Researching the Target Audience and Genre

Researching the Target Audience and Genre

The target audience for our film would be people who love psychological thrillers, often seen as in the age band of 16-34. This target audience is perfect for our film because if they were any younger they may not understand it and get too scared, and if they were any older they may not find it as impactful and scary as younger people who generally seem to prefer this genre.

http://www.rps.psu.edu/probing/scarymovies.html

This article suggests the scare factor appeals more to teens as they are still in the sensation-seeking stage of their life. Horror (violent and bloody) seems to appeal more to males according to the article, but the psychological factor and upping the suspense rather than the violence increases the appeal to women.

These genres are so popular because they reach out to a wide range of audience; they appeal to males and females and to people of all different ages.

This chart suggests there is still a slight gender gap, but it is not as big as it might have been a few years ago:

I think this might be changing, however, as gender roles become more difficult to define and cross-over.

Anyone could watch thriller films, whatever social or financial status they are. Often the victims are middle to upper middle class, as it is probably more satisfying to watch someone who has everything struggle than someone who is already struggling, but I don't think this affects the social class of the target audience.

Thrillers are popular in the box office. In 2009, out of the 503 total films released in the UK, 31 were thrillers, taking 4% of the year’s box office earnings with £42,578,104. 

Our chosen genre appeals to our target audience of males and females ages 16-34 as it is everything people that age love. It's exciting and provides an adrenaline kick and suspense. Younger people prefer high tension films as it keeps them on edge and is full of action. Also from my own research I asked some friends what their favourite genre of film was, and the majority said thriller/horror therefore I knew that if we aimed our film towards that target audience and used that genre it would be more likely to succeed. Thriller films often put you in the situation of thinking 'What would I do if I was there?' making you put yourself in the film and analysing and judging what the characters do. This  shows that by creating a thriller film you are capturing the audiences full attention, as they put themselves in the situation making it more frightening.

http://www.iankingsley.com/articles/007-psychological-thrillers.php

I found this article about 'What makes a Good Psychological Thriller?' and I agree and disagree. For example, he says that the audience should build a strong relationship with the protagonist. I completely agree with this, because if we do not build a relationship with the protagonist, the audience will get confused and not know who is the hero of the film. Also we need to feel sympathy towards them so that the audience can side with them and feel the emotions they are feeling. On the other hand he says that the antagonist should have likeable and dislikeable aspects. I disagree with this as I believe the antagonist should just have dislikeable aspects to make them fully the 'baddie' and so that the audience can build a hatred towards them. If you make them slightly likeable people may end up liking them destroying the point of even having protagonists and antagonists.