Q4: What would be the audience for your media product?

In order to decide the correct target audience for my film I researched the psychographic groups that people are put into.

By looking at the criteria by the BBFC I feel that the age rating for my film would be a 15, I think that the production is more aimed towards 15-30 year olds because of the subgenre of thriller that it is. I think that the audience would be aimed more towards the female market because they are more likely to sympathise and feel a part of the film because of having a female as the main character. Also although the name doesn’t suggest any gender specifics, because of the narrative being about Red high heeled shoes taking control of a girl, I think the shoes would be more appealing to a female audience.

After researching into psychographics I think that the more likely audience to watch my film would be the Aspirers and the Explorers. This is because the psychographic of aspirers are typically young people/ young adults, so this psychographic would fit in with the age group that I think the film is more suitable for. Also a topic that aspirers are into is fashion and new experiences, so the red shoes would be interesting for people interested in fashion. Explorers are interested in new things, and being adventures so having a mysterious, psychological thriller would be interesting for them to watch. They also like finding new things in life, and are likely to be finding “who they are” so would be trying out different things.

An example result from my questionnaire

 

I handed out questionnaires to 10 random people in order to find out what they look for in a film and if they enjoy them.  I also used this way of research to find out how I should create my film in order to satisfy the audience and what not to do for example, what not to do because it doesn’t create tension well. I created pie charts in order to analyse the statistics that I received in an easier way, I did this by asking closed questions so that the answers would be minimal allowing the statistics to be easily analysed, but sometimes people wanted to give more in depth answers or the answer with a tick box didn’t have an answer that they would have preferred to tick. I didn’t ask a very varied amount of people as I asked people that were in school, I think that I should ask a more varied amount of psychographics next time to get a more varied answer. I could do this by posting the questioner on a social media site such as Facebook, or I could have them available in the shop where I work so that customers could answer them bringing me a wider variety of results. For example my audience said that they preferred to have a plot that they have to concentrate on and was mysterious. This shows that the audience I am targeting enjoy watching this type of film. Because of that result I decided that I would definitely not give much of the narrative away, but the use of cut away shots would give insights into the narrative and what will happen later in the plot for example when I cut away to the shadow of the axe.





The BBFC specifications for a 15 certificate

I have already uploaded my research into BBFC on a separate post on blogger. From that research I have decided that if I were to submit my thriller to the BBFC I would say that it should receive a 15 certificate. This is because my film only implies the violence and wouldn’t go to in depth with the gory details; however it would still show it. Another reason that this would be a suitable certificate is because there are no sexual references either, however there is no speech in my opening so this would not apply to the opening alone, but if the film was to progress there could end up having a use of some mild language meaning that a 15 would be more appropriate. My film also shows a weapon (an axe) and as part of the specification for a rating of 12, a weapon that is accessible should not be shown, there for a 15 would be more of an appropriate rating. Putting the BBFC certification aside I think that the more likely audience would be 15+ anyway because of the psychological nature of the film.