Evaluation of Finished Production - Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media project?

Before filming our thriller, I created a survey using surveymonkey. From the results, we could easily identify our audience, and what the audience expected from our thriller.

The audience of our thriller would be teenagers and young adults. We believe this is correct as this age range tend to watch a large amount of thriller films. Moreover, the type of thrillers they watch are either horror or disaster. Psychological thrillers came fourth in my survey. From my results, it is easy to see that teenagers are highly interested by the genre. Also, we believe that a large section of our audience will be female, as the survey results indicate a majority of females.

We believe that our target audience would want to watch our thriller as we have catered to them. Our protagonists and antagonist are teenagers, and three out of the four cast members are female. The characters are of a middle or low working class, and are therefore relatable - something which is fundamental in a character.

One question in my survey asked the participants to state three words they associated with 'Thriller'. I would then try to implement the useful ideas into our thriller, to create a film designed exactly for the viewer. The wordle I create at wordle.net is below.

From the wordle, I can easily see that mystery, action and suspense are key elements that must be included. Also, other answers such as 'Michael Jackson' and 'rollercoaster' may seem useless, but they do help us get a better understanding of what the audience wants. When people say 'rollercoaster' they mean a series of high and low points within the film, as well as the theme park ride. From this, we can see that the audience do not wish to be thrilled from start to finish, and do want some parts of the film where they can be more relaxed. The term 'Michael Jackson' also leads me to think of Jackson's 'Thriller' music video. The video was, and still is, iconic and pushed many boundaries. Therefore, I believe that we should be striving to create an iconic scene, or entire film, as well as challenging the limits of thriller films.

Another question asked in my survey was why the participant liked a particular genre the most. One participant stated "Beacuse its so lifelike and it could happen in the future." This indicates that the audience want to witness something that isn't completely ludicrous. I hope to create a balance in our thriller, where something unlikely, yet possible occurs. Moreover, if the victim is just an average individual, the film seems more authentic and real. The film 'The Strangers' for instance, uses two ordinary characters as their protagonists. The antagonists, and their motives are unlikely to be found in the real world, yet it is not completely impossible. This leaves the audience with doubts in their mind during the film, and for a long period after.