Bums on seats

Showing my understanding of how producers create products that audiences will enjoy and how they get audiences enthused about these products.

My chosen blockbuster is the movie Dead Pool. Before releasing or even creating the movie, the producer had to consider who this movie was going to be targeted at. This was done by undergoing vast amounts of audience research. The producer needed to find out what type of audience would enjoy the content and conventions within the film.

Audiences can be defined by their Gender, Ethnicity, age, region, nationality and socio-economic group. Finding the right target audience for a film can be completed by taking these elements into consideration. Audience research is vital to finding the most suitable audience for your movie. “Dead Pool” contains huge amounts of violence. Researching which age group prefers violent films to nonviolent films would be stereo typically easy. Teenagers are proven to be more interested in films with action and violence than any genre. Now they have a rough idea on the age of the audience the producer would then decide what gender target. Boys are proven to like action films more than girls, as a result the producer can identify that the audience who would enjoy their movie the most would be teenage boys.

According to “Fast Company” It was probably the combination of violence and comedy in 2009’s Zombie land that brought Reese and Wernick to Fox’s attention. The producer of Dead Pool thought about what fans loved so much about other movies under the same genre. They responded to how much the consumer liked “Zombie land” and embedded the content within their film to capture the attention of fans and others who are interested in a film which has unique features that have never been seen before.

To identify which audience will be most suitable for the movie Dead Pool the producer would have used the Gratification model. The gratification model is when audiences choose media for their won pleasure. Dead pool appeals to people who want to have abilities which cannot physically occur in real life. This can be justified through previous opinions audiences have obtained by watching movies with similar conventions as Dead pool. Once the producer can identify the personal identity of an audience then they can release advertisement and trailers which make them feel want they want to feel.

Once the producer has identified who the target audience is, they can then think about how they are going to reach the audience. For the chosen target audience, in this case people who favour violence and comedy, the way in which the producer marketed the product was vital in terms of capturing their attention. Dead Pool was distributed in way that addressed the audience directly. For example, the billboard which contains the Dead pool character and the phrase “wait till you get a load of me” intrigued the audience because if felt like the image spoke to them. Also the producer put across the comedic side of the film by using synergy with other films. For example, one poster contained the layout for 127 hours however Dead Pool was in the rock and it stated “127 hours left”. This create a comedic feel for the audience to anticipate whether the film was going to be violent of funny. In addition, chat shows were held with the main character of the film “Ryan Ghostling” to give a preview on what the audience is to expect from the film. Teasers were released to the audience to give an insight on what the film is like but doesn’t reveal much to create excitement for the trailer.