1. Question 4 & 5
Who would be the audience for your media product and how did
you attract/ address your audience?
I decided upon which genre I wanted to use thinking of which genre myself likes and what
other peers I have would enjoy by a questionnaire I put in place from research to find what
people on my class (my peers) of late teenagers from the age of 16-17 would enjoy most out
of 10 girls and 10 males to see if they were going to watch a filmwhich genre they would
pick over others.
Therefore I came up with the idea to use horror instead of another challenging genre like
comedy as I knew a lot of people would take up the genre of comedy and horror wouldn’t
be so popular to take on. I conducted a quick questionnaire to find out what people liked
about horror. I asked a few members of my class to find out what about horror they liked
and the end result was that more people enjoyed the conventions of a horror than not,
therefore meaning horror would be a good genre and this helped me choose this genre for
my media. In 2013 the 15-24 age group made up the largest proportion of UK cinema
admissions at 33% according to The Numbers website, this means my media would be
popular from the age brackets that travel to the cinema would be interested. In order to
find out my target audience of who would be the most interested in watching the filmI
would find out horror’s main target audience by using structured survey to see which
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Action Comedy Adventure Horror
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2. groups are most viable options to bring up support. This would give me a clear indication of
who to try to market the film to.
Due to the results shown by this research on this graph I found out that my main target
audience would be males as the typical horror conventions for example; gore, death or
jump scares, were enjoyed much more by a male audience than female. This means in my
film I used to male characters as the main roles so that the audience could relate and be
able to enhance themselves more deeply with the characters as there would be more
similarities. Leading on from this I needed to find out what my typical audience would like
to see from a horror film, therefore I conducted research to find what conventions of a
horror people would prefer to see over others.
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Gore Death Tension Jumpscares
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3. As shown by this graph a majority of my target audience like the typical conventions of
horror, therefore in my media film I use a lot of tension and eerie music in my media filmso
that it would appeal to my desired audience. And also the fact that male audiences like
tension in horror films means that they would enjoy my media more. I feel that the Horror
genre of my filmand style of realism drama acting compared to melodrama or slapstick
approach would attract a young adult audience roughly from the ages of 15-25. This is also
the most likely audience to watch a short film on the internet as this group has the highest
internet usage, so therefore I used two actors at the age of 17 (Also my age) so that the
audience to my film could sympathise with the characters. It was also important to take into
account what the female audience enjoys also and that is why in my film I use the build-up
of tension to create a sense that there is about to be a jump scare any second meaning the
audience would expect a jump scare any second but one never comes keeping them glued
to the screen waiting for the inevitable. I used the fact that my storyline involves two
teenagers walking home drunk from a night out to be able to link back to the typical actions
of a teenager and hopefully mean my audience would relate to it.
Due to my research and how I found out that the most popular convention of a horror was
tension this meant I used very dark scenes to create tension and let the audience not see
much. This keeps the seen mysterious and keep in the sense of a stereotypical horror where
you are only allowed to see the main characters and the protagonist is not seen until later
on after a few jump scares or build ups of tensional music and different scary moments. To
address this I used a few build ups of tensional music to help the audience feel that they are
watching horror and not just an average film or a thriller.
My characters played a role in my film as they helped me reach out to my audience and
reach a wider spectrum of viewers. I chose younger actors so that it would attract younger
more specific viewers from the ages of 15-30, therefore by using 17 year olds this would
help as people can relate and address their needs and opinions in the film more personally
than someone who was a parent and was more mature and not necessarily open minded
enough to see things through the eyes of someone perhaps less mature and younger.
4. Because I tried to conform to the stereotypical conventions of a horror when other peers of
the same age as I watched my film they gave feedback which suggested that I had
accomplished what I had set out to do with the sound choices and different shots I chose to
use to keep it within the horror genre and keep it feeling tensional and a sense of suspense
throughout it. The feedback I got from the exact age my film is directed towards which was
16 onwards meant that I was able to see that others watching my filmthought I kept under
the conventions of a horror genre;
Jordan (17): ‘The intense sound track and the darkness really helps portray the genre’
Rory (17): ‘Awesome music, especially at the start where they are walking. The shots were
used really nicely to fit the genre of horror’
Carlo (17) ‘The camera angles are amazing, did you use the GoPro for the character’s point-
of-view? If yes, really good choice for the genre!!’
Georgia (17) ‘The music and range of shots effectively built the suspense!! The storyline was
cool and left the audience wanting to watch the rest! Really cool!’
Evie (17) ‘Really good opening, I really like the bit where Ben’s on the phone and it goes dark
but the light of the phone is still on, the use of the first person shots like when Liamis
moving his head is effective and the music sets up the genre nicely.’
Emily (18) ‘The music, titles and lighting fitted in really well with the genre.
The use of the music when Ben is on the phone built up tension which was great.
I really liked the bit where it looks like we are seeing through Liam’s eyes fitted the
conventions of a horror well!’
Matthew (17) ‘The music helped to introduce the genre early on and the darkness in the
shots is effective at creating a feeling of mystery.’
Stanley (17) ‘music fit well and the use of lighting was great, nice use of the GoPro camera
and use of setting that fit with the genre well’
Craig (17) ‘Good titles and fonts, good lighting, good soundtrack choice as it reflects well to
genre’
Lucy (17) ‘Very good media and love the music as it worked really well to help the genre.’
