USING YOUR CASE STUDY
PART 8: The ways in which the candidates’
own experience of media consumption
illustrate wider patterns and trends of
audience behaviour
Reflect on what you watch and why? Your generation are often
represented as having a different attitude to moving image media.
Think about how true the following statements are for you.
- Young people’s exposure to an endless torrent of media
images and messages means that they have a limited
attention span. Unless something grabs them instantly, they
will be looking to ‘flick’ and find something else to watch.
- Young people have no patience for slow-moving and
demanding narratives.
- Young people are increasingly in the habit of watching moving
images on their own. This is particularly true in the family
home where young people have TVs/DVDs/PCs in their own
room. Increasingly, this is also the case via hand-held mobile
devices.
- Their own film-making and exposure to lots of DIY films on
youtube has made the DIY/amateur aesthetic popular among
young people.
- The youtube generation are also used to watching things in
ten minute bursts where the gratification is instant. A film can
seem inordinately long by comparison.
- The interaction that young people are accustomed to through
videogame playing means that they are easily bored and
frustrated by the relatively passive experience of filmwatching.
- The spectacularly visual experience means that young
audiences, particularly boys, expect similar visual stimulation
from a film. They demand that films be spectacular.
- Young people have become accustomed to the idea that they
can get music free (illegally) through the internet. They do
not put the same value on media experiences and are less
willing to pay for films when they are aware of the possibilities
of pirate copies, illegal downloads etc.
- Young people are particularly responsive to online
advertising/marketing and to recommendations from their
own peer group. They are much less likely than previous
generations to read reviews in newspapers. Most likely, they
will be visually attracted to a film through a trailer or striking
poster campaign.
-
Young people increasingly live in the now (or even the near
future); they are reluctant to seek out older films.
- For reasons considered above, young people can be impatient
viewers. They are therefore particularly reluctant to watch
foreign language films.
Given the many other ways in which films can be accessed at home
and on the move, young people tend to see going to the cinema as
a ‘special occasion’ rather than their standard means of accessing
films.
Think about Working Title Films and you…..
Look at the list of Working Title films at the end of this document.
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Which have you seen?
Can you remember the circumstances in which you saw them?
Can you remember why you saw them and how you
responded to them?
How do you perceive the list as a whole in terms of the
intended audience?
Do you think the films are intended for you and your peers? If
not, who?
Look at some of the recent marketing for films like The Boat
that Rocked and State of Play? Where did you encounter
this marketing? Did it appeal to you?
WORKING TITLE FILMS
A World Apart (film)
About a Boy (film)
Ali G Indahouse
Atonement (film)
Barton Fink
The Big Lebowski
Billy Elliot
The Boat That Rocked
Bob Roberts
The Borrowers (1997 film)
Bridget Jones's Diary (film)
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (film)
Burn After Reading
The Calcium Kid
Captain Corelli's Mandolin (film)
Catch a Fire (film)
Chicago Joe and the Showgirl
Dead Man Walking (film)
Definitely, Maybe
Drop Dead Fred
Edward II (film)
Elizabeth (film)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Fargo (film)
For Queen and Country
40 Days and 40 Nights
Four Weddings and a Funeral
French Kiss (film)
Frost/Nixon (film)
Green Zone (film)
The Guru (2002 film)
The Hi-Lo Country
Hot Fuzz
The Hudsucker Proxy
Inside I'm Dancing
The Interpreter
Johnny English
Land and Freedom
Loch Ness (film)
London Kills Me
Long Time Dead
Love Actually
The Man Who Cried
The Man Who Wasn't There
Map of the Human Heart
Mickybo and Me
Moonlight and Valentino
Bean (film)
Mr. Bean's Holiday
My Beautiful Laundrette
My Little Eye
Nanny McPhee
Ned Kelly (2003 film)
Notting Hill (film)
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Panther (film)
Paperhouse (film)
Plunkett & Macleane
Posse (1993 film)
Pride & Prejudice (2005 film)
The Return of the Borrowers
Robin Hood (1991 film)
Romeo Is Bleeding
Rubin and Ed
Sammy and Rosie Get Laid
Shaun of the Dead
Smokin' Aces
The Soloist
State of Play (film)
Tales of the City (TV miniseries)
The Tall Guy
The Comic Strip
Thunderbirds (film)
United 93 (film)
Wild Child (2008 film)
Wimbledon (film)
Wish You Were Here (1987 film)
The Young Americans (film)