Question 4

Question 4 – Who would be the audience for your media product?

We decided that the typical target age group for our thriller would be between the age of 15-30, a period of time in which people may spend more time viewing cinema and entertainment, and this is usually the age group for which most thriller films are catered for. There was no specific gender focus for our thriller, seeing as it features both a male and a female, with both roles easily being filled potentially by the opposite gender if we had wanted to do so. We studied BBFC (The British Board of Film Classification) as part of our thriller research, in order to find the age rating appropriate for our thriller.

 Despite the target audience being age 15-30, it is highly possible that our film could be rated 12, since it only shows very limited, non graphic violence, and for the most part only infers mental and physically pain, e.g. showing the killer preparing weapons rather than using them. At 15, sexual activity can be displayed, whereas this is very limited at a 12 rating, and can only really be referenced rather than displayed. Our thriller contains no sexual references, so it can easily be passed off at age 12 in this category. The actual scene of killing itself only lasts a couple of seconds, not in enough detail for people in the audience to watch, analyse and potentially copying, something which may be the case during a long torture scene shown during 18 rated films. We considered whether our thriller would fit into the PG category, since not all PG films are specifically aimed at children. The extensive shots showing the killer preparing weaponry is something however that would not likely be condoned for a PG rating. However, supporting the use of a PG rating in our thriller, the scenes of violence that do occur are of a short, non-gruesome nature with little focus on pain and injury.

Despite having a rating of 12, our target audience still remains at 15-30, seeing as younger children and teenagers may not understand the subtle implementation of mental torment and the factor of isolation. Younger children may also be more interested in thrillers with more action, which is something that is clearly limited in our thriller. Having a rating of 12 however makes the film more accessible to a larger and broader group of people. 

In order to find a specific age that would have the greatest interest in our thriller for our audience profile, we created a Vox Pop video identifying their thriller genre of preference. 

We also filmed people’s reaction within the 15-30 age groups to take their reaction to the opening and their overall interest. 

Clearly, a typical age for our thriller would be about 17 or 18, but of either gender. Someone of this age is someone who regularly uses social media, sharing pictures and informing people of their daily lives. This type of person is fairly open and outgoing, and is willing to spend a lot of time frequenting cinemas to watch the latest films, including thriller and horror films. They may also listen to various types of music at this point to experiment due to being the most adventurous age type, so they will likely have no problems listening to the instrumental soundtrack in our thriller. They will be of a mature enough age to understand and sympathise the perils of which the child finds themselves in. People of this age may often look after or take to school younger siblings of the same age as our protagonist, so can relate to children of the age of around 11 or 12 personally. They are also old enough to understand inferred meanings and implications of such things as the clothing choices and the decision to use woods as a setting, as well as being able to understand the underlying feelings of isolation and inevitability for the protagonist.  As aforementioned, there is no specific gender, race or ethnicity that is focused on, seeing as our thriller does not intentionally focus on any of these groups specifically. This age group often discusses TV programmes, and are more likely to be watching thriller movies more frequently than at any other age, since 17 and 18 is an age when all thriller films are becoming accessible to you to watch for the first time, so they feel excitement and try to watch as many as they can. This age group is also more willing to experiment with films, rather than focusing on one particular genre like much younger or older age groups might do. This means that our film is much more likely to have a greater exposure with this age group than with any other, seeing as this film will be viewed by anyone in this age group who are willing to watch films.

Demographically, our film is probably aimed, based off our previous research on film demographics, at groups D and E. Group D because these people are likely part-time workers, and have the money available to frequently visit cinemas and to buy and watch TV channels. Group E is selected as this group defines ‘students’ and employed people, who will likely have the free leisure time needed in order to often go to cinemas to watch films. Group E also contains a wide variety of people who may be willing to experiment or take on new challenges, and will likely watch our thriller even if it is not the film genre they usually try and watch. This means that for our target audience profile, I have chosen a male and a female of age 17 or 18, with a demographic of either D or E (unemployed/student or part-time skilled worker) that is open to challenges and adventure, so is willing to enjoy any time of film, no matter the genre, and has plenty of leisure time so as to go and watch the film with other people.