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.

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. 

Genre and Gender Representations - Horror

Genre is the most important part of a film as it lets the audience know what to expect when they hit play. All films have a genre such as horror, action, thriller and comedy and some even combine two together such as action thrillers and romantic comedies. All of these genres have something specific about them which makes the film fall under certain categories.

 

Horror is mostly associated with darkness, blood and murder so in a movie trailer if anything like or similar to those aspects the audience automatically knows that the trailer is advertising a horror film and would be surprised if it turned out to be anything else. For example a rom-com is unlike to involve a killer that walks around in a mask and a bloodied knife during the night as this would usually fall under the horror genre, if it did the audience would likely be very surprised when watching the film.

 

Most people can assign a film a genre with classic 'clichés' that show up in trailers or during the film. For example some horror clichés would be:

 

• Creepy Locations (hospitals, abandoned buildings, forests)
• Darkness (with only a flashlight/small amount of light to see)
• Killer / Dolls / Young Girls as Murderers
• Blood
• Demons / Supernatural

These are only a few but most of these things are the parts of horror films that people enjoy the most. The poster for the horror film Friday the 13th shows most of the points above:

 

 

Genre often includes stereotypes of the two different genders by having characters that are require to act a certain way. Sticking with the genre of horror the main protagonist is usually someone that has no idea of their current situation, whether they are male or female and sometimes a sidekick that will usually be killed. The main character is usually a venerable woman that is victim to the killer however narrowly escapes death throughout the film.  The antagonist is typically a full grown man in a mask with a weapon or a young girl or a doll that can do anything a human can, typically dressed in a dress and the things that people would usually associate as being 'cute' or 'innocent' suddenly become creepy. Instead of a weapon the young girls usually have some supernatural power or be able to kill them without a weapon. If the antagonist is grown male they usually have something unique about them that separates them form other horror killers, this is mainly their weapon choice. A knife or machete is usually chosen but some films have had new and scarier weapons such as chainsaws and pickaxes.

 

 

I personally think that these four pictures play to the horror and gender stereotypes: doll, man in a mask, younger girl victim and/or antagonist and a woman having the main role as the victim. Horror films are usually centred around either the protagonist or the antagonist, this means that the audience has to either route for the character or plot against them. However a oblivious female protagonist makes the audience immediately recognise this character as the one the film will be focusing on

Psychological Horror

Horror is a large genre as a whole having many subgenres, one being psychological horror. Instead of constant scares and visual horrors it relys on creating a tense atmosphere and making the audience believe that they are seeing things when in reality there is nothing there. These play on the audience's fears such as creepy sounds, flickering lights and shadows in distance, small things that will make the audience feel tense about what is happening in the scene.

These films focus on metal state of the audience by making them feel just a vulnerable as the character in the film and they are looking for every detail to avoid being scared. These kind of films play mind tricks on the audience playing on common fears, however unlike regular horror films these fears are subtly shown to the audience instead of making the audience jumps and scream.

Some differences between regular horror films and psychological horror films are:

• Horror films are more likely to show the audience the threat during the film (such as killer, antagonists) whereas they will be subtly show the threat to the audience will sounds and images rather than showing it to the audience upfront.
• Psychological creates a tense atmosphere through out the film to keep the audience on the edge of their seat whereas a horror film will build up to a dramatic scene.
• Psychological horrors usually contain  plot twists to throw the audience off guard and make them re-think the film.
• Psychological uses small scares such as strange lighting and shadows, sounds and sudden movements to scare, usually in the same place as the character whereas in ordinary horrors' the can see the horrors first hand and sometimes before the main character.