with strong “hit” potential to offset average returns from other holdings.’’

 

But the film is lacking the key characteristics of a tentpole film like a star cast
Richard Dyer argues they are the dominant factor in marketing, and therefore production decisions and how the public consume/choose films. It also lacking CGI/SFX, IP or Franchise.

Since this is a low budget film so it would have entirely different distribution. 

 

If we look at what distribution companies films Studio Canal distributed warp x film Tyrannosaur. Studio Canal previously known as Optimum releasing also releasing warp films such as Submarine and This is England.

 

This is the distribution company which is most likely to distribute this indie horror film in the UK. The release date should be set to the winter holiday for counter-programming. The market is dominated by PG U family comedies and blockbusters and a horror film would really stand out. Another option would be to do what the distributors of Paranormal activity did. It was given a limited US only release on September 25, 2009, and then a nationwide release on October 16, 2009. The film earned nearly $108 million at the U.S. box office and a further $85 million internationally for a worldwide total of $194 million.

 

But today Digitisation has made it easier for creators to use innovative methods to cheaply promote their film. So their options are our options:

•          Straight to stream: already doing this. We uploaded it to Youtube. But it would be better to have a simultaneous Video on Demand/digital release

•          Straight to DVD, a likely option since theatrical release is unavailable

•          Film festivals to have critical acclaim, all part of the marketing campaign

•          Or Making deals with arthouse cinemas

How does your product engage with audiences?

Based on our initial audience research we conducted an audience survey. A blog post on it here. 

Our target audience:

Age: 

As an indie filmmaker making a slasher film with a primary target audience of 15-24+ I would aim to fit into the 15 BBFC classification. I would need to avoid the 18 rating as this would damage my commercial prospects and theatrical distribution. However, due to Web 2.0 and the effects of digitisation and disruption, such as streaming platforms, my film could still be viewed by those under the age rating or classification I receive. 

Horror films tend to attract a slightly younger audience, predominantly under 25s. As our main characters are 16 years old, through the use of representations and stereotypes we will make our characters more easier to associate with to a wider audience. The age of the main character directly reflects the age of your primary audience. Our teenage cast would therefore attract a teenage audience. Our scream queen, is a stereotypical rebellious teenager, this makes her more relatable to our teenage audience. We modelled her after the Scream opening sequence, where Casey gets murdered as punishment for her somewhat immoral behaviour. Our final girl, while being presented as the stereotypical virgin-pure nerd, is a countertype as she is the counter type since she turns out to be the killer. We also used the clique idea which is a stereotype seen in many teen horrors.

Our secondary audience is adults 24+. Our BFFC rating is 15 so the movie wouldn't be accessible to the audience younger than that. To appeal to this age group, our full film would include older actors in the roles of parents, teachers, or police.

GENDER: 

Our primary target is females, specifically due to the female protagonists of the film, and our inspiration from Jennifer's Body (2009) and Heathers (1998). 

It is said that roughly 42% of horror audiences are women, with 58% being men. After our audience survey, we found women to be less interested in horror, and the slasher genre, but found female targeted horror films appealing. The main reason women found slasher unappealing, was due to the negative portrayal of female characters in the film, something we are attempting to avoid by blurring character tropes. The character archetypes we used in our film: the scream queen and the final girl, which are binary opposites and are simplified representations of women. There is also frequent nudity or women wearing revealing clothing in the genre, and the female characters are objectified for male pleasure. According to Mulvey's male gaze, this attracts male audiences to see a slasher film which is way we dressed our characters in very male-gazey clothing.

Another way we positively represent female characters is through the Bechdel Test, seen in our opening when Laurie and Mandy talk about Marion's disappearance at their locker. 

CLASS:  

Since it is not a social realist film class wouldn't be a strong deterrent or attractor for audiences. However, if a film is aiming for commercial success, a BC1C2 group would be represented, as middle class or wealthy characters are easily marketed internationally. 

Slasher films are typically viewed as pop-culture, and cater to a C1C2DE audience. As our film is not social realist, or revolving around working class characters, our characters would belong to the C1C2 group. The accents in the film are international and easily understood, and don't denote any specific regions, further breading the appeal. 

To appeal to a highbrow or arthouse, ABC1 audience, we are relying on the use of intertextual references. 

NATIONALITY: 

Often ethnically diverse representations were negative, and resulted in the "murdered minority" trope, where minority characters would be killed first. This is also known as the "black guy dies first" trope. We decided to against this trope for out film opening, as I didn't want to have a negative representation, as well as satirising the conventional slasher archetypes. All the characters in our opening are white, which broadens the commercial appeal and is commonly used in Working Title films. I would have included ethnic diversity in a full length film. 

The characters in our film have international accents, mixing between British and American. This broadens the audience appeal to the international and specifically American market, as the accents are clearly understood, a technique used by Working Title. To avoid a limited appeal or difficulty understanding an accent, often the case with Warp films like For Those in Peril (2013) set in Scotland and She a Chinese (2009) which is a mostly subtitled film. We have avoided using any actors with strong regional accents. 

SEXUALITY:

We do have heteronormative representations in our film, a heterosexual couple. The character of Mandy also jokes about Laurie not having a boyfriend, a heteronormative assumption. 

The main reason for not including an LGBT+ character in the opening is due to stereotyping, as we thought a 2 minute opening would negatively portray the character. In the film Psycho (1960), the killer Norman Bates is a cross-dresser, which is a negative representation for the LGBTQ+ community. LGBTQ+ characters also fall under the "murdered minority" trope, and I similarly did not want to include any negative representations in my opening, but would have if it was a full length film. 

I looked at the BFFC and MPAA age rating an dhow they affected the success in the box office: 

The audience theories that I looked at:

Reception theory:

Stuart Hall active audience theory that readings and meanings lie in audience and text, while older passive audience theories assume meaning is only in text. Meaning is found in the text and then interpreted by the audience, compared to passive audience theories such as the hypodermic needle, assuming meaning is conveyed directly from a media text.

preferred reading is how creators want someone to respond, 

negotiated/contested reading where some part of preferred reading is rejected or not recognized 

oppositional reading consciously rejecting or mostly not recognizing preferred reading

Uses and gratifications theory:

Blumler and Katz’s uses and gratification theory suggests that media users play an active role in choosing and using the media.  Users take an active part in the communication process and are goal oriented in their media use.  The theorist say that a media user seeks out a media source that best fulfills the needs of the user.  Uses and gratifications assume that the user has alternate choices to satisfy their needs. The five needs from the original classification – cognitive needs, affective needs, the need for personal identity, integration and social interaction and escapism

Four quadrant theory:

A four quadrant film refers to a film that appeals to all four major demographics or “quadrants”: male, female, young (under 25), and old (over 25). 

How would your product be distributed?

Distribution is in the middle of the production, distribution, exhibition film cycle.  Production is the making of the movie and exhibition is the public screening of the movie.  To get exhibition, a production company will need their movie to be distributed by a distribution company.  Theatrical, television and self distribution are all types of distribution.  Theatrical distribution is when the movie is screened in cinemas, television distribution is when the movie is screened on TV, personal home viewing distribution is when the movie is on DVD or Blu-ray, and self-distribution is when the production company takes distribution into their own hands, through social media for example.

Digitisation, Disruption and Convergence:

Digitisation is the process of change that is moving away from analogue to digital, the broadcasting media market shifting to online streaming services.  A good example of this is older media being cassette tapes and new media is steaming.  Disruption is the consequence of digitisation and the impact of it on media industries.  The commercial aspect of theatre. distribution is a lot more complicated now as a lot of movies are now on streaming sites such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, having a large impact on the film industry.  Convergence is the barrier between things disappearing, for example, a phone is no longer something just to call people on, we can now watch movies through Netflix or other streaming sites on here, making it less necessary to go to the cinema, which is an example of disruption.

As technology is constantly advancing, production, distribution and exhibition are becoming increasingly cheaper and more accessible to more people expensive reels no longer have to be bought to make films, and even our production has been made digitally. 

As it is so easy now for anyone to make their own films relatively inexpensively and self-distribute them, the term convergence is used to reference this: the line between producer and consumer is blurring as cheaper technology becomes available. The importance of Netflix and Amazon Prime in this disruption cannot be overlooked, as they offer films directly to audiences, without theatrical releases, and are still massively successful. This threatens theatres with increasingly less need/want for people to go to cinemas. Although this disrupts conglomerates, it can be beneficial for indies, who are able to market and sell their films completely online.

Indies:

Indie companies have a much lower chance at getting distributors than a Big 5 production company.  The Big 5 conglomerate NBC Universal has a first-look deal meaning that if Working Title, the junior production company, produces a film, the NBC Universal distribution company will have the first look at the movie to decide if they want to distribute it.  If they decide they don't want to, they will have to find another distributor.  Indies rarely have the chance to be theatrically distributed unless it is in an arthouse cinema.  The main reason an Indie movie will have a much smaller release is because their budget is much smaller than a commercial movie.  Another thing that stops Indies getting a wide release is that Indies usually cover more sensitive topic, like the social realist movie Tyrannosaur (2011) directed by Paddy Considine, with the protagonist kicking his dog to death.  They also show much less commonly shown representations and both of these factors appeal to a niche audience.  

Indie companies like Warp don't even make it near the top 10 lists when it comes to distribution, but there are ways they achieve distribution:

• Arthouse cinemas
• Direct to stream
• Straight to DVD
• Self-distribution (e.g. through social media)

How would we distribute:
Our movie has a micro-budget indie film. We opted for self distribution since: we do not have the budget for a theatrical release, especially 3D and IMAX simultaneous release, No a-list stars, Digitisation has made it easier for creators to use innovative methods to cheaply promote their film, violence results in a higher age rating significantly lower audience interest, making it more of a niche audience film. So what are our options:

• Straight to stream: already doing this. We uploaded it to Youtube. But it would be better to have a simultaneous Video on Demand/digital release
• Straight to DVD, a likely option since theatrical release is unavailable
• Film festivals to have critical acclaim, all part of the marketing campaign
• Making deals with arthouse cinemas

Gant rule:
The Gant Rule is an observation that a movie will make approximately 10 times more box office in the US than the UK as there are around 10 times more cinemas and screens in the US.  However this would only really work for a big 5 company, not eligible for our indie film.

Dyer's star theory:

Richard Dyer's star theory is that a media text will entice a larger audience if a well-known person or "star" is in it.  A lot of the time, Big 5 companies will use Star-billing as a form of advertisement. Not eligible for our micro-budget film.

Distribution Podcast:

Here is a similar format to what I did:

In my podcast I looked at some key distribution examples in horror further outlined here: