Target Audience

A target audience are the people that the creators of a film had in mind when making the film. The film is aimed at a certain group of people that are most likely to enjoy it, they then add specific things to the film to attract this audience. Target audiences are usually hinted at in the age rating on posters, on the box cover of a DVD and if the age rating is a 18 some people will have to prove their age. Films that are a PG are usually guessed to be aimed a young audience of 8 - 14 if parents permission is needed to see the film, this means that there may be mild violence or swearing but nothing to extreme that would be unsuitable for young people. If the age rating is a 18 it is likely to include blood and gore, sex, violence and swearing and is only suitable for people that are 18 and over, making the target audience an older age range.

Having the right target audience is something that all film creators need to do. If a producer made a gory horror film full of explicit language with a target audience of 8 - 14 year olds it would be likely that most viewers would not enjoy the experience.

Having the right target audience will make the film makers think about what is suitable for them to watch and what isn't. For example most Disney and Pixar films are rated as a PG and the posters are full of colour to attract a younger audience, the films themselves have friendly characters that the audience like to watch and make them laugh but also a antagonist that will not scare the audience like in a horror film but will be the character will be hated by the audience.

Some examples are:

All of them have a character that the audience can make their favourite but also one that they have a strong dislike for. The colours in the posters will attract a younger audience and make them excited to watch the film in the cinemas.

Most 18 films are horror films or serious thriller and are very different from Disney films posters, to attract an older audience they make it simple and sometimes darker to show that the film is not children. This shows the target audience of 18 and above that this film has been made for their age range and is a lot darker than film targeted at children and teenagers.

Some examples are:

Compared to the Disney and Pixar posters these are a lot more adult looking and younger children would be less attracted to these posters as a whole whereas older teens and adults will be intrested to find out more, making them want to watch the film.

The psychological horror film opening that my media group is making has a target audience of 15 to 23 year olds. Although 15 is still quite young for a horror film there is not a lot of violence and blood just scares and a lot of 15 year olds enjoy horror films. We also thought to advertise it to people that enjoy a tense atmosphere and storylines rather than people that enjoy constant jump scares.