The document discusses research conducted into the target audience for a student film production. It was found that females aged 15-25 preferred the horror genre. The production team developed a trailer with a female hero in the horror genre to target this audience. Feedback from a focus group of the target demographic was positive, correctly identifying the genre and expressing interest in a potential film.

2. • When we first came up with the idea for our production we
did some research into target audiences. We found that most
people we questioned preferred to see the horror genre with
a female hero, and so went with this theme for our trailer.
Overall we concluded that the target audience for our chosen
idea would be both males and females (mainly females) aged
between 15 and 25.

3. When researching into target audiences we considered genre massively.
This consideration was based on the idea that the audience, institution
and text/genre are all linked – the genre is important to audience and
industry because each genre relies on the success of other films of that
genre which make money to produce more. Therefore it was important
for us to decide on a genre that would suit a specific type of people. We
asked the question ‘what is your favourite genre of the ones listed?
horror, thriller, action’. Results showed that the most people in our sample
preferred horror and were aged 15-25. As we wanted to attract an
audience of this age anyway, we decided to develop our ideas with this
genre as it was very popular.

4. Uses and gratification theory suggests that there are 4 needs
of an audience that the media seeks to gratify:
o Diversion
o Personal relationships and social interaction
o Personal identity
o Surveillance
• Diversion refers to the audience’s need to escape from
everyday pressures. This applies to our own production as
the horror genre can be used as a distraction from the real
world as it is often very different to everyday life. Diversion
media is usually a source of entertainment, relaxation or
just something to do.

5. • The personal relationships aspect of this theory
suggests people can find companionship through
identification with characters or advertisement
spokespersons. This gives viewers an opportunity to
bond over media texts. Our audience could use the
trailer in order to build a relationship with the person
they watched it with i.e. ‘we could go and watch that
when it comes out, it looks really scary’.

6. • The hypodermic needle theory suggests that media ‘injects’
ideas into passive audiences. The idea is that people are made
to believe whatever they are told because it is the only source
of information. Children in particular are passive users of the
media and so a rating has to be given to films which are not
suitable. With this in mind we decided to give our film a
rating of 15. This means that only people aged 15 and above
should watch it due to the strong language, violence and
threatening content.

7. • The James Bulger case is seen as an example of this
theory as the 10 year old boys who abducted,
tortured and murdered 2 year old James, had
apparently watched ‘Child’s Play 3’ (a horror which is
rated 18) before hand. By viewing this unsuitable
material, the children could have been influenced by
it, leading them to commit these serious crimes.

8. In terms of characters, we had a strong
negative representation of women
throughout the trailer. In film and the
media women are typically portrayed as
submissive and vulnerable, however we
decided to challenge this convention by
creating Evylyn Crick’s character who is
dangerous or antagonistic. In the horror
genre it is not unusual for a woman to act
as the villain (e.g. The Woman In Black)
however it is not something that occurs
particularly often as it is a fairly new
concept. So, by doing this we have created
a more interesting narrative for the
audience to watch.

9. When the production was complete, we invited a number of people to
come and view the trailer and give us some verbal and written feedback.
We designed a questionnaire consisting of questions such as ‘what genre
is this trailer?’ and ‘would you go to see the film?’. We also asked them if
they understood the story and overall we received positive feedback with
all of the focus group correctly identifying the genre as horror and the
majority stating that they would like to see the film if it were to be
released. This to us concluded that we had made the right decision in
targeting people between the ages of 15 and 25 as all of the people in the
focus group who enjoy the horror genre were interested in our trailer.
Focus group

10. • Since the AS project last year, I feel both mine and the rest of
the group’s skills have developed extremely well. We have taken
a lot more aspects of the coursework into consideration for
example audience.
• We did not do much research into our target audience last year
and so worked harder this time to find out exactly what people
hope and expect to see in different films, particularly those of
the horror genre. We conducted both primary and secondary
research into audience through various methods such as
questionnaire, analysis, focus group interviews and more
generally just internet research, one example of this was looking
at the BBFC film rating guidelines. While I looked into these
guidelines last year, I did not develop my understanding
completely as I did not do any primary research which is
essential. Because of this initial research it meant that our end
feedback was positive as most people who were asked said they
would watch the film when it was released.

11. • We also planned locations and situations more fittingly to our
genre for example by filming in dark alleys. The chase at the
end of the production in particular is a camera movement and
location seen commonly in horrors. By doing this it makes it
clearer to the viewers of what genre it is, therefore allowing
us to succeed with the use of horror conventions. This is
something we didn’t consider as well as we should have last
year, as most of the film opening was shot in daylight.
AS Production – shot in daylight A2 Production – shot in the
dark with just candle light and a
mirror reflection

12. • Overall I feel we were successful in identifying and
targeting an audience most appropriate for our trailer/film.
From the beginning we worked closely with the idea of who
our target audience would be and decided on our genre in
relation to this. The genre is important to audience and
industry because each genre relies on the success of other
films of that genre which make money to produce more.

13. • Therefore, it was important for us to decide on a
genre that would suit a specific type of people.
This allowed us to include all the necessary
conventions of a horror trailer and make the
genre clearly recognisable for our audience. We
used locations and situations more fitting to our
genre for example by filming in dark alleys and
incorporating the use of reflections. The chase at
the end of the production in particular is a
camera movement and location seen commonly
in horrors.