Evaluation - Question 4

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Explain why a target audience is important and why

A target audience is important when producing a media product as it
 helps as a guide of what  conventional aspects should be included and what is suitable for that age group. Aswell as this it is important as you can research different successful films within that genre with a similar target audience to see what would appeal to certain age groups and see what conventional elements they would expect to see.

Explain who your target audience is and why

The target audience for my groups film "Obscurity" is for ages 15 and over. This is because our film would not include any strong language or violence. Also through the research that we collected before planning our thriller film we found that the most popular audience for thriller films was people aged 15 and over. So we would not include any aspects which would mean the age rating would have to increase as we would loose a main part of our audience. 

Explain how your thriller film appeals to an audience ( narrative, soundtrack, characters, camera shots, mise en scene)

My thriller film appeals to a target audience of ages 15 and above. This could be due to the narrative of our thriller film. The audience watching our product must have an interest and know what to expect in the genre, so this may appeal to them as we have included many generic aspects of a thriller film. In addition I think my thriller film appeals to the target audience as the they are a similar age to the characters, the audience will then build a relationship with this character as they will sympathize as they could imagine themselves in her position. My film would also appeal to our target audience through the mise-en-scene of their costume as it is conventional. The dark colours worn by the antagonist contrasts with the victims school uniform which suggests her dominance and power is automatically lower than the antagonists suggesting something bad is going to happen, making the audience wanting to watch on to see what happens. My thriller film appeals to an audience due to the sound used. This is because it is  generic to the thriller genre. The sound which we used helps to create different effects and emotions  for the audience. The sound creates enigma and an eerie sense to the scene which puts the audience on edge. Aswell as this the diegetic sound used of the victims scream creates shock and surprise making the audience question what has happened to the victim. These two elements are conventional to the thriller genre and are what the audience would want and expect to see. 

Camera shots also help my thriller film appeal to an audience. An example of this could be a long shot of the victim walking into the dark, isolated forest. This helps the audience relate to her as they could imagine being in this situation as it could be scary and do not know whether the antagonist will leave her unharmed or not. In addition the point of view and over the shoulder shot when the victim is directly facing the antagonist appeals to the audience because this shows the fear of the victim as she doesn't move when she sees him and completely freezes, and sympathize for her, building up suspense and tension of whether she will escape or not. Lastly, the editing of the thriller sequence appeals to my target audience as it helps to create an eerie sense, always questioning what may happen next. Especially the montage scene of the antagonist, the effects used makes the scene raggedy and unsteady which could represent the thriller as it is uncertain what may happen next. With the opacity change of many of the scenes this makes the scenes look alot darker and as though it was night time, a darker surrounding is conventional of the thriller genre as this creates suspense as the audience do not know what will happen to the victim as it will be harder for her to see and make her way out of the forest to get home safely.