Media Evaluation 5

1. How did you attract/address
your audience?

2. Who is our target audience?
From our primary research we discovered that the
target audience for films of similar genre to us (e.g.
Silence of the Lambs – psychological horror thriller)
was males between the ages of 20 and 30 years old.
However, because our film is an independent
production, there is also the opportunity for us to
attract audiences interested in indie and ‘art house’
films. These sub-demographics are more likely to
watch a thriller (such as ours) which subverts the
stereotypical, commercial, Hollywood high-concept
thrillers.

3. Attracting with Actors
Brendan Mandeville (who plays the villainous male
character) needed to have a large, broad physique to both
fit the character profile and provide a mysterious figure to
lure the audience in. Characters with cult followings such
as Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs), Jason Vorhees
(Friday the 13th
) and Freddy Kruuger (A Nightmare on Elm
Street) all share this broad stature. The fact that you don’t
see his face also alienates a female audience (as there is
no character which they would fancy). Thus it makes our
audience more niche.
The actress who plays the young girl in the opening film is a good
looking female. She is stereotypical for her age group. This
representation of gender will attract our target audience as it is
similar to other thrillers’ representations, such as Silence of the
Lambs and Friday the 13th
. Moreover, our actress having a good
physique may even attract men. Idealy, this would not be the case
and in the situation that this was remade we would cast a younger
girl to try to prevent this. However, her costume and the way that
connects to her character may make the audience sympathise for
her.

4. Attracting with Props
The young girls costume presents her as weak and innocent which will attract our primary target
audience (men between the ages of 20 and 30) because it will induce the protective instinct in them.
Moreover, the disgusting photos of dead women seen earlier in the opening sequence (frame shown
above) is slightly more gruesome – this type of activity may interest our target audience as it is
‘interesting’ and ‘different’. Further research indicates that our primary audience get excited by
‘blood and guts’ horror (suggested by looking at the target audience for films where this is present.

5. Attracting with Marketing
As this is a low budget production, a wide spread saturation
advertising campaign (such as the one used for ‘The Dark
Knight Rises’) would not be possible.
However, in order to market the film we could look at easy to
access places where our audience are present – such as
online, in pubs or restaurants or ‘out-and-about’ travelling
back and forth from university or work.
Guerrilla marketing are innovative, unconventional and
low-cost marketing techniques aimed at obtaining maximum
exposure for a product. Some examples that could be used
for our film are present on the following slides.

6. Attracting with Marketing
An example of a guerrilla marketing strategy which would attract those of our
target audience who are ‘out-and-about’ is an urban cycle advertising
campaign. This would reach young men on the way to/back from
work/university in an unexpected way. It is much cheaper and less conventional
than bus or train advertising although will not be as successful.

7. Attracting with Marketing
Beer mats could be a way to attract our target audience whilst they are in a
restaurant or a pub. Statistics suggest that these are the most likely places for
our target audience to go when out-and-about with friends or colleagues so may
be effective due to the context. Equally, it may not be an effective technique as
most of the time, drinks are covering the beer mats and people are generally
not consuming data whilst taking part in leisure activities out of the house.

8. Attracting with Marketing
Due to the fact that our audience is a part of the ‘internet generation’, it would
be highly cost-effective to market the thriller on social networking sites such as
Facebook and Twitter (online marketing campaigns can be relatively cheap
and, depending on the concept, highly successful). We could also upload teaser
clips or ‘viral videos’ on websites such as YouTube, where our target audience
spend a lot of their time consuming data. This is an environment which would
positively reach our audience.