Thursday, March 13, 2025

Researching and Planning: CCR Q2 (Target Audience and Distribution)

    Hey all! Last week I talked a little about my CCR and the 4 questions I had to address in my 2 media products. My last post on planning the CCR was all about Q1, so I thought it only made sense to discuss Q2 in this post. So for this blog post, I will be covering Q2—How does your product engage with audiences, and how would it be distributed as a real media text?


Target Audience:

Who, what, and why?
    The target audience of a film is who the film is marketed to. It's essentially who the producer or director of a film wants to actually watch the film. Target audiences can be defined by different demographics or psychographics to build up brand loyalty and encourage a specific group to consume or purchase something like a product. So who is my target audience? My target audience for my film is Gen Z (15-25) with a lean toward women. Because teens, but especially teen girls, are the ones being represented in my film, and the consequences of trends and social media remain such a huge focus, this was my clear target audience. Even though women are not necessarily the target audience of horror films, the specific plot of my film helped determine the specific audience.

How?
    I engage my target audience particularly through my use of a specific color scheme, a plot centered on social media, unique mise-en-scène, and foreshadowing. My purplish color scheme is something that attracts teen girls, as evident by the popularity of shows using the same color scheme, like Euphoria. My plot being centered around TikTok and the TikTok shop, something that more teenagers know rather than older generations, helps make direct appeals. I even included clips of the audios from TikToks I made that replicated what is actually produced on the app. The biggest part of my opening is my use of cool mise-en-scène like a Ouija board, tarot cards, and things like candles with lavender leaves on them. This adds to the appeal of my film, especially for my audience. Additionally, there is a moment where my main character organizes her deck of tarot cards and the death card is the only car seperated from the rest of the cards foreshadowing what is going to happen during the reading at the end of the opening and other parts of the film. These techniques work together to appeal to my audience.

Proof of use of these methods for audience engagement (lighting/color scheme is shown throughout): 

Mise-en-Scène (the lavender candle)

Foreshadowing with the death card

Mindlessly scrolling on Tiktok




Distribution:

The next part of this question for the CCR is about how I plan to distribute my media text, aka my film. Below I have divided up my plan into steps.

Step One: Social Media Marketing
    For this part of my distribution plan, I would release small clips of parts of the film on TikTok and Insta Reels as the first step of my distribution plan to drive engagement as well as market the film's release.
Step Two: Host a Film Night
    Both Savor Cinema in Fort Lauderdale and Cinema Paradiso in Hollywood allow independent productions to host screenings of their films. This could be a fun way to encourage more people to watch my film and expose more people to the film by having an opening night or premiere like event.
Step Three: Posting it online
    I would make the film then available on free streaming services like Tubi and Vimeo as well as YouTube, giving a lot more people access.
Step Four: Compete at FLIFF
    At this point I would submit my film to the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, or FLIFF, through FilmFreeway to try and get my film presented in an environment with people in the business with more connections. There are even various awards and prizes I could win, even high school-specific ones, as the festival really emphasizes supporting student-made films. The festival is at several locations (some are the same cinemas from my premiere), and it could be great exposure for me to those in the film professional world rather than to my target audience and friends and family that would come to the premiere.


    Here are all the high school awards. This picture is directly from the application sites website. Click here for the link
 



Credits to: 

“Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.” FilmFreeway, 2024, filmfreeway.com/FortLauderdaleInternationalFilmFestival. Accessed 14 Mar. 2025.

“Fort Lauderdale Film Festival – Fort Lauderdale Film Festival + FLIFF Cinemas.” Fliff.com, 2023, fliff.com/. Accessed 14 Mar. 2025.

O’Grady, Natalie. “Target Audience: What It Is and How to Find Yours.” Sprout Social, 27 Mar. 2024, sproutsocial.com/insights/target-audience. Accessed 14 Mar. 2025.



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