Brooke Smith

Target audience analysis

Part 1: Understanding my audience
I have chosen Thriller as my genre. This is because thrillers can draw the audience in.
Thrillers commonly build suspense and have a subgenre of mystery. This allows the
audience to be involved in the sequence, which is the effect that I want to create when an
audience watches my sequence. This links to my target audience as scary tension building
wouldnt be suitable for a child under the age of 15. A thriller could be too intellectually
demanding for a younger audience; the audience needs to be mature, therefore my target
audience 15-26 years.

This graph shows that 16-26 year olds prefer Thriller as a film genre. This is a significant
statistic because 15 more people preferred Thriller to the second most preferred genre;
Drama. These results imply that more 16-26 year olds would rather watch a thriller than a
different genre of film, proving that my target audience is suitable to my choice of genre.
Brooke Smith

The graph tells me that men over the age of 55 consume thriller films the most, however it
also implies that men aged 55+ are the least likely to watch a film and if they do then they
are more likely to watch an action or a comedy film. It also shows that more Men between
the ages of 15 and 24 watch thriller than women in the same age range. However this data
is not completely reliable, this is because there are not same amount of people recorded in
each section, for example, there is data for 1048 male 15-24, whereas there is data for 1195
male 25-34. This suggests that these results may not be repeatable and completely relevant
when defining my target audience. However they do give me an insight into different target
audiences preferences and the results for thriller films.

Even though the graph shows that men over the age of 55 are the main consumers of
thrillers, 15-24 year olds are the largest consumers of cinema; furthermore their favourite
genres include thriller, drama and horror. This tells me that I can aim my sequence at 15-24
year olds and still allow it to be successful; however I need to challenge the statistics that
show that 55+ year old men are the main consumers of thriller. I will do this by adding more
elements of drama and horror, which are other popular genres for 15-24 year olds. This will
attract them more to my opening sequence.

I think my film will have different results as the protagonists are children; therefore my
audience will relate through the innocence of the children; this is a Steven King technique.
My audience will find other qualities in my film that attract them including the codes and
conventions of Thriller, along with some codes and conventions of drama and horror, for
example the mystery.

Low key lighting and shadows are important in thrillers; this is because they convey a
ghostly and haunting atmosphere to the audience. The lack of saturation can lead to
a mysterious effect on screen, therefore causing suspense and heightening the
element of surprise for the viewer.
Changes in angle shots are common in thriller as they show events in more detail;
this is ideal for thriller as the genres intention is to build curiosity in the viewer so
having more angles and perception can answer questions and even provoke more
questions. This keeps the audience involved in the film and its storyline.
Montages of shots are important as they build up to a climax. Building tension is a
key theme of a thriller; the audience is drawn in by the intensity of the shots. This is
Brooke Smith

especially effective if the shots are quick cuts, the speed can represent action,
energy and chaos all while showing detail.

I think 26 years old is a suited maximum age as my film will not be as intellectually
demanding as a different style of thriller, psychological thriller for example. Generally the
older people get the more they prefer developed, complex films; they enjoy these themes as
they can relate to difficult situations more than children or younger people with fewer
experiences. However teenagers and young adults can be attracted to thriller more than any
other genre as it provokes emotion and provides the audience with adrenaline and
excitement; this is appealing to young adult as shown in the graph. In the graph we can see
a clear favouritism towards the thriller genre, when it comes to young adults. The results
show that thriller is the most popular genre for those aged between 16 and 26, therefore I
know that my target audience fits the genre of my sequence.

My main target audience is females and males between the ages of 15 and 24. This is
because my film is too disturbing for a younger audience, so the age rating would be 15, it
wouldnt be an 18 as there is not enough swearing, gore and other explicit content. The
theme of death will keep the film scary for a younger audience, aged below 18 years;
however the storyline will remain complex enough to only be truly understood by an
audience over the age of 15. I also know that this is a good target audience as the majority
of film audiences are between the age of 15 and 24, as shown in the graph above.

The audio in thriller is usually a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sound. There is usually
non diegetic music throughout a whole thriller film, this will be tension building or creepy
music that is generally slow paced until there is a build up to create tension before a climax. I
will use this in my opening sequence; however I am going to focus more on nursery rhymes
and childlike music as it reflects my storyline more than any other music, whereas I will still
use classic tension building music to add more suspense. The diegetic audio will be from
dialogue.

Part 2.1: My target audience

I have chosen males and females aged between 15 and 24 as my target audience, I have
chosen this because I want to challenge the conventions of thriller audiences that I have
found in my research. Generally, thrillers are mainly watched by men over the age of 55.
However, I want my film to appeal to those between the ages of 15 and 24 as those are the
most popular ages for people who go to the cinema. This means that my film would have a
larger available audience.
I will attract my audience by building tension with music and fast paced shots; I will also
convey mystery that will keep the audience intrigued. This will attract my target audience as
they are beginning to want to see films that test their intelligence, however build-up of
tension will keep them excited and intrigued. I will give this effect in my opening sequence by
having distorted shots that break up the dialogue and other conventional shots. For example,
there will be a shot of Grace and Florence singing then a quick cut to the road next to the
graveyard, with just the diegetic sound of the cars passing. Then the camera will cut back to
the original scene. This will make the audience more aware of the surroundings and location;
it will also build tension as the pace will be constantly changing. The audience can become
confused by this distortion and lack of continuity; this can heighten the suspense and
mystery.
Brooke Smith

I will aim for the age rating of 15, this is because it can be too intellectually developed for a
younger person, and also they may be scared by the content of the film and could easily
affect their behaviour. However the film will not be explicit enough to be an 18, as there will
not be strong language or sexual scenes for example. I will make my opening sequence
attract my audience by keeping it fast paced and building tension with music and quick
shots. Also the antagonists are young children; this will attract my audience as teenagers
and adults can sympathise with children and their innocence, however, they do not relate to
them so much that they do not understand the storyline of the sequence.

The psychographic for my target audience breaks down into:

15-24 years old
Part time job-minimum wage
Spare money to socialise
Social media is a large influence
Popularity is important
Short term relationships
Need time to study/learn
Partys take up time and money
In education
Some voting rights

Part 2.2: Questionnaire analysis

I composed a questionnaire to allow access to new information on peoples views about the
genre; thriller. The results will allow me to make my sequence more suited to the target
audience and more appealing to anyone who watches thrillers.

Graph Analysis

These results show me that the majority of the

answers have been given by females.
Therefore the result is in favour of the general
female point of view. However the information
is still useful as my target audience is both men
and women, and my questionnaire has been
answered by both genders.

Almost of the people who answered my

questionnaire are between the ages of 15 and
19; this is helpful as this includes the age range
of my target audience. Therefore I know that
the rest of the information in the questionnaire
is especially useful to me as it reflects the
views of my target audience.
Brooke Smith

The most popular aspect is the mystery in

thriller films. Jump scares and scary music are
also popular aspects of a thriller. However, only
1 person found monsters/aliens scary. This tells
me that the people that answered my
questionnaire prefer the more realistic side of
thrillers, rather than the more sci-fi route for
example aliens. Therefore I will use this
information to add more of the unknown along
with jump scares to draw in my audience.

Although the results were close to equal, most

people preferred a male antagonist. However,
this will not be the case in my film, since there
was only a one person difference in the results
I still believe that a female antagonist will
appeal to my target audience. Whereas, we will
not see the antagonist in the opening
sequence, therefore this information will not be
represented in my sequence.

The majority said that they preferred a male

protagonist; again I will challenge this result as
I have a protagonist who is female. However I
believe that the audience can still relate as she
is a child, and everyone has experienced
childhood.

More people prefer a psychological thriller,

however all of the sub-genres were chosen,
apart from drama. Mystery was chosen by only
6.5% of people, this surprised me since the
majority of people found the unknown the
scariest part of a thriller. To put this information
to use I will use some aspects of the
psychological genre to combine with the
mystery in my sequence. This will be easy as
the conventions of the psychological genre
entail having an unsolved mystery for the
audience to interpret.

More people said they were quite easily scared,

rating themselves 3 out of 10, however there
was a range of results, showing that fear is
more personal and it is difficult to see a trend.
This means that I cannot generalise how easily
scared my target audience is, however it does
tell me my sequence needs to be very scary to
attract the 25% of the people that answered,
who were less easily scared.
Brooke Smith

Suspense and storyline are more popular for

keeping the audience watching a thriller. Over
half of the people who answered my
questionnaire said that suspense was
important; therefore I need to focus on building
suspense especially in my opening sequence.

Most people said that plot is important in a

thriller, and only 2 people said that it is
important sometimes. Therefore I know that the
storyline needs to be apparent to the audience
and easy for them to follow. I will use this
information by building up the plot in my
opening sequence so that the audience
instantly asks questions about what they see,
therefore are more encouraged to carry on
watching the film.

The most popular film was Shutter Island, this

was no surprise to me as Shutter Island has a
very developed storyline and creates a lot of
mystery by building suspense.

According to my questionnaire, the scariest

music is nursery rhymes. This result is useful to
me as I am going to use nursery rhymes in my
opening sequence. This links to the lead age
range as they may relate to the nursery rhymes
and could bring back memories from when they
were children. This will strike nostalgia whilst
they watch the opening sequence, therefore
they may feel more emotionally involved with
the sequence.

The majority of people watch 1-2 films per

week. This tells me that most of the people who
answered my questionnaire watch films quite
regularly. Therefore their opinions are valid and
relevant to my opening sequence.

Part 3: Conclusion
My opening sequence is a Thriller; this means that I will have low lighting and a lack of
saturation in my opening sequence. This use of lighting will give a ghostly effect and imply a
negative and dark atmosphere, whilst still giving the opening a naturalistic and gritty look.
I will also use fast paced shots and distorted camera angles to enhance suspense and
mystery, meanwhile adding detail to the screen. This will give an effective discomfort to my
audience and allow the tension to be built.
My opening sequence will have tension building music in the background; this is a
convention of the thriller genre. However, my main focus for the audio is nursery rhymes. In
Brooke Smith

my questionnaire I found out that the scariest music in a thriller is nursery rhymes, this
means that I can incorporate the nursery rhymes along with the classical tension building
music into my opening sequence and be confident that it will make the audience more
scared. The nursery rhyme is significant to the sequence as it reflects the children in the film
and the idea of childhood that the opening is largely based around. However, the lyrics of
Rock a bye baby have an underlying meaning that foreshadows to the rest of the film. The
nursery rhyme portrays a baby falling out of a tree, in the rest of the film the audience sees
Grace telling the story of how she was killed as a child. These themes of childhood,
innocence and danger are reflected throughout the whole opening, therefore the nursery
rhyme links the opening and what would be the rest of the film together.

I am going to challenge the statistics that tell me that thrillers are mainly viewed by men over
the age of 55. I will do this by making my opening sequence appeal more to males and
females between the ages of 15 and 24; this can be achieved with the use of the nursery
rhymes in the opening sequence, this type of music was a popular option in my
questionnaire. I also know from my questionnaire that storyline is significant; I will use this
information by leading up to the storyline as much as possible in the beginning. This will
draw my audience in and help them understand the plot.
I will include the stereotypical innocence of a child and the typical image of the older child
being dominant over the younger child. This will appeal to my audience more as everyone
can relate to the mannerisms o f a child. Having the naive younger child also allows the
audience to sympathise with the character; therefore they become more emotionally
invested in the film. Furthermore, the audience can relate to the representation of friendship
in my opening sequence, this can also create a sympathetic connection to the film and the
characters.

I will represent my titles by placing the less important information in the edges of the screen;
however the title and other important information will be in the centre for the audience to see
clearly. The titles will be naturally curved and imperfect, with light, bright colour to contrast
the location of the opening sequences and the dark atmosphere. The font will be longer on
the lower half of the letters to show the effect that they are being pulled to the ground, this
links with the theme of death and graves. My titles will slowly appear; this will reflect the slow
build-up of tension and give a more natural effect than a title than quick flashes onto screen.

My main title will flash onto the screen; this will contrast the slow fade in/out transitions of the
smaller titles. My main title will have the same crooked and naturalistic font style with a more
dramatic, branch like effect; this reflects the natural location. For my main title I will have a
bright white background to contrast the rest of the sequence, this along with the flash onto
screen will shock the audience causing them to jump, as I have seen that jump scares are
popular in thriller. The white in the title will symbolise the innocence of the children and it will
easily contrast the text, which will presented in dark colouring. The main title will also have a
Brooke Smith

daisy to coordinate with the title and continue the theme of nature, even with the very much
artificial background.

My main intention for the sequence is to cause interest for the audience. I want my audience
to be intrigued to know what happens next and be entranced in the storyline. To do this I
need to build up the storyline and mystery in my sequence. I also want to achieve the scarier
side of thriller by building up the tension and causing my audience to jump at the time that
the titles appear.