Evaluation Question 4: Who Would Be the Audience For Your Media Product?

 

When conducting audience research for our thriller film, we examined the different types of audiences to see which was the most suitable. As a group, we decided that our film would have an age rating of 15 and over as well as C1, C2, D and E because most 15 year olds are in education and either unemployed or have a part time job. Social profiling was one way we used to identify who our audience would be, so we also used demographic profiling because the prior profiler had its limited uses. In terms of this, those above the age rating set would be those in skilled jobs and would prefer thriller films compared to those in the A/B category who prefer different genres and sub-genres. 

Our profiling meant that we discussed aspects such as theme where we consider sub-genres such as action-thriller or science fiction thriller but in the end we came up with the ideal concept of a crime/mystery hybrid thriller because we felt that this would be more accepted as a exciting and intriguing film that people wanted to see. The same goes for scores which we decided would be mysterious and slow building to create tension. For casting, we thought that teenage actors would relate well to our teenage audience who we believe will enjoy our film the most.

Our age rating allowed us to introduce the theme of violence into the film as part of the crime subgenre we chose. However, in terms of this content we needed to ensure that this theme was not taken too far e.g. gory and graphic blood scenes, for a number of obvious reasons. 

This murder scene from The Godfather and a screenshot from The Expendables 2 is along the lines of what we wanted to avoid. 

 

Firstly, the 15-18 year olds allowed to watch might not be able to psychologically cope with it and secondly, the film would become more of a horror genre film which is not our goal. This is why we did not show the action of murder in our film but instead let the audience presume he was killed at the end. 

As a group, we believe that our film is suitable for our chosen audience because it incorporates typically used themes such as crime and mystery, followed the codes and conventions of the thriller genre whilst still keeping to the age rating.