LO2 Task 3 - Audience for X-Men First Class

Intro

For my Vlog 3 I shall be talking about the audience and how an audience is chosen for specific products. I shall be continuing on from Vlog 2 with the film X-Men first class.

An Imaginary Entity 

John Hartley and Ien Ang 1991 both said that people who create media products also create an imaginary entity within their mind. They do this to help decide who their product is going to be catering for, and what it would have within it to help satisfy that particular demographic here is an example for X-Men first class:

Imaginary Entity For X-Men first class

Billy is a 16 year old who loves going to the cinema every Saturday. Before he goes to the cinema he books his tickets online using his iPhone 4, which is his favourite piece of technology that he owns. He particularly loves going out on Saturdays with his three friends because it usually means grabbing a bite to eat, usually at McDonald’s, which is Billy's fast food place of choice. When he eventually gets to the cinema he purchases a bottle of Pepsi from the cinema. But his favorite part of the day is when he gets to relax at the cinema and become absorbed within a new super hero film usually marvel as he believes DC has a fairly boring cast of characters. His favorite pastimes outside of going to the cinema involves playing games on his PlayStation 3 usually GTA as he enjoys the escapism aspects to his video games as well as his film preferences. He has a fairly large collection of comic books, which he trades with his friends for other comic books, as he likes to have a vast knowledge of the world of super heroes so he can compare certain aspects of certain heroes.

NRS

NRS stands for National Readership Service. They define people into category's including, Including lifestyle which is the way somebody lives there life as well as Spending power which is somebody's disposable income.

Disposable income

X-Men first class is targeted towards an ABC1 audience which is at 60%. This includes upper middle class, middle class as well as lower middle class. A global film company such as 20th Century Fox wants to target a mass audience and this is the ideal demographic to target as they have the most income coming in. As opposed to a film who's target audience is a niche audience which is where a film isn't tailored for global consumption but for a specific area or a particular topicThe reason as to why they want to target such an audience is because this film cost 237 million to make and the ideal would be to make this money back with a profit. The thing about X-Men first class is that it can be marketed towards younger children as Fox have produced merchandise including posters and action figures for this film. These would both easily be marketed towards a younger audience that may have not even seen the film and just know of the franchise and are familiar with the heroes this is another reason as to why Fox are aiming towards an ABC1 audience as they will be able to afford these kind of products.

Gratification Theory 

The uses and Gratification theory created by Denis McQuail (1972). This is about the reason as to why people decide to watch specific films. The main reasoning as to why someone would watch X-Men first class is for the feeling of escapism which is all about people forgetting about their own life and getting absorbed into fictional characters own problems which are for more interesting and unrealistic interesting compared to their own. This sort of films goal is to get the audience so invested within the characters they form some sort of emotional connection with them. This therefore makes the film more interesting and the chances of the audience viewing any sequels or watching the other films is far higher.

Star Persona’s, Ideal selves as well as Ideal partners

Carl Rogers (1980) came up with a theory about ideal partners as well as idea selves. An Ideal self is an actor that the audience would look up to within a film, almost like a role model. Within X-men first class Charles Xavier played by James McAvoy could be an ideal self for a male viewer as he comes across as the most intelligent character within this film and is the leader of the group, which is something a stereotypical male would aspire to be in real life. An ideal Partner within this film would be Raven who is played by Jennifer Lawrence as she would be attractive to most of the males who watch this and as X-men first class's gender demographic is mostly males they have included her partly due to her appearance to capture the male gaze. But Jennifer Lawrence has also been chosen due to the fact she is a Star Persona which is a theory made by Richard Dyer (1975) which is the fact Jennifer Lawrence is a very well known actor after being in the film Winter's Bone this made her well known so people who are a fan of her work are more likely to watch X-men first class which is another reason as to why she would have been cast to play one of the main characters within this film Mystique.

Lifestyle

This will appeal to people with the lifestyle of:
Producers as they are interested to see what kind of things they could pastiche or get inspired off by this film. Because this film uses a lot of special effects wither it be CGI to add wings onto a character  or explosions to connote danger. This film has a huge budget and therefor shows what aspiring producers or current producers should be aiming to create a film that is as successful as X-Men first class.
Thriving Greys This would be good for thriving greys as it is a nice way to sit back and relax as the story has quite a few plot twists within it to keep people with this sort of lifestyle entertained for an extended period of time.
Urban Ventures this film is good for students as this is a fairly cheap film to watch wither they stream it online or buy it on DVD or even if they went to watch it when it was first released. Watching a film is quite an easy form of entertainment to access.
Affluent Achievers  this too is something to spend their money on and relax as the story can appeal to people with all sorts of intelligence as it has a fairly complex story or for people who aren't as intelligent it can appeal to them as  it has lots of action in it wither it be glass smashing or explosions.

Gender

The main gender for X-Men first class is primarily males, as they stereotypically prefer action films more than females do. But this film is easily accessible to both genders because it also has a fairly complex storyline as well as a lot of action. But X-Men is generally associated with action so automatically gets marginalised as a fairly "dumb" sort of film, so this will be more likely to pick up a male demographic as again stereotypically males prefer action films. This is why 75% of the demographic are male and the other 25% being female. A few examples from the film to back up this is targeted towards a male audience, could include the fact that Charles and Eric go to a strip club to seek out a mutant and obviously within this scene there are quite a few females wearing very little clothes this has purposefully been encoded to capture the male gaze, and therefor is targeted at a male demographic. Another example could be the scene when Shaw attacks this scene is jammed packed with action as you can see and helps back up the points I was making before about this being an action film and therefor stereotypically being aimed toward a male audience.

Age

The target age group for X-men first class is above the age certificate it has been given which is recommended at a 12. But I would say it is aimed at a more mature audience as this films drops the F bomb within it, which parents may argue, isn't appropriate for their child to watch or hear. This film appears to be made for males in their early to late teens between the ages of 13 to 35 but is very accessible for any age group above 12. The reason as to why I would say that this is aimed at such an age group is because it is full of action, which generally associated with a male audience as well as the amount of females, which are dressed in little clothing.