2. Target audience: Age
๏ The Target audience we have focused on is 15-18year olds this is due to the
protagonist as our protagonist is around the same age which allows the
audience to relate to her which would intrigue them into watching this film.
Additionally having a teenage character makes such kidnapping films more
realistic as teenagers are more rebellious, adventurous and venerable
meaning that they are less cautious of what's around them as they are
experiencing the freedom into adulthood. With such age group the target
audience will be able to relate to her and experience what she is
experiencing as they were/ are the same age as her so they can relate more
to her situation.
๏ Additionally teenagers go to parties and our narrative consists on the
protagonist going to a party such choice of scene and character will appeal
to teenagers as they do go partying as its part of their youth to experience
and be young this is why we have chosen to focus on teenagers aged 15-18.
3. Target Audience: Gender
๏ Our thriller will target male and females as it has scenes which appeal to both
genders. It would appeal to females because the protagonist is a teenage girl sheโs
walking to a party alone and the fear of walking alone in the dark is more likely to
occur for girls than boys as walking alone at night is dangerous for girls who donโt
have much strength to defend themselves against strong men. Girls have to be
cautious when walking at night however it shows youth as they are experiencing life
at night they are venturing out which would appeal to females as they would
emphasise with the protagonist due to her having to walk at night where anything
could happen.
๏ Males would also be our target audience as we do include aspects of action in out
film thereโs lots of mystery occurring which would intrigue males, we have prison
scenes which would appeal to them as people who go to prison are sadistic and
Murderers which would appeal to males who enjoy action films, we also have a
kidnapping scene where lots of action takes place which can appeal to men as it
shows violence which would โpush them off their seatsโ men like to experience
adrenaline which in our film they can experience through the kidnapping and future
escape scenes. When thereโs lots of things occurring in the narrative males would be
more focused to not miss any element of the action which is why our thriller will
appeal to them
4. Other possible target audiences:
๏ Although our target audience is teenagers aged 15-24 we do also have
scenes in our thriller which may appeal to adults aged 20-30+ this is the
scene where the detective (father of the girl) asks her questions where she is
going this shows the father caring about what sheโs doing and it keeps him
updated on where she is. This would appeal to such age groups as they might
have children of their own which means they would know the feeling of
responsibility and taking care of them. Additionally the scenes donโt have
much violence in them meaning that even adults could enjoy this film for its
narrative and characters rather than avoid this film due to too much action.
The genre of film could appeal to them as itโs a psychological thriller which
means thereโs clues within the film which are near the end explained which
would get their brains working and focus them on the film.
Reasons why our film is not suitable for younger demographics
under the age of 15
Disturbing events e.g. girl being put in back boot and kidnapped
Scenes may distress some viewers such as kidnapping scene
Loud music that adds tension may frighten the younger audience
e.g. loud car boot slam and the scream of girl getting kidnapped
The dark scenes such as her walking to the party (low key lighting) and
eerie mood could scare children as they might be scared of the dark
5. Why Certificate 15?
Looking back
from my
audience
research I have
looked at which
certificate will be
the most
appropriate and
Iโve come to a
conclusion that
its certificate 15
due to the mild
language and
not so strong
violence which
makes its fit in
this age range.
Current thrillers and their age range:
Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960), rated: 15
The Dark Knight Rises (Nolan, 2012), rated: 15
Shutter Island (Scorsese, 2010), rated: 15
Taken (Morel, 2008), rated: 12
6. Audience Research: The initial idea was to
target the female and
male teenage
demographic however I
have noticed that males
would be more
appealed to such genre
of film based on these
results but we will aim
to keep the film gender
neutral which will
appeal to both
7. Audience research
Additionally
though this
audience profile I
have noticed that
females would
watch a movie
based on the actor
in this case
protagonist which
is why I have
chosen to have the
protagonist as
teenage girl as it
would appeal to
the female
demographic.
From the audience profile I have noticed that teens Is an ideal
demographic to choose from because they are the
demographic which have the most time to watch films
8. Films similar to our thriller:
This is a snippet from the Originals which is a thriller and
mystery genre on Netflix which inspired me to include
this in our own thriller we incorporated this scene where
the girl is unconscious by a man and then is put into the
back boot of a car.
We have taken an inspiration from the film โTaken(Morel,2008)โ as is
similar to our thriller it contains a kidnapping scene and a phone call
to the kidnapper additionally the protagonist is a father(similar to our
concept of a detective) in both thrillers their daughters have to pay
for the dangerous job that the father does. Instead of the antagonist
targeting the father they target their daughter.
This Is The female police officer we have based our police
officer on, we chose a strong and fearless character which
breaks stereotypes of women doing domestic jobs. We
also include a scene where the police woman handcuffs a
man but over a car instead of a table.
9. How we targeted our audience?
๏ We targeted our audience through the use of thriller conventions on how a
thriller should look, we focused on the expectation of a thriller such as tension,
loud back ground music, low key lighting, suspense, enigma, atmosphere.
๏ We included various camera shots e.g. establishing shots to set the scene, point
of view shots to show what the protagonist sees e.g. when she gets kidnapped
she falls we witness what she sees, close ups to highlight her emotions and fear
and tilt shots to make her seem venerable and small. We used these shots to
create unease to the audience such shots portraying the emotions of characters
can give an effect of the audience being there as they have seen every detail of
what has happened in the narrative.
๏ We have appealed to our target audience through the use of editing we chose
film at night to create an effect of mystery as you cant see everything which is
around you, we had added non diegetic sound of when the girl is walking down
the street so that the music is loud and it would distract the audience from what
the girl and then she gets kidnapped which the music stops which then builds
suspense as we see the girl struggling to push the antagonists off.
10. How we targeted our audience?
๏ Costume: The choice of clothing chosen for our protagonist is modern and more
feminine as sheโs wearing a dress with a bomber jacket, sheโs wearing makeup and
dresses up to impress boys which is normal for females at such age, she also has a
phone which implies her great used of technology. Such clothing can appeal to our
audience as its modern its what teens wear and have and this would make the
audience focus on the characters as they can relate to them due to it being
modern this would appeal to girls as they like to wear makeup and to boys
because there is a pretty girl on the screen.
๏ Sound: the music the girl is listening to is a modern song which has a beat to it
which is what most teens listen to such as pop or EDM. The soundtrack throughout
the film will be different, at the kidnapping scene the soundtrack will be loud, fast
paced to reflect her emotions and actions of trying to get away. The beginning will
have a calm soundtrack to set the scene.
๏ Lighting is focused on ambient lighting of the evening when the
girl is walking to the party this will target the audience as they
will not be able to see much so they will have to focus more which
then we can use jump scares and unexpected scenes which will
intrigue the audience more
11. Target Audience Feedback on our thriller:
We asked our peers who are in the age of our target audience to give feedback on
our thriller and we wanted to see if we have appealed to them
๏ Adriana Almeida age17 โ โThe girl in this thriller appeals to me as I know how scary it
is to walk at night an I can completely emphasise with her and what happened to her
is my biggest fear when walking alone I also get cautious of what could happen to me
which is why I would watch this film as its something which I can relate toโ
๏ Katie Gajda aged19 โ โ The opening of this film made me tense the sound made the
scenes more suspicious and mysterious, I didnโt know what to expect such mystery in
scenes made me want to watch more and find out what happened to her and why the
kidnappers are after the detectives familyโ
๏ Robert Badge aged 17- โ the way the opening was shot made me emphasise and feel
like I was the main character the first person camera shot was really impressive and
submerged me into the film I felt like it was me who was falling and passing out and
the scene that made me flinch the most was the back boot shutting the sound of that
made me focus on what I see which was the title revealingโ
