Question 4: who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience of thriller films depends on the age certificate it has. For our particular produce, the target audience would be a 15+. This is because our film features some psychological issues some younger audience members may find upsetting. I think our film would appeal more to females as the leading role is a girl who has been abused in the past. I think women would feel empathy towards the girl. I think males would also be interested in watching this film as the horrific sub-genre is typically something they would enjoy. I think our film would be attractive to a wide age group as it focuses on the psychological well being of a young girl; the detailed plot would appeal to the older audience members as they would have to follow the story line quite carefully and would be able to make their own judgments about the characters. It would also appeal the to younger audience members as the thriller/psychological horror genre would keep them on the edge of their seats and make them want to know more. I think the majority of the films audience that would choose to watch the film at the cinema would be it’s younger audience as they’d want the thrill of the huge picture and surround sound to make their viewing experience all the more exiting, but I think the older audience members would be keen to purchase the DVD as they would be able to watch it from the comfort of their own home and take on the role of the ‘living room lawyers’; trying to pick apart the plot and figure out what will happen next.

A lot of films similar to ours approached advertisement in slightly more unconventional ways; ‘Black Swan’ produced a wide range of different film posters including stylized prints like these: ‘Black Swan’ also had a website with a calendar, counting down until the day of the films release. Each day a new clip from the film would be posted. This kind of advertising is really good as it builds up the audience’s excitement. There are limitations to this kind of advertising as only a small group of the film’s audience would see it. This group would be the keen cinema goers and big fans of a certain aspect of the film (e.g a featured actor, director or genre). ‘Inception’ created huge posters that covered whole sides of buildings, the posters presented an illusion-like graphic which reflects the film’s story line. This kind of advertising addresses all of the films audience as anyone would be able to walk past this poster. Even so, this kind of poster would only by put up in major cities. The enormity of the poster suggests the film had a huge budget and indicates it will feature the very best of filmmaking technology.

Typical Thriller Audience The target audience of a thriller depends largely on the sub-genre of the film. Some psychological thrillers may appeal more to the female audience, where as a crime thriller may appeal more to the male audience. Thrillers are commonly watched by an audience ranging between the ages of as they often cater for a wide variety of tastes; the younger audience members would be attracted to the violence and the intense narratives and are old enough to fully appreciate the complex plots and story lines. The older audience group would enjoy the intricacy of the plots and the detailed character profiles. Certain elements of a thriller can attract one gender more than the other; for example, if there was a strong male lead role played by a very famous actor, a thought provoking plot and admirable characters, females would find this more appealing than an action packed, violent, fast paced film that the male audience might prefer. Thrillers are usually certified as a 15 or 18+ as much of the action on scene would be seen as inappropriate for younger children and they may find some scenes upsetting. For example, the graphic illustration of violence, sex, drug and weapon abuse would not be deemed suitable for children under the age of 15 and the use of strong language may cause offence or encourage unacceptable behavior among children of that age.

Audience member profile “this is Matt Fisher. He is 17 and 2 months old and lives in the suburbs of Brighton with his family. He is dressed in jeans, a sweatshirt and trainers. He enjoys going to parties with his friends and playing rugby. Matt watches a lot of sports shows on TV including Match of the Day, the Six Nations Rugby and the FA Cup. He enjoys films such as Harry Brown, The Butterfly Effect, The Town, Inception, oceans 11, Cape Fear and Shutter Island. He enjoys watching them at the cinema but also buying them later on DVD and watching them late at night with his friends after a party. He’d also watch Family guy, The Cleveland Show, South Park, Black Mirror, Misfits and Skins. The main channels he watches are BBC 3, E4, MTV Skymovies and Skysports. The kind of music he listens to would be rap, hip hop and alternative pop. He would only listen to Radio 1 but is more interested in using music sites and applications such as iTunes, Spotify and Youtube. I think our film would appeal to this boy as he is quite a stereotypical ‘lad’ yet he likes films and TV programs with strong plots which need to by paid attention to in order to follow them. If this film was shown in his local cinema I think it would appeal to him as it is similar to films he likes such as Cape Fear, Inception, The Butterfly Effect and Shutter Island.