Audience Targeting in Sci-Fi Movies

Mainstream vs Niche: 

Mainstream- The main body of all movie audience; the 'majority' or the '99%'. There are some sci-fi films that target this audience and use various techniques in their advertising, themes and cinematic structure to achieve this. For example Hollywood films tend to be very mainstream as they have such large budgets they need to appeal to a lot of people to make the money spent on production and advertising budget back.

Niche- Niche movies tend to target specific and deep interests and often explore more unusual or thought provoking themes. While most sci-fi films are mainstream they did begin as niche movies and therefore some directors and producers, particularly those with a lower budget, will opt for the more niche directorial choices. Evidently niche movies have much lower budgets and this is what allows them to create these more niche movies; they don't have the factor of making to much money to worry about.

Segmentation:

Segmentation is the idea of breaking target audiences up into groups or 'segments' using ideas such as demographics or psychographics.

Demographics- Demographics are one means of segmentation which uses factual information to categorise many different fields that are relevant to the characteristics of an audience into one group, for example fields such as Age, Gender, Occupation and Class may all be grouped into one demographic

Psychographics- Psychographics deal less with factual information and focus instead on the attitudes and values of an audience such as 'survivors' that are interested in security and routine or 'social climbers' who are interested in material wealth and status symbols.

Sci-Fi Target Audience Profile:

A science fiction fan will typically have a certain set of interests and ideas that make them relatively simple to target. While a relatively untrue stereotype in the modern day, most would expect a sci-fi fan to be interested in and this usually fits the 'geek' or 'nerd' persona. This means that the age of the target audience will tend to be lower as this is a stereotype most people grow out of. These are also usually caucasian white males in the western world such as Europe or North America. These people are also usually of a middle to upper class background and slightly more intelligent. Additionally, these people fit the psychographics of 'Social Climbers' or 'Explorers' as they are usually interested in finding new concepts and discovering more and more new franchises to fit their interests. Resultantly sci-fi advertising and design can be analysed and should reflect these descriptions. Despite this it should be noted that there are a lot of people that fall outside of this demographic and psychographic and a lot of sci-fi films are also made to target other audiences.

Uses & Gratifications (U&G):

This theory tries to explain the reasons people use a media text and divides this into 4 sections. Entertainment and diversion suggest that people use these films as a diversion and escapism from real life. Surveillance and Information suggest that people use these films to find out new ideas and concepts and further their knowledge through cinema. Personal Identity shows people to want to relate to a character as they are similar in characteristics with the character. Finally personal companionship is the idea of people wanting to build companionship with characters and feel for what happens to them (hence the case on soaps).

Genre Appeal

Sci-fi films appeal to audiences for a variety of reasons. Films such as Blade Runner and The Matrix appeal as they allow people to intellectually challenge the actions of humanity through the medium of film. The extravagant and aesthetically pleasing effects and set pieces also lead people who enjoy more simple action style movies to get in on the genre too. These movies know their audience and in cases such as Han Solo in Star Wars, characters are designed with an intent to appeal to a specific audience. These films are also family friendly in a lot of cases meaning that they become more child friendly action flicks for families to enjoy while still experiencing a film that respects adult humour and interests.

The plot lines of these films are also easy to follow with relatable and interesting characters. For example in Star Trek: Into Darkness the goal is simply to find and stop a villain but the fantastic and unique characterisation through actors like Benedict Cumberbatch allows sci-fi movies to appeal as interesting character studies and showcases of acting talent while the plot does not intellectually challenge the viewer. Movies like The Matrix and Terminator also utilise this simple narrative structure to express certain themes like, in this case, the power of machines and humanity's effect on itself.

The structure of these films tends to resemble that of the action and thriller genres. These are perhaps the most popular genres of film for most of the population. The resemblance with these genres allows sci-fi films to easily straddle the line between action films meaning the audience happily transfer over and therefore sci-fi films can attract a much larger audience through these grounds.

Science Fiction & Media Language

Genre Conventions:

Conventions- The standard and accepted means of representing a genre; 'the key ingredient'.

Narrative:

• Less detailed or thought provoking ideas, usually very simple similar to action movies
• Centre around a few key concepts that are never what people expect in everyday life
• Humans vs Aliens 
• Visiting alien planets
• Using fiction to create wild yet plausible scenarios
• Time travel etc
• Post apocalyptic 

Characters:

• Heroic, intelligent 
• Well spoken, of alien races often
• Usually unusual but plausible and close to humans making them relatable
• Wise older character
• Protagonist- Human male usually due to target audience
• Antagonist- Usually alien male
• Often more than one hero (hero teams)

Mise en Scene:

• Unusual settings and costumes that usually seem somewhat futuristic
• Innovative special effects and practical effects
• Spaceships and unusual vehicles
• Lots of space-like colours (Black, Purple, Green, Metallic, Neon)
• Relatable imagery in terms of faces of humans to make the films more relatable
• Sometimes set on earth in future
• High tech weaponry
• Extravagant makeup on non humans 

Themes: 

• Sometimes dealing with ideologies and beliefs over what humans are capable of
• Bravery and loyalty to humanity 
• Humanity overcoming technology and aliens
• Creating a new future
• Teamwork
• Reviewing and criticising the advancement and furthering of technology 
• The power of love
• Humans destroying their own planet
• Few vs many (David and the Goliath) 

Other:

• Innovative special effects with lots of CGI
• More modern fonts or graphics
• Regular music with strange 
• Common actors and directors such as Spielberg and Harrison Ford

Science Fiction

Science Fiction is a genre that deals with the impact of imagined innovations in science or technology, often in a futuristic setting. This is also often a realistic speculation.

Sub-Genres:

Alien Invasion (Independence day, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, War of the Worlds)
Nuclear Threat or Catastrophe(Terminator 2, 2012, Planet of the Apes)
Mutation of Creatures(The Matrix)
Space/Time Travel(Star Wars, Star Trek, Aliens)