The target audience for this media product is 16-18 year olds. This age group can relate to and empathize with the teenage main characters. Having creators and characters of the same age means there is a deep understanding of this demographic. Both male and female teenagers are targeted by including identifiable characters of both genders portrayed equally. While the characters are white British, the film's themes of mystery and thriller would appeal to a wide British audience. Prior knowledge of film genres and youth culture references help audiences engage with the film's intertextuality.

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

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

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 Basic Instinct (I) where the antagonist is
also a female murderer, and the target audience is of a similar gender and age to
ours as voted by on IMBd (J). We are still retaining our male target audience by
showing a mysterious male character (K). 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.

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.

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.

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