Documentary: Target Audience and Statement of Intent

The text below that describes our target audience is written by Maxi but the statement of intent of Dave(s) shown in this blog post is written by me (Nayana)

Target Audience

Our first concept of the documentary we're going to make is called "Dave". It is a mockumentary that features 6 individuals, all named Dave, who all go to the same school. The 6 Daves all have drastically different personalities, problems, and strengths. Some are timid, some are very egotistic, some play basketball, some are nerds, etc. Once they find out that they all share the same name, they decide that they're going to have a competition, and whoever wins gets to keep the name. The opening of the documentary will focus on the introductions to the characters in the style of an interview, which we plan will intrigue audiences as they may be shocked at how different all the Dave's are, despite sharing the same name. We hope that our documentary will show people how everyone lives their own life, and that life doesn't revolve around a single person. Furthermore, we want to show different students can be from each other, even though they all go to the same school. We aim that through this opening introduction to our characters, we will be able to give all our audience members a way to see themselves in our characters and to resonate with their struggles, problems, strengths, and more, which will have them captivated to keep watching the documentary. 

The target audience for this documentary will comprise high schoolers, between the ages of 15 to 25, from a multitude of races but more specifically Asians. This is because the cast of the documentary will all be a part of this demographic of people. The psychographics of our audiences will vary quite heavily though as all the Daves will have very different personalities. Many different audiences will be able to relate to these characters as they may see themselves in them. For example, teenagers who are nerds and play video games will see themselves in one Dave, while jocks who love going to the gym will see themselves in another. This goes as well for their attitudes, and lifestyles, as some Dave's may be really outgoing, productive, and cool, while other Dave's will be introverted, shy, and unconcerned. 

Our documentary aims to be satire and be a form of diversion for audiences as the characters of the documentary are all intended to get a laugh out of audiences. However, one key purpose of the documentary is that we want to show audiences/tell them to never judge a book by its cover and to embrace diversity, no matter how different you may be from someone, as everyone has their own place in society. 

Since our target audience comprises such a young group of people (Gen Z), their media consumption habits most likely are heavily based on social media platforms, and streaming services. They will most likely want to watch our documentary on services like Netflix, or maybe YouTube, as it will allow them easy access to our documentary by providing it on a platform they are used to. Distributing it on social media will also allow them to share it, talk about it to their friends, and more. 

As previously mentioned, our documentary is mainly catered toward teens/young adults. Thus if an audience member is a part of that age group, they'll be caught up with all the references to modern pop culture that may be included. But, if an audience member is outside of that age group, they will need to know about the habits of Gen Z kids, the different stereotypes that are associated with them, etc. 

We aim to make our documentary as accessible and inclusive as possible, to allow as many people to watch and get a laugh out of it. So, we plan on including subtitles as well as having a Dave with a disability to further represent this group of audience members. 

When watching the documentary, we hope audience members will realize how diverse we all are as people. How not one single group is better than another, and to realize that we are all perfect in different ways. We hope that audiences will be able to get a laugh out of the documentary, due to its unserious and playful nature, but we also hope to instill the message of diversity and hopefully allow them to gain a new perspective on life that will guide them to interact, talk to, and make friends with people/groups of people that they may usually never talk to, due to preconceptions in their heads about them that our documentary hopes to eradicate.

Statement of Intent

As mentioned, this mockumentary focuses on 6 very contrasting high school students who have the same name "Dave" as they fight to see who deserves to be the best Dave. Our hook in this introduction is the interview with all different personality Dave who corresponds to the usual stereotype we see in school through the representations we try to achieve - crypto (nerd), quiet (creepy and emo), muscle (athlete), player (popular jock), happy (LGBTQ), soft boy (kind and shy). This builds a juxtaposition of how the same name can express so many different kinds of personalities. This broadens our targeted psychographic as we cater to many types although our demographic remains the same - people from age 15 to 25, active social media users, and have previous knowledge of the expressed culture which is Gen-Z meme culture.

As we create a mockumentary, we want to explore the comedic effects we can have, adding montages that are satirical and implicitly funny showcasing all of Daves' absurdity, and embracing the differences each character may have. Through our interviews, we also want to highlight how they are living in the same school environment and know each other (on a daily basis) through the replies other Dave may have to the words another gave during the interview, This will express that everyone is still friendly and not actually a serious competition. 

This product will be distributed directly to streaming platforms online like YouTube, Netflix, and Disney+. This is to accommodate our target audience who are most likely to already be technologically literate and their preference to use social media platforms. This will also allow them to interact with the media and other people such as sharing the content or leaving reviews, building social relationships as stated by the uses and gratification theory from Blumler and Katz.

By defining our target audience and statement of intent, we clearly know what is the aim of our mockumentary and we can work diligently towards that direction to successfully attract and engage with the target audience.