Week 5 Term 1 - Understanding Audience (Level 3 English - 91480)

TOUGH CROWD

An audience that is difficult to please.

I have encountered a number of 'tough crowds' in my teaching years. Knowing how to work with this type of audience is a skill and it does take time and preparation. It also requires you to think on your feet and know how to deal with different personalities and dynamics, which can be a little daunting. 

When I think of 'tough crowd' I think of the Tamaki College Samoan Group and the performance for our favorite audience, our families and friends who attend our Fia Fia night (dress rehearsal performance). In every campaign for Polyfest, the favorite performance that we prepare for is for our family and friends however this audience, although family, can often be our toughest and harshest crowd to win over. Why? The families understand the standard that is required when performing for a competition and with the standard that Tamaki College has built over the years - our parents, siblings, everyone - will not shy away from giving us any type of critique. Knowing this and understanding that this is the type of audience that we draw every year helps to drive how we prepare for the competition. With that in mind, we understand that there is a need for quality items and training every day to ensure that we are ready for the audience. This is motivation for all involved. We want to put on a great performance (something that is worth watching), we do not want to waste anyone's time and we want to make our families proud. 

Tamaki College Samoan Group 2016 (Fia Fia Night)

Knowing your audience is vital in any situation. Whether it is for the stage or in the classroom, knowing who you are performing or writing to, helps to frame what you are doing. It gives you a sense of purpose and gives whatever text you are creating a focal point. 

AUDIENCE

the assembled spectators or listeners at a public event such as a play, film, concert, or meeting.

One of the key components to the Close Viewing Assessment (91480) is knowing and understanding who the intended audience is for the film. In preparing for this assessment one thing that I knew I had to cover was the audiences who watch film. Now this is something that we do not typically focus on in NCEA Level 1 and Level 2 English when it comes to Close Viewing. For NCEA Level 3 English, knowing the audience or 'intended audience' is an integral part of Close Viewing as it goes beyond knowledge of film techniques and the director's purpose but taps into the deep dive analysis of the text itself. 

Going beyond the typical critique of visual texts and understanding who the intended audience is and how the text impacts them is new ground. I shared an article with my students - Understanding Audience - this article outlines the four film audience categories and the nature of each audience. This article is a great piece to start with as it helps the students understand audiences who watch film and how they are grouped. Discussion around films and who audience is follows - but you are probably thinking, how can one identify the intended audience for a film? 

We looked at genre, type of characters, storyline, style of film (film techniques etc) - all of these factors, if you are aware of what they are can help anyone determine who the target audience is. We had some practice when we looked at a few more scenes from A Beautiful Mind for close viewing practice in particular identifying who the audience and how it impacts them. We looked at the closing scene and spoke about how this scene impacts the intended audience. 

A Beautiful Mind is a historical film based on a renowned mathematician John Nash. Films of this nature, with a mature character are tailored to an adult audience. In my discussion with the class we talk about this and how the target audience (adults) are impacted or influenced with this scene. Some of the questions we discussed were: 

1. How is the target audience impacted in this scene?
2. What message do you think the director is saying to the intended audience and why?
3. What techniques help to highlight this message for the intended audience?

We also kept a record of our close viewing in our Closing Scene Analysis document. 

Having these conversations and going beyond the text is valuable. It highlighted to me that there is more to assessments than credits. Yes, getting the credits is important. But the learning and the gaining of a new skill set (or adding to your skill set) is just as important. Knowing the audience for film and talking about this has been good for the students as they are becoming more aware of the intricacies with close viewing. Their analysis of film now enables to go deeper and has started to challenge them to justify 'why' the director has used this specific technique and 'who' this impacts. 

I look forward to seeing how the students respond to the close viewing assessment as they have already made a start. I will be reviewing their first question later on this week. I have read through some responses to the close viewing and I am pleased!