Niall Armstrong

Target audience analysis

Part 1 Understanding my audience

For my opening sequence, I decided to portray the genre of Thriller because

personally, I enjoy this genre the most. Furthermore, I believe that Thriller evoke
excitement amongst the viewers which will ultimately appeal to them. You can be
very mobile with the genre of thriller too! You can have comedic elements as well
as horror features. Conclusively, this is why thriller would be the best genre to do
for my opening sequence.

In general, thrillers are typically aimed

at under 18s and 18-24 years old, as
evidenced in this graph. 43% of votes
went in favour of 18 -24 year olds,
signalling that 18 14 year olds show
the most interests in Thrillers. Thrillers
are aimed at older teenagers and young
adults because sometimes Thriller can
be difficult to understand this is
because some thrillers are psychological
and that may be difficult for some
viewers to understand, and therefore require an older target audience to actually
realise what is going on in the film. Not only this but thrillers includes violent
scenes with aggressive and gory nature, so the demographic has to be mature
enough to watch, enjoy and understand.

What is your favourite film genre?

Comedy 33% This table shows that
Thriller 40%
in general, people
Horror 7%
chose Thrillers to be
Sci-Fi 7%
Rom com 13% their favourite genre
of film. This will prove
advantageous as I can guarantee that my opening sequence will appeal to a
large amount of people, and people who will be honestly intrigued and hopefully
enjoy my opening sequence.
Niall Armstrong

What characters would you prefer to see in a thriller?

This graph shows that teenagers are the

predominant choice of character in a
thriller. 24 people say teenagers, which
overwhelmingly beat the figures for
adults and children. This supports why I
have chosen teenagers to star in my
opening sequence. This is beneficial as
my opening sequence will satisfy
peoples need for teenagers to be the
main stars in thriller.

This graph evidences which gender watches the

genre of thriller the most. As seen on the graph,
the male audience views thrillers more.
However, this graph shows the close split
almost 50/50. I believe this will help me as both
genders do watch the genre of thriller and
therefore there is a wider target audience for
me to aim at.

I have chosen my target audience to be

teenagers and young adults (15 24) because thrillers do need to be thought
about, and I know that Im mature enough to understand thrillers, whether it
being psychological or horror. Im aiming for this category because it arouses
suspense and tension and I believe that teenagers and young adults will be
genuinely interested in thriller productions. Thrillers also require a developed
mental age and these ages will be perfect for my opening sequence.

In the genre of thriller, as well as all of the other genres, they have many codes
and conventions that directors always incorporate into the film, so that
audiences can identify the genre. Some of these codes and conventions include,
low key lighting, quick cuts and the protagonist being in the mercy of the
antagonist. In my opening sequence, I am going to try to include as many as
these quintessential codes and conventions as I want my audience to be fully
aware that this will be a thriller, and it adds a professional touch to the overall
Niall Armstrong

production. Quick cuts will be involved to add further tension and entice the
audience more, so that they would want to watch the full production. Low key
lighting is integral to a thriller, and I will achieve this by the natural darkness of
the forest the low key lighting will be important as it makes everything more
mysterious and it builds tension. I want to use non diegetic sounds in my
opening sequence as I think they will bring a suspenseful atmosphere to the
opening sequence and will leave the audience wanting more information. Close
ups will be used throughout my opening sequence as they are integral to a
thriller because they evoke mystery and shows so little.

Audio in my genre usually comprises of eerie sounds that bring tension amongst
the audience and adds a scary atmosphere to spark fear into the audience.
However, in some thrillers, music is fast and used to intensify a scene and make
it more thrilling. Non diegetic sounds are also usually used in thrillers to add
mystery and leave the audience asking questions.

Part 2.1 My target audience

My target audience for my opening sequence is that of teenagers and young

adults (15 24). The gender I am aiming for is both genders as my research
suggests that both genders show an equal interest in the genre of Thriller.

I have chosen these because I believe to watch a thriller you have to be mature,
educated and because there are elements of horror involved I think you have to
be over the age of 12. I have also chosen the both gender audiences as I think
this opening sequence will appeal more to the both of the genders, as seen in my
research. The fact that it has horror incorporated into it, I think that females will
not enjoy the opening sequence as much but my research suggests that females
are interested. I will attempt to attract my target audience by including
mysterious elements and just producing a typical thriller which excites scares
and will leave the audience wanting more, I will also have the lead roles as male
as this would prove popular after seeing my results on my research due to the
target audience being male, meaning it is relatable. The age rating I am aiming
for is 15. I have chosen 15 because of the eerie nature of the production and the
fact that I want to use mild bad language so it relates to teenagers and young
adults themselves and how they would react in the situation my characters will
encounter. Because I have chosen a 15 year old, my general psychographic
target audience, would be someone who:

Doesnt have a full time job but perhaps has a part time job. This means
they will have time on their hands to watch this and other movies which
will indicate to me that they do dedicate time to watching films and it will
make me confident that that my target audience will watch my production.
They are not necessarily in a relationship but someone who goes out and
socialises a lot or going on social media as they will be made more aware
of my film, as social media gives you information like this.
Like going to the gym or playing football, and just generally keeping fit.
Niall Armstrong

May not be in education.

An ample amount of spare time as they might spend the time on watching
films.

I will make it appeal to my audience as much as possible, whether that being

through relating to my characters relating to the audience or through making
the opening sequence as thrilling as possible and producing an actual thriller.

Part 2.2 Questionnaire analysis

As part of my target audience research, as well as research on the internet to

find information, I designed a survey which would reinforce my dispositions
about my target audience and made it available to fill out online so I could get as
much results as I could as it would give me a greater understanding.

My first question was 'what is your gender?. I asked this first as I wanted to be
made aware of the genders filling out my survey. This will help me because my
understanding of who fills out the following questions will be greater and it will
aid me in certifying whether choosing both genders is a wise decision. This
shows me that the majority of people who filled in my survey were females but
there were a lot of boys too. This is beneficial as these results are relevant. This
shows me that the majority of people who filled my survey but there was a lot of
females but also a lot of males this great because this helps me as my
questionnaire results are relevant.

My second question in my survey asked what age group, the people who take
this survey are and the 16 20 age groups is evidently the most common. This
matches my target audience and therefore is beneficial and shows that my
questionnaire results are relevant.
Niall Armstrong

This graph gives me information on how many hours people spend watching
films. The winning category is 2 4 hours. This does give me confidence that
people would watch my opening sequence because they already take hours out
of their week and voluntarily watch movies for their own enjoyment. This graph
also shows that people do spend more than the average 2 4 hours watching
films and this is very convenient as it tells me that films are important to people
and they could potentially be interested in watching my opening sequence. This
shows the age range out of who took my survey and the majority are in my
target audience age range and therefore this means these results are relevant.
This will benefit my film because it shows that the people who have answered
my survey, do dedicate hours on watching movies and potentially they will watch
my mine if theyre interested.

My fourth question asked people What it your favourite genre of film It was
important that I asked this because it would tell me whether people are actually
interested in the genre of thriller, and more so than other genres. Unfortunately,
Thriller's score is beat by two other genres which gives me evidence that people
may be more inclined to watch a different opening sequence because mine does
not appeal to them, however, Thriller is still placed highly which gives me hope
that a lot of people will be enticed into my opening sequence. Comedy won the
vote of the people who answered this questionnaire, so this means that these
people enjoy comedic performances more than anything else. The genre of
horror also beat Thriller to second place in the votes which gives me the
assumption that these people enjoy watching suspenseful films Thrillers can
also be suspenseful, so this could prove beneficial towards my film. Thriller and
Action were both awarded 5 votes which indicate that Thriller is still one of the
most favourable genres of film, which gives me hope that people will be
genuinely interested. Thankfully I can include elements of all types of genre in
my thriller as the genre of thriller; it is so diverse (There are many types of
Niall Armstrong

Thriller, which could include Psychological thrillers, Crime Thrillers and Romantic
Thrillers). Not only this but this shows it shows that the people taking the survey
have a wide knowledge on films.

The next question asked what their preferred gender would be to play the lead
role. This graph shows me that the general comment on this, would be that they
are not bothered which allows me to be more creative if I wanted to and include
different genders. However, I can see that a male would be preferred over a
female, which is great for me because I have chosen a male lead to star in my
opening sequence.

This question asks whether the plot is actually important. The response I got was
that the plot is pivotal in order to create an exciting thriller. Hopefully my
audience will take an interest in my plot and this will make me focus more on my
plot as I know audiences will appreciate that more. I need to make sure my plot
is appealing of what people expect.
Niall Armstrong

My seventh question asked what catches your eye in an opening sequence.

Again the plot is really important in an opening sequence to the audience, and
the plot is what attracts them in when watching an opening sequence. All of my
choices were answered by a few which shows me that everything is actually
important in trying to attract an audience, which will make me devise my
opening sequence under more scrutiny in order to satisfy the audience and
create a better production.

Next I asked whether people enjoy gore in a movie. The response I gathered was
that gore is enjoyable to a certain extent, which overall is good for me as I
haven't chosen to incorporate that much gore at all and these results make me
confident that people will enjoy my opening sequence.

In the next question, I asked what scares viewers in films that they watch. The
response I was given was that jump scares is what frightens them during films.
This means I will incorporate jumps scare to actually spark fear because thats
what thrillers are meant to achieve. However, this graph also shows that other
things scare viewers in films as well as jump scares and I could include many of
these to evoke fear.
Niall Armstrong

The following question I asked was How do you relate to films?. This graph
shows that the dialogue is the most common way that the audience relate to
films, and in my opening sequence I have tried to use as many modern words as
possible because I knew that the language would be a way that the audience
could relate to the opening sequence. The dialogue used in the film will be of the
same intellect of a normal teenager, and this is why it will be easily relatable to
the audience.

This question asks whether the audience favours seeing the enemy or whether
they prefer not seeing the enemy. The response shows that it simply doesnt
matter whether the antagonist is seen or unseen. This will not change my
decision to remain with the enemy being unseen.

The final question asks what aspects of film entice you the most. From this
graph, it is evident that the characters are seen as the most enticing aspect of a
film, which will now make me give more attention to the characters and really
develop them because that is really what interests the audience the most.
Niall Armstrong

Part 3 Conclusion

My opening sequence belongs to the genre of thriller with hints of horror

included in the production and I am going to include as many codes and
conventions that are involved in thrillers as possible to create a more
professional and exciting opening sequence. Specifically, I will use low key
lighting to evoke mystery and the unknown which I know from my
questionnaire, arouses fear. I will use suspenseful music to create an eerie
atmosphere because thrillers rely on sound to make the overall production
scarier. Thrillers are also commonly set in forests and dark areas, so I have
chosen the location purposely to co inside with the codes and conventions of a
thriller genre. Furthermore, I will incorporate fast cuts towards the end to add an
intense atmosphere to build up to a climax which is also very stylistic of the
thriller genre. I am going to represent some stereotypes, for example, I am
going to include two males walking a dog which is classified as a stereotype.
Furthermore, one of my characters is seen as brave who is stereotypical of a
male to take the lead. The representation of my title is going to be big and bold
in black writing to make it overly visible to the audience. It will be shown in a red
background to link to the blood and macabre nature of the opening sequence.
Im going to include eerie music over the top when my titles are shown to create
a suspenseful and intense atmosphere. The letters individually are rather sharp
which introduces a sinister tone.