The document discusses how the filmmaker addressed and attracted their target audience during production of a horror film sequence. Based on audience research, the characters were portrayed as working to middle class by using casual clothes and regional accents. Younger audiences prefer horror more, so the filmmaker included hip hop/R&B music and conventional horror sound effects to attract them. Character details and sounds were tweaked based on feedback that working to middle class viewers and teenagers most enjoy the horror genre.

1. Media Evaluation Question 5
How Did You Attract/Address
Your Audience?
Reece Perrin

2. During Production
• This Slideshow will describe how I attracted
the audience for my product during the process
of producing the sequence.

3. Characters
• The characters were thought out during the pre-production process
but were tweaked and edited after researching our audience.
• The original idea was to leave the characters social status/class
ambiguous to appeal to a wider audience. To do this I was going to
add different elements from different classes. Like organise the
characters so they wore nice clothes like dresses or dress suits to
indicate a middle – upper class personality but arrange them to talk
with a thick south/east London accent to portray a working class
lifestyle.
However after receiving results from our audience feedback I decided that
portraying our characters as more working – middle class would appeal
to the audience I found to enjoy horror films more, the working –
middle class (indicated by their income).

4. Characters (Continued)
• I then decided to dress the characters in more smart casual clothes
(black jackets and shirts with jeans and shoes) to suggest they were
middle class but not so much that dress very formally (suits/dress
suits)
• I also arranged for the actresses to talk in a south London accent but not
so much that it was immediately recognisable. Knowing the working
class enjoy horror films more, I felt the mixture of the south London
accent and the smart casual clothes would attract the working class as
they could feel they represent them as a community and there is some
form of common ground between the audience and the characters
which would give the audience something to relate to.
• The characters were always thought out to be young, because it fit with
the storyline of the 2 young/vulnerable girls, it was just a blessing when
performing our audience research we discovered that the younger
audiences (13 – 18) enjoyed horror more than older audiences (19 – 24
& 25 – 35).

5. Sound
The sound was not planned out until after the audience research was taken out
so I had a good indication as to how to sequence should sound.
With the knowledge that younger audiences enjoyed horror films more I
thought it would be a good idea to produce sound similar to a genre in
which younger audiences enjoy (hip – hop / RnB). This was done
through the use of the music that appears over the credits at the beginning
of the sequence and the show of the title “shortcut” before the footage
begins rolling.
The use of the sound effects in the sequence, such as the scream at the end
and the heartbeat heard when Alisha is running, was not aimed directly at a
specific kind of audience but was used more to attract any viewer as it
heightens the scare factor and adds suspense to the product. Any viewer
would react to sounds like this and it is obvious that they are used
throughout many other horror films (such as Nightmare on Elm Street and
Scream) these are just common/conventional sounds for a horror sequence
but I felt they were effective all the same.