Audience Theory

by Lucy Horner

To ensure that a production is being made to correctly tailor to the audience they’re aiming
to target, producers have to research copious amounts about audience theory and the
different types of audience profiles to make sure they’re hitting all the right points with
their film.

Demographics
There are many different demographics and groups that different types of audiences fall
into, such as socio economics groups, geodemographics and psychographics.

Socio economics is fairly self explanatory. It’s to do with people’s different income, and the
kind of life they lead as a result. Someone who is on the wealthier side might live in a nice,
posh little village with people who earn a similar amount as them, and they might all play
golf on the weekends or something. A TV production such as Downton Abbey might appeal
more to people of this kind of class more than something like Coronation Street would. A
producer needs to take these things into account if when they’re making a production that
targets a certain socio economic group because they need to think about their lifestyle and
the kind of things that would interest them and then put that into their film.

Geodemographics is to do with where people are from, where they live and how that
effects their lifestyle, opinions, etc. For example, someone who lives in London would lead a
slightly different life to someone who lives in Lacock. Someone from London might dress
and be a bit more artsy, they might have very different attitudes to someone who lives in
Lacock. Again, these are important factors to keep in mind when making a film because if
someone was making a film based in a certain location, they would need to know how the
residences of this place live and think so that their production would be accurate.

Psychographics is about different people’s aspirations, opinions, outlooks on life, values and
personalities. Someone who aspires to be a filmmaker is going to have different plans,
opinions and outlooks than someone who wants to be a lawyer, they’re going to have
different personalities and values. They’re likely to imagine their lives looking very different
from one another, where they live, who they’re friends with, etc. When a producer is
producing a film, they have to think about these things so that their target audience agrees
with the values and beliefs represented in their film.

Audience profiles are also something that a producer needs to research when thinking
about the marketing side of a production. Audience profiles are to do with social media, and
the demographics of different types of people using them. For example, statistics show that
more people aged 18-34 use Facebook that those aged 13-17. This is probably because
teenagers are much more likely to be found using the likes of Instagram and Snapchat
rather than Facebook. Producers need to know who is using certain platforms so that they
know what kind of social media promotions and campaigns to produce.
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research is about different people’s opinions. A producer might hold a focus
group to find out what their target audience thinks about their product and if the audience
don’t like it, they will make changes to fit their preferences better. Or, if a product has
already been made then the producer might use a test screening to see if the target
audience likes the finish product and if they don’t, they will have to reshoot.

There are many examples of films that were changed due to people disliking the original
product. Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later is one of them. At the end of the film, the protagonist,
Jim is shot but then miraculously he’s saved and lives on to the end of the film. However, in
Danny Boyle’s original finished version of the film, he wanted to have Jim die at the end but
it tested it badly as nobody wanted the protagonist to suffer a tragic death; they wanted a
happy ending so Danny had to change the it to meet their preferences.

Other examples of films that had to be changed after bad screenings include Martin
Scorsese’s Goodfellas, who’s screening went so badly that 40 people walked out of the
theatre in the first ten minutes because they felt that the onscreen violent was too much.
Ridley Scott’s 1982 version of Bladerunner had 3 test screenings because test audiences
didn’t like the idea that Deckward was a replicant and also they wanted a happy ending, as
most audiences do.

These examples go to show that a lot of the time, a producer can’t produce a film to play
out the way they want to if it doesn’t appeal to the target audience as they need to ensure
that their product will make a profit.

Quantative Research
As the name suggests, quantitive research is more about the numbers and how many
people watch something. Producers will find this kind of research on websites such as Box
Office Mojo. They will look at the total gross and statistics of people that watched a film that
was similar to theirs. This allows them to get an idea of how popular this kind of genre/film
is and how successful their product could be.

Producers may also look at film rating websites such as Rotten Tomatoes and look at film
critics’ reviews as well as audience ratings to get an idea of what people had to say about
certain films. Audience ratings may be more reliable than critics’ reviews as they’re more
likely to be of a certain target audience. However, the problem with film review websites is
they often swing to one extreme to another. Someone’s who just watched a film and
thought “that was alright” isn’t likely to take time out of their day to write a review about it
on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to someone who either really loved the film of really hated
it.
Passive & Active Audiences
Audience theory suggests that there are two different types of audience; passive audiences
and active audiences. Passive audience members will believe anything they watch or see,
just because it’s on the telly, or on Facebook. However, active audiences members will
watch or see something and question it.

The Kuleshov Effect, demonstrated by Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov in the 1910s and
1920s was an experiment where viewers took more meaning from two shots in a sequence
than an induvial shot on it’s own. There was a montage in which there was three close up
shots of a man, all exactly the same, but they were each put with a different shot. The first
was of the man and then a shot of a girl in a coffin, giving people the impression that he had
killed her. The next was a shot of the man and a bowl of soup, and people assumed that he
was about to eat the soup. The last one was, again, the man and then a woman lying of a
sofa looking all sexy, and people thought he was about to pursue her.

These examples prove that an arrangement of shots in a sequence can quite easily influence
people’s interpretations, and means that film-makers can just as easily manipulate people’s
thoughts and opinions.

Another example of passive audiences is Orson Welles and the War of the Worlds. In 1983,
famous actor Orson Welles produced a radio drama that showcased a series of news
bulletins interspersed with music, where he made it seem like he was interrupting a concert
with important news which turned out to be fake. The next day, the newspapers reported
that this “news broadcast” had sent people in America into a mass panic and it became
known as The Panic Broadcast. However, some people argue that it was hyped up by the
newspapers because they wanted an excuse to give radio a bad name. Although, it was easy
to send people into hysteria with breaking news because people had limited research
sources back them. They had no internet to look up if it was real or not, so the radio and
newspapers were their only source.

Passive audiences only fuel the theory about how easily we can be influenced. We are
accepting that our attitudes can be changed depending on what we have seen, heard or
played. So, when the older generation worry that letting teenagers play video games such as
Call of Duty will turn them violent, they may have a point. However, there are more
teenagers that know not to let violent video games influence them than not.

Active audiences, on the other hand, will watch something and effectively talk about it
rather than just watching it and accepting everything they see. An active audience member
will watch a tv show that had bad writing, and they will know it has bad writing. The CW’s
Riverdale would be a good example; the first couple of seasons were good, they had good
storylines and they made sense. However, from season 3 it just got progressively weirder
and made less and less sense. An active audience would notice this and speak about it,
whereas a passive audience would still believe it’s a well-written show just because people
on Instagram say it is.
Active audiences often watch things for their personal benefit, as oppose to watching it just
because they were told to. They might watch something because it empowers them, or
boosts their self-confidence.

The film Captain Fantastic is a good example of different audiences. Some people are siding
with Ben, although they’re a bit uncomfortable with Ben’s parenting style, he changes at the
end so it’s okay. However, active audiences might be more inclined to side with the
grandfather and agree that it’s wrong that Ben constantly put his kids at risk, and it doesn’t
matter that he put things right in the end, he shouldn’t have done it in the first place.

While most of us would like to believe that we’re active audiences, and smart enough to not
believe everything fed to us online, I don’t think everyone is immune to it and that’s where
the two-step flow theory comes in.

Most of the things that we watch, or play, or even use in our day-to-day lives have likely
been recommended to us by either friends, or people in the media that we look up to. For
example, a social media influencer might recommend a certain hair product in a video and
then some of their followers might go out and buy it. Or, if lots of your friends are watching
something like Game of Thrones and they’re always talking about it, you might go home and
watch it because you don’t want to feel left out. Plus, once you watch something on Netlfix,
it will then recommend you products which are similar and so you watch it because you’ll
probably like it since you liked the first thing. While this can be good thing, it also means
that you’ll never step outside of your comfort zone and watch something different.

In conclusion
There are many different types of audiences which demonstrate both passive and active
qualities and we are not always conscious of the media influencing us. There are also a lot of
research factors that go into making a product, all of which help a producer to ensure that
their product will appeal to their target audience and make a profit.