Question 4:Who would be the audience for your media product? Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

1. Question 4: Who would be the
audience for your media product?
Question 5: How did you
attract/address your audience?
After lots of researchand surveys, we found that the most commonage
to watch horror style films is around 15-23,so generally in the young
adult region. These are the types of people that would go to the cinema
to watch our horror film and also generally young adults enjoy an
adrenaline rush more than older people,so this genre would be perfect
for them, as it would give them a scare, but they know that it can’t really
hurt them. Our target audience would also be a similar age to our main
protagonist that they see in our opening,so would relate to her more.
This creates a bond between the character and audience, making them
more empathetic towards her and also feeling more scared or her, as
she is similar to them.
Our audience would also typically be wearing the same kind of stylish,
affordable clothing and would be doing their makeup and hair the same
way, as it is what is in style in current times. We chose to dress our
actress in an everyday outfit that she had at home and had previously
worn on a normal day, as we wanted it to be believable and relatable as
possible.Our actress is 16, which is within the age bracket or our target
audience, but is playing the character of someone slightly older, so it
would be believable to be in the scenario she is in (driving a car etc.),
but she would still be within the age range for our target audience, so
they would still relate to her.
Even though our production is essentially based around a female
protagonist, we do not believe that this would create less of an appeal
for male audiences,as the horror genre is not one that is stereotypically
‘feminine’, like a rom-com would be tagged as. We also believe that our
plot line is not based around her being a girl, though we did make this
choice,as we believed that it may make the audience, male, or female,
more empathetic towards her, as females are generally seen as more
vulnerable. We believe that the clothes we have dressedour actress in
are also not generally seenas ‘girly’ garments, so our film would attract
an equally male and female audience. From our survey we discovered

2. that many males preferto see a female protagonist in a horror film,
which we took on board with ours.
This birds eye view shot and mid shot of the house would appeal to
particular members of our audience who live in rural places,as they
would relate more to the characters. This may mean that they would see
this house, or area as similar to their own, making them feellike it could
happen to them. It may become scarierfor these audiences,or even to
audiences that live in urban areas, as they may see the change from
their normality more daunting, as they have less experience with it so
may not know what is to come. It also relates to the horror genre, as you
can see that it is a very isolated house, with no close neighbours,
making the film more frightening, as it would be less easy for the
protagonist to receive help if she is in a dangerous, or scary situation.
CLOTHES
Our protagonist is wearing quite typically stylish generic clothing that
conforms to the same of our target audience. The toned down colours
shows that it is just a normal day for her, as would relate to our audience
and the gender-neutral style and colours are not typically feminine, as
we wanted to attract a male and female audience. We were concerned
that maybe from seeing her clothes in the trailer, males would be a bit
wary, as they may think the film may turn out to be generically ‘female’if
she was wearing very feminine clothes,which some males don’t like. We
also chose these clothes to establish the time zone, which is modern, as
it is set in quite an old house, so some may have been confused.
Overall, it would appeal to both genders in equal format, although the
start is a bit more female sided.

3. RELEVANT FILMS
In ‘The ring’, it opens with a similar style, with a crackling tv and an empty house,
slowly building up to a jump scare at the end when the actress sees something that
the audience can’t see, leaving a tone of mystery, as wehave done in our opening.
We believe that this tone of mystery would appeal to our target audience as they
would want to keep watching to discover whatshe has seen. Somewhatlike our
horror film ‘hidden’ also, in ‘The ring’, after her friend disappears, sheis completely
alone in the house, so there is little to no dialogue, meaning that there is more
suspenseand build up with only the non-diegetic music and the jump scarehas
more impact with the huge contrastafter the silence beforehand. This is unlike films
such as ‘Scream’, wherethe frightening parts come solely from the dialogue and
what is being said, with non-diegetic music alongsideit for impact. Although the
same people that would watch ‘The ring’ would watch ‘Scream’, I think that they
both have equally scary impact, but in differentways. The impact we were going for
that we thought would best suit our plot was a ‘The Ring’ style structure. This means
that our film would appeal to the same styletarget audiences of those films, so
people who have seen them would also wantto see our film, which is whereour
audience is targeted.

4. GENRE AND PARTICULAR GROUPS
Our production is targeted specifically to the horror genre, due to the
style of film (the jump scare scream, atmospheric non-diegetic sounds
and atmospheric filter, the age of actress we chose and the shot types
that we used).
A particular group type that may watch our horror film are
Innovators/self actualizers/ mainstream/ aspirant. These people are
young people who love adventure and are confidentand outgoing. They
are mainstream and watch films recommendedto them by friends,but
love the adrenaline rush that horror films give them. They also like other
genres,but are easily bored by them, so horror is perfectforthem, as
they are exciting and give them a rush, drawing them in, so they don’t
get bored.By using modern day cars and clothing, we can draw these
teenagers in, while still using an old style house to make it scarier, but
not put them off,as there are more things they can relate to.
SHOTS
In my research I found that in many opening
sequences, the protagonistis seen doing
normal things, which I believe is to put the
audience off guard, so they don’t expect the
scary partas much. We choseto do a high
angle over the shoulder shot of our
protagonistmaking tea, as we believe that
this clearly shows whatsheis doing and
creates a mellow tone, as it isn’t something
that is particularly extreme or exciting. We
also did this to include the table cloth, which
has a very homely feel to it, drawing our
target audience in, as they can relate to this
kind of action of being at home and making a
cup of tea. This means that they are more
connected to the main protagonistand are
more scared for her as spooky things startto
happen. We also included this shot of our
protagonistthrough a frame between two
walls. I think this is a really nicely positioned and framed shot, making our production
look much more professional. Wealso framed it to get the bottles and props in the
way, making our protagonistlook scatty and messy, so more perceptible to danger.
The shot again shows our protagonistgoing about her day as anyone would, relating
to our target audience and drawing them in to her actions, guessing whatis to come.

5. This
establishing
bird’s eye shot
is one that we
have seenin
many other
horror films to
show the
setting of the
place they are
in. Here, we
used a drone
to show the rural fields around the house and the isolation of the house
itself, as you can see from this shot that there are no houses around for
a long way. This appeals to our target audience, as they may have seen
things like this in other horror films and may subconsciouslythink about
how she is completelyalone, making watching it a more scary
experience,which is what they want if they are watching a film
specificallymade to scare them. It also means that they are focused on
the car, as it is the only thing that they can see moving, so are already
following the protagonist before she is even introduced. The rural setting
may appeal to many of our audience, as they may relate to it as many of
them may live in a house like this. For people that live in a more urban
setting, they may see the change as more intriguing, as they are not
used to this kind of sight and will want to see what is going to happen.
This shot also shows that it is a nice, sunny day, so it juxtaposes with
the events to come,as it suddenly becomes darkand scary. This means
that the audience will be more scared, as the beginning makes it seem
nice and happy.
This low angle shot
is also one that
many horror films
show, as it gives a
clear view of not
only the
protagonist’s
actions, but also

6. their facial expressions,especially if they are looking down at something.
It will draw our target audience in, as they feelher emotions as the
camera moves down with her actions. It also gives a front view of her
face, rather than what she is looking at, so the audience are more
connected with the protagonist, as she is the thing that they are focused
on. This means that when something scary happens, they will be even
more frightened and may jump, as they are totally focused on her. The
audience will enjoy this more, as they are watching the film to be scared.
This type of jump scare shot is commonin horror, as it makes the
audience jump. The fast zoom, paired with the scary makeup in
comparisonto the natural look she had before is bound to give the
audience a fright, shown in films such as ‘The ring’. It leaves the
audience shocked after the opening, making them want to watch on and
drawing them in with the tone of mystery, as we don’t know what has
made her like this. It also appeals to their excitement,as it gives them
the adrenaline rush that lots of teens look for whilst watching horror
films, alluring to our target audience, many of whom will be thrill seekers.
SOUND
During post- production, we chose not to add in a sound track, but only
atmospheric sounds, as we thought the quietness would juxtapose with
the loud scream at the end, making the audience jump more. This is the
kind of thing that horror films tend to do, as it creates more of a steady

7. build up. This appeals to the target audience, as it seems all the more
frightening, so they will want to watch on. We also added in some
diegetic sound, such as the car coming down the road, which makes it
more professionaland the shots flow much better. We also added in the
diegetic sound of the television, which me made crackle and fuzz, which
shows what an isolated area she is in and how the signal is bad, so she
would struggle to call for help. This would put our audience on edge and
build up the tension.
Overall, I think we have combined many differentaspects of horror into
our film, so that we conform to the genre that our audience want to
watch. We have also appealed to the target audience in many different
ways, personally and on a wider range.