Preproduction: Audience Research

 Introduction

As our team has previously learned, getting to know the specific target audience that we would like to communicate to is important, as it will be easier to reach them and pique their interest. To add, our production team values the voices of unique experiences and backgrounds, and therefore, we wanted to know more about the demographics present in our school to give us a better idea of what to brainstorm and create. In this task, I referenced numerous sources to support this thorough analysis on the demographics and psychographics of generation Z. Our group looks forward to reaching our mainstream audience by learning more about them, and sharing a message that is important to them!

Below is a chart annotating the analysis of our most popular audience of our film.

-Age: 14 years old to 17 years old    -Race: Mixed Audience from different cultural backgrounds    -Social Status: Middle Class, Lower GDP (moderate income)    -Economic Status: Lower Middle Class (Lower Gross Domestic Product; income or value)    -Ethnicities: Hispanic, Latin, Caucasian, African American, and Asian    -Education: High School to College    -Region: Southern area of the United States    -Religion: Non-specific and Christian    -Culture(s): American culture  Ideas- Democracy, equality, informal, privacy, directness, diversity/ inclusivity, and individualism  Cuisine/Diet- Not specific (many international cuisines are available), however, commonly consists of finger foods (nuggets, fries, or packaged snacks), hamburgers, salad, variety of desserts/ sweets (apple pie, for example), pizza, and barbeque.  Traits- Charming, welcoming, diverse in cultures, manners, southern slang/ dialects, thinner/ lighter clothing because of the warm climate, humility, historical buildings built less than a century ago, and table etiquette    -Beliefs/ Values:  Norms- Punctuality, progressive (constantly changing laws and beliefs), courtesy, respect, tipping in restaurants, loud background noises, cityscapes, and busy traffic (in people and roads).  Values- Hospitality, consideration, lower taxes, respect for the elderly, protecting the environment/ natural resources, celebrations and festivals that bring people together, and more religious (Christian)/ conservative.

Audience Psychographics:

-Attitudes: Mindfulness of surroundings/ environment, appropriate behavior based on setting or time, showing up to places on time is a stressed unspoken rule, showing gratitude for kind gestures (through acts of service or ‘thank you’ cards), being prepared to host company in any setting, patience while waiting in line, do not discuss politics, religion, or beliefs on sensitive topics while in public, profanity is generally frowned upon, hygiene, and civility.    -Interests: of Generation Z (1997-2012) Mostly Indoor Entertainment/ Activities  Genre- 38% Comedy and 32% Horror (statista.com)    Hobbies- Crocheting, Fantasy/ Fiction novels, Concerts (Taylor Swift Eras Tour), Self- Care (skincare, journaling, meditating, and intermittent exercise), playing video games, listening to music, watching YouTube, social media usage, and watching movies/ television shows.     Favorite Media Forums- YouTube (80%), Instagram (75%), TikTok (69%), and Snapchat (63%)    Topics of Interest- Digital media (usually on a smartphone or laptop), early 2000s trends, beliefs of insufficient government assistance/ intervention (70% of Gen Z), social justice, diversity, online shopping, discussions of early adulthood, and career choices, and mental health awareness.    Social Issues- Reducing Weapon Violence, access to clean water/air, quality education for youth, health care (food, medication, hygiene/ sterilization), stable economy, and creating jobs.     Behavior- Mental health routines (meditation, therapy, coping strategies), pragmatic, advocates for environmental sustainability, and equality, yearn for truth/ knowledge, frugal spending, frequent communication (via social media or verbal interaction), authentic identity, self-discovery, high consumption of streaming platforms (videos, music, and film), listens to podcasts, gaming, resist brands with problematic agendas, understanding other perspectives, consumes content that corresponds with their opinions, and empathy is a major virtue.    Attention Grabbers- Influencer Marketing, raw, unedited, relatable story times (realistic experiences), authentic advertising (genuine advice and results from using/ consuming a product), interaction is a MUST (Generation Z prefers to pay attention to issues they can be a part of and make an impact), sharing personal values, interactive storytelling, visuals, subtitles, include a CTA (call to action), sports, and clear, high-quality visuals.    -Lifestyles:  Social Behaviors- Informal dressing, casual discussions, sharing opinions and insights, frequent consumptions of technology, slang, and self-sufficiency  Customs- Informality, manners, small talk, inclusivity and tolerance, politeness, and casual mannerisms    -Personality: Passionate, awareness and care for global issues, aesthetic wardrobe fashion, celebrity parasocial relationships, cares more about the service/ quality of a product, money conscious, maturity, love to travel, feels connections through technology and media, and are anxious concerning the future state of society.    -Struggles: stress, anxiety, loneliness, poor mental health, unsafety at school, unaffordable cost of living and education, fears of global recession, artificial intelligence development in the workplace, insufficient income to live as desired, job insecurity, climate change, exponential growth in student loan debts, and high inflation.

Reflection

Ultimately, this secondary research involving the young generations opinions beyond our school provided a fresh perspective and take on possible directions our film could go in, and this task helped our team to better understand our audience's values, interests, tastes in genres, hobbies, personality types, struggles, and overall sense of self and identity. Knowing these critical attributes helps to not only consider how to connect to our audience, but to also effectively determine how to represent some groups of them in our film's representation of late Generation Alpha and Generation Z characters. Our team hopes to provide our audience satisfaction, and so far in our planning, our film's idea already includes some of the topics listed in this chart such as: race (our includes a diverse population), economic class (middle class), attitudes (mindfulness of surroundings), civility, genre (both generations mostly prefer horror or comedy related content), lifestyles (informality, casualness), and culture (American). It is worth mentioning that our marketing strategy includes one of the attention grabbers mentioned such as "Influencer Marketing, raw, unedited, relatable story times (realistic experiences), authentic advertising (genuine advice and results from using/ consuming a product)." While our film may not have a famous celebrity or influencer, similar to personal, attention grabbing experiences is partially the route our film will take, in which the story depicted and the characters within the film is meant to emulate that of a story time an influencer would share about their life. This would eventually achieve our goal of incorporating one of the leading/ major genres in our film, which is the drama genre. To explain, the drama genre is centered around relatable, real-life scenarios that could occur in one's daily life or occasionally, which is typically dramatized or exaggerated into an enticing story. Our team hopes to effectively represent and speak personally to our audience's experiences or to at least pique their interest!

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