As our film is a psychological thriller, it is going to attract a slightly older audience. Our expected age range would be around 17-35 year olds. We think that our film is going to be rated at an age 15, as it is not violent or gory enough to be an 18 but any age range younger then this would be inappropriate as the film is quite complex and there are mild violent scenes included. This is a very common age range for films to be aimed at. This is because the ages 18-34 is classed as something called the ‘golden demographic’ this means that this is the ages in which people think are most likely to go to the cinema to watch a film. This age is assumed to be the age in which people have the most amount of free time and the most amount of disposable income to be able to spend on themselves. Appealing to this audience should be reasonably simple. Young adults are always assumed to be on the internet. Therefore trailers and social networking sites would be the most effective ways of making our film known to this age demographic and in the planning of our promotional campaign we have tried to account for this by including social networking elements such as a mock blog and character profiles on Facebook.
Having said this, I am aware that our target audience is changed largely because we are imagining that our film is based on a best-sellign novel. Therefore the film audience is going to depend heavily on who has been attracted to the novel, and this is not always who you might think. For example, Twilight is considered a teenage film but has a huge following from older women also. So it would be important for us to look at the novel's fan base and make sure we are not doing anything that might exclude or alienate any section of that audience.
Having said this, I am aware that our target audience is changed largely because we are imagining that our film is based on a best-sellign novel. Therefore the film audience is going to depend heavily on who has been attracted to the novel, and this is not always who you might think. For example, Twilight is considered a teenage film but has a huge following from older women also. So it would be important for us to look at the novel's fan base and make sure we are not doing anything that might exclude or alienate any section of that audience.
Our film is not gender specific. It is traditionally assumed that girls like to watch rom-coms and boys like to watch action films, but this is a huge generalisation. Films such as ours are now seen to appeal to both men and women. Our film has factors that would make both men and women want to go and see it. For example, having a mixed gender cast makes the characters relatable to a mixed gender audience, and if the characters are relatable then people are more likely to go and watch the film. Our film would attract both audiences as both gender seem to now be attracted to ‘the puzzle element’ in films. This is also known as the enigma code which allows the audience to question certain aspects of a film from the trailers, which hopefully would make them want to find out the answers. Films that use enigma code rely strongly on suspense, which ours does, to generate the right effect on the audience.
Overall, I think it is not as simple as it used to be to define a target audience. The temptation is to come up with an age category and a gender, and I know this is still done, but it does not feel that relevant to our film. Our genre is not age or gender specific and has a wide appeal - this is why films of our action thriller genre are often shown on TV during e.g. Christmas, as it is assumed it will have a mass appeal. The most important thing for us to think about when considereing target audience is genre and the book fans. We need to make sure our trailer makes it clear that all the favourite features of action thrillers will be in our film - ambiguous characters, danger, adventire, action, suspense, mystery, twists and turns. We also need to make it clear to the book fans that we are not straying too far from the novel.
Overall, I think it is not as simple as it used to be to define a target audience. The temptation is to come up with an age category and a gender, and I know this is still done, but it does not feel that relevant to our film. Our genre is not age or gender specific and has a wide appeal - this is why films of our action thriller genre are often shown on TV during e.g. Christmas, as it is assumed it will have a mass appeal. The most important thing for us to think about when considereing target audience is genre and the book fans. We need to make sure our trailer makes it clear that all the favourite features of action thrillers will be in our film - ambiguous characters, danger, adventire, action, suspense, mystery, twists and turns. We also need to make it clear to the book fans that we are not straying too far from the novel.
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