Isobel Hall: Question 4; Who would be the audience for our media product?

The concept of an audience relates to the target demographic who we were attempting to identify with.
The main target audience for phycological thrillers is 18+, this is because of the violence and mental issues explored in the films that may be disturbing and unsettling to younger audiences.

Although the target audience for our own film will mainly be 15-25 years old, although also targeting and appealing to an older audience, with a rating of 15. This is because of the storyline presented in our opening,  where the true horror and meaning of the words from the voice over may be misinterpreted by a younger audience below 15. Although the lack of violence presented makes an  18+ rating inappropriate.

Also we carried out our audience research with students from 15-18. Therefore were aware of their preferences and likes, therefore were sure to include these within our opening, as we were aware of how to appeal to this market segment.

Although our research was only carried out on these age groups most thriller films, as shown in the image, are watched by 50+ year olds. Therefore although we included the preferences of this age group as this was our main target audience, as we are a mainstream production company it was important it also appealed to a range of ages.
The issue of stalking was appealing to our mass audience and our more specific target audience.

Below are openings from other thrillers, sixth sense and saw V. Sixth sense with a rating of 15 and saw V 18. As you can see the clear differences in the way the thriller genre is shown, you can see our choice of a 15 rating is truly fitting when put into context.