PLANNING: MY TARGET AUDIENCE

 I needed to understand how I could plan my film to appeal to my identified target audience. I researched gender, age, social classes and ethnicities of people who watch horror/thriller films, particularly those who watch slasher horror. I also needed to research audience theory to gain a better understanding as to the types of audience that there are. I found Blumer and Katz theory whilst I was conducting my research. Blumer and Katz stated that audiences use media to gratify their needs (uses and gratifications model). This model allowed me to understand how we should target our films marketing campaign towards the particular type of audience we want to attract. Our target audience is likely to enjoy TV long form drama like London Kills and thriller films like Happy Death Day which offer escapism, diversion and entertainment. Our films narrative involves the classic ingredients of a thriller such as kidnapping by a serial killer, murder mysteries and a determined detective.  Another audience need which will be gratified by our film trailer is audiences need for surveillance: police procedurals offer fascinating insight into the detection process as well as sometimes the chance to see inside the criminal mind.  Finally, our film offers in the character of detective Wright a character for whom our target audience will feel keen sympathy and interest because of his personal tragedy and the admirably determined way in which he pursues justice. 

David Bradford (London Kills) pictured next to Detective Wright

An active audience also means that the audience interacts with media texts to create meaning. The Encoding-decoding model was created by Stuart Hall, who says that producers construct text which will be interpreted by the viewers. He says the process of decoding is where the audience reads, interprets and understands the text. Active audiences are critical thinkers who pay full attention to media text and create their own opinions. Audiences in our film may well decode the character of detective Wright in the way that we intended: He is a stereotype or visual shortcut with his suit, calm face and intelligent expressions of a stereotypical lead detective. For Hall, stereotypes build audience empathy quickly and signpost audiences through the narrative. Our detective hero is seen to be adept at noticing significant tell-tale details and is driven by both professional determination and private grief.

I have also found out the importance of media demographics and psychographics in audience analysis. Film companies use demographics to identify their target audience. They section the adult population into six groups which are mainly based on income and status. The letter code system helped me understand what characters in my film would fall into what category. The detective in my film would be in group C1/C2 working class. In our opinion, this makes him very relatable to the target audience and it mirrors the kind of casting found in police procedures for example Line of Duty. 

With the use of psychographics, film companies can identify their target audiences by looking at the personality and behavioural traits of the members. Psychographics make assessments about a persons viewing and spending habits and labels them. This made it easier for me to work out how to make my film more appealing  to my identified target audience. 

After researching a number of different distribution techniques I focused on ones that had been successful in reaching their target audience. Distributors study the current trends in media and look at how different brands create their own audience profiles. A large amount of brands use social media, websites and adverts to reach their target audience. When distributing my film I will create Instagram, Twitter and Facebook pages as-well as a website. 

I profiled my audience and asked "Why they liked this genre? why would they want to watch my film? What makes my film different to others of this genre? How will my film appeal to the needs of my target audience?" I asked these in my audience questionnaire.