The target audience for the media product is females under 35 and males under 35, based on data from the UK Film Council. This group tends to enjoy horror films. Research also found that psychological horror films typically receive a 15 rating from the BBFC due to violent and scary content. To effectively reach the target audience, the film would need to be advertised on social media and released in major cinemas to achieve mainstream success. An example target audience member profile supported that horror fans appreciate original plots, suspense, and jump scares but dislike gore and cliches.

1. Question 4
Who would be the Target
Audience for your media product?

2. Overall
– Our overall Target Audience was determined using data gathered from The UK
film council and we discovered that our primary TA is females under 35 - our
secondary being males of the same age range. Therefore we decided to make
our film cater to the demographics of these audiences - and target audience
member profile was also done to confirm what these demographics were.
– We also discovered that the class our target audience is C2 - middle class.
Although this is a category that can be explored, we decided not to consider it
when making our film opening.

3. Why have we chose this
audience.
– We didn’t choose the audience, in fact the audience chose us. We chose the
genre of our film and then research what the Target Audience would be. We
have then chosen to cater of that target audience as it will be the key sales
point.
– As discussed previously, we used the UK Film council because it’s a national
survey and is there for reliable and representative.
– Every member within our group is also within the target audience, meaning that
we could easily gather demographics from ourselves as well and we could easily
make decisions that would appeal to the target audience of our genre.

4. Secondary Data
– The UK Film council told use that horror films were in the Top 10 of the nations favourite films.
– We gathered secondary data as well as out primary data (TA Member Profiles) because it was
detailed and accurate. Whereas we could only ask people we knew within the target audience,
the secondary data gave us a wider range of information regarding out target audience and
regarding our genre in general. I used a mixture of sources to gather information on the most
popular films both now and of all time and see if interest in our chosen genre had changed and
how. The Daily Box office showed 3 horror films in the top ten alone – all massively grossing films
too. On top of that, there were 2 in the ‘Weekly DVD Sales Chart’ and when identifying the 10 top
horror films of all time, the majority were our subgenre; Psychological horror. This result was the
same for ‘Top Horror films for 2015’. Another site indicated that out of the top psychological
horror films, most of them were modern/recent.
– The secondary data basically helped us conclude that there is still a massive demand for our
genre and also told us what people like in a horror film (by researching the top films and their
content).

5. Classification of our film
– After taking into consideration the guidelines of the BBFC we decided to give our film the
classification of 15.
– This is of course because of its content – and the majority of psychological horror films are age rated
15.
– It contains horror and threat and (supernatural) violence. It also has some strong language and to
empathise with the characters and get a feel of relationships (so death will have more effect) there
will probably be some sexual content, and a general theme of horror. It does not, however, contain
any drug abuse, alcohol abuse or particular imitable behaviour.
– Due to the nature of the genre we also had to consider things like explicit gore and hate speech,
however because it is a psychological horror film rather than a slasher there won’t be as much gore
– hate speech is something we considered when things like possession takes place because the
demons involved in the film will have a particular hatred of religion, there on it could contain
controversial religious slander but not to condone it – as the demon is the antagonist.

6. Release of our film
– From research, I discovered that there is still a high demand for horror films and a
large target audience too. As mentioned previously, when looking at such sites as
‘Box Office Mojo’ I could conclude that many of the top films – not and of all time –
are of the horror genre.
– On top of that, I can use the Target Audience Member profile to determine where
the film needs to be advertised. Social media seemed to be one of the best places
with Youtube and Facebook coming out on top. This will help news of it reach our
target audience as efficiently as possible.
– Due to such a mainstream audience, horror films can make a lot of money. It would
need to be released in a ‘big named’ cinema in order for it to get the recognition
that many horrors before it have. Releasing it for small or independent cinemas
would probably see it ‘flop’ very quickly.

7. Mainstream or Niche?
– Looking at the data gathered from the UK Film council regarding the nations
favourite genres, I would conclude that it is mainstream – there is a large target
audience, both primary and secondary, and a large demand for horror films too.
Our sub-genre of psychological horror could be taken into account as Niche, but
even they are fairly popular with the general public.

8. Target Audience Member Profile
Olivia Thompson
Age: 15
Interests: She enjoys film and television, and loves
art and music. She is also a big fan of social media.
Olivia gives many qualities to horror films that she
likes (as one of her favourite genres) and likes how
they can be very different to any other genre. She
enjoys the ones with great plots and jump
scares/suspense but doesn’t like how cliché some
can be and also isn’t a fan of ones that take gore to
the point of looking stupid.
I’ve taken this into account regarding what to
include in our film and what our TA wont be
interested in

9. Conclusion
– Here I have covered who my target audience is exactly, how I found this out and
what it all means in depth. Target Audience is such an important thing to
consider when making any film because you must know the do’s and dont’s of
your genre. If your target audience doesn’t like it, it probably wont appeal to
many else either – this will cause a film to be unsuccessful.