Nohail Mohammed | Media Studies | Mr Teasdale

Target Audience Analysis

Part 1: Understanding My Audience
The genre I have chosen for my film is a thriller/horror but predominantly
thriller. I have chosen this genre as it is a personal favourite of mine with
the likes of Batman and Conjuring; they give a sense of involvement and
additionally provide an adrenaline rush when watching keeping you drawn
into the film from start to end. I believe with a lot of experience and
knowledge from being a person who watches a lot of films I can provide
the audience with a movie that will provide excitement, thrill and drama.
This links to my target audience as films such as Batman involve
investigative work and use of weapons, also showing dominance and
strong physical presence will link to my audience as most people between
the ages of 15-40 will watch thrillers and horrors. However, from
independent research the thrillers target audience are shown in this Prezi
as usually being 18 due to most thrillers involving death, gore and
weapons that can cause psychological issues.

From research, I have found that:

- That depending on the sub-genre of the thriller it causes the film to

target different genders for example Batman is a superhero/action film
and is predominantly targeted at the male gender.

- Shows that depending on the sub-genre of the thriller it causes the film
to target a different age group of the audience for example horror films
usually target the ages from 18 25 whereas action thrillers are usually
targeted for the older age of 30 onwards.
Nohail Mohammed | Media Studies | Mr Teasdale

https://prezi.com/riwd1woqwqyx/target-audience-for-thriller-films/

http://www.participations.org/Volume%209/Issue%202/4%20Redfern.pdf

This research shows me that the thrillers arent very popular compared to
other genres like comedy or action however theyre still preferred over
other genres like art and animation. From the table, you can see that
many of the viewings/votes come from males and females of older age
due to them possibly having more free time. However, for males the ages
between 15 and 44 are the most consistent with the votes being roughly
close to each other. Along with this, females are the same with the
consistency of ages from 15-44 but thrillers arent popular in the votes as
the females would rather watch comedies, dramas and romance films.
Older audiences could be to be a factor of thriller films having complex
plots, this in turn will get them more engaged giving them excitement.

I have decided that my intended target audience will be males aged 15 to

24 this is due to my film containing items which will be used as weapons,
killings and searing. However, none of this will be emphasised which is
why its targeted from 15 and not 18. I have targeted the audience from 15
to 24 as I believe the audience will relate to the characters more from
clothing to hairstyles to even the dialogue. Normally the clothing from a
15 to 24-year-old would be different to a person aged 30+.

From this research, you can see that the age category that I have opted to
target (Male 15-24) are more interested in the genre comedy with 142
Nohail Mohammed | Media Studies | Mr Teasdale

votes in its favour, second being action with 133 votes then finally thriller
with only 105. Although thriller is a third choice to the ages of 1524 it still
has many votes and is preferred over other genres like horror, family and
drama. Additionally, with the male targeted audience the female with the
same age bracket also prefer other genres over thrillers only getting 84
votes displaying that the male gender prefer thrillers and find them more
entertaining/popular than the females. This additionally shows that the
genre thriller generally isnt popular, however, the popularity of the genre
increases as the age of the viewers increases. This is shown by the
coloured boxes on the table. The difference between the males of 15-24 to
55+ is 61 votes and for females the difference in votes is larger with 79.
With the audience Im aiming for, the plot must be very interesting to get
the audience attention however, I can expand my audience to suit the
viewers opinion.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find information on races preferences

towards thriller films however from experience and from asking different
races I have come up with an idea of which likes thriller more. Firstly, I got
more replies of preferring thriller from the Asian race, and then the Black
race, following this was the White race, then lastly the Latino race. From
this I have come to the understanding that I need to mainly target the
Asian audience, this is good as I have to Asian characters in my movie
which will make the film more relatable.

For my opening sequence, I intend to make it based around a certain

character and a certain event. This is similar to films like Batman, Devil
and The Conjuring. The codes and conventions for my opening sequence
are;

- Characters in thrillers include convicts, prisoners, assassins, innocent

victims, psychotic individuals and much more. These characters are
placed in the movies as they carry somewhat of a mystery behind them. I
believe I can draw the audience in with the likes of the characters
costumes. The costumes containing items of clothing which are worn by
the general public of the target audience, this makes the film relatable.
Additionally, with costumes the character types (leader, side-arm,
cautious one) can be relatable towards the audience as some of them may
feel as though they have that type of personality or dominance. The
audience may relate to having a leadership role as Nohail does within the
film over his friends.

- Structured high intense scenes and scenes of low intensity. The scenes
will attach the audience emotionally and physically, feeling the emotions
going through the characters minds like when George will try contradict
Nohail Mohammed | Media Studies | Mr Teasdale

Nohail and Ismaeel in saying what theyre doing is wrong. In addition,

when harry is looking at the investigation board the audience will feel the
scene of mystery.

- The sound in a thriller/horror is usually what creates suspense and keeps

the audience engaged and is used to make the audience understand what
is going on. For example, when Harry sends Nohail a picture of the group
of friends burying someone, the sound becomes louder and more up-beat
creating a sense of danger and being caught.

- Fast paced creates more of a dramatic sequence. With precise camera

shots and angles the film can be shown to be more interacting with the
audience, making them feel as though theyre there with the characters.

Audio in thrillers are presented in a variety of ways. The ways the audio
can be presented are diegetic and non-diegetic but also intense and quiet.
The audio depends on the event of the film but in a thriller the music is
generally quiet for the most of the film as it builds tension and suspense.
Usually stringed instruments are used to create an eerie effect and to put
the audience in an uneased drawn in position where they want to watch
the remainder of the film. When the music is intense it matches the scene
as it will enhance the emotional feeling the audience will get as it makes
them feel part of the film, they do this by increasing the loudness and the
number of beats played. With the scene being calm the audio is quiet with
less beats to relax the audience or it can be used to build suspense
getting them ready for a scene which is about to take place. Also, the
audio can be diegetic or non-diegetic. Diegetic is when you can see where
the sound is coming from in the film for example when Nohail slams the
shovel into the ground the audience will be able to see where the sound
has come from. However, non-diegetic is when the sounds that are being
created or music isnt on screen and the audience cannot see where it
comes from, an example of this is background music to emphasis a
certain event or action a character may do.

Part 2.1: My Target Audience

My target audience is the young male gender between the ages of 15 to
34. Even though the genre thriller is more popular to the males of age
55+, the film Im creating will include some action and some horror too.
With the ages 55+ the horror genre is at the lowest of votes out of all age
groups meaning the film wont particularly be appealing to them. I have
Nohail Mohammed | Media Studies | Mr Teasdale

chosen a wide target audience covering two brackets of age groups (15 to
24 and 25 to 34) I believe this will bring more popularity towards the film
as the genres thriller, horror and action all have many votes that are
relatively close to their other age bracket. Additionally, the characters in
the film will be more easily relatable towards this target audience with the
idea of clothing the characters will wear and such things like props. The
targeted audience are more likely to use an iPhone than the older age
groups of 55+ making it more relatable. I will attract my audience by
leaving them intrigued and wanting to know what is going to happen next
and eventually what will happen in the plot, I will do this by ending my
opening scene on a slight cliff-hanger. This will occur when Harry the actor
playing the killer is taking steps back from the investigation board hes
created of the people who have buried someone in the park, it means the
audience are left wondering what the person buried means to Harry and
additionally who someone is on the investigation board that has had their
face crossed out. I have chosen to give my film an age rating of 15. This is
because the film itself will contain revenge of violence using weapons
which will cause gruesome scenes that may upset viewers of 14 and
below. Furthermore, the film will contain strong verbal profanity which is
used by the characters in anger, for these reasons I have decided on the
15 and not 12/12A as it emphasises on violence and strong words. By
releasing minimal information about the rest of the film, in a way just
teasing the audience I will make the opening sequence appealing to them.
This being the investigation board at the end of it. Also, creating a sense
of thrill when Harry sends a picture of the group of friends to Nohail and
the audience is left waiting to see what happens to them after that.

Psychographic:

My target audience are males from the ages of 15-34. For this their
profile would be:
Either in school or possibly going into a full-time job the negative of this
is that they might have the time to go to the cinema and view a film.
The spare money a young teenager would have would be spent on clothes
or materialistic items such as a bike, phone. 34 year olds spare money
would be most likely spent on their partner or family items like a car or
house this means that they wouldnt likely have any spare money to go
to the cinema and spend roughly 15 for themselves or around 50 on a
family day out.
Usually the ages from 16 children become young adults and start to go to
the gym, this normally takes up time after school for around 2 hours,
additionally from the ages up to 34 males are normally already going to
gym or in some sort of physical activity sport like football or basketball.
This also takes up a lot of free time meaning they dont have time to go to
the cinema.
Nohail Mohammed | Media Studies | Mr Teasdale

The younger audience may not apply to being in a relationship however if

they were they could be most likely to be able to go to the cinema with
their other half if they werent doing anything after school. However, for
an older male who is either in a long-term relationship or is married time
to go to the cinema would have to be scheduled as their partner might
have a busy time-table too.
Socialising is a big factor of a negative however it could be a positive.
When a teenager/young adult goes out to socialise the main things they
do is either go out to eat, go to the cinema or go out for anything else
thats leisure. This means they have a high possibility of going to the
cinema. In comparison, an older adult would rather go out to the pub with
their friends or go out to town on a night out, usually when people get
older they tend to not go to cinema.
With people from the ages of 18-25 they would consider going
travelling around the world or taking out a gap year from
university to go sightseeing or go into work. This would take up a lot
of time as travelling around the world would take months. With
travelling comes a shortage of money, the more money they spend
on going travelling = the less amount of spare money they have for
the cinema.

Part 2.2: Questionnaire Analysis

I have created a questionnaire to find out the general idea of what a group
of people from many ages would prefer in a film and what genre theyd
prefer.

From this screenshot of my

questionnaire you can see that I got
60 responses. 40 of them being
female and 20 of them being male.
From this image, you can see that
more females answered my
questionnaire which doesnt help as
my targeted audience are of the male
gender. This causes the questionnaire
to give me an idea based on mostly
females.
Nohail Mohammed | Media Studies | Mr Teasdale

From this screenshot, you can see

that most votes (51) came from
teenagers in the bracket 16-21. The
next voted bracket was 10-15 (4) and
then 22-27 (2). This gives me a clear
understanding that most of these
answers came from teenagers and
young adults. This is good as my
target audience involves teenagers
and young adults making this
questionnaire relevant.
In this screenshot, it shows that
comedy is the popular vote for film
genres with 26 votes, however, thriller
is second with 11 votes. This shows
that although thriller may not be first
choice its still preferred over genres
like science fiction and drama. This
helps as it means that the target
audience that I am aiming to please
will also enjoy this type of genre.
Additionally, horror was third choice
which means that the movie will be
appealing to many as my film includes
horror aspects. This also means that
opinions in this questionnaire could be
based on my genre.
From this screenshot, you can see
that action is the preferred sub-genre
of thriller with 22 votes. This benefits
the film as it additionally contains
action aspects meaning it will be more
appealing to the audience and be
watched by many. Action will be used
when Harry is completing actions of
getting revenge on the group of three
friends.
This screenshot shows that
comedy/parody horrors are what the
most of the voters prefer. This doesnt
help due to my film being slightly
horror with the sub-genre aspect of
killer/slasher. However, killer/slasher
is 5th with 12 votes and is still
preferred over romance, monster and
sci-fy horrors. The killer/slasher side
will be shown in the film when Harry
uses weapons to kill the other
characters in the film. This gives me
an idea that within the diegetic
dialogue of the friends it should be
slightly humorous as it shows a more
Nohail Mohammed | Media Studies | Mr Teasdale

natural side to them also making

them relatable and keeping the
audience intrigued.

From this question, I understand the

type of characters I need in my film.
Taking the most popular vote from
each sort of section the preferred
character is tall, male, muscular, and
between 18-28. From this I believe the
characters I have selected to be in
film fit most these characteristics.
However, being muscular and of age
between 18-28 isnt them. Theyre
mainly average and are in the age
bracket of 16-17 but look older than
they are.
This questions aim was to see
whether most people prefer either a
male main character or female main
character. Male was preferred with 43
votes and female came second with
17. This is good as the majority of my
characters will be male including the
main character. This should hopefully
make the film more appealing to my
target audience.
From this screenshot, I can conclude
that this vote is perfect for my film as
Harry who is playing the killer hides
his identity with a mask but also
shows his identity at some points too.
In the opening scene, he reveals his
identity when hes sat at his desk and
removes the mask. The votes are
majority for seeing the killer with 43
saying yes and 17 saying no. This
gives me an understanding that Harry
should mainly show his face rather
then cover it in the film as it makes
the viewers ask questions.
Nohail Mohammed | Media Studies | Mr Teasdale

This question asked the voters what

scares them most in a film and the
results showed that the unknown was
first with 27 votes and then
paranormal events was second with
20 votes. The unknown is used within
my film when the audience are
unaware of what is meant by the
investigation board when it shows
that one face has been crossed out.
This creates the fear of unknowing
what Harry has done or what he can
do. This keeps the audience hooked
an intrigued in the film making them
want to watch past the opening
scene.
From this question, I was meant to be
able to see if the general audience are
easily scared or if theyre hard to
scare. From the screenshot, I can see
that a lot of the votes were hard to
scare with 12 of them voting for not
easily scared. However, 12 also chose
7 which is in-between neutral and
easily scared. This shows that a lot of
the audience would be easily
intrigued in the film from being scared
and wanting to watch on. But, with
this information is tells me that the
film shouldnt be mainly focused on
scaring the audience but mainly
drawing them in with the investigative
work, suspense and the revenge.
This screenshot tells me that within
my opening scene the main thing an
audience finds important is suspense
with 26 votes but also introducing the
characters is important coming
second with 21 votes. I believe I can
achieve this within my opening scene
as all main characters are introduced
and suspense is built-up once Nohail
receives a text from Harry showing
him that someone knows that theyve
buried someone and their secret isnt
safe.
Nohail Mohammed | Media Studies | Mr Teasdale

This screenshot shows that tension,

good acting and suspense are the top
three things that keep the audience
watching the genre theyve selected. I
believe that within my opening scene
I can create tension and suspense
with the unveiling of the investigation
board and additionally the actions
Harry does. However, good acting will
come with some of the character like
Nohail and Harry having drama
experience but Ismaeel and George
having basically no drama experience
it might take many re-runs to get the
perfect shot.

From this screenshot, I understand

that the plot is very important with it
getting 55 votes saying yes and 5
votes saying no. This means that I
must create and execute a very well
made plot that the audience will find
interesting and able to understand for
them to be happy with the film.

This question helped me

understand that the majority if the
voters watch films from 0 to 4
hours (46 votes combined) a week
additionally some saying they
spend 5 to 6 hours and 6+. From
this I know that most teenagers to
young adults watch films a fair
number of hours through the
course of a week so making it a
need to make this film as
interesting as possible to keep the
audience watching. From this
question, it also means that the
opinions are from people who
watch a lot of films.

Part 3: Conclusion
My opening sequence belongs to the genre thriller; however, the film will
also feature some action and some horror aspects to it. The codes and
conventions of this thriller film that Im going to use are going to be the
characters in particular the killer, the killer has to give of a vibe of
Nohail Mohammed | Media Studies | Mr Teasdale

physical and mental dominance showing skills that he can use to take
revenge over the other characters in the film. Another convention that I
aim to challenge is the camera shots/editing the edits should be accurate
and the shots need to get the audience intrigued making them feel part of
the scene. Additionally, sound will be crucial as the sound needs to
accommodate the scenes, whether the scene is dangerous and the sound
needs to be louder and up-beat or the scene is quiet and calm and the
sounds also need to be quiet with a slow tempo. Due to the circumstances
with filming and locations it would be hard to challenge these
conventions.

The representations Im going to use are a white mask for the killer to
wear, this is a stereotypical thing a killer would use to seal
his or her identity. The mask will be white with maybe some
design on it with black paint or marker. The mask will also be
taken off so the killer will play a seen and unseen
protagonist. This mask gives the feeling of the unknown which
is proven in my questionnaire to be what most people find
scary.

Another representation would be my target audience, the males in my

target audience would relate towards the film due to the characters in the
film being male. The female audience that may watch this film would
relate through the ages of the characters. But both genders who watch
this can relate towards the characteristics, being a leader, being a side-
arm and being the smart/cautious one.

My titles will be presented at the start of the opening scene following the
production company, the titles that include the actors names, costume
design and soon will be placed at the bottom of the screen in the corners
so they dont get in the way of what is happening on screen. They will be
red like the title but not bold and with a slight outline/shadow behind it in
black so they stand out, the red will represent the blood from the
characters due to the revenge that the killer will do. Each title will fade
out with smoke to keep them smooth so the titles dont seem very sharp
and in the audiences face.