The target audience for the film that we have created has quite a wide range as we are predominantly aiming it at men from the age of 15-35. We feel, having done some research that this is the sort of audience that are interested in watching Thriller/Horror films. The social demographic that we have aimed the film opening at is C2-E as we feel that it will have a greater appeal to people from a lower class background; this, however does not mean that that people from a higher class won’t enjoy the film. As this film is aimed at quite a wide audience we feel that it is aimed at everyone in terms of ethnicity as this will be appropriate for anyone to watch and will not offend anybody in terms of race or background.
Media Grouping
Graham Burton’s Grouping Theory says that audiences can be grouped by their common interest in the media for example the media type they prefer (e.g. Magazines, Newspapers) or in this case they can be grouped through the genre of film that they most enjoy.
Burton’s Media Grouping says that an audience can be grouped by their common interests in the media. When aiming a film or film opening at a certain audience this way we decided to group the audience by the genre of film which they enjoy the most. This is a great way to group as anybody that enjoys thriller or horror films will immediately become part of the audience that we are targeting, the film opening that we have created at.
Social Grouping
John Hartley developed the media grouping theory saying that an audience could be refined into a more niche audience by grouping different audiences through their social background. This involved splitting this theory into five categories which are Self, Gender, Age Group, Class/Social Demographic and Ethnicity/Race. This means that a target audience can be chosen through by applying these social groups; this would then refine the audience that a media product such as a film opening was aimed at.
Self
As an individual watching the film opening that we have created they would have to be quite strong as parts of the scene that are shown are disturbing as part of the effects that we are using and the storyline that we have thought of. They would also have to use ‘Schneidenfraud’ which is when you take pleasure from someone else’s pain (this is used in the media a lot, an example in magazine articles about celebrities).
Gender
Our film opening is predominantly aimed at the male gender we have researched what gender watch more thriller and horror films. This research showed that Men watch this type of film more than women do. This means that the film would appeal to a wider audience by targeting men and we believe therefore would become more of a success than if it was aimed at women.
Age Group
We have decided to target a wide age range as we believe that the film would appeal to people from the age of 15 (which is what the Age Rating of the film is going to be) to 35. This creates a wide audience but we believe that the film opening will appeal to the majority of people that are within this age range.
Class/Social Demographic
The social demographic that we have aimed the film opening at is C2-E as we feel that it will have a greater appeal to people from a lower class background. This again is quite a wide range as we believe that it will appeal to people with good jobs such as tradesmen and will also appeal to the unemployed and everyone in between. This is because the film, although disturbing should be entertaining for the social demographic that we have targeted.
Ethnicity
As this film is aimed at quite a wide audience we feel that it is aimed at everyone in terms of ethnicity as this will be appropriate for anyone to watch and will not offend anybody in terms of race or background.
Uses and Gratifications Theory
In the 1970’s Blumier and Katz suggested that the media audiences make choices about what to consume in order to meet certain needs. Their Uses and Gratifications Theory shows some of the different reasons that audiences have for consuming certain media texts.
Entertainment
The film opening that we have created will entertain the target audience as it should use shock tactics and should make them feel scared and uneasy about what they are watching. This will engage the audience and make them want to see what is going to happen in the rest of the film. This entertainment is associated with a theatre term that also applies to film; this is called ‘The Theatre of Cruelty’.
Escapism
We believe that the audience are going to become very engaged with what they are watching as the character that is shown will make the audience feel many different emotions, this includes the audience feeling scared of and for the character, empathy for what he has gone through in the past and disgust for what it is they believe he is about to do. This would involve the audience in the film so much that they could escape from what is going on in their own lives and we believe that this would also put problems that many of the audience members might have in perspective.
Social Interaction
The way that the target audience would interact with the film opening is through the emotions that they feel for the character which we believed are often mixed as he is seen as an evil character but also vulnerable through the flashbacks of his past school life. The emotions that the audience would feel for the character are feeling scared of and for the character, empathy for what he has gone through in the past and disgust for what it is they believe he is about to do.
Information
We believe that the basic storyline of this film and the opening that is shown gives the target audience information and an idea of what is going on in the world around them. This is because that the film is closely related to true stories that have happened, most famously in The United States of America. We researched these incidents by using different media texts such as newspaper articles and watching a famous Michael Moore documentary about the incidents called ‘Bowling for Columbine’
Identification
We don’t believe that the audience can identify with what is happening and subsequently what is going to happen in the film as they will have never found themselves in that position before. As the age range that we have aimed the film at is 15 we do however believe that some of the younger members of the social demographic will be able to identify with what has happened to the character in his school life and how he is feeling after being subjected to the bulling. We feel that this will engage the younger members of the target audience as they can relate to how the character is feeling.
Richard Dyer’s Utopian Solutions Theory
Richard Dyer states that people will respond to a media text if it offers them compensation for the inadequacies in their own lives. Through the media audiences can vicariously live their lives and fulfil their wants and needs, leading them to strive to a utopian life.
