Target Audience/beginnings of plot

    WE'RE BACK EVERYONE!!! LET'S GOOOOO IT'S TIME TO SHINE. So, I am currently sick and have been the last couple of days, so it has been tough to concentrate on focus on the work that I have to do, HOWEVER, the good news is that I have been free to watch lots of movies to go study up on what I want to do with my film opening. I will discuss this more later on in the blog post. Firstly, research on the target audience must occur. Now, research is excellent, but it doesn't make sense unless I actually make something of it. So, while I research the target audience, I will be using what I learn about them to help me in making my movie (so it can best appeal to them), and for my CCR, so that I can understand how to market and distribute my movie to the audience. 

Here goes the research!

It is very hard to pinpoint a set target audience for sports films because of how broad a definition of "sports film" can be. Ford V Ferrari and The Blind Side are extremely separate movies, and different in every way, yet they are both considered sports films. They also have completely separate target audiences with The Blind Side aimed at families, evident from film advertisements, and Ford V Ferrari aimed at men older than 25. The different target audiences are all due to the subgenre being completely different, drama vs adventure/action. Therefore, it is best for me to decide what my subgenre will be so I can understand my target audience. I am in between two choices of a drama and an adventure film, so I will be researching both target audiences. \

Drama Target Audience:

A great sports drama movie, Coach Carter.

-People who love to feel emotions (emotional people)

-People who appreciate a good story 

-People who are looking for something more than light entertainment

Ends up being people who are typically

-lower and middle socioeconomic class

-Teenagers and adults aged 15-40

-majority women

-any race/ethnicity, although the race and ethnicity of the actors will influence the target audience

This target audience typically likes drama films as well as

-films regarding romance, violence, and society

-expects to see love, conflict, suspense, and relationships in these movies

-stereotypical societal features in the film

Adventure Target Audience

A great sports adventure movie, 127 Hours.

-People who enjoy suspenseful movies

-People who appreciate heroic acts

-People who love adventure

Ends up being people who are typically

-55% male

-mainly aged 25-34, but 16-40 is a broader range

-majority single

-college degrees

-mainly American, but also Mexican and Brazilian

-lower and middle socioeconomic class

-any race/ethnicity, although the race and ethnicity of the actors will influence the target audience

This Target Audience typically likes adventure films as well as 

-Science fiction

-Horror

-Survival

-Comedy

-expecting conflict, lots of twisting turns in the plot of the movie

Sports Fan demographics:

-middle to higher socioeconomic class

-the majority are caucasian 

-quite literally all ages, ranging from 16-84

-majority males, however, women are rising in the demographics

Conclusions

As mentioned above, this information isn't useful unless conclusions are drawn from it. So, what are the conclusions I am taking from all of this research?

-My movie has to be modern. Not a lot of my target audience is from the older generations, so doing a movie set in the past wouldn't really bode well with these fans

-My movie HAS to be suspenseful and entertaining, as well as contain adventure, a good story, and relationships depending on what sub-genre I would like to choose. 

-Realistically speaking, my movie could make a lot of money with merchandise and impulse products. Statistically, women are more impulsive than men, and women either influence or make 85% of the disposable income purchasing decisions that occur in the United States every day.

-If thinking about movies for profits: my movie should contain caucasian actors to capture more of the sports fan audience, given that research shows that fans are more likely to watch a movie with actors of their race/ethnicity in it, and the majority of sports fans are caucasian (in the U.S. at least). If the movie plans to be released internationally, Asian actors might be the best choice for the movie, considering there is the highest percentage of Asian people in the world than any other ethnicity or race. However, this should only be thought about if the movie is intentionally aimed at profits. I am creating this movie to create an amazing movie, so I won't be focused on profits, therefore, I am not thinking about race or ethnicity when hiring employees for marketing purposes. 

-Much of the target audience research helps with judging how to market and distribute the film, which isn't super essentially right now. The main focus is the storyline.

Storyline ideas?

I really haven't given the storyline much thought just YET. But one thing I wanted to mention is that in the sports films I watched today, I noticed some of them began with a scene and then had a 3 years later, and continued the film from there. Simply put, the film shows a glimpse of what happens in the future, and then gives the whole background of how they got there. I thought that this would be a super cool idea to incorporate especially in a redemption story. Although this will give away a lot about the end of the story, and how the David versus Goliath or underdog story really ends up, I think it could add a lot of conflict throughout the movie, where the character is in such big problems, the audience has no idea how in the world they will get out of it. Also, I do think that the audience will mostly know how the story will end up, if I didn't do my opening like this, meaning the audience will probably assume it will end happily like most sports movies end up. However, I could do a movie where it ends badly, but all I'm showing is my actual film opening, therefore that might not be the best idea. So, as of now, my current leading ideas are:

-start with the last scene, then show how the characters progress

-Sports film with either adventure or drama

-the 2 minutes will be the last scene, with the last 5 seconds giving a preview of how life is maybe 3 years earlier. This is hard to explain, so I want to show a visual example. 

Movie examples include

-Fight Club

-Saving Private Ryan

-The Usual Suspects

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S2VfkxR5bk&t=1s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HUf68gFGEE&t=171s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6msq8mgdnE

Anyways, that's it for my research and ideas for today. Stay tuned for more storyline development tomorrow as well as some schedule planning for the future! 

Citations:

“Audience Expectations and Target Audience.” A2 Media Studies, maddiemedia.weebly.com/audience-expectations-and-target-audience.html.

The Blindside. slideplayer.com/slide/9601996/#:~:text=The%20film's%20demographic%20The%20film,is%20mother%20orientated%2C%20%2D%20ppt%20download.

Gaille, Brandon. “17 Captivating NFL Fans Demographics - BrandonGaille.com.” BrandonGaille.com, 28 Oct. 2015, brandongaille.com/17-captivating-nfl-fans-demographics.

How to Target Facebook Ads to “Adventure Film” Audience | AdTargeting. adtargeting.io/facebook-ad-targeting/adventure-film.

Rubin, Rebecca. “Box Office: ‘Ford V Ferrari’ Races to First Place, ‘Charlie’s Angels’ Collapses.” U.S., 17 Nov. 2019, www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-boxoffice/box-office-ford-v-ferrari-races-to-first-place-charlies-angels-collapses-idUSKBN1XR0NC.

Weedy, Kate. “The Target Audience of My Short Film.” prezi.com, prezi.com/odywqbkeky-j/the-target-audience-of-my-short-film.

Wikipedia contributors. “Demographics of the World.” Wikipedia, 18 Feb. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_world#:~:text=The%20world's%20largest%20nationality%20group,in%20terms%20of%20native%20speakers.&text=The%20world's%20population%20is%20predominantly,toward%20cities%20and%20urban%20centres.