Who would be the audience for your media product?

From looking at the Target Audience summary we decided that the film would be aimed at -

‘mainly teenagers 15+, the film is more likely to have an audience with more males
than females because from the questionnaire males are more interested in horror
films than females. Also the age group from 60 onwards would not be interested in
modern day horror films so they are less likely to be included in our audience.’

I still think our film would be aimed at the audience stated above but I think it would a wider
audience now looking at the final product. For example, the colours are not completely dull
and eerie also there are no gruesome scenes, which I think females avoid horror films because
of. The music is dull and quiet so females who I found in my survey were genuinely scared of
the outbursts of music would not be frightened by the music in the opening. However,
feedback from a middle aged woman suggested that the non diegetic fuzzing in between the
jumpcuts do make her jump, therefore the sound effects stick to the conventions of making
the audience tense and jump. This as a result shows that some middle aged women would not
like to see Peephole because they do not like being made jump.

Consequently we did not aim our film at middle aged women in the first place so we would
not adapt our opening to suit them as we think the outbursts of sound effects create an even
more tense atmosphere and we were aiming to make people jump because that is what gives
horror fans the thrill of the genre.

Another category of a possible audience that our opening would interest is couples and recent
singles. This is due to the storyline involved as they will be able to relate with the relationship
storyline. Also single men may see this with their friends because they may be able to relate
to the jealous ex girlfriend storyline which they will find comical.

The film Taxi Driver (1976) deals with obsessive behaviour like in our film however it deals
with murder also so the certificate is an 18. However, there is a lot more murder and other
issues such as prostitution which would not be appropriate for 15 year olds. However I think
my film is suitable for 15 year olds as it doesn’t show murder on screen. Also the opening
does not include any open murder with gore which will stay the same thoroughout the film.
We are aiming for the audience to think about the story and characters and Katie’s next move
rather than just scaring them with murder on screen. This therefore does not comply with the
Hypodermic Needle theory, as we were not aiming for the audience to just sit and be scared
by what they see, we wanted them to think about the story also.

Also the majority of people who were keen on seeing the rest of the film were 15- 17 year
olds, which we found out from a new questionnaire. So keeping the certificate the same
would capture a wider audience which would benefit profits. Also due to student discount on
cinema tickets at the Odeon and Student Tuesdays at Cineworld it is important to include a
young category in our audience as these discounts are likely to persuade students to go to the
cinema and therefore a higher possibility in seeing our film.