The Lift Audience Profile

The Lift Audience Profile


 The Lift can be watched by all ages around the ages of 12 and onward but I think this documentary would be more suitable for more older viewers because of the fact I don't think people around the ages of 12 to 19 would be interested in this type of documentary.When I asked people in my questionnaire ' Do you think a filming documentary in one area or place would be interesting?'  and ' Would you like to watch a documentary about different people's lives?' everybody said yes which I was shock about because most of the people I asked were under 20 and I expected the results to be different. I think if I asked a range amount of people (different ages and different interest) my results would have been more. The Lift takes a lot of time for the documentary to get started properly, which will make people lose interest quickly because it's seems like nothing is going to happen and it's not the most exciting scenery, it's of a gloomy dark lift. This documentary would be more appropriate for (The Director) was trying to achieve from this documentary and will also relate and be more sensitive to the locals stories. The Lift is targeted at both males and female unlike Bowling for Columbine which you could tell that it was for males. The lift wasn't made for a specific gender as long as you are interested in what the daily life of a person in the UK then this documentary is for you. The person that watches this documentary has to have a good attention span because this documentary takes a while for it to get started and for people to become more open with the director Marc Isaac.

The Lift is more aimed at people in the UK because of the fact it is set in a British block and the aim is to analyse the way some British people live and Marc Isaac was trying to show the different type of people and characters that live in Britain. I don't think that this documentary was made by people outside of the UK but they could be interested in some of the British culture and also want to know how some people in the UK live their lives. This documentary was made for film festivals and it is too short to be in cinemas. The films is an usual approach to film a documentary and would probably attract a small and niche audience. The Lift would be aimed at all types of ethnicity because it show all type of different people's background not only 'White British' or 'Black British' but everyone that he come across in the The Lift. He comes across a lot of different cultures which he started to make some type of relationship with them which makes them open up more about their lives. The Lift can be aimed at all types of educational background because you don't need a degree to understand what is going on in this documentary and also what the director was trying to gain from this documentary. I think that this

In conclusion, when asking people what they thought about this film they said that they didn't really enjoy it because they found it a bit boring and wanted to stop watching it after a few minutes. The setting of 'The Lift' was also very off putting to people because it was set in one place for the entire documentary and also the lift looked dark, So I think the targeted people for this documentary would be a person who wants an average job, who has a good attention span, age 18+, open minded about people's lives and has an interested in British culture. This is a more general documentary compare to Bowling for Columbine because Bowling for Columbine is more controversial, cause it is challenges some of the way some Americans live their lives and is trying to change an aspect in American culture, whereas The Lift is trying to give you an insight of the type of people that live in a council estate in UK and the type of life they live and also the personality they have.

Whitney Cooper

Whitney Cooper is a 35 year old, working class female. She lives in east London, Hackney with her 2 children. She's also works a 9 - 5 job in Asda. This is the sort of person I think Marc Isaac is targeting in The Lift because these are the sort of families that have some time to sit down and watch some TV or a movie, this is normally after dinner. The Lift would be targeted at Whitney because she is more likely to relate and have a emotionally connections to some of the characters in the documentary. Whitney's power up is that she is a very sociable person and working in Asda gives her a chance to express her social skills, she is training to be a manager because she is good at taking the leader and sorting out problems. She also lives in the UK and can relate to some of the stories because she lives in a area similar to the estate in The Lift. When asking in my questionnaire 'Does British lifestyle and culture interest you?' majority of the people I asked said Yes because I am very interested in British lifestyle and culture. Whitney is very organised and punctually. She wakes up at 7 to get her kids ready for school and also getting ready for work. She drops her children at school and heads to for work. At work Whitney stocks up the shelves and works as a cashier. She picks up her children after-school club and when she get home she makes dinner. After dinner, Whitney and her children sit down and watch a bit of TV then at 9 she puts her children to bed. Even though Whitney seems quite busy, I think she is a good target audience for this documentary because she has time to watch documentary, this documentary is children friendly and also I think she could relate too some of the people in this documentary e.g. their lifestyle, background and some of the struggles they go through.

 Owchers that Whitney has is that she is very inpatient which might be a negative thing while watching this documentary because it takes quite a while for the people to start opening up the Marc Isaac. Another owcher is that she prefers watching soap shows like Eastenders, Emmerdales and Hollyoaks or talent shows like X factor or Strictly come dancing. A wowcher is that Whitney is very interested in British culture, this is good because in The Lift  you see  how people incorporates british cultures into their lifestyle

Whitney is socialise with all culture as her job involves her to talk to and help different cultures. She like to embrace and get to know about other people's culture especially her best friend who is Ghanaian.

Bowling for Columbine: Target Audience Profile Evaluation Draft

Bowling for Columbine: Target Audience

 Profile Evaluation.

Bowling for Columbine seems to be aimed at a numerous amount of people. In the evaluation I am going to be talking about who and the type of people that would watch this documentary. When I first started watching this documentary I thought that this documentary would be aimed at teenagers and young adults because of the fact that teenagers and young adults mostly dominate the cinema industry cause they have time and money spare. Another reason I thought that this documentary was aimed at teenagers and young adults was because most of the documentary was biased around these two boys who shot people that attended their school and also had interviews with teenagers showing their point of view on the school shooting and gun control for example there is a scene where Michael Moore is interviewing a teenager that has been in trouble with the law for making bombs and you see a middle shot of him so you can see the boy's face and body reaction when Michael Moore asks him certain questions. In the scene it also has random cuts and high shots of the teenagers playing pool and playing arcades games to show that even though he has been in trouble with law for having firearms and creating bombs, he is still a teenager.  This documentary also includes humour e.g. the south park style cartoon, to show how much American feared everything. This can also appeal to teenagers. But when I asked people in my questionnaire 'Have you ever been to the cinema to watch a documentary? if not, why?' and everybody answered no. One person I asked said it was because ' I've never seen them being advertised in my area, especially seeing as they're usually shown at film festivals, so I never really hear about them.' and also because they don't find it interesting or have the attention span to watch documentaries in the cinema.

When I finish the documentary I started to realise that this was more aimed towards adults ages 25+ because of the fact that documentaries are aimed at a adult audience because teenagers tend to go to the cinema to watch a Hollywood blockbuster, whereas documentaries are have more of a niche audience which are mostly adults. I think it's also targeted at adults because he suggest in a interview where there is a middle shot of manager of the bomb factory and also it cuts to a wide shot and close ups of different bombs and also the manager showing different types of bombs they have in the factory. It also uses ambient sounds so you can hear the bombs makes noise in the background while the interview was going on. This suggest that children can be influence to put up and gun and start using it, and also he thinks that parents are a major influence on the children and to stop these children from making violent discussion you have to inform and educate the parents first on the effect that guns can have.

This documentary is aimed at both females and males but mostly at males. A reason why I think that this documentary is aimed mostly at males is because all of the school shootings occur in American are done by males and also near all of the teenager boys that Michael Moore interviewed in this documentary had use a gun and the negative effects that guns have had on their lives. I think Michael Moore is trying to show the male audience that it is not ‘cool’ or safe to carry or use a gun because they're major consequences that could happen when using a gun like facing prison, having a record and also the effect you can have on other people's lives. Also when I  asked people in my questionnaire 'What is your views on gun control in America?' majority of the people answer that america need stricter gun control law and I feel that gun laws in America should be limited and that guns should only be for their law enforcement and the military, only for defence. Bowling for columbine is also aimed at a all types of ethnicity because in the documentary  Michael Moore talks about the racist issues in American for example he had a interview with one of the producers from the show 'Cops' because the major of the criminal featured in this program are black or Latino and this is giving out the idea that these races are major threats. 

Bowling for Columbine could be target at all types of educational background as long as you are interested in the topic. Personally I think that it is more likely for somebody with a higher educational background to be more interested in this type of documentary because they want to know more about the world whereas other people would prefer to watch Hollywood movies. This doesn't mean that other people who haven't got higher educational background wouldn't be interested in this documentary because this film made $58,008,423 in the box offices and I doubt that all this money was made by people with higher educational. 

Americans are the major target audience for bowling for columbine, I know this because he is talking about events happening in American and also  habits that Michael Moore is trying to change an issue in America. For example when Michael Moore and the 2 school shot out victims went to K-Mart to show how easy it is to purchase guns and bullets for guns
the handheld camera was shot at long shot so the employees in K Mart couldn't see, in this scene it had natural lighting. Then it cuts to handheld middle shot of one of the victims holding a 2 bags of K Marts bullets, this was in order to protest so K Mart would stop selling bullets in their stores. Also this documentary was set in America all the location  Even though this documentary is aimed at Americans, Germany gross $6,412,679, in Finland it made $4,911,174 and Australia it made $2,565,433.

Bowling for Columbine is also targeted at people that also agree with Michael Moore because these are the people that are going to go out and buy or watch this. This is also targeted at liberals in America who agree that there is an issue with guns. Michael Moore's main target audience for this documentary is for people with the same ideology as him. The people I asked to fill out my questionnaire would people interested in this documentary because when asked  ' What's your views on Gun control?' they replied that 'They need stricter controls' and ' I feel that gun laws in America should be limited and that guns should only be for their law enforcement and the military, only for defences'. Everyone that filled out my questionnaire agreed with Michael Moore's ideology about gun control in America.

James Davis

James Davis is a working class 25 year old male he lives in New York and is a Liberal. This is the sort of person Michael Moore is aiming at. The reason I have said that 'James' is a working class is because I think that is one of the main group of people Michael Moore is trying to target at in Bowling for Columbine, this because most of the people involved and effected in the shootings were working class people. For example in the documentary they interviewed working class people  The reason I made James live in New York because those are the areas that have a no gun law and I think will be more open to listen to this documentary whereas other states like Texas are so use to having guns around, I don't think many of them will agree with Michael Moore and will not go and see this documentary.

James Davis works in a office job from 9 to 5. He lives with his wife, Carolina and his 2 children ages 2 and 5. I have said this because in Bowling for Columbine they talk a lot about families and how people use guns because they are trying to protect their families. James Davis is also a opened minded person who is interested in the current affairs. He often watches the news and reads the newspaper on the subway on his way to work. He is also very opinionated. I have said this because for you to watch a documentary like Bowling for Columbine you have to be very opened minded to listen to other people's views without being to judgmental but also have an opinion on the matter so you can share with others on what you think about the matter. James watching the news and reading the shows that he is fully aware of these going on in America so anything in Bowling for Columbine wouldn't be too surprising for him and will expanded his knowledge. James Davis also has a good sense of humor, this is a good trait for a person that is watching bowling for columbine because Michael Moore does use a bit of humor to show ridiculous  and fearful Americans can be e.g. the south park style cartoon.

A owcher that James Davis is that he has a small attention span so this could be a problem watching Bowling for Columbine because he might pay full attention to what Michael Moore is trying to say in this documentary. Another owcher is that he prefer to watch Hollywood action movies which means he might not watch this documentary in the cinemas. Wowchers is that James Davis knows about Michael Moore and has watch previous documentary which is good because there is more of a chance that he will watch Bowling for Columbine. James Davis is also interested in western culture, which is a good aspect because Bowling for Columbine is all about western problems (guns).

James Davis appreciates other culture and is also married to Carolina who is originally from Mexico, this is a great aspect because Michael Moore talks about racism like when he shows us how 'Cops' portrays Black, Latinos and Mexicans in the show and how some American think these races are threatening. James is a roman catholic but is very open to listen to other people;'s views but has very strong values and beliefs. James enjoys going to a stand up comedy club in his spare time which show that he has a great sense of humour. He is also a fan of Indie pop music and also a bit of country music.

Bowling for Columbine: Final

1. Are you Male or Female?
2. How old are you?
3. Have you ever watched a documentary before? if yes, what was the documentary about?
4. Are you interested in current affairs in different countries? 
5. What is your views on gun control in America?
6. Have you ever been to the cinema to watch a documentary? if not, why?
7. What would make you watch a documentary? 
8. Would you watch a documentary you disagreed with? 
9. Does having a presenter in a documentary make you more willing to watch it?
10. Michael Moore, a director of many politic documentaries has said ' fear and racism” fuels Americans’ insistence that the government uphold their Second Amendment rights to own firearms (guns)' do you agree with this statement and why?

The Lift: Final

1.  Are you Male or Female?
2. How old are you?
3. Do you think a filming documentary in one area or place would be interesting? 
4. Would you like to watch a documentary about different people's lives? Explain you answer?
5. Does British lifestyle and culture interest you? 
6. Would you watch a documentary that didn't have a presenter?
7. Do you think having a narrator in a documentary is effective?
8. Is a lift a interesting place to film a documentary? if not, what locations would you say is interesting?
9. If we had a documentary about a families life and history, would you watch it ?

The Lift. Draft

1. Are you Male or Female?
2. How old are you?
3. Do you think a filming documentary in one area or place would be interesting? 
4. Would you like to watch a documentary about different people's lives?
5. Would you watch a documentary that didn't have a presenter?
6. Do you think having a narrater is effective?
7. Is a lift a interesting place to film a documentary?
8. If we had a documentary about a families life and history, would you watch it ?

Questionnaire for Bowling for Columbine. Draft

1. Are you Male or Female?
2. How old are you?
3. Have you ever watched a documentary before? if yes, what was the documentary about?
4. Are you interested in current affairs in different countries? 
5. What is your views on gun control in America?
6. Have you ever been to the cinema to watch a documentary? if not, why?
7. What would make you watch a documentary? 
8. Does having a presenter in a documentary make you more willing to watch it?

Mise en Scene: Evalution - Bill

In my group (Tom, Josue, Yazmine) we had to create a 1 minute or less drama. It didn't take us long to come up with the concept of the drama. Josue and Tom came up with the storyline and the camera shots that would be included in our drama. The concept of our drama is a Leroy (aka Josue) runs a drugs business in the college and Tom stole one of  Leroy's workers. Some of Leroy 's workers (Me and Yazmine) see Tom and contact Leroy that Tom walking towards the car park and Leroy follows him and stabs him. When filming this we tried to make it as realist as possible and tried to make the 1 minute drama as interesting as possible.

We had two main settings in our short drama which was the resource centre and the car park. The resource area was a good place to shoot the conversation with me and Yazmine because there was any noise so we could hear the conversation and visually seemed like a place where two people would have a conversion. The resource area was big enough to film me and Yazmine talking and also to see Tom walking in the background. The another setting we had for our short drama was the car park. Car park seemed like realist place for a stabbing to occur there could have been many places we could have shot this scene e.g. the park but we wasn't allow to leave college but the car park still had a great effect because it had kind of gritty scenery which was good for the type of drama we was shooting.

We didn't really have costumes for this drama because we didn't know we was going to be filming on the day we got set this task but for the bit where Tom gets stabbed, both Josue and Tom were wearing hooded jackets basically stereotypical British urban movies like this, the character would be wearing clothes like this. Through-out this drama you didn't see Josue's face and the hoody on his head gave him that sort mystery until the end when he takes off his hoody and you get to see his face.

We used natural lighting through out this all short drama even in the resource area they were no artificial lighting. I think using natural lighting made the film more realist and also in the car park scene the weather was grey and damp and this gave our short drama a bit of a urban vibe like a scene from Ill Manors, kidulthood, Green street and etc.

The best performance in our short drama I think came from Josue and Tom. Josue looked like a 'gangsta' by his movement like the way he was walking and also the expression on his face when he came face to face with Tom. Tom also had great expressions on his face to show that he was unaware of the fact that Josue was behind him then switch expressions when he is face to face with Josue. He also had a great expression when Josue 'stabbed' him and he was laying on the floor.

The feedback that we got from the class was very positive like we had great shots and a lot of different angles. They visually understood what we was trying to show and they like the storyline of our short drama. If we were to do this again I would want to make the storyline more clear, add some more shots, maybe use some artificial lighting so we could see the character much better but other than that I thought our short drama came out well and we displayed a very good use of Mise en Scene.

Target Audience: Bowling for Columbine

Age - This documentary could be aimed at teenagers above the ages of 15 because younger wouldn't find it interesting or entertaining. This documentary could also be aimed at teenagers because teenagers are most likely to go to the cinema whereas adult haven't got the time and money to be going to the cinema. You could also say that this documentary is aimed at a adult audience because even though teenagers do visit the cinema more they don't go their to watch documentaries. Documentary in the box office are for more of a niches audience which are mostly adults in their late 20s.

Gender - This documentary is aimed at both genders but mostly at males. The documentary also comes from a male view. Males are also seen to be more 'serious' than females. Females are portrayed to be emotional, sexual and vulnerable.

Ethnicity - This documentary is aimed at all types of ethnicity because the documentary includes subjects like racist which reaches out to other ethnicity other than caucasian.

Education - This documentary is aimed at all types of educational background but I think that it is more likely for people with higher educational background to be more interested in documentaries and other educational background are more interested in hollywood type of movies. But it all comes down to interest you don't have to have a higher educational background to be able to watch documenatries.  

Geographics - I would say that this documentary is aimed at people in america because it is all about changing americans views on gun control. Michael Moore travelled around America trying to show and find out about the gun problems in America, he even went to Canda to show that a near by country has about the same amount of guns as America but is more safer. This documentary can also shown in different countries but the documentary was mainly aimed at Americans.

Classification earnings - This documentary is aimed at anyone that is interested on stopping these problem. Once again I think it comes down to interest and if you have time and money to go and watch this documentary.

Ideology - Michael Moore's ideology was quite clear throughtout the documentary even though he doesn't say if he agrees or disagrees with gun control you could tell by the type of questions he was asking and the type of footage he was showing that he was against using guns in America. So people that would watch this documentary would have the same mindset as Michael Moore and would want some ways on how to stop gun control or to see what Michael Moore's opinons on this matter is.

The Lift

http://gorillafilmmagazine.com/2011/08/07/lift/

The lift is a man called Marc Isaacs standing in the lift analysing people that live in the block that comes in the lift. When I first watch the documentary I was confused as to why he was standing and in the lift and what he could possibly find out from people from standing in a life. The scene was set in a kind of surreal setting. The setting of the documentary looks dirty and had a weird green lighting as gorilla film magazine described as 'morbid, futureless, artificial light illuminates the of dirty hallways'. In the beginning I wasn’t sure he was going to gain anything important or useless but as you watch you get to see the different characters that live in this block and you get to understand their story. You can also see a sly relationship build up between the director and the characters that come in the lift because at first they seemed to be a bit reserved because the camera was on them but it slowly started to become a daily routine for these people and become to open up a bit more about their lives. I didn’t think I would like this short documentary but the character were funny and had an emotional side to them that I didn’t that would be in this short documentary.

There is a big difference between ‘Bowling for Columbine’ and ‘The Lift.  For starters Michael Moore was seen in the documentary and personally went up to people and asked they questions and travelled to different places in America, whereas in ‘The Lift’ you didn’t see him at all the only time you get to see a bit of he is when the guy was moping up the lift and you get to see a bit of his shoes and Marc Isaacs is also in one spot for the whole entire documentary. Setting is the key difference between the 2 documentaries, Michael Moore was travelling up and down America to find out information about gun control in America whereas Marc Isaacs is just standing in the lift observing and interacting with people that come in the lift. Michael Moore was trying to change a serious problem in America whereas Marc Issacs was just showing the different characters, their backgrounds and problems that have come across in their life. I don't know if Marc Isaacs is trying to actually change something like how Michael Moore but I think he is trying to show the people that watch he's documentaries the things you could find out if you are patiences. 

Bowling for Columbine:Homework

This documentary seemed to be aimed at a numerous amount of people. The main target audience for this advert seems to be 15 to 25 year olds because they are more likely to visit the cinema and also the stuff he features in the documentary e.g cartoon, humour/sarcasm would interest teenagers and young adults more. This documentary can also be aimed at Americans in generals because he is taking about an American habit and he is trying to break this gun cycle in America and it discuss events that happens in America.

Conventions that makes this investigative documentary appeal to their audience is that the director interviews people that uses or make guns in america to show Americans how local sourced and how many people uses guns in america. They also showed interviews of teenagers and Marilyn Manson so teenagers can relate more. They also had CCTV footage to show the audience the events of the columbine school shooting and also to show Americans that anyone can purchase a gun and this school shooting can happen again.

Worldwide bowling for Columbine made $58,008,423 in the box offices. This documentary was popular in Germany gross $6,412,679, in finland it made $4,911,174 and Australia it made $2,565,433 so this documentary done better outside USA than it did in the use. The USA made about $21,576,433. This documentary questioned a lot things Americans and the government did and trend to change people's way of thinking in America. Americans weren't too happy about this and countries outside of America are more interested about things happening in America.

In the documentary the director Michael Moore shows he's ideology. The message he said is that he is trying to get across in the documentary was for incidents like this in america not to happen again. Michael Moore said in a interview that 'I want you too leave the theatre committed that Columbine and the Germany school shooting never to happen again'. he also says 'Why do we have so much guns? and so much violence? and i am hoping by getting people to laugh at this they will say this is getting ridiculous we need to put away some of these guns' so Michael Moore disagrees with guns in America and uses humour as of his persuasive techniques. Michael also says 'we're killing 40 people a day in America, a sniper killed 10 people over 3 weeks.. are the lives of 40 people less important than the snipper?' this shows that Michael moore is unhappy with the way media picks and choose what is moore important and only shows what they want to see.

The trailer seems to be aimed more at teenagers/young adults in my opinion because it features footage that would humour and interested a person of their age e.g cartoon, sarcasm. When watch other Michael Moore trailer like e.g Capitalism, Sicko and slacker uprising trailers the target audiences seems to be americans and I also think its aimed at American government because he also includes a footage of a person working in the government and presidents.

Bowling for Columbine

What issue are the documentary addressing?

In this documentary the director discuss the issues about the school shooting in columbine. In the part that we watched he talks more about the American governments. He also talks about how American using and building bombs to attack another countries are affecting children and teenagers to uses weapons and violence when a problem occurs. The director also talks about Americans use guns because of fear. The media and news are also showing negative broadcasts which makes American paranoid and think that they need guns to protect them. He also address the fear of black men in America. The media show black men as criminals and to cause the most crimes in America when in fact white Americans in the suburbs.

What different techniques does the director use to persuade?

 The director uses a large amount of footage to help persuade his argument. He uses footage of the actual school shooting and the students and parents talking about incident. He also uses footage of the pros and cons of talking about guns. He uses a organisation who agrees with guns and a father who son got shot in the Columbine shooting, I think he does this so we can feel more sympathetic towards the father who lost his son rather than the organise trying to encourage more guns in the country. He also shows footage of the after effects of the school shooting. These footage showed student getting search before entering school and also students getting suspend over little things e.g dying hair a different colour, point chicken strip at a teaching saying 'pow pow' because they are prevent any type of behaviour that could result into another school shooting. The director shows other countries using the products and things that Americans are saying are influencing children to be violence and other countries gun killings are way lower than America. He also uses humour to show that Americans are very paranoid, he does this by showing a south park type of cartoon of the American history.

What do you feel the target audience for the documentary is?

This seems like it is aimed at teenagers/young adults because they are more likely to visit the cinema and also the stuff he features in the documentary e.g cartoon, humour/sarcasm would interest teenagers and young adults more. This documentary can also be aimed at Americans in generals because he is taking about an American habit and he is trying to break this gun cycle in America.

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