Evaluation Qs 2: How Did You Attract/Address Your Target Audience?

Target Audience: 15+ (Mainly Teenagers)

The first thing we as a group decided is the concept of our thriller opening. The story revolves around a girl being stalked; as mentioned before, the target audience will find this situation familiar as it reflects the reality and therefore they will want to continue watching to see the consequence.

Our protagonist in this film opening is wearing casual clothes that reflect today's generation. The use of costume will attract the target audience as it'll get them to relate to the main character.

As soon as when the target audience is able to identify themselves to the main lead, they'll be able to understand the situation and mood the protagonist is under and therefore reducing the distance between the character and the viewer; this will attract the audience as it'll almost get them to be in the shoes of the protagonist in the given situation.

From the questionnaire results we have gathered, I have found out that teenagers often expect a lot of chasing in thriller films and therefore our opening consists of a large proportion involving the protagonist running down the South Norwood Park and her being chased/stalked by an unknown figure. This adds to the mystery as previous research also showed that my target audience expects to see a lot of suspense and twists and turns therefore by keeping the 'stalker,' under the wraps (or rather under the hood!) and without revealing his face adds to the enigma that is required to attract the target audience as it'll get them to unfold the mystery throughout the film if they wish to continue watching it.

Gunshots seemed to be a common diegetic sound that my target audience expected to hear and therefore it implies what teenagers expect and desire a thriller opening to consist of in fact it also suggests the naive and limited knowledge they have on the thriller genre and therefore we decided to use a gunshot at the climax as it'll keep audience seated to continue watching and guessing the potential story line.

It is a universal fact that the audience of any medium want to feel as if they know and are aware of the conventions of a given genre whilst watching it and therefore by including common hegemonic expectations of the thriller genre (example: gunshots or chasing) will attract the audience as they'd feel clever and articulate about the given genre!

I interviewed several people that came under my target audience to see what they expect and desire to see in the thriller genre. This interview allowed me to discover the knowledge they had on this particular genre and also helped me understand how to attract my target audience.