The document analyzes the target audience for a horror film. A survey was conducted of males and females ages 12-24 in Hartlepool, England. The survey results showed that 87.5% of respondents were male and most were between ages 12-17 or 18-24. All respondents enjoyed watching films and their preferred genre was horror. Therefore, the target audience for the film is males ages 12-24, as they have spare time and money as students and showed interest in horror films based on the survey results. The film will need a well-written script and storylines to appeal to this audience.

1. Audience Profile

2. For this audience profile, I will find out who my
target audience is and who exactly the audience
for my film will be. I have used a survey and
online research to try and find what genre of
films and film techniques people like; I sent out
the survey around Hartlepool 6fc to both males
and females in the aim to widen my findings.
Research has been done via Google searches
and by using knowledge I have gained from
media lessons in college.

3. The media targets audiences depending on age,
gender, social classes, ethnic group lifestyle,
politics, religion, values, taste, education and so
on. As well as for audience targeting, these
categories may depend on how people intake
different medias and text.

4. Age
The most common audience for horrors is 15 and above, this can
be shown by how the films in this genre get a higher profit when
in they are rated 15+ such as I am legend and Insidious; this is
most likely because of the wider audience range that is capable
of a larger demographic. Another reason for 15 age rating films
getting a large target audience of younger people/teenagers is
because they will have just come of age and will therefore want
to watch it because they are allowed.

5. Gender
Genders usually influence interests between people
more than anything else. Stereotypical remarks
about gender are usually a huge factor when
targeting audience, for example males will most
likely enjoy actions while females will watch
romance films more. While looking at the horror
genre, males will be the predominant audience
although this shouldn’t be to literally as females will
also enjoy them. This is backed up by my survey as
most people who did the survey were male and the
biggest genre interest was horror- showing that
males like horrors.

6. Social Class
The social classes have been categorised in the UK depending on wealth and
employment, these are:
• ABC1- the middle class market
• C2DE- the working class market
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•
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•
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A- higher managerial and professional
B- middle management
C1- office workers
C2- skilled manual workers
D- unskilled workers
E- unemployed, unwaged
These categories are based on the occupational grouping development for the
government census every ten years.

7. This helps me judge who to target my film at
because I want to target films at the people who
have a lot of spare time and disposable money
i.e. students; this is because they have a lot of
spare time and don’t have to pay for things such
as taxes. This is backed up by my survey results
because most people who answered were at a
student age and all said they watch films often.

8. Survey Results
87.5% of my results were from males and 87.5%
of the people who did the survey are between
the ages 12-17 or 18-24 therefore the findings
mostly apply to them. The results showed 100%
of them like film, this could mean the findings
are more valid as I am looking at what type of
film people would want to watch, this is because
people who enjoy film would have a better
perspective and opinion on movies.

10. According to the results, the majority of people
prefer the horror genre to others. This shows
that horrors have a better chance of this
particular audience (aged 12-24 males) going to
see them than films in other genres.

11. From the question “why do you prefer this genre
over others?” I found that people like their
chosen genre mainly because of well written
scripts and story lines, I also found from the
people who chose horror for their favorite genre
they like the scary scenes.

12. Conclusion
Overall from my research and survey I have
found that my target audience should be males
aged 12-24 for a horror, this is because they fit
the niche market and are shown to enjoy films
(in particularly horror) on my survey; they would
most likely be student- meaning they will have a
lot of spare time and disposable money from
the lack of taxes. I have also found that to make
it successful, the film would need to be well
written in its script and story.