Target Audience - Why is it Important?

Having the right target audience is one of the most important factors to take into consideration when making a film. Depending on the genre every film will have its own target audience and will create the film around what that audience likes and wants to see when they watch the film.

 

 

Age ratings are given to all films which is a small indicator for the age group the creators of the film had in mind when making it. Horror films usually have the rating of 18 whereas a animated comedy will have a U or PG rating. The higher the age rating the more violence, sex, gore and explicit language will be used in the film as the audience is more mature to those kind of things and will know what to expect before watching.

 

 A good example of an 18 rated horror film that is aimed for a target audience around 18 - 28 is the horror film 'Halloween':
 

 

This film is clearly intended for an older audience as it involves murder and nudity within the first 4 minutes. The ending of the opening often shocks viewers during the first viewing, it is also likely to disturb the audience due to the young age of the killer. The target audience of 18's and over is very important for a film like Halloween as it is not suitable for young children due to the suggestive themes and murder, even though it is not seen directly.

When creating our opening sequence we had a target audience of 15 - 25 in mind as we felt that younger people would have a bigger interest in our film than others however, like all films, there are always people that are not part of the target audience that watch and enjoy the film.  The reason we made our target audience 15 - 25 is because as teenagers we know that most people are age would be interested in watching a horror film and as ours is a psychological horror set in a school our target audience would be able to relate to or understand the character in our opening.

As our film does not include graphic violence or major amounts of blood I think our film could be passed as a PG but would be better as a 15 as the point of the film is to make the audience uncomfortable.