GWL3 - Critical Responses

People watch films for different reasons, it all depends on what the audience wants from the film and this all depends on the genre of a certain film. If you wanted to watch something that made you feel on edge and tense you would most likely watch a horror or thriller, if you wanted a happy, upbeat, sing-a-long film you would watch a musical or if you wanted a heart-warming but comical film you would choose a rom-com (Romantic Comedy). As well as the genre you have to think about the narrative of the film you are watching. A narrative is the storyline, for example the first narrative we usually hear is from bedtime stories or the stories you hear in primary school. They usually follow the narrative of light and dark, good and evil and the battle against one another.

The Silence of the Lambs is an award winning film about a young F.B.I. cadet who must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims. It follows a linear narrative which means that its starts with a beginning, follows with a middle and ends with the end of the story. It was directed by Jonathan Demme in 1991, Demme is also known for his work on Philadelphia, The Manchurian Candidate and Rachel Getting Married. This film follows the structure of a Thriller genre, giving you a tense feeling and making you sit on the edge of your seat. The film stars Jodie Foster (Clarice Starling) known also for the films Panic Room, Elysium and Inside Man. Scott Glenn (Jack Crawford) known for Hannibal, Fishburne and Man Hunter. And Antony Hopkins (Dr. Hannibal Lecter) who also stars in Hannibal, Red Dragon, The Elephant Man and Thor.

The film itself follows the codes and conventions of a Thriller genre, it has a battle between the protagonist and antagonist. The protagonist being Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) and the antagonist being Buffalo Bill (Ted Levin). Even though in a way it goes against the structure of the protagonist being a female it still follows the code and convention of the thriller genre. It involves an exciting plot, about Buffalo Bill being a man who wants to be a women turning into a transsexual creating a suit for himself out of women’s skin. Also the fact that Clarice and the police are using a Cannibal (Dr. Hannibal Lector) in this race against time, they have 3 days to save a young girl that he has captured in his house. During the film there are many scenes where they use ‘low key lighting’ to create the suspense of the situation, the main situation that comes to mind is where Clarice is looking for Buffalo Bill in the pitch black in his basement and she is unaware that Buffalo Bill is behind her with night vision goggle on and is an inch away from her. At this point you’re asking yourself whether she will realise he’s there and what he is going to do to her if he does grab her, it causes tension and suspense to the audience watching but also the non-diegetic sound in the background is causing these effects as well.  Another thing that you are thinking about at this point is whether the other officers are going to get to Buffalo Bills house in time to save Clarice and Katherine (The girl who he has been holding hostage). There is a large variety of cinematography throughout this scene which include the close ups of the protagonist to show the emotion. Other sections of the film that comes to mind where they have used cinematography really well is where a pen has been left with Hannibal Lector and they use a zoom shot for this, at this point people are thinking ‘what could he do with this pen?’. Also when Clarice walks into Buffalo Bills house and it shows an eye-line shot (reaction shot) of what Clarice can see, the cotton and a moth flying about and this is when Clarice realises this is Buffalo Bills home. The iconography in the film matches the genre also as it includes weapons, police officers and FBI agents.

The order of how a narrative lm is set out is structured by a well-known historian and philosophers Todorov, the order that this order goes like this:

1)    A state of equilibrium – All is in order

2)    A disruption of the order state by an event

3)    A recognition that a disruption has taken place

4)    An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption

5)    A return to some kind of equilibrium. 

If you look back into the story line Silence of the lambs follows this structure very well, Firstly the state of equilibrium that happens is Clarice, she is training to be an FBI agent, to work for Jack Crawford and take after her late father. The disruption of the order that takes place is Crawford makes Clarice stop training and asks her to go and interview Hannibal Lector as Buffalo Bill has killed another women. A disruption that has taken place would then be Buffalo Bill kid napping Katherine. Then it comes to the attempt to repair the damage of disruption, The FBI and Clarice go to find Buffalo Bill, this causes a tense moment as when Clarice gets to the front door and knocks on it goes to the FBI knocking on a door. You then see Buffalo Bill open the door but you are unsure who is there, is it Clarice on her own? Or is it the FBI? In fact it is Clarice at his door so then it draws the audience in to what’s going to happen, are the FBI going to realise they are at the wrong house? And is Clarice going to go into the house? The last part of Todorov theory is a return to some kind of equilibrium. This is at the end of the film when Clarice graduates and becomes part of Jack Crawford’s team following in the footsteps of her late father.

The three act structure is another way of defining a pattern in a narrative structure. This broken down starts with Act 1, this is the set up and exposition, where all the major characters of the story are introduced in this case our characters include Clarice and Jack Crawford. Also in act 1 it will also include an inciting incident which occurs to bring the audience in, In Silence of the lambs the incident that appears provokes changes with the protagonist’s routine. Jack Crawford asks Clarice to come to his office, in the office we see newspaper articles of Buffalo Bill and so again another character is introduced, the antagonist is then part of the film and begins to follow the hero and villain idea. Clarice gets sent on a mission to see Dr. Hannibal Lector (Another very important character) Act 2 is the longest part of the film its where all the raising action is taking place, it involves plot complications, getting things back to normal and making characters into better people. Typically the protagonist will attempt to resolve the problem initiated by the first point but only to find themselves in a worsening situation, this relates to the FBI going to find Buffalo Bill when in fact the house that Clarice ends up in is actually his house, this becomes clear when Clarice spots a moth- this specific moth has been found in all the suspects that Bill has killed and she also a sewing kit, the whole reason he is kidnapping these women is for their skin so he can make a suit. This then leaves us with act 3, the resolution of the film and the final action. The climax, denouement and enigma of the film begins to increase Clarice is alone with Buffalo Bill and there is a huge possibility of her being in danger. The denouement of the storyline is coming to an end and loose ends are tied. Clarice is focused on saving Catherine, the young girl Buffalo Bill kidnapped and in the end she does. The enigma is then whether Clarice will catch Buffalo Bill, in the end she does indeed catch him and kill him. And the storyline ends with Clarice becoming an official FBI Agent as she dreamed like her late father. 

Vladimir Propp noticed that folk-tales were very similar to each other in the way that they were about the same situations and struggles; he then published ‘Morphology of the Folktale’. His theory is that characters have a narrative function in the text and that they are there to help provide a structure for a certain text. There are 8 different characters that you can relate to, comparing his theory with Silence of the Lambs; firstly the hero would be Clarice Starling as she is the one Jack Crawford relies on to help catch Buffalo Bill with Dr. Hannibal Lectors help. If it wasn’t for Clarice finding information out then they would never have caught Buffalo Bill and he would have then skinned Katherine Martin for her skin. Clarice is the central protagonist throughout the film. The villain is Buffalo Bill as he is the assaulting women; killing them and then skinning there body to make a suit out of. The donor is Dr. Hannibal Lector, he doesn’t give Clarice specific information where Buffalo Bill is but tells her hints and clues to where she could find him. The Dispatcher is Jack Crawford, as he is in charge he is the one who dispatches Clarice to help find out where Buffalo Bill is. The helper within the film is Hannibal Lector, without him they would never have found Buffalo Bill as easy as they did, he was giving suggestions and clues to Clarice to where she could find him and why he was kidnapping the young girls. The false hero is Dr Clinton, He acts as if he is the one in charge but in fact he wasn’t and within the whole film his input was not important. He was more interested in flirting with Clarice and taking her out but then when she declined he turned into a vile, rude man who just wanted the gossip in why Clarice was there to speak to Hannibal. The princess was Katherine Martin as she was the one that the FBI and Clarice was trying to find and in the end when they found her it put the whole story together. Then lastly the father figure would be Jack Crawford he takes Clarice under his control and believes that she is able to find out where Buffalo Bill is, which in the end turns out that he had made the correct decision to believe in her.

  

The representation of gender in Silence of the lambs is very sexist and discriminating towards the female gender. In any films, TV Programmes or any media context women are typically shown for their beauty and physic. When looking at any Hollywood films a stereotyped female would be blonde, big breasted, thin waist and long legs. They are just there to be an object of beauty. Women are usually represented as being a fragile, soft and emotion character within a film but Silence of the Lambs don’t follow these stereotypical character representations. Clarice is shown as a strong independent women and shows how women can be a strong, determined FBI agent not just there to look good. She is represented in a positive way to the audience but within the film it shows the male characters looking at her in a negative way. One very main scene for me to show this was when Clarice enters the lift on her to way to Jack Crawford’s office, she is the only women in the lift (as you can see in the picture below). This shows the whole theme of the film and by looking at everybody’s facial expressions you can see how they actually feel about Clarice. All the men are in a strong powerful colour (red) and Clarice is in a grey plain jumper, this again suggests how the males are more important and powerful than her. The man to the right to her is looking at her with no facial expression and as all the men are a lot taller they look over powering compare to her. This is why she looks nervous and uncomfortable. Because of this throughout the film you’re wanting her to achieve what Jack Crawford sets out for her. Silence of the lambs involves a lot of different representations within the film and it’s all about gender representation with being feminine and masculine.

Another huge part of the theme of gender representation is Buffalo Bill and his transgender. Although now in recent times this is normal to us when the film was realised in 1991, this wasn’t something that many people understood. Bill was born as a man wanting to be a women and the whole storyline is trying to catch him as he is kidnapping women and skinning them for his suit he is making from their skin.

This film has so many different aspects to how the male gender put Clarice down just because she’s a women whether it’s with Dr. Chilton who is only interested in her when he thinks he could take her on a date and says she’s being sent to Hannibal just because she’s a ‘young pretty thing’. Clarice is determined to get the respect she deserves and this is why her character wears big baggy clothes, no makeup or bright colours. It shows how she doesn’t just want to be a sex object.

The ending of the film is when Clarice is shown to be the brave, strong, determined women she is when she becomes an official FBI agent.

Pulp Fiction starts off with a couple sat in an American diner planning a robbery. At this point you think that this film is going to be based on these people, but as the scenes change you begin to realise this film is not as simple as you’d think. Pulp Fiction follows a non-linear narrative. This means that the film is not in chronological order. So instead of starting at the beginning of the story which would be when a child ‘Butch’ receives a watch of his father’s friend (who he was in the war with), instead this is shown a third away through the film. The whole film is based from this point, as the film is an alternative film meaning that only a specific type of audience will watch the film for a certain entertainment value, someone who enjoys working out what’s going on and enjoys the way a non-linear film is set out. The ending of the film is when is when John Travolta and his partner stop the couple from robbing the diner and walk out with the brief case (even though we never find out what is in the brief case). But this scene is actually the middle of the story. If we were to put the whole film in chronological order then the real ending would be when Butch realises his girlfriend has forgotten the watch and goes back home to get it. On his way home he ends up killing someone, watching a grown man (Marsellus) getting raped, killing people that rape Marsellus and then runs off to collect his girlfriend and they run off together.

  

Pulp Fiction is a postmodern film, post modernism is when you can mix different artistic styles and media from different years. In Pulp Fiction it is set in the 1990’s but has aspects of it being set in the 1960’s. The bricolage is references to a mix of different genres within one shot; an example out of the film is when Mia Wallace and Vincent Vega are eating out in a diner after Vincent had been told to take his bosses wife for dinner, first of all the ladies are in provocative short dresses, Short dresses were not acceptable in the 60’s and were more fashionable in the 1990’s so straight away by the clothing that the people are wearing it sets a certain year. When you look at the characters in the diner, if it was based in the 60’s mixed race would not be allowed to be sat with white people so this makes you question what year this film is set in. You also see a women dressed as Marylyn Monroe walking about which obviously gives you the ideas of The film Seven Year Itch (1955) directed by Billy Wider, so then this takes us back to the 50-60’s vibe, it’s also a technique called pastiche, which is when something imitates another piece of work. This happens in the film when the young girl dressed at Marylyn Monroe copy’s the very famous scene of the dress blowing up from The Seven Year Itch. Another main example of bricolage is the drug taking in the toilet. Mia goes to the bathroom to ‘powered her nose’ and in this case she does. She openly takes cocaine in the middle of the bathroom with all the women around her finding this normal. Where as in the 60’s it probably did happen but not in an open way. In this scene it shows all of the features of a postmodernism, this film has many intertextuality’s relating back to other media texts such as Saturday Night Fever (1977, John Botham), Seven Year Itch (1955, Billy Wilder) and Grease (1978, Ronald Kleiser). Each part of the film has a section of one of these movies, examples would be the dance off on stage with Mia and Vincent, it happens in Greece and Saturday Night Fever and Marylyn’s skirt blows up repeating the very famous scene of the film from Seven Year Itch. Parody is where it copy’s a media text in a humorous way, in Pulp Fiction they have done this by making John Travolta ( Vincent ) dance in a ridiculous way, even though he is best known for his dancing. So by making him dance in a ridiculous way creates humour towards the audience. The last 2 techniques are Reflexivity, breaking the illusion of the 4^th wall showing that the film is not real. This happens when Mia draws a square with her hands and it appears on screen and the last one is Self-preferentiality, this basically means when a producer of the media text or actor references to previous work. As I said before when Vincent is dancing on stage it’s like a parody of Saturday Night Fever and Grease, using similar types of dance moves.

GWL2: Audience Response

GWL1: Research Techniques in Film

Defining Audiences

What is Quantitative audience research?

Quantitative research is when companies gather information in large amounts. They do this by collecting information from surveys of large groups. The techniques used are mail surveys, telephone surveys, internet surveys and face to face public surveys. In media this is a very popular way of finding out data that could help the company in many ways, this could include; When comparing ratings or viewers figures against other movies, When looking at viewing figure, If a marketer wanted to find out if viewers liked or disliked a new film, To see if people liked a ‘new concept’ being introduced to a film or just when gathering ratings. There are many more reasons that companies would use quantitative research, to gather the information is pretty simple and if you put it on a database it is easy to compare. The research can use both secondary and primary methods. Using quantitative research in the media industry is important- they depend on it, as well as using qualitative.

An example of quantitative research is the website IMDB as you can see below this gives you a rating of 8.3/10.

What is Qualitative audience research?

Qualitative researching method of research that is commonly used by market researchers; it looks at people’s views, opinions, preferences and overall behavior to a certain product or topic. In the past years peoples observations have become more popular as it’s widely used, is allows researchers to become more familiar to specific groups or individuals. An observation could be carried out for days, weeks even months- this helps marketers observation get into a deeper understanding. A marketer may want to see the opinions of a new released film for example ‘Inbetweeners 2’, they could they find out what they enjoyed about this and what they disliked. This could help in future references when creating the next film or TV show.  Observation can be organised in different categories depending on the level of the researcher and what he wants to find out.

Below is an example of qualitative research from IMDB, it shows a user’s review of the movie. Other examples of how film producers and directors can gather these opinions are on websites such as BFI. The figures cover box offices grosses in pounds sterling, Friday to Sunday, and show the performance of each film compared to the previous week and its total UK box office gross since release.

What is Primary Research? 

Primary research is new research that you do yourself, carried out to answer specific issues or questions. It can involve questionnaires, surveys or interviews with individuals or small groups.

What is Secondary Research?

Secondary research (desk research) involves gathering existing data that has already been produced. For example, researching the internet, newspapers and company reports. Factual information is called quantitative data.

The Martian Trailer 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej3ioOneTy8

There are several The Martian trailers; I have chosen to analysis this certain trailer as I thought it has an excellent appeal to the target audience. 

The first shot of this trailer is what looks like the crust of mars (the outline of the edge of the planet). It gives you the idea that this is the planet mars because of the colour- red is what colour this planet is. If you look closely into the planet you can see the detail and texture which you can see it looks rocky and un even surface.

As the trailer begins it starts with fast pace and fast shots, showing shots of different astronauts making their way through a tunnel when suddenly as they open the door it cuts to them in a storm.  In between these clips there are slow birds eye view shots looking down at the planet mars, what looks like the day after the storm had happened.

Just from 20 seconds into the trailer it gives you an idea of what this storyline is about and what The Martian is aimed at. The main scenes at the beginning are seeing astronauts in a storm in the dark, all you can hear and see are things hitting into them and the sound of objects hitting against each other. You then just see the spaceship take off- which you assume is going back to planet earth. As it cuts to an extreme close up shot of Matt Damon’s face struggling to breathe, all you can see is satellites, metal objects and rocks around him showing you the storm is over, but why is he still there if the rocket has taken off? This is when a voice over starts talking about ‘getting to work’. This makes you wonder is he alone? And if he isn’t who is he talking to? He’s talking into a webcam, as if he’s recording a video to send it to his friends and family letting them know he’s alive. 

The next thing you see is text ‘From Director Ridley Scott’, Ridley Scott is known for his amazing producer and directing work, He is mostly known for the films Alien and Prometheus. They are both science fiction. So as Ridley has had such success in a science fiction film before you would think that this film will be outstanding as it is the same genre. I think the producers and directors have put his name at the top of the poster as he is one of the main anchorages of this film along with Matt Damon.

The music throughout the trailer is upbeat and tense to match the clips. It works well with the sound effects, the diegetic and non-diegetic sound, the pace of the clips and the low key lighting. All of these aspects work well to create a tense feeling towards the audience.

Even though we are only 50 seconds into the trailer we can clearly see that the main settings involve mars, space, earth, rockets, grave yard and a NASA Base. But Mars seems to be the main settings as the main character looks very isolated and on his own. As all of the settings show it’s as science fiction genre you would automatically stereotype it to be aimed at a male audience. If we looked into a certain stereotyped audience for this film it would be clear they would be a male audience due to the storyline, settings and gadgets that are in this film. I would say it would be aimed at an older audience ages 18-30 due to the fact the storyline seems quite mature and would appeal to someone of an older age rather than a kid/young teen. When it comes to the socio class of the target audience I would usually say they would be at a higher class as they might relate to Matt Damon, traveling and using expensive gadget’s but as this film is a mainstream film, mainstream films are usually targeted to C to E in the ABC1 scale (lower middle class to lower class).

The main character is Matt Damon; you can tell that he is the main character from the start of trailer as all the attention is on him. As he is on his own isolated stuck on Mars you know he’s got to be a strong independent man to survive. As Matt Damon is very well known for films such as Saving Private Ryan and The Bourne Identity which are both action films. He is known for being a strong character. Because of his face and body this will be appealing to a female audience; this is how The Martian has a wide variety of a target audience. Even though there were female astronauts in the beginning its very stereotyped how the main character is a man, and if you look at the women astronauts they are all good looking and known in a weaker way than the males. Matt Damon is not the only character involved in this film; it shows the other astronauts and people who work for NASAS, but also peoples family members.  On one of the trailers it shows a clip of a graveyard, I think as the trailers all end on cliff-hangers that is one of the main ways that the film makes the audience ask themselves questions, is he going to survive? Why are they at the grave yard? How does he get home? As well it would create emotion towards the audience as a grave yard usually relates to death. This will then encourage people to watch this film to answer their questions.  They use techniques such as ‘elliptical’ and ‘enigmatic’ to entice the audience to watch the film.

The narrative in this film is all shown in chronological order; it has a start, middle and an end. You can see this within the trailer. It help shows the genre very clearly how they have used interplanetary showing the life from Mars to Earth. This is another way how they have shown the genre of this movie is science fiction.

Above are some examples of how this movie have used iconography, They have used objects that you suddenly stereotype with science fiction, Earth, Mars, Astronauts, Satellites, Rockets and Solar Panels. Something as simple as a costume just gives you the idea of the genre and the story line of the film. If you are a science fiction fan just by watching this trailer you know you will enjoy this film, if you like space or rockets again you know this is the type of film that you would enjoy. This is how iconography works- by using simple things that relate to one another draw in an audience, which will then persuade them to go and watch this film.

Another main way that the producers and directors will advertise this film is by using camera techniques, editing, diegetic and non-diegetic sound, sfx, mise en scene/lighting and colour.  The trailer is all at a fast pace to show the tension of the film, using the non-diegetic sound as a voice over explaining his story but at the same time using diegetic sound because of the way he speaks through the video diary. It has powerful music which goes well with the fast shots and again the voice over used and it matches the special effects. The colour and contrast throughout the film varies from dark to light depending on what is happening for example when Matt Damon is doing well and his food begins to grow it is high key lighting- showing the mood through the light. Comparing this to when he is in the storm you can see how it is a low key lighting. The colour and contrast also is used with the planet mars. As Mars is known as the red planet, by looking at brightness of the planet and how the red stands out usually behind the black background it makes it clear where he is. If you listen from the start of the film the music is dramatic and fast paced and when you see he is alive the pace of the music is a lot calmer and slows down.

The Martian Poster

There are many posters promoting the film The Martian, I have chosen to analysis this poster as there are so many points that advertise this film well and will encourage the target audience (mainly men) to watch this film. You would expect the producers and directors of this film to have made the film to target men- due to the fact it’s a science fiction film, as it is about organisations such as NASA, this would appeal to the male audience and you wouldn’t stereotype a sci-fi film to be something a women would watch as usually they contain a lot of equipment and gadgets that could be known as ‘boy toys’.  The poster on a whole is very male orientated with the main focus being a man.
It is targeted at an older aged audience as the actors in this film are mostly all adults and as much as the social economic status is very wide you would mainly expect someone of a higher hierarchy who could maybe compare their interests in science and traveling. But as this film is a mainstream film, mainstreams usually are targeted to C to E in the ABC1 scale (lower middle class to lower class). As Matt Damon is very well known for films such as Saving Private Ryan and The Bourne Identity which are both action films. He is known for being a strong character. Because of his face and body this will be appealing to a female audience.

As it’s called ‘The Martian’, and the word Martian is something you relate to the planet Mars you know either this film is going to be set in or about Mars. Just by looking at the poster there is a selection of content such as words The Martian, Images such as Matt Damon, and colour (red) to match the idea of being on Mars.  They want to give you the idea that he is traveling there. A big clue of this is how he is dressed in an astronaut costume which straight away makes you think he must be traveling to Mars, and as you can see they have used red and orange colours in the background which is the colour of Mars, so it’s as if he’s there. If you look very carefully you can see the background is quite out of focus and you can just make out the rocky background. When you first look at the poster the first thing you see is Matt Damon’s face and what really stood out to me were his eyes. It is very direct and formal as you can see he’s looking straight  at you which attracts your attention and the way that all narrative in the poster is very easy to read, bold and big. The layout of the text is all lined up into the centre shows the formality of the poster.

Ridley Scott is known for his amazing producer and directing work, He is mostly known for the films Alien and Prometheus. They are both science fiction. So as Ridley has had such success in a science fiction film before you would think that this film will be outstanding as it is the same genre. I think the producers and directors have put his name at the top of the poster as he is one of the main anchorages of this film along with Matt Damon.

As you can see in the centre of the poster in large bold lettering it says ‘Bring Him Home’. As this stands out so much it makes you ask yourself questions about whys he not at home? Where is he? And who is he with? This could also make the audience want to watch this film to then answer their questions. As this is centred in the middle of the page it looks formal, this is another reason that this film would be aimed towards an older audience, by comparing different posters such as ‘A Diary of a Teenage Girl’. As it says in the title it is aimed towards teen girls, so the text in the poster was informal, it wasn’t layered in any type of way. Using italic/young text which looked handwritten to give it the style of a diary and animated drawings all these hints give the idea away of who this film was aimed at. Whereas The Martian has a mainstream audience (male) but with having Matt Damon, an attractive male as the starring role would appeal to females. Both films are completely different as The Martian is mainstream, high budget film and The Diary of a Teenage Girl is an alternative, controversial low budget film which is a winner of a film festival. This shows how completely different types of audiences are promoted depending on who the target audience is, what age, gender, socio economic status, sexuality and religion is.

Altogether I think this poster promotes this film to the target audience well using all audience profiling, the way it is lay out and the way it appeals towards the target audience.

My Exit Poll

1. Are you Male or Female? _________________
   
   
2. What is your age? _________________
   
   
3. How did you find out about the film? E.g. Advert, Word of mouth, Posters, Social networking.  _________________
   
   
4. What attracted you to watch this film? E.g. Actors, Music, the Reviews, the Genre. _________________
   
   
5. Would you watch the film again? (yes/no) _________________
   And why? _________________
   
   
6. If you had to give ‘The Martian’ a star rating from 1-5 (1 being bad and 5 being outstanding) what would you rate it? _________________
   
   
7. Would you recommend this film? (yes/no)  _________________
   And why? _________________
   
   
8. What did you think of the ending of the film? _________________
   
   
9. What did you think of the actors of this film? _________________
                                                                                                                      
   
   
10.  Is there anything throughout the film that you would change? (Storyline, actors, settings etc.) _________________

My Exit Poll Analysis

I carried out an exit poll on the new film ‘The Martian’ starring Matt Damon. I gave a random 10 people my exit poll and asked them to answer my questions honestly on what they thought about this film.

Are you Male or Female?

This pie chart shows 50% of the people I asked were Female and the other 50% were male. Altogether there were 10 people that completed my exit poll, so my information will be fair when it comes to looking into the gender of people’s views of The Martian.

What is your age?

As I just asked random people to fill in my exit poll I didn’t expect a wide variety of ages especially as there was lot of people between the ages of 17-19. But I still got two older opinions of the film. When looking through the data and comparing this there wasn’t a lot of different answers between the ages and even though from 17-50 is a large difference the only main difference was on question 10. (Which I have explained under the Q.10)

How did you find out about the film? (E.g. Advert, Word of mouth, Posters, Social Networking)

 

Out of those who I surveyed ages 17-18 were the people to have answered word of mouth and social media and only 2 people from this age group said Advert.  Both Females who were above the age of 30 said Poster and Advert. This shows how the younger generation will speak more about a certain film and look on social media- so now if I was to promote a film I would know by promoting it on Facebook or Twitter it would most likely appeal to teens rather than someone aged 40-50.

What attracted you to watch this film? (E.g. Actors, Music, Reviews, the Genre?)

Comparing which ages said what attracted them to watch this film over 30’s said storyline and actors, as Ridley Scott has made huge films made from 1979 with Alien to – Prometheus in 2012. Anybody over 30 will know of the film Alien but as it’s an older film. This could also have been a main reason for them to watch this. But over all there was a mixed opinion between why it attracted people to watch this film, but as you can see the actors of this film was the main purpose. This might have been because people have seen other Matt Damon films and known they were a huge success, this would then encourage them to watch this film to see if its as good as the other films he’s been apart of.

Would you watch the film again? (Yes/No)
And why?

7 people answered yes and the other 3 answered no. After they answered yes or no I then asked why- people who answered yes put the answers, it’s a very exiting movie, it was a good story, and I enjoyed the humour of it.  The people that put no said there reasons were, they didn’t feel like they needed to watch it again, it was too long and it has a rubbish ending. Both over 30’s said they wouldn’t watch this again- the main reasons were because of the length of the film, without being stereotypical this might be because they are older so they have less time to sit back and watch a 3 hour long film unlike a teen who would have a lot more spare time.

If you had to give The Martian a star rating from 1-5 (1 being good and 5 being outstanding) what would you rate it?  

When reviewing what gender rated what score, no females rated a 5 star it was between 3 and 4 stars, whereas male either voted 4 or 5 stars. As this film is mainly aimed at a male target audience this shows it appealed more to men. This could be because of the storyline or genre. This shows that the film has achieved its target audience as all males seems to enjoy it except for the few bad comments. Would you recommend the film? (Yes/No)And why? 
Altogether 8 people said yes and 2 said no. The people who said no, 1 was female and 1 was male there reason for this is because in their opinion the ending was rubbish and the other said it was too long.  As 80% of the people said yes their reasons were because they enjoyed the genre, loved the storyline and loved the excitement of it. If I was the director I would think about of the length of the film next time I come to produce a film as this is a problem that kept coming up when I was analysing the different exit polls. 


What did you think of the ending of film? 

As people gave one worded answer to this question I chose to show it as ‘good, ok and bad’. As you can see 7 people answered good, 2 answered ok and 1 said bad. Even though it says that the males most enjoyed this film, it was the male that put ‘bad’. He wrote with it ‘disappointing ending, not what I expected’. Whereas it was mainly all females who enjoyed the ending of this film and with only 20% saying ok, there reasons of this were because they found it disappointing.

What did you think of the actors of this film?

Again I have put it into a group of good, ok and bad. With 90% of people saying they liked the acting and only the 10% saying ok- this person was also the one who said they didn’t enjoy the ending and wouldn’t recommend it. The reason for this may be he doesn’t like the sci-fi genre or maybe the storyline didn’t appeal to him like it did to everyone else.

Is there anything throughout the film that you would change? (E.G. Storyline, Actors, Settings etc. 40% said not applicable, 10% answered actors- who again was the person who didn’t enjoy this film. 30% lengths of film, 20% of these people were the two females over 30 years of age. Again this might be because they don’t have time to watch a 3 hour film or maybe it’s because they couldn’t concentrate for that amount of time. And 10% answered the family part of this film and the ending.

There are many different answers from all these exit polls some that contradict themselves. Saying they don’t like the storyline but then would watch it again etc. It shows that the film does appeal to their target audience well, as most people enjoyed the film and didn’t have a bad word to say about it. When you look at the majority more people said excellent things compare to the bad opinions. No film can please everyone as everyone has different likes and dislikes but in this case I think The Martian has proved that it is at least a 4 star film.

 Film Podcast Script 

Media producers and directors have to define a specific target audience before creating their products. They need to ask questions and research the typical genre, settings and actors a specific audience would want to see. To help them start defining their audience they will use Quantitative audience research which includes looking up information on websites such as BARB, ABC and RAJAR. Qualitative audience research involves using focus groups’, questionnaires, and face-to-face interviews and another technique they could use is audience profiling, thinking about their socio-economic status, psychographics, age, gender, sexual orientation, regional identity and whether you are a mainstream, alternative or niche audience.

An exit poll is a very important way of collecting audience feedback; it informs the film producers or directors of what opinions the audience had about the film. Something just as simple as an audience’s gender can show to the producers that the film was more viewed by women but men enjoyed the film more. When the film directors and producers are looking into this they will use audience profiling for example gender, age, socio-economic status, psychographic, geodemographic, sexual orientation and regional identity. If it asks questions such as Social-economic status then they will find out about the audiences wealth, occupations and status or even about their regional identity, they might all be from Britain but 70% might be from Manchester and the other 30% could be from Liverpool, This exit poll can show the difference in viewing habits. Producers will collect both quantitive and qualitative, Quantitative research is when companies gather information in large amounts. They do this by collecting information from surveys of large groups. The techniques used are mail surveys, telephone surveys, internet surveys and face to face public surveys.  Whereas Qualitative researching method of research that is commonly used by market researchers; it looks at people’s views, opinions, preferences and overall behaviour to a certain product or topic. All this information is important as it tells the producer whether the film is going to be successful. This could also help if they made a sequence to the film, they can think about the parts that the audience didn’t enjoy in the first film. Producer also use primary and secondary data. Primary research is new research, carried out to answer specific questions. It can involve questionnaires, surveys or interviews with individuals or small groups. Whereas Secondary research makes use of information that has already been researched for other purposes. If I was going to create an exit poll to ask my target audience what they thought of a certain film this would be an example of primary research but if I went online and found out what people thought of this film that would be secondary as it wasn’t carried out by myself. Audience profiling is an important part towards to the making of a film. This helps the producers define who they are making the film for and how they should do it so it appeals to target audience.

Media producers will start off by creating products for a specific audience; in this case I was looking at the film ‘The Martian’. To promote this film the producers have created several posters and trailers, each showing a different appeal towards a certain audience.

Starting with the trailer, the first shot of this trailer is what looks like the crust of mars which is the outline of the edge of a planet. It gives you the idea that this is Mars because of the colour red and Mars is known as the red planet. When you look closely into the planet you can see it looks rocky and un-even surface, which again gives the audience the idea that the film has something to do with Mars. As the trailer begins it starts with fast paced shots, showing shots of different astronauts making their way through a tunnel when suddenly as they open the door it cuts to them in a storm.  In between these clips there are slow birds eye view shots looking down at the planet Mars, what looks like the day after the storm had happened. Just from 20 seconds into the trailer it gives you an idea of what this storyline is about and what The Martian is aimed at. The main scenes at the beginning are seeing astronauts in a storm in the dark, all you can hear and see are things hitting into them and the sound of objects hitting against each other. You then just see the spaceships take off- which you assume is going back to planet earth. As it cuts to an extreme close up shot of Matt Damon’s face struggling to breathe, all you can see is satellites, metal objects and rocks around him showing you the storm is over, but this makes the target audience question why is he still there if the rocket has taken off?

This is when a voice over starts talking about ‘getting to work’. This makes you wonder is he alone? And if he isn’t who is he talking to? It actually turns out he’s talking into a webcam and it’s as if he’s recording a video to send it to his friends and family on planet earth, letting them know he’s alive. 

The next thing you see is text ‘From Director Ridley Scott’, Ridley Scott is known for his films Alien and Prometheus. They are both science fiction. So as Ridley has had such success in a science fiction film before you would think that this film will be outstanding as it is the same genre. I think the producers have put his name at the top of the poster as he is one of the main anchorages of this film along with Matt Damon.

The music throughout the trailer is upbeat and tense to match the clips shown from the film. It works well with the sound effects, the diegetic and non-diegetic sound, the pace of the clips and the low key lighting. All of these aspects work well to create a tense feeling towards the audience.

Only 50 seconds into the trailer we can clearly see that the main settings involve Mars, space, earth, rockets, a grave yard and a NASA Base. But Mars seems to be the main settings a main character looks very isolated and on his own. As all of the settings show it’s as science fiction genre, you would automatically stereotype it to be aimed at a male audience due to the storyline, settings and gadgets that are in this film. I would say it would be aimed at an older audience ages 18-30 due to the fact the storyline seems quite mature. When it comes to the socio class of the target audience I would usually say they would be at a higher class as they might relate to Matt Damon, travelling and using expensive gadget’s but as this film is a mainstream film, mainstream films are usually targeted to C to E in the ABC1 scale which is also known as lower middle class to lower class.

The main character is Matt Damon as all the attention is on him. As he is on his own isolated stuck on Mars you know he’s got to be a strong independent man to survive. Matt Damon is very well known for films such as Saving Private Ryan and The Bourne Identity which are both action films. He is known for being a strong character, this could appeal to the male target audience as they could relate to his character.

Because of his face and body this will be appealing to a female audience and this is how The Martian has a wide variety of a target audience. Even though there were female astronauts in the beginning its very stereotyped how the main character is a man, and if you look at the women astronauts they are all attractive and known to be more vulnerable than the male astronauts. Matt Damon is not the only character involved in this film; it shows the other astronauts and people who work for NASA, but also peoples family members.  On one of the trailers it shows a clip of a graveyard, I think as the trailers all end on cliff-hangers that is one of the main ways that the film makes the audience ask themselves questions, is he going to survive? As well it would create emotion towards the audience as a grave yard usually relates to death. This will then encourage people to watch this film to answer their questions.  They use elliptical and enigmatic techniques to entice the audience to watch the film.

The narrative in this film is all shown in chronological order; it has a start, middle and an end. You can see this within the trailer. It help shows the genre very clearly. This is another way how they have shown the genre of science fiction. In the film they have used objects that you stereotype with science fiction such as Earth, Mars, Astronauts, Satellites, Rockets and Solar Panels. Something as simple as a costume just gives you the idea of the genre and the story line of the film. If you are a science fiction fan just by watching this trailer you know you will enjoy this film. This is how iconography works- by using simple things that relate to one another draw in an audience, which will then persuade them to go and watch this film. Another main way that the producers have advertised this film is by using camera techniques, editing, diegetic and non-diegetic sound, sfx, mise en scene/lighting and colour.  The trailer is all at a fast pace to show the tension of the film, using the non-diegetic sound as a voice over explaining his story but at the same time using diegetic sound because of the way he speaks through the video diary. It has powerful music which goes well with the fast shots and again the voice over used and it matches the special effects. The colour and contrast throughout the film varies from dark to light depending on what is happening for example when Matt Damon is doing well and his food begins to grow it is high key lighting- showing the mood through the light. Comparing this to when he is in the storm you can see how it is a low key lighting. The colour and contrast also is used with the planet Mars. As Mars is known as the red planet, by looking at brightness of the planet and how the red stands out usually behind the black background it makes it clear where he is.

As well as looking into the trailer I also looked at several posters promoting The Martian, There are many posters promoting the film The Martian that advertise this film well and will encourage the target audience, mainly men to watch this film. You would expect the producers of this film to have made the film to target men- due to the fact it’s a science fiction film, as it is about organisations such as NASA, this would appeal to the male audience and you wouldn’t stereotype a sci-fi film to be something a women would watch as usually they contain a lot of equipment and gadgets that could be known as ‘boy toys’.  The poster on a whole is very male orientated with the main focus being a man.

As Matt Damon is known for action films, he’s known for being a strong character and how his face and body will be appealing to a female audience.

Just by looking at the poster there is a selection of content such as words The Martian, Images such as Matt Damon, and colour (red) to match the idea of being on Mars.  They want to give you the idea that he is traveling there. A big clue of this is how he is dressed in an astronaut costume which straight away makes you think he must be traveling to Mars, and as you can see they have used red and orange colours in the background which is the colour of Mars, so it’s as if he’s there. If you look very carefully you can see the background is quite out of and when you first look at the poster the first thing you see is Matt Damon’s face and what really stood out to me were his eyes. It is very direct and formal as you can see he’s looking straight  at you which attracts your attention and the way that all narrative in the poster is very easy to read, bold and big. The layout of the text is all lined up into the centre shows the formality of the poster. There are many things that are similar within the trailer and poster.

Again on the poster it has Ridley Scott’s name as they use him as an anchorage as discussed before. I think the producers have put his name at the top of the poster as he is used as one of the main anchorages of this film along with Matt Damon.

In the centre of the poster in large bold lettering it says ‘Bring Him Home’. As this stands out so much it makes you ask yourself questions about whys he not at home? Where is he? And who is he with? This could also make the audience want to watch this film to then answer their questions. Both the trailer and the poster make the target audience ask the questions, I think this is a really good idea as every time you see the film being advertised you will think about the questions and want them answering. As all the text is centred in the middle of the page it looks formal, this is another reason that this film would be aimed towards an older audience, by comparing different posters such as ‘A Diary of a Teenage Girl’. As it says in the title it is aimed towards teen girls, so the text in the poster was informal, it wasn’t layered in any type of way. Using italic and young text which looked handwritten to give it the style of a diary and animated drawings, all these hints give the idea away of who this film was aimed at. Whereas The Martian has a mainstream audience but with having Matt Damon, an attractive male as the starring role would appeal to females. Both films are completely different as The Martian is mainstream, high budget film and The Diary of a Teenage Girl is an alternative, controversial low budget film which is a winner of a film festival. This shows how completely different types of audiences are promoted depending on who the target audience is, what age, gender, socio economic status, sexuality and religion is.

I asked a variety of people coming out of the cinema after viewing The Martian to fill in my exit poll that I had created myself to find out what they liked and disliked about The Martian. I asked 10 questions, examples of the questions were asking their gender and age, asking what they thought of the movie and storyline, If they liked the actors, what they disliked and also if they didn’t enjoy this film why? When putting all of my results together there was 10 exit polls filled out, 5 off women and 5 by men. This made my answers easier for me to compare as it was equal. Some examples of the answers I collected were all women would at least rate the film 3 star to 4 stars. Whereas the male audience said 4 to 5 stars. 5 being the highest rating. So from the start it was clear the producers had successfully won over their target audience. The only dislike and bad comment I received in my exit poll was the film was too long.

In my opinion I think that the market campaign for The Martian was successful based upon all of my results and audience feedback I received. 

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