The document discusses analyzing the target audience for a thriller film opening sequence based on the gender, age, and ethnicity of the characters. It was determined that the target audience would most likely be males aged 18-40, as the main characters are male around age 40, and this demographic would be able to identify most with the psychological crime thriller storyline. Both female and older audiences could also find elements to engage with due to the variety of characters.

1. The Audience Profile In this presentation, I will be discussing in depth the gender and sex, age and ethnicity of the audience and which target audience will apply to our thriller opening sequence. We will explain how we thought out thriller would appeal to the target audience and why we thought the target audience was appropriate.

2. Gender/Sex The gender of our audience will depend on the characters within our opening sequence. Our protagonist and antagonist are both male characters. The victim and 1/3 of the forensic team however will be female so there is a balance of both sex but because the story is focused more on our main characters who are both male, our target audience is most likely to apply to a male audience. We feel that our opening sequence may apply strongly to a male audience because the male audience will be able to identify with the male characters. Also because it is a crime scene thriller, we would stereotypically assume that males would be the target audience because they are into investigations and chase scenes. However, because our opening sequence is also a psychological thriller, it could be argued that the target audience could apply to females as well. Stereotypically, females tend to enjoy psychological films and it is said that they can identify with psychological films because they can feel a sense of sympathy and emotion. As our victim is a female, women may feel a sense of sympathy and insecurity (which we would expect from a successful thriller) which this may intrigue them and make them want to continue watching the film.

3. Age Similar to gender, age also is also dependent on whether the audience would be interested in the opening sequence. I would say that our target audience would possibly be people in-between the age of 18 – 40. The reason I have made this judgment is because of the character in the opening sequence. Our victim is a young female around the the age of 18 – 20 so therefore, females may feel like they could identify with our opening sequence and may consider watching it. Because our protagonist/antagonist is roughly between the age of 40 – 50, we would assume that the target audience could also be a group of older males. Again, the reason I have came to this conclusion is because I feel as if older males could identify with our characters in our opening sequence. Because our film is a psychologial/crime scene thriller, it ‘may’ take a bit of wisdom and brains for someone to be able to follow the storyline so again, I would think that our target audience would apply to older people.

4. Ethnicity In our opening sequence, there are a variation of ethnicities as our main characters are mixed race. Because our main characters are mixed race, this may expand our target audience and invite many races to watch our opening sequence. There are actors in our opening sequence who come from Europe, Africa, Asia, etc so the audience may feel as if they are able to identify with the characters, dependent on where they are from.

5. Target Audience Considering the gender and sex, the age of our audience and the ethnicities, our group came to a final conclusion that our opening sequence should appeal to males around the age of 18 – 40. We felt that this would be appropriate as our main character in our opening sequence is also a male around the age of 40. Therefore we thought that middle aged males may be able to understand and identify with the film better than a female or a teenager.