R+P Post 2: Our target audience and how we plan to attract/address them

Primary Audience:

The primary audience of our film are young adults, primarily in the age category of 15-24 year olds. This is mainly down to the fact that this is the age range who are most appealed to by thriller/horror films (as backed up by the following diagrams). Furthermore, the age of our characters will most probably be within this age range as well, henceforth making them more relatable to our target audience. The certification for our film will be '15' as we believe this will help appeal to our target audience who are in the 15-24 year old age range; they will also enjoy the content that makes this film a '15', such as violence and strong language. As well as this, some of the audience towards the lower end of the age range may actually be attracted to the film due to the fact that it's a '15', i.e. they think that makes the film cool.

Gender:

Both genders will have aspects of our film which appeal to them, however, we have decided that the film will be more skewed towards the male gender as they have proven to already form the majority of the core fan base for thriller/action films, such as The Dark Night and The Shining, as they enjoy the suspense and common conventions usually employed within this genre. An example of this in our film opening will be two people suddenly going missing on camera but the antagonist is not revealed; the tension on screen will create anxiety amongst the male audience as well as the thrill of watching an entertaining scene.

Females will also be attracted to this film due to the 'last girl' theme which we will incorporate into the new equilibrium of our plot outline. We will do this by making one girl, out of the original group entering the forest, survive against all odds; this will fill the female audience with empowerment as it will give them a protagonist/hero to look up to/aspire to become.

The purpose of our film appealing to both genders as it ensures we do not rule out half of our potential audience as this could severely reduce the films revenue, which is the primary target an action/thriller film. However, as data shows the male gender are more likely to watch the film as this genre is commonly more skewed towards them.