Although the text may appeal to all genders, our performer is female and so it may be that the piece appeals more to females.
Our video has a focus on aspirations of our main protagonist, with shots of a bookshop and museum possibly reflecting an independent, middle class female interested in higher education.
A female audience may be able to identify with the character who appears comfortable in her own company and enjoys gaining cultural knowledge.
Texts such as the 2001 film Amelie, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, that feature a main female protagonist often appeal to a largely female audience. The representation of females in film is fairly limited, with female characters often placed into stereotypes or lead by male protagonists. The Centre for the Study of Women in Television and Film conducted a 2014 study whereby they found only "12% of clearly identifiable lead characters in film and television were female." The audience of such films beings almost all female, this may be due to the lack of representation of realistic female characters, or the general lack of representation full stop that female audiences tend to watch texts that have female leads.
(http://www.indiewire.com/article/sorry-ladies-study-on-women-in-film-and-television-confirms-the-worst-20150210)
The IMBD 'user rating' page suggests that users gave an average rating of 8.4/10 for the film with males giving on average 8.3 and females 8.6/10. The film possibly appeals more to females due to the strong female lead, this may also apply to our music video.
AGE
The
age of our target audience would be between 16 and 24. The genre of the track
we have chosen, new folk/rock, tends to have an audience demographic for young people. The Music Publishers Association suggests that the genre characteristics of folk has moved from the "pigeon-holed" pieces that follow traditional conventions and moved to a more ambiguous genre creating a wide platform for many to enjoy and for the younger generation to "relate to".
(http://www.mpaonline.org.uk/blog/birth-mainstream-folk-music)
The age of our performer(late teens)also creates something more accessible to those of the same age, a younger 'personal identity' (Bulmer and Katz) is reflected in our text allowing for this audience to feel they are represented, creating something that's again relatable to this demographic.
CLASS/STATUS
Our music video doesn't directly address class, however our protagonist is presented as a well-educated and travelled character, with shots of her browsing museums and bookshops. It may therefore be said that our video would appeal to a similar type of person.
INTERESTS-FILM/MUSIC/MAGAZINES
As mentioned before, the representation of the young female would be what our target audience may be interested in. Films such as Amelie(2001) or Heathers(1998) with a strong, independent, curious and intelligent lead as well may appeal due to both the representation of females, but also due to the similarity in personalities (especially with Amelie) our protagonist lives according to her own terms just as Amelie does. There are minimal other characters changing her path, as our protagonist is alone, it reflects this independence and happiness in solitude.
IMDB suggests those who rated Amelie as 5/10 or above also enjoyed films such as 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' (2004), a story of a solitary man's journey.
Our music video may also appeal to those interested in folk music, the Cohen Brothers 2014 'Inside Lleywn Davis' features a young folk musician trying to make a living alone, he travels just as our protagonist does and again presents the benefits of sometimes being alone alongside a soundtrack featuring Bob Dylan and Dave Van Ronk, two artists with a similar sound to our chosen track.
Music/film magazines such as NME, a music and music video review magazine, or Little White Lies an independent film and television magazine may appeal to a younger target audience that is interested in new film and music reviews.
You have satisfactorily identified your target audience but it would be a good idea to be more specific.
ReplyDeleteFor example explaining media texts that would appeal to your target audience and your audience's aspirations need to be linked to specific screen shots from your music video or print productions to illustrate your points.
Gender: Primarily independent aspirational middle class females who are interested in reading because (screen shot) and may be in higher education because....
Females will be able to identify with the artist who seems comfortable in her own company and in improving her knowledge of art (example) and literature.
Media interests: You identify the film Amelie. If you go to IMDB you will see that there are a number of films which audiences who enjoyed Amelie also like...... (this is hard evidence for your point)
Go to user ratings: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211915/ratings?ref_=tt_ql_op_4
For details of demographic who gave highest rating on IMDB for this film:
Click on More
then click on Opinion then click on
User Ratings for breakdown.
Can you think of any contemporary artist who may appeal to your target audience: Florence and the Machine's Rabbit Heart has inter textual references to The Mad Hatter's Tea Party, to the Pre Raphaelite artists costume and at the end of the music video to Millais famous painting "Ophelia".
Because you have your artist visiting an art gallery the link to Florence and the Machine's music video (use screen shots) and image of painting (Ophelia) can be strongly illustrated.
Your print productions would also appeal to an audience interested in graphics because....
Thus it is important to link appeal to other texts as I've suggested above.
Level 3 C+ because not enough links to hard evidence. Note my guidance to raise grade and of course to help you with Questions 2 or 3 in your Evaluation.