4 Who is YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE for a thriller film?

WHO IS YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE FOR A THRILLER OPENING?

The age our film is targeting is a young demographic of people aged 15-35. It will attract both male and female audiences, since it has a gender-neutral synopsis.

The title of our upcoming film is Focus. The film is about a sociopathic photographer who is obsessed with a  girl he's dating, yet it has a darker tone when he begins to stalk and take photos of her. Our audience is likely to be a sophisticated audience, discerning in their choice of film. For Matthew Hall, whose study day I attended at the BFI in late February 2016, there exists a category of film that he names 'prestige' film. For Hall, these are low-budget films that nevertheless attract attention at film festivals and may be nominated for awards because of their qualities such as sharp writing, outstanding performances, bold direction and the complex issues explored.

We hope that our film might be considered as a prestige film if it were  produced into a full-length feature film, getting nominated and winning awards for its acting and direction. Our film may seem regular and like another thriller film; however, our film explores the sociopathic behaviour of caring and loving for someone and how a sociopath's mind works. It includes sharp and intriguing dialogue which makes the audience connect with the characters. In addition, James' performance explores his personality disorder and his antisocial behaviour. Beatrice portrays a strong, sophisticated yet troubled lead which shows her character as complex, rather than the stereotypes found in other thriller films. This film would be a prestige film if it was a feature film, which shows difference towards other films in this genre, which have stock characters and are poorly written.

To make an audience profile, so I could visualize what my audience would like and what would interest them, such as their age, gender, leisure activities, films and tv shows, I turned to NME's audience profile as a useful model. 

Age group: 15-29+, teens and young adults

Gender: Both males and females equally

TV Shows: They are likely to watch TV shows in the thriller and slasher genre, such as Scream (2015), and others which are suspenseful, like Scandal, Pretty Little Liars and Bates Motel

Films: They are likely to see at the cinema: Gone Girl, The Roommate, Paranormal Activity, In Fear and Limitless

They are likely to watch at home older films such as: Psycho, Scream, Scream 2, Scream 3, Scream 4, Black Swan, Silence of the Lambs, Single White Female, A Clockwork Orange, Cape Fear, Strangers on a Train

Leisure Time: In their leisure time, they will visit YouTube, stream films via iTunes, drink Starbucks coffee and other similar beverages; eat at upper-middle class restaurants, like Nandos, GBK and Café Rouge.

Clothes: They will wear young brands such as Hollister, Abercrombie and Fitch, NEXT

Media: They are likely to use a recent model of the iPhone (5S/6/6S) for internet on the go and outside of their homes, an expensive laptop to watch films and TV shows, as well to go on websites like Amazon to buy products online for their own enjoyment.

Social Media: Importantly, they would go on social media, like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and use those to post pictures, comments and posts about their everyday lives and to keep up with their friends.

KISS RADIO STATION READER PROFILE

I began to investigate how brands aim to attract a specific audience to target their product or service, for example I researched Kiss Radio Station. In order to distribute my film, I will be developing marketing schemes, mainly ones which skew a younger demographic, since the target audience for my film Focus is targeted towards a younger audience, therefore I knew it was important to target them through social media platforms.

For example, with my group we began to set up all the popular platforms to attract our target audience through a Facebook page, Twitter account, a website for the film, Instagram account and a film poster. We decided that P&A (which is what the film poster fits into) was still important when attracting our target audience, despite most attraction from social media. I will also work out the genre of my film opening relating this decision to my target audiences’ needs. For example, deciding on the reasons why they would want to watch my film and what makes my film different from other films ('the hook').

I investigated how proffesional media companies such as Bauer Media identify audiences for brands such as "Kiss", the largest radio station for our target audience. Kiss reaches 400,000 - 700,000 people aged 15-34 on Facebook per week. If we were looking to distribute our film via a media platform such as radio, Kiss would be great help to us as our target audience listens to their radio. As well, Kiss is gender neutral and has the same target audience.

By looking at the statistics showcased in the reader profile, Kiss have a "split" percentage of both men and women hearing their station. Using this statistic and the other various information on the Kiss reader profile, I have personally built a profile of the type of people they are trying to attract:

• Urban millennials (Both living inside London and outside)
• Teenagers with a passion for films and travel
• Tech-geeks and those who like "commercial incentive"
• Mainstream / Chart Pop Music (e.g. Ariana Grande, Beyonce, Fifth Harmony)
• Uses their smartphone constantly

MY AUDIENCE PROFILE FOR FOCUS

AUDIENCE THEORY

Audience: A Key Concept | Create your own infographics

THE ROLE OF THE BBFC

The role of the bbfc from Alexdavies44

EXIT POLLS
Here is my slide-share presentation on Exit Polls and how they will be useful when looking at my film opening.

Exit polls from Alexdavies44

AUDIENCES AS ACTIVE
More recent approaches to audience theory suggest that audiences are active rather than passive in their media consumption, that is, they make active choices about what they consume. For example, they watch films to escape into a different world, to share experiences with their friends and families, to reinforce their beliefs and values and to learn about their world. 

Here is my SlideShare presentation on how audiences are active in the consumption of media sources. This research will give me a more informed idea of how to reach our target audience.

Audiences as active from Alexdavies44

Theodore Adorno
Create your own infographics

HOW DO AUDIENCES BEHAVE?
Here is the link to my emaze on how audiences behave and models and films which are a result to that.

https://www.emaze.com/@AIITLCCL/how-do-audiences-behave







AUDIENCES CAN BE SEGMENTED AND DEFINED BY THEIR GEARS:
Gender
Ethnicity
Age
Region / Nationality
Socio-economic group

These GEARS were definitely important in determining which would be the best to specify for our target audience. Gender, Ethnicity and Socio-economic group, aren't very important to our specific target audience, since we think that over those three audiences they would be considered neutral. Whereas, for the other two GEARS:

• Age will mainly be targeted for people aged 15-34
• Region/Nationality will mainly be targeted for British and Irish teenagers. 

CAPITAL FM
Another good profile I looked at was the Capital FM. It states that Capital FM reaches 7.3 million people every single week, which would be a positive aspect to the advertising for our film since with it attracting a large audience, it would be an efficient way of advertising our film. Capital FM states that audiences listen to their radio station for the music and the brands lifestyle, which is what I feel our film can contribute to.

FOCUS READER PROFILE
For our film, the reader profile would consist of:

People who like...

• Critically Acclaimed films
• Dark Psychological Thrillers
• A Twisted Love Story
• Obsession and Stalkers Theme
• Films revolving around young British people
• Intriguing Plot
• Un-formulaic storytelling
• Independent films