The audience for this media product is teenagers ages 15-18. Research showed that thrillers make a huge profit from this age group. While some people ages 20-28 also watch these films, teenagers are the key demographic. In order to target this teenage audience, the film would need a 15 rating certification to allow 15-18 year olds to view it theatrically. A 12A rating would be too restrictive, while an 18 rating would lose out on profits from younger teenagers. The film aims to be similar to other 15 rated thrillers like The Strangers and Silent House that involve home invasion and suspense with frightening themes, violence, and gore.

1. Evaluation: Question 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?

2. Who is the audience?
We have tried to aim our product at teenagers. During previous
research, I researched about films related to our genre. I found out
that a huge margin of profits for thriller films are from teenagers. Films
of our genre are mostly viewed by teenagers ranging from „15 -18‟.
There is a small margin of people who are aged ‟20-28‟ but the biggest
profits are developed by teenagers. This depends however on the age
rating, whereas films such as the „SAW‟ series have huge profits of
people aged from „18-21‟. We decided that due to our genre, we would
aim our product at teens due to the huge profit margin.

3. Film Certification
If we were to release our films to Cinemas and give it a
media release (DVD, Blu-Ray, On Demand) our film would
probably receive the certificate „15‟. This is due to the
fact that there any stereotypically never any thriller films
lower then a „12A‟. The „15‟ certificate allows a large
range of teenagers to also view the film in the cinema at
the time of release. A ‟12A‟ would have been unsuitable
due to graphic content. If the film had been released as
an 18, a huge profit margin would be lost due the younger
teenagers not being able to view the film.

4. Certification of Thriller Films
Referring to my „Who is my audience‟ slide, I will refer to
films that are similar to our product. One film that is very
similar to our media text is „THE STRANGERS‟. This film is
about a couple who are terrorised by three masked figures
in their remote summer house. The film itself aims it‟s
audience by having themes of home invasion and
suspense. It also features frightening and intense themes
as well as violence, gore and nudity.

5. Certification of Thriller Films
Another film that is very similar to our product is a film called
„SILENT HOUSE‟. Even though the film is depicted as a
horror, it still has similar key elements that are similar to
ours. The film however is shown in “real time”. It‟s footage
has been manufactured so to appear as one continuous shot.
The plot, again similar to The Strangers sees a young woman
terrorised in her family vacation home. The film contains
strong violence and sustained threat.

6. BBFC
The British Board of Film Classification sets the guidelines for films and
identifies certificates for the film. For a film to receive a 15 classification, it
will have the following traits included in the product:

strong violence

frequent strong language (eg 'fu*k).

Very rare use of very strong language (e.g cu*t)

portrayals of sexual activity

strong verbal references to sex

sexual nudity

brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence

discriminatory language or behaviour

drug taking