Audience Profile (Method 2)

AGE

The age group for the target audience for my thriller film will range from 15 to 30 years olds. People from an older age group may want to view the film but the reason for this age demographic is that the actress in our film is 17 years old and therefore the younger audience will be able to relate to her character more than the older audience. The film would be rated as a 15 and would therefore be played after the 9 o’clock watershed to prevent viewers of a younger age watching the film.

GENDER

Unusually, our thriller will appeal more to a female audience than a male audience. The only character to appear in the opening sequence of our thriller is female. The 2 minute opening scene features only her and this firmly establishes her as the main role. This would possibly put off some male members of the audience as thrillers are often (but not always) dominated by male roles. Another reason for the majority of the audience to be women is that the thriller we have constructed is a psychological thriller and does not/would not contain the same sort of scenes as, for example, a thriller about gangsters would and would therefore not attract as many male audience members.

OCCUPATION

The majority of audience members will be students at sixth forms, colleges and universities. Again, this is due to the age of the girl playing the lead role. The thriller is aimed to be more of an art house thriller film than main stream and this should therefore appeal to an audience which will appreciate the composition of the mise on scene and the overall effect of the film such as photographers and artists.

ETHNICITY

The ethnicity of the audience for our thriller films will hopefully be completely mixed. The main character is white, Caucasian but hopefully the race of the main actor would not determine the audience’s decisions on whether or not to view the film. Later on in the film, in scenes with many people, actors who are different races would feature to give a realistic interpretation of contemporary Britain.

ASPIRATIONS

A high percentage of the audience members which attend sixth form will be aspiring to go to university as it showed from the questionnaire that was taken. The film is non fiction but the themes are based around people with mental disabilities and therefore, audience members who aspire to be doctors or helpers for mental patients may find the film interesting to watch as it relates to their abilities.

INTERESTS

A song which is performed on acoustic guitar is played all throughout our thriller opening and therefore, audience members with an interest in music would be intrigued by this aspect of the film, especially as the calm music contrasts with the panicked motions of the main character. The thriller includes some interesting shots, for example, a worm’s eye view of the sky through a lot of tangles tree branches. This creates the feeling of confusion and frustration as it as the intertwining branches resemble a vast spider’s web. This type of shot could attract audience members who are interested in photography.

SIMILAR FILMS

In preparation for the making of the thriller films, one of the thrillers we watched was ‘The Butterfly Effect’ because it had a psychological theme running through it. ‘Identity’ was another which had the same theme but seemed to involve a lot more violence than we wanted to incorporate into ours. Audience members who enjoy the psychological thrillers more than the conventional thrillers would want to view our particular thriller film.