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.

Audience Feedback

(Audience feedback post on the group blog)

 

 

After showing our first draft to the class we got some feedback and suggestions on how to improve our opening sequence. I also showed our sequence to a non-media student so that the edits would not be as noticeable and she would concentrate more on the story and whether it made sense to someone that didn't know what the story was. The feedback back we got was:

The packing shot at the beginning of the sequence is to long and needs to be cut down into several smaller shots to make a simple task more interesting to watch.

The ending was to sudden and ruined the suspense that had been created by the stalker suddenly appearing and killing the main character. It was also commented that the actor didn't have the face of a murderer making the scene less intense.

The killer/stalker should be added subtly to more shots to show that someone is following the protagonist but not in every scene as there still had to be an element of surprise when the figure did show up.

The shot of the protagonist getting grabbed but when she frees herself no-one is there was liked as it showed the audience what genre the film would be and would know what to expect.

Although it was mentioned in the feedback I noticed that the lighting was changing in the outdoor scenes so we will have to find a way to edit the lighting.

The scene with the static computers was also liked as although it was a ordinary classroom we had altered it to match the genre and create suspense. The high angled shot in this scene was also liked as it set the scene of the classroom and was a new shot that that been put into the sequence.

The non-media student said that the story was good and the voice-over helped her understand what was going on exactly. She liked the grabbing and static room scene and commented that she did not notice any of the edits which shows that our continuity editing was well done.

Since the feedback was given we have fixed many of the issues such as the ending and the packing shots as they have been re-filmed and edited into our sequence. All that needs to be done now is the last few pieces of editing and adding in the credits.

Who Would Distribute Our Film?

Distribution is the main part of a film and every film needs one if they are going to make their film available to the public. The larger and more well-known distribution company that I think should distribute our film is the company Paramount Pictures or Lionsgate. Paramount Pictures distributed Paranormal Activity which was a hugely successful indie horror film. Paranormal Activity was on a small budget and I think that our film would also be a low-budget indie horror film. As Paramount Pictures managed to make a film that not many people had faith in a huge hit which went on to have several sequels I think that it can do the same for our film as it has a lot in common with Paranormal Activity.

Lionsgate has distributed many famous films such as the Hunger Games series but also produced the horror film Saw. Although Saw is a more brutal than our film I still think it resembles some similarities and, like Paramount Pictures, Lionsgate managed to make Saw a success with several sequel being made after. They distributed the film to be a success and that is what I would want for our film.

Although these companies are large and would probably be hard to get to distribute the film but I think that if they decided to do it they could make our film have a fan base like they did with their own horror films.

An indie distribution company that I think would suit our film is Artisan Entertainment. They distributed 'The Blair Witch Project' and is a lesser-known company compared to Paramount and Lionsgate. The Blair Witch Project was a popular indie film that managed to create a buzz before it had even been distributed. Artisan Entertainment distributed the film after the film had been marketed in such a successful way that the audience thought the film was a true story, Artisan Entertainment could then distribute the film in various ways and the target audience would watch it. I think that as our film is a psychological horror, just like The Blair Witch Project, Artisan Entertainment could distribute our film in the exact same way as the other films they have distributed as they are all small budgeted indie films similar to ours.

Target Audience Questionnaire

Questionnaire - Target Audience for Psychological Horror

Name:

Age:


1) What is your favourite movie genre?

2) How do you watch films? (DVD? Netflix? Downloads?)

3) What is your favourite film?

4) What do you like most about your favourite film? (Story? Characters?)

5) What do you think psychological horror films should include?

6) How would you feel and what would you do if you were the main character in our film plot?



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.