The document discusses researching a target audience for a student film production. It was found that most people surveyed preferred the horror genre with a female hero. The production team decided to create a trailer with this theme, targeting males and females aged 15-25. Research showed this age group particularly liked horror films. Feedback on the completed trailer was positive, with most focus group members saying they would want to see the full film.

2. • When we first came up with the idea for our production we
did some research into target audiences. We found that most
people we questioned preferred to see the horror genre with
a female hero, and so went with this theme for our trailer.
Overall we concluded that the target audience for our chosen
idea would be both males and females (mainly females) aged
between 15 and 25.

3. When researching into target audiences we considered genre massively.
This consideration was based on the idea that the audience, institution
and text/genre are all linked – the genre is important to audience and
industry because each genre relies on the success of other film of the
genre which make money to produce more. Therefore it was important
for us to decide on a genre that would suit a specific type of people. We
asked the question ‘what is your favourite genre of the ones listed?
horror, thriller, action’. Results showed that the most people in the
questionnaire preferred horror and were aged 15-25. As we wanted to
attract an audience of this age anyway, we decided to develop our ideas
with this genre as it was very popular.

4. Uses and gratification theory suggests that there are 4 needs
of an audience that media seeks to gratify:
o Diversion
o Personal relationships and social interaction
o Personal identity
o Surveillance
• Diversion refers to the audiences need to escape from
everyday pressures. This applies to our own production as
the horror genre can be used as a distraction from the real
world as it is often very different to everyday life. Diversion
media is usually a source of entertainment, relaxation or
just something to do.

5. • The personal relationships aspect of this theory
suggests people can find companionship through
identification with characters or advertisement
spokespersons. This gives viewers an opportunity to
bond over media texts. Our audience could use the
trailer in order to build a relationship with the person
they watched it with i.e. ‘we could go and watch that
when it comes out, it looks really scary’.

6. • The hypodermic needle theory suggests that
media ‘injects’ ideas into passive audiences. The
idea is that people are made to think what they
are told because it is the only source of
information. Children in particular are passive
users of the media and so a rating has to be given
to films which are not suitable. With this in mind
we decided to give our film a rating of 15. This
means that only people aged 15 and above
should watch it due to the strong language,
violence and threatening content.

7. • The Jamie Bulger case could be an example of
this theory as the 10 year old boys who abducted,
tortured and murdered the 2 year old, had
apparently watched ‘Child’s Play 3’ before hand.

8. In terms of characters we had a strong
negative representation of women
throughout the trailer. In film and the media
women are typically portrayed as submissive
and vulnerable, however we decided to
challenge this convention by creating Evylyn
Crick’s character who is dangerous or
antagonistic. In the horror genre it is not
unusual for a woman to act as the villain (e.g.
The Woman In Black) however it is not
something that occurs particularly often. So,
by doing this we have created a more
interesting narrative for the audience to
watch.

9. When the production was complete, we invited a number of people to come
and view the trailer and give us some verbal and written feedback. We
designed a questionnaire consisting of questions such as ‘what genre is this
trailer?’ and ‘would you go to see the film?’. We also asked them if they
understood the story and overall we received positive feedback with all of the
focus group correctly identifying the genre as horror and the majority stating
that they would like to see the film if it were to be released. This to us
concluded that we had made the right decision in targeting people between
the ages of 15 and 25 as all of the people in the focus group who enjoy the
horror genre were interested in our trailer.
Focus group

10. • Since the AS project last year, I feel mine and the rest of the
group’s skills have developed extremely well. We have taken a
lot more aspects of the coursework into consideration for
example audience.
• We did not do much research into our target audience last year
and so worked harder this time to find out exactly what people
hope and expect to see in different films, particularly those of
the horror genre. We conducted both primary and secondary
research into audience through various methods such as
questionnaire, analysis, focus group interviews and more
generally just internet research, one example being to look at
the BBFC film rating guidelines. While I looked into these
guidelines last year, I did not develop my understanding
completely as I did not do any primary research which is
essential. Because of this initial research it meant that our end
feedback was positive as most people who were asked said they
would watch the film when it was released.

11. • We also planned locations and situations more fittingly to our
genre for example by filming in dark alleys. The chase at the
end of the production in particular is a camera movement and
location seen commonly in horrors. By doing this it makes it
clearer to the viewers of what genre it is. This is something we
didn’t consider as well as we should have last year, as most of
the film opening was shot in daylight.
AS Production – shot in daylight
A2 Production – shot in the
dark with just candle light and a
mirror reflection

12. • Overall I feel we were successful in identifying and
targeting an audience most appropriate for our trailer/film.
From the beginning we worked closely with the idea of who
our target audience would be and decided on our genre in
relation to this. The genre is important to audience and
industry because each genre relies on the success of other
film of the genre which make money to produce more.

13. • Therefore it was important for us to decide on a
genre that would suit a specific type of people.
This allowed us to include all the necessary
conventions of a horror trailer and make it clearly
recognisable for our audience. We planned
locations and situations more fittingly to our
genre too for example by filming in dark alleys
and incorporating the use of reflections. The
chase at the end of the production in particular is
a camera movement and location seen commonly
in horrors.