By Bailee and Liam G322 QUESTION 1

WHAT IS THE OVERALL TREND IN FILM CONSUMPTION? GROWTH/DECLINE?

As we can see, there has been a massive decrease in the amount of admissions to the cinema from the years 1935 to 2015. This therefore shows that although cinema’s were popular within the initial release , their admissions slowly decreased, perhaps due to the amount of new technology created within the time period. As the years have developed newer and more convenient technology have come into our hands, particularly within the 21st century, meaning it is easier for the population to use items such as phones, DVD players etc. which implies to me that people are viewing films less due to the convergence of those other technologies, suggesting to exhibition companies it would be easier to target those in the 21st century via methods such as trailers, social media etc. Although, the largest decrease between the years 1945 to the years 1965 is perhaps due to the war, as this started in 1939 and finished in 1945, suggesting to me that this decline is due to the destruction of film broadcasting buildings.

WHO WATCHES FILMS IN THE UK (AGE)

As we can see, the largest amount of people viewing films in correlation to age is the category ’15-24’ year olds, making up to 35% of the audiences within the cinema. This shows that teenagers (mid/ older years) are the ones viewing media productions the most. This implies that the ones that are actively seeking media out the most are audiences of their teenage years meaning that is perhaps why the media targets them the most, increasing how much they visit the cinema. As predicted, those least going to visit the cinema are ages 45-56+, this is perhaps because they are not in touch with technology as much as those of younger ages are, as the older generations are perhaps less able to visit the cinema, resulting in them purchasing DVD’s etc. thus suggesting we should target older generations via methods more accessible within the home, and those of younger generations in methods such as cinema, social networking etc.

WHO WATCHES FILMS IN THE UK (GENDER)

Within the year 2015, we can see that the gender dominating the cinema were males, overall making up 51% of the admissions within the cinema. This is suggesting that males are more actively going to watch films within the cinema institute than women are. We can see a clear difference within the type of films the two genders are choosing to partake in watching, with the females edging towards the more feminine films such as ‘suffragette’ and the males leaning towards the more action packed films such as ‘Mad Max Fury Road’ suggesting both genders are visiting the cinema, just to witness different films. This would overall suggest that producers aiming towards either genre would not have issues reaching their target audiences.

Within the figures it is hard to see which ethnicit ies are visit ing the cinema the most, this could be vital to someone producing or distributing a film as if they wanted to aim their production at a particular culture/ethnicity it would be harder to estimate how many would view the film. This perhaps because institutions do not tend to aim their productions at particular ethnicit ies and focus more on the easier characteristics to target such as gender, age and social class.

However from the results we can see, majority of the audiences partaking in viewing media productions are white, suggesting other ethnicit ies are less l ikely to watch a production, meaning they are less l ikely to be targeted to watch films.

WHICH AUDIENCE GROUPS ARE UNDER-REPRESENTED IN THE

FIGURES?

WHERE/HOW DO PEOPLE WATCH FILMS?

Within this graph we can see that the most popular form of viewing media production is watching TV with DVD/blu ray following a clos second. This suggests that people would rather enjoy watching a film within the comfort of their own home, implying to institutions they should aim more are targeting people via DVD/TV. However, cinema is third most common platform for witnessing films suggesting people do like to engage with media productions via the cinema. This furthermore implies that although it is more convenient for audiences to watch at home , many still like to visit the cinema.

WHAT TYPE OF FILMS ARE THE MOST POPULAR?

Within 2015, we can see the majority of most popular films are within the action genre. This suggests to institutions they should be creating productions that contain elements of action as it is what audiences are enticed to watch more over other genre’s. However, the institution releasing the most films seems to be Universal. This is because Universal is seen to be the most recognisable institution company with the highest levels of affluence, suggesting they have the largest amount of money to help fund the most films which is why they released the most in 2015.

Overall we can see technology helps contribute tremendously to the distribution and exhibition of films within society. The wide variety of platforms to choose from helps media distributors to target their audiences as they are able to aim their production via the platform their audience will be active with the most. Without technology it would be extremely difficult to target audiences as well as show your production to the public which is why it is important we use technology to show our films wisely.

WHAT ROLE DOES TECHNOLOGY PLAY IN THE CONSUMPTION OF FILM

TODAY?