Target Audience

I have chosen to do a Thriller film as it is a different genre to what the rest of the class are doing and by doing a Thriller film, I am challenging myself to create something that is of standards which Is similar to films made by major film production companies. I plan to aim my film at a target audience of 17 to 25 year old because majority of 17 year old and above scare themselves watching thriller/horror movies for the thrill and excitement and this is the mood that I aim to create when my film is finished. To carry out research, I have asked people of all ages to fill out a survey of about 8 questions that will help me make my film to aim at my target audience. I asked 20 people to fill out the surveys so that I get a fair response. The following charts are to show the results that came from the questions that I asked.


This is the results for the first question which I asked, which was what ages category do you fit into. As you can see, there were five categories which the person could choose from. 12 people from the survey fitted into the 17 - 22 category, 5 people fitted into the next category of 23 to 28, None of the people that i surveyed fitted into the 29 - 34 category, 1 person fitted into the 35 - 40 category and finally 2 people fitted into the last category 40 and over.


The second question that I asked was to find out what it was that attracts people to a film poster so that I had an idea of how to attract my target audience when creating my film poster. As you can see from the results, 3 people said that colours and the title would attract them to a poster first, 5 people said that the actors/actresses that are placed on the poster will attract them to it. I think good looking actors and actresses will attract people to a film poster as that is what they expect to see. Nobody that I surveyed said that the release date would matter to whether it attracted them to a poster or not which is what I expected because when I look at film posters, the release date is the last thing I look for so I thought that it would be a similar case for other people as well. Finally the one that I thought most people would go for is the genre of the film, 9 people said that this is what would attract them to it. They don't expect to see a film poster that contained dark colours, thick font and then for it to be a Rom-com. They expect the poster to tell them what the genre is.

From the information that I received in the results of question 2, I decided to find out what colours it was that attracted people to a thriller film because this I had already decided on making a thriller/horror film so I wanted to know what colours I would need to put onto my poster. As you can see from the results 3people had said dark blue, 7 people said Red which will suggest Horror, danger and blood etc, 10 people said Black because it suggests something being unknown and secretive. 11 people said Green and 3 people said white. This information is helpful as it gives me a rough idea of what colours to use on my posters.


I wanted to know what genre of films people go to see when they go to the cinema. I gave the following genres for people to choose from:
Comedy - 4
Rom-Com - 5
Thriller/Horror - 4
Animated - 4
Documentary - 0
Action - 1
Adventure - 1
Drama - 0
Musical - 1
War - 0


This is the fifth question which I asked my target audience and it asks them whether when they decide to go to the cinema, Is it them who decides on what film/genre to watch or is the decision makde by someone else. And if the decision is not made by just one person then is it a joint decision. Six people out of the 20 people that were asked said that It was them who made the decision on which film/ genre they went to see. A slightly lower number of 5 people said that it was someone else that made the decision of the film to see and most people have said that it's their friends who make the decision when they are out socialising.

From some of the answers that I recieved during the questionnaire, I found out some useful information that will help me make my teaser trailer so that I can aim it at my target audience. Before a film is released, it needs to be advertised and there are many ways of advertisment. Another question that I asked was 'How do you normally find out about films that are due out in the upcoming months?'. Seven people said the most common way for them was to hear about releases through a trailer that they have seen before another film that they have gone to see before they heard about the new film. The next highest that people said was a poster which I thought would be the one that most people would have said. Three people said that Adverts and Other ways are the main way to how they know about an Upcoming film. Some of the other ways in which people said were ways like Billboards, Radio adverts and Teaser Trailers. The least amount of people said that word of mouth which I found really surprising.