Saturday 26 February 2011

Demographic of Leon

This image shows the user ratings for Leon (source, IMDB) furthermore this film is amongst those that I would class as similar to my own and the ratings seen here provide evidence for what I believe my target audience to be. For example all the highest ratings came from the males and out of the males the highest ratings came from the under 18s category.

Votes Average
Males  162,221 8.7
Females  22,295 8.7
Aged under 18  1,893 8.9
Males under 18  1,485 8.9
Females under 18  400 8.3
Aged 18-29  111,719 8.8
Males Aged 18-29  97,644 8.8
Females Aged 18-29  13,591 8.9
Aged 30-44  59,969 8.6
Males Aged 30-44  53,177 8.6
Females Aged 30-44  6,229 8.5
Aged 45+  10,862 8.0
Males Aged 45+  8,843 8.2
Females Aged 45+  1,899 6.8
IMDb staff  42 8.5
Top 1000 voters  816 7.9
US users  42,491 8.5
Non-US users  120,228 8.7
IMDb users  220,461 8.6

Demographic of my target audience

The demographic for my thriller's target audience (as I have identified in my evaluation) is likely to be males between the ages of 15 and 21. The main character from my film is around 16 or 17 allowing an audience of this age to relate to the character. As mine is a relatively typical thriller (guns, mobsters and violence) it is more likely to appeal to a male audience. My research tells me that thrillers generally attract a male audience for example IMDB told me that Identity, Wasabi, Sin City and many other thrillers appealed mostly to male audiences.

All the actors used in my thriller are white British people. For this reason my thriller will attract a predominantly, western, white ethnicity. Furthermore as a mainstream crime thriller it would be more likey to be shown at multiplex cinemas which tend to be very western influenced. This can be seen by looking at the film schedule of a cinema such as Odeon. The image shows how almost allof the films in the multiplex are from the USA, generating the western influence which I have talked about previously. As a result the films shown have a lot more appeal to white western people.

While it is not immediately obvious what social classes my characters are from, there are some clues that suggest quite a middle class background. For example mise en scene such as cigars and motorbikes are more assosiated with middle and upper classes. On the other hand some aspects speak more working class such as the interior look of the house. For this reason, I believe that my film will attract a working to lower middle class audience. Furthermore the mainstream element of my film would have large appeal in this area whereas upper classes may seek to consume more independent movies.

Films that may relate to my own are: The lives of others - because of the whole idea of surveillance and forcibly taking answers from the "good guys"; and Leon due to the theme of a vendetta to avenge family members. Under the target audience label you can find the consumer ratings for Leon and other films consumed by it's audience. These both demonstrate how a male audience would be more prone to watching my thriller. For example Leon's main audience lies in the males under 18 category.
On the other hand you may argue that The Lives of Others, as a foreign culture film would be more associated with independent cinema. While this is true my film was only inspired by shots and one sequence in particular from The Lives of Others, the overall film is completely different and far less mainstream than my own.

A demographic avatar of my target audience would: be a 16 year old white British male; come from a lower middle class background; wear clothes that reflect the current fashion but not necessarily on an obsessive "up to date" and expensive way, i.e. jeans, t-shirt and a hooded top. He listens to either quite off trend but not abnormal music such as old rock  or indie music and consumes media at home on the TV/ DVD and in multiplex cinemas.









My film is likely to be shown at the multiplex theaters as it reflects a more mainstream image which has stronger connections to companies such as Odeon and Vue rather than independent cinemas such as Cinema City. Leon was shown at both multiplexes and independent cinemas which may suggest that my film could appear at both as well.