2. The age our target audience is 16-18 year olds, we chose this
because the characters within our thriller are this age themselves
(A) & (B), and us the creators of this production are this age. This
therefore meant we had a deep understanding of appealing to this
age group, and the target audience will be able to empathize and
relate with Billy and Holly, for example doing activities such as
running (C), something which many young people do today to keep
fit. And when something happens to them in our production they
can more easily imagine and identify with it happening to them,
because of this age similarity. Additionally because we’re the same
age as our target audience they will want to support young film
makers. Additionally when I was doing research I found it was very
uncommon for thrillers to have there main characters as teenagers,
therefore we are breaking barriers and attracting the target
audience because its an age group they probably wont have seen
before in thrillers.
Age
3.
4. Gender
The gender of our target audience is both males and females, despite most other thriller
females having men as their primary target audience like Spectre (D), Se7en (E) or The Thriller
(F) and many more, by using a male dominated cast. Females in thriller films are mostly not
presented to be identifiable or able to empathize with for the audience, it’s the male characters
who are like this. Therefore even if females are included in many thriller films they aren’t there
to attract a female audience, such as Eve out of Once Upon a Time in America (G) who is a
femme fatale and is killed off because of her deviance. This is because the film industry is also
male dominated for example 75% of Blockbuster film crews are male. We have appealed to
both males and females by including both female and male characters and portrayed them on
an equal ground with aspects like archetypes, such as women being weak victims. We have
chosen to ignore these gender stereotypes to attract an both males and females, through
portraying a strong and capable female antagonist with our opening (H), therefore the females
within our target audience wont feel like they're being put in the shadows and of secondary
importance and she has an aspirational feature that the audience want her power and skills.
Similarly many other thriller films attract their female target audience by doing this, such as The
Girl with the dragon tattoo (I), of a similar gender and age to ours as voted by on IMBd (J), and
this film is an iconic trilogy and has an androgynous powerful female lead like our film. She is
enigmatic whilst the innocent representation of the Billy is a red herring. We are still retaining
our male target audience by showing a mysterious male character. Overall then both genders
of our target audience will feel like the film is aimed at them as they will be able to identify and
sympathise with each gender.
5.
6. Ethnicity/Nationality
Our primary ethnicity for our production would be white British, this is
because within our 6th form it is mostly white British students,
therefore it was difficult to find a cast available for our shooting
schedule, that would have made it more diverse. Furthermore the two
characters within our production are white British (K) & (L) therefore
our target audience would find it easier to relate and empathize with
them when things happen in our production. But this doesn’t rule out
ethnic minorities within Britain watching our film, because they should
still understand the cultural signifiers of Britain, such as the British
countryside autumn forest. And the focus should be on the narrative
and sub-genre of psychological thriller, we don’t place any importance
of ethnicity within opening. We chose a British target audience
because the film would only be releasing in the UK because of our
British distribution company Curzon, therefore this only makes sense.
7.
8. Sexuality
Sexuality is not at all brought up within our opening, therefore all
sexualities are our target audience because it could be assumed our two
characters could be of any sexuality, not just traditionally heterosexual in
many other thriller films, for example in the thrillers Casino Royale or
Limitless. The focus on the opening to the film is suspense and enigma.
The gender of the characters challenges stereotypes, a powerful female
on some kind of mission of revenge whilst the male character is washing
up thus gender stereotypes are turned on their heads.
Thus all communities, heterosexual, gay and transgender audiences
would find the film interesting, and particularly audiences who are tired of
worn out gender stereotypes associated with Hollywood thrillers such as
The Wolf of Wall street and the negative representation of the gay butler
which reinforced stereotypes of homosexual men and their love for ‘orgys’,
or in Mean Girls the gay character Damian who is overly camp and an
outcast in his school life.
9. Media interests/ Lifestyle
Our target audience should already have some prior knowledge about the genre so they can
identify our intertextual references to other thriller films such as Kill Bill 1’s sound bridge in the
opening and many more. These will make our audience feel clever and create a feeling of high
anticipation from their knowledge of what happens in the inter textually referenced film, which is
conventional of the genre, and makes them engage with the film. Additionally our target
audience should be aware of the popular youth culture so they understand certain aspects
within in our thriller such as the brands of clothes Billy is wearing (N) to aid their understanding
of the characters, and perhaps aspire to be him. Or the fact he is exercising (O) which is
something many of our target audience would do such as playing football or netball, these
make Billy a more identifiable character therefore he is established to be the protagonist,
alongside the close ups and point of view shots of him. Moreover our target audience should
enjoy going to the cinema with friends because our film is very cinematic like the intense music
is best heard with loud projecting speakers found at the cinema in order to make it more chilling
and extreme. To appeal to the target audience we have made our film part of the popular
‘slackers club’ (P) which offers students one free film a month in picture house cinemas. Our
film explores contemporary modern anxieties such as being stalked (Q) and kidnapped like out
of the thriller film Taken (R) where a teenage girl is kidnapped for trafficking. Or subconscious
and paranoia of darkness like in the psychological thriller Se7en (S), where detectives find a
dangerous killer. Therefore audiences get a vicarious thrill from watching the terrible and
mysterious events unfold from the safety of their seats in the cinema
