Who would be the audience for your media product, and how did you attract/address your audience?

James Richardson-Cornish

What makes people want to watch Horror films?

• One of the reasons Horror films are so popular, is because not only do they provide the audience with a great sense of entertainment, they also offer a sense of excitement and fear. This sets them aside from other films, which may only have a few attractions.

• However, this does slightly limit the audience, as not everyone wants to feel scared when watching a film. They may want some light relief, and so turn to a Comedy to cheer them up? This does however reinstate the fact that different genres have different gratifications, and the different genres all offer different audience pleasures.

• However, the genre in which we will be looking at is Horror. By researching this genre, we get a better idea at what is actually meant to be included, and why certain things aren’t. It’s also very important to know your audience when it comes to the sales side of things. Directors, Producers, Film companies all need to know what they are produced, and the audiences they are working with, in order to offer them the best end result. After all it is all about sales and making a profit. People won't buy a film if it doesn't offer them what they want to see.

Who is our Target Audience?

Whilst we want most people to understand the basic theme of our film, we have aimed it towards the slightly higher end of the market, towards the lower end of B - C. This is because this category has the greatest understanding of Independent Cinema, and often likes to be challenged, not just entertained. It would also appeal to those interested in horror films, and those who like mysteries, where you’re not completely away of whats happening at certain times. We also feel that due to both the nature of the film, and audience, it would be important to include a social element into the film, making it something that people feel they can chat about and discuss within their social groups.

In terms of age, I feel this film would be relatable to almost anyone. Whilst the film wouldn't be shown to youngsters, it should appeal to people from teen upwards, as the main characters represent the typical ‘reckless youth’ stereotype, thats either experienced in the age group, or read about by elders. This is also partly down to the fact that film is most popular within the ages of fifteen to twenty-five, meaning that the audience most represented, is that in which it’s most popular to. This is partially due to what they look to get out of films, with teenagers looking for more of a thrill and a fright than other audiences.

We also included different ethnicities into our film. We didn't want to leave anyone out, and alienate certain audiences, but at the same time, we didn't necessarily feel as though race played a vital part in the sequence.

We also found it interesting how the Horror genre was aimed at both men and women, seeming to have roughly equal shares in the audience, perhaps more so than other genres. It was interesting just how much Horror appealed to both men and women. This isn't something usually seen so much with other genres, which are usually gender dominated. For example Rom-Coms are usually associated with women, whilst men are usually expected to prefer the Thriller/Action genre, looking for guns, car chases and villains.

Age Rating

Whilst it wasn't perhaps the most professional, or usual way of doing things, It was only once we’d finished making the opening sequence, and had edited it that we decided we were going to give it a 15.

We reached this conclusion by looking into the specs for the rating, and researching into what the BBFC felt made a fifteen. Whilst perhaps had we gone further into the film, and carried on the development, for the time being, we felt that the production belonged there, showing some graphic and disturbing scenes, but not being too shocking or risqué either. We also didn't include any explicit language, resulting in the lowering of the age rating, from what could have been an 18 to a 15.

One advantage of giving a film an age rating, is the ability to remove an unwanted audience. By making the film exclusively for people aged fifteen and above, we didn't have to worry about the complexity of the plot, and making the film more relatable and easily understandable for younger viewers.

By appealing to a Niche audience already, the one thing we did want to do was to make the film accessible and relatable for as many older age groups as possible. Whilst the film would perhaps be too violent for anyone younger than 15, we wanted to make sure the film attracted people who were middle-aged as well, who could also sit down and enjoy the film. After all, they are perhaps one of the most important audience members, the ones with the spare money.

How did we address our Audience?

We attempted to address our Target Audience by using a combination of clever Character constructions, and also the use of three theorists that we’ve studied over the course.

The three theorists are:1. Richard Dyer2. Blumier & Katz3. Abraham Maslow

Character Construction

It was important that we attracted our audience and most of all we did this through our characters. Taking into consideration the rating of our film we made the film appealing by using young characters in order for the audience to relate to them, not in the way which unusual things happen but how the characters behaved and how it affected them. By using young male characters, who then became the victims, showed them in a vunerable position allowing the audience to sympathies with them. We allowed them to be stereotypically understood

Richard DyerRichard Dyer’s theory states that what people go looking for in films, they are lacking in real life.

A great example of this, is Fear.

Whilst people don't really want to spend their days living in fear, they go to watch films to experience the feeling, knowing that when the film finishes, all will be fine and life continues.

This was something we tried to capture within our opening sequence, offering the audience the frights and shocks they expect to see within the Horror Genre.

Blumier & KatzBlumier & Katz came up with the famous uses and gratifications theory. This theory states that people expect to get certain pleasures out of the films they watch.

These include:• The need to be INFORMED and EDUCATED about the world in which

they live. • The need to IDENTIFY personally with the characters and situations in

order to learn more about themselves.• The need to be ENTERTAINED by a range and variety of well

constructed texts. • The need to use the media as a talking point for SOCIAL

INTERACTION.• The need to ESCAPE from their ‘daily grind’ into other worlds and

situations.

As a group, we worked closely with these points, to try and include them as much as possible, however we didn’t manage to include all of them, instead choosing a select few we felt were relevant to our sequence.

Abraham MaslowMaslow’s theory works under the hierarchy of human needs. They start of with the basics in which we all require to survive, such as Food, water etc…

And he then moves onto things in life we aspire to have, such as confidence, friendships and morality.

Maslow also quoted that only “one in a hundred people become fully self-actualized because our society rewards motivation primarily based on esteem, love and other social needs.”