Task 1 - Constucting Media Products for Specific Audiences

Paul Mckay

In this task i will be comparing the differences of two different types of media products.
one being a holloywood production with alot of budget behind its name and the other
being a smaller indie flick with a low budget. I will be comparing to understand the
methods producers will do to get a specific audience demograaphic.

Independent Movie Production: The Texas Chainsaw masscare (1974)

The media product i will be looking at for the independent section is the texas chainsaw
massacre oringally released in 1974 directed by Tobe Hopper.

The movie is seen as the biggest ever indpendent horror movie and kickstarted the craze
that would lead to the low budget horror gore phase on the 80's and 90's. The
independent features of this movies shows as not only did Hopper direct he also wrote
and produced this movie with Kim Henkel co-producing it. The movie had only aa budget
of $140'000 which is so string budget compared to anything that is released by
hollywood. With the little money there was no room for mistakes and reshooting
nevermind extra staff to help out.

Texas Chainsaw massacre is again a horror gore movie. The film follows a group of
friends who fall victim to a family of cannibals while on their way to visit an old
homestead. Although it was marketed as a true story to attract a wider audience and as
a subtle commentary on the era's political climate, its plot is entirely fictional; however,
the character of Leatherface and minor plot details were inspired by the crimes of real-
life murderer Ed Gein. The movie takes place in a old house in the middle of nowhere
and is almost exclusivly shot there meaning not much of the budget had to be spent on
props and locations.

At the time Texas chainsaw massacare was one of the most contrversial movies released
and would have not gained much positive publicity. It was torn apart for showing to
much graphic "realistic" gorey scenes. Upon its October 1974 release the movie was
banned outright in several countries, and numerous theaters later stopped showing the
film in response to complaints about its violence. it ended up being enormously
profitable, grossing over $30 million at the domestic box office as people went to see it
for the shock factor and too see if it was bas as the news had said. It has since received a
positive reappraisal and gained a reputation as one of the best and most influential
 horror films in cinema history.

With the Genre and age rating the target audience was very small. It would mainly be
18-32 males that would watch the movie with 18-32 females coming in just behind also
with all the bans and low budget not many people would be able to see this movie. With
a budget of 140,000 the movie suprised audiences and critics and made over $30 million
worldwide.

Hollywood Blockbuster: Avengers

Avengers is the biggest blockbuster series in the world right now releasing a movie every
year and every one getting a great response. I will be talking about the orginal today
released in 2012 directed by joss wheon and produced by Kevin Feige. Based on the
comics of the same name the movie revolves around 6 superheros that must form a
team to defeat loki a villian with the goal of destroying earth. This movie had massive
funding and with this was allowed to do whateevr it wanted.

The movie was given a 12A rating in the UK and 12 in the USA. From these ratings we
can tell that the BBFC advised the parents that their would be some violence and some
adult matieral that may be demmed not child friendly but that nothing graphic or mind
altering would appear on screem so this movie would fine to watch if you 13 or older.

The target demographic of this movie was targeted towards 12-18 year olds but had a
suprise demographic of 18-36 year olds that had read the comics when they were
younger and still loved this series. Aswell as this they had a strong female lead that
would bring in girls and strong male leads that would bring in boys. Overall there was
something for every person to enjoy in the movie.

Avengers had a budget of $220 million and grossed over 1.519 billion in the world. It was
able to succed as it was very well hyped and marketed aswell as it being an addition to a
much beloved franchaise.
The two movies i researched were vastly different but both succeeded in their own right.
Avengers had had over 2000 times more budget than TCM but TCM made more profit
relative to the budget. Movies like avengers stay away from trying anything new or
creative as they could lose money. Anything that dosent gross over $200 million in
hollywood is seen as a failure while anything that makes money in the independent
sector is seen as a success. Hollywood is only in it for the money so will stick to the same
old formula and make the movies as aceesible as possible. Anything released by them
has over 300 million more people that can fall under their audience while TCM does not.

Research

Using Survey monkey which is a platform that you can create surveys to conduct
research i made a post to see how different demographics feel about the two different
medias and how they relate to the financial preformance.

I created the surveys and shared them with my friends and posted them to my twitter. i
made sure to get atleast 10 participents to make sure the research was varied. From the
results 40% were females, 50% were males and 10% identfied as other. 20% were under
the age of 18 making them legally not allowed to watch texas chainsaw masacare 70%
were 18-28 and 10% were over 35. All participents how took place in the survey were
either in higher education, Working or Both. 80% of participents were from the UK while
10% was from poland and 10% denmark.

70% of participents had not watched Texas Chainsaw masacare when asked why 60%
 stated that the movie was too gorey and that they had not liked that style of movie so
had avoided it, one person also stated that the movie was too old and therefore would
be boring to watch and be a waste of time. Of the 30% of people that watched it i asked
if they enjoyed the movie. 20% said they did while the other 10% said they did not for
the same reasons why much of the other people had not watched it. I then asked them
to rate the movie 1-10 (10 being the best) and why they had voted that. One person had
given it a 7 saying the movie was good but outdated although generally fun to watch.
The last person gave it a 9 saying that it is one of their favourite movies and a cult
classic.

100% of the participents had seen avengers which gave a good response to work from. If
asked if they liked it 90% said yes while 10% said no. when asked why they hadnt
watched the movie they said the genre did not intrest them. when asked to give ratings
from 1-10 10% gave it 4, 50% gave it 7 30% gave it an 8 and the last 10% gave it a 10. The
genreal response to the people giving it a 7 said they enjoyed the movie but would not
go out of their way to watch it again. the 30% that gave it an 8 said it was one of their
favourite movies due to the comedy action and drama and the person that gave it a 10
said that it was his favourite movie of all time as he was a massive fan of the comics.