Purpose and audience: Why and for whom are the moving images created?

Creators of moving images make deliberate choices based on their purpose, or reason for creating the work, and on the viewers they’re trying to reach. Thinking carefully about a composer’s choices can help you understand the work and also help you prepare for making your own choices as a composer of similar works. It’s important to ask both why the composer decided to convey a message with a moving image and what message a composer is trying to convey.

Think about a national news broadcast, for example, which usually involves some combination of desk reporting, field reporting, and presentation of feature reports that were filmed and edited before the broadcast. Why are the various stories handled differently? Why do the producers decide to use moving images to present certain topics? Perhaps previously filmed material is needed because reporters can’t get access to the subject at the time of the live broadcast. Maybe the story requires clips from a variety of sources for support, and those can’t be pieced together on the spot. Or showing action is more likely to elicit an emotional response than showing a still image while a reporter narrates an event.

Filming and editing ahead of time also allows composers to shape the story for their target audience. Anything that might bore or offend the audience can be removed, and anything that’s particularly effective can be emphasized. Next time you watch an edited news feature, think about who the intended audience is and how the feature has been shaped to reach that audience.

Take a filmed, edited story about rising gas prices, for example. Many such features include at-the-pump interviews. What do you see in the moving image? How would you describe the people being interviewed—their gender, race, clothing, age? What kinds of cars are they driving: sports cars, minivans, cars in good or poor repair? Do they appear to be driving to work or taking a road-trip vacation? Are they smiling or frowning? Are they holding anything in their hands? Try to describe the feature’s target audience—viewers most likely to identify with the people being interviewed. Would the audience identify as closely if only still images of drivers and gas pumps were used to support the story? Asking why and for whom a moving image has been created can be helpful in determining its message and meaning.

Related topics:

Genre: What kind of moving image is it?

Features: Perspective, composition, and editing

Meaning: What effect do the moving images have on the viewer?