Kym's Media AS Coursework

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid, with the largest and most fundamental levels of needs at the bottom, and the need for self-actualization at the top.

The most elementary and basic four layers of the pyramid contain what Maslow called deficiency needs or d-needs: esteem, friendship and love, security, and physical needs are the needs we don’t need as much. With the exception of the most basic (physiological) needs, if these deficiency needs are not met, the body gives no physical indication but the individual feels anxious and tense. Maslow's theory suggests that the most basic level of needs must be met before the individual will strongly desire (or focus motivation upon) the secondary or higher level needs. Maslow also coined the term Metamotivation to describe the motivation of people who go beyond the scope of the basic needs and strive for constant betterment. Metamotivated people are driven by B-needs (Being Needs), instead of deficiency needs (D-Needs).

Audience Catogarisation

Audience research is a major part of any media company, using questionnaires, focus groups, and comparisons to existing media texts, they will spend a great deal of time and money ascertaining if there is anyone out there who might be interested in their idea. By doing categorising audiences it helps the media industry know who they are targeting. There are three ways of categorising: Demographic, Geographic, Psychographic profiling.

Demographic Segmentation

Demographic are the characteristics of the population, which are normally used in market research to that you know who you are aiming you media product at. So common ones are:

v genre

v age

v race

v income

v disabilities

Age: at different ages peoples needs and wants change compared to other people of different ages. This is why businesses create things to target different age groups for example nappies for babies, toys for children, clothes for teenagers and so on.

Gender: is normally used when advertising products. When marketing the product the business has to think who the product is more suitable for. For example women are going to prefer cosmetics more than men, and men are going to prefer fast cars more than women. So when applying this to a film by adding in gender pacific things this can appeal to their potential audience, or if wanting to appeal to both men and women the film should include unisex subjects and/or both gender specific products/activities.

Psychographic profiling

Psychographics marketing involves dividing potential customers into groups, according to their psychological characteristics such as personality, values, attitudes, interests, or lifestyles. Most marketing involves certain demographics, which refers to factors such as the age, location, marital status, ethnicity and religion of the person in question. Psychographics goes beyond demographics to ask questions on their lifestyles, behaviour and attitude of the person to build up a more detailed picture of who they are. This then gives us an idea of the type of people which will watch certain genres of films.

When a profile of a person or group's psychographic make-up is constructed, this is called a "psychographic profile".

Psychographic profiling can include:

v Life style

v Personality

v Values

v Attitude

v Interests

Geographic Segmentation

Geographic segmentation divides markets into geographical areas. We use geographic segmentation because people in different areas show different characteristics and behaviours in a particular area than people in other areas. An area can be divided by the town, the region or the country. By doing this if you wanted to target a pacific country or town to show your film you can do geographical research to see what that area prefers more. This saves you having to try to make your film appeal to a wider audience when you are not even targeting them.
Geographic segmentation can include:

v Political views

v Different climates

v Population numbers

Uses and Gratifications Theory

Uses and gratifications theory is a popular media approach to understanding the needs of consumers; it asks what people do with media. The audience take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. The theory suggests that the audience chose media to meet their needs. The most common reason for media usage is:

To gain information= finding out about relevant events, their surroundings, their society, the world, seeking advice, satisfy curiosity, to learn.

To gain a personal identity= reinforce personal values, finding models of behaviour, identifying with someone in the media, gaining insight into themselves.

For integration and social interaction= gain social empathy, identify with others, gain sense of belonging, substitute for real-life companionship, being able to connect with family, friends and society.

For entertainment= Escaping their problems, relaxing, aesthetic enjoyment, filling time, emotional release.

Strengths of the uses and gratifications theory are that it gives the director and creator something to base their film on; making sure that the film will be able to reflect on all four subject areas. However that can be a weakness as it can stump creative flow by making sure your product matches all of the four areas. Strength of this is that when creating your media product you knows how the audience will consume the product, so when you create the product you can try look at areas more in depth. A bad weakness is that the film will not be able to appeal to everyone’s wants and needs for a media product.

We will be using the uses and gratification theory to help us to target our audience by trying to make sure our film includes the four points above. So the audience will gain total satisfaction from our media product.

Considering micro elements for our film

When creating our own opening sequence we need to take into consideration how we are going to use the micro elements and why they are important to create the film and attract the audience. Through research into opening sequences we have gathered ideas on how to include the micro elements.

Sound: sound is important cause it can help to reflect the action and mood in the scene. Diegetic sounds such as dialogue help to engage the audience cause these are sounds from real life and they can relate to them. Use of music help to again reflect the action and mood of the scene for example the faster and lighter it is the happier the mood in scene is. We are considering using modern day music as the audience will understand and relate to it, also with lyrics so that it can reflect the action on screen again the audience may relate to the words.
We have narrowed down our soundtrack decision list to two songs : Anya Marina- Satellite Heart and Grizzly Bear- Slow Life as these both create a calm but slightly suspicious theme to the film and the lyrics of Satellite Heart in the chorus are very moving and emotional.

Camera Angles, Shots and Movement: camera angles are important to help reflect the genre of the piece, for example using medium shots can show a drama genre and fast tracking shots and hand held shots can reflect the genre of horror. Camera shots are also important cause they allow the audience too see as much or as little as the director wants, depending how much of the narrative they want to give away. We are going to attract the target audience through a wide variety of shots as it keeps the film intresting however keeping it simple as we do not want the shots to be too over the top and take away the action from the film.

Editing: editing we are going to keep simple through the use of cuts and fades becuase these help to relfect the drama genre as the are not too over the top and just show you whats on screen and does not take the audiences attention away from the film. Editing is important cause it helps to keep the narrative following correctly for example the faster the shot transitions the more up paced the film is. Again it also helps to reflect the genre.

Mise en scene: mise en scene is very important becuase everything within the shot is there to show the audience the genre of the film and help to tell the narrative. Without the consideration of things like costume, props and location the film would not make any sense to the audience. To engage target audience we are going to create the characters based on typical young people at the current moment and set it in a place all young people relate to; college and school.