Evaluation of Payback

1. Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?
Target Audience:
Due to the moderate level of violence and mature themes that myself and Dan imagined to
take place as the plot progresses, we decided to certify Payback as a 15. A male from age
range of 15 – 25, was our target audience we aimed for. The reason for this as conventions of
the thriller genre, such as the use of violence, would be easier to add with this target audience
in mind rather than a young one, whilst still keeping to the expectations of thrillers.
In addition, the fact that this plot has a huge reference to
cyber-bullying and social media on a whole, as first indicated
in the opening, would appeal to an audience of that age group
better rather than an older generation as it is more likely that
they can relate and understand the plot more. Therefore, an
audience with a sufficient amount of media usage would most
likely be interested in this film.
Furthermore, more modern thrillers such as the Bourne Identity and Quantum of Solace,
appear to attract an audience within the age of our specified target audience. As well as this,
men unsurprisingly take most up of the views most likely due to the entertaining high quality
action and effects taking place on-screen. Therefore, we have chosen this target audience of
males form the age range 15-25
as this specific audience will
grant us more viewers or are
actually interested in Payback.

2. Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?
In orderto promote Payback,myself andDan
managedbetweenusaFacebookpage dedicated
to the productionof thisopeningfilm.
https://www.facebook.com/Payback-Media-
Studies-
1518504151786889/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
Thisreceivedmanyfollowersfrompeopleinour
ownmediaclassas well asexternal Facebook
friendsinterested. Thistherefore attractedan
audience of anage range locatedinbetween15-25
that usessocial media;Payback’stargetaudience.
As well asthis,we constructedanaudience taskwhere the ideaof Paybackwouldbe pitchedtotwo
individualsthatfittedourtargetaudience,thatbeing twomalesagedinbetween15-25.
In thisvideo, Dan(asI couldnot be there at the time) pitchesthe idea:
In thisvideothe final piece ispresentedtoJake,one of the individualswhowaspresentedthe pitch
inthe firstvideo, inaimtocapture his view towhetherthe openingliveduptohisexpectations.
Whenit comesto otheraudience research,Iresearchedintothe ‘UsesandGratifications’theoryas
seenonthispost: http://alexhunterasfoundationportfolio.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/uses-and-
gratifications-theory.html
Thistheoryseekstoexplainwhatanaudience usesandwantsfroma piece of media.These come
underfourmainareas; Information/Education,Personal Identity,Social Interactionand
Entertainment. Ibelieve the openingsuresthe functionof entertainment as,fromthe secondvideo,

3. Jake appearsto enjoytit.Thisthensuggestsitsuse asa meansof social interaction,suchaspeople
talkingaboutitto one another,if the openingwasthenshowntomore people.Secondly,the
information/educationfunctions doesn’tshine throughasthe theme of cyber-bullyingdoesn’tcome
throughtill laterinthe plot.Thismeansthat the audience cannotanyadvice or applymuch
understandingtothemselvesthroughthe justthe opening.Similarly,athe personal identityfunction
can’t reallycome fromjustthe openingasit isthe rest of the plotthat will leave the audience
questioningtheirownactionsonline.