Target Audience Research Ayat Saeed

Target Audience Research

When filming a psychological thriller there are many things that I will need to
consider when considering my target audience. These things will include: Who is
my target audience? Why are they my target audience? What age are these
people? What other interests do they have? What sort of person are not my
target audience and why are these people not my target audience? I will also
need to decide what age certificate my film will be and my primary/secondary
target audiences.
For psychological thrillers, the usual target audiences are 18 and over. This is
usually because there are usually lots of explicit sexual references and/or
violence. The reason that film directors make their films with a higher age
certificate is because they are then able to use more violence or have scenes
that are inappropriate for any audience under that age. The overall audience that
are interested in psychological thrillers will tend to share other common
interests. This would include such things as interests in other film genres such
as; Action or Horror films. They could also have an interest in violent games; i.e.
the Grand Theft Auto series. These sorts of things are usually shared interests of
psychological thriller fans in their twenties typically.
I have asked 20 male participants and 20 female participants between the ages
of 15 and 25 years old a series of question in relation to the type of genre that
they prefer within movies and other connotations the have of the thriller genre.
This will hopefully give us a larger idea of what our target audience is going to
be.
When we asked the audience on whether they liked Psychological Thrillers this
was the result:
Do you like Psychological thrillers? Yes: 32 (19 Men/15 Woman) No: 6 (1 Men/5
Woman)
However, the audience that would not be interested in psychological thrillers are
a larger group of people. The chances of having a person that loves such films
as; Shutter Island and American Psycho but also likes such films as Love
Actually and Notting Hill are very unlikely. This is because these films are very
different genres and aim to attract different audiences. Films like Love Actually
and Notting Hill are both romantic comedy films and tend to a more attract
female audience. The chances of films like American Psycho and Shutter
Island attracting largely female audiences is just unrealistic so they aim their
film at largely male audiences as they are likely to make most of their revenue
from this.
When films are created then they will need to consider the audience theory; this
can be broken down into seven categories of classification. This classification
system is called The Hartley Classification which was first published by John
Hartley in 1978 and the categories are;

Self This means what ambitions and interests would the audience have
within themselves. In psychological thrillers this would include the things I have

Target Audience Research Ayat Saeed

already spoke about but when talking about ambitions then this could range as
psychological thrillers tend to appeal to a range of people.

Gender In psychological thrillers there is no definitive of an audience

gender but typically in films with more blood and violence there seems to be a
more male populated audience. However this is not an aim of the film producers
and director, this is a social trend.

Age Group This is age range the audience that the film is looking to
attract. This is what I have talked about above.

Class In psychological thrillers films, the class of the target audience is

important as the film can be created to suit the audiences interests. In
psychological thrillers the class of the target audience tends to be varied but is
aimed majorly at working and middle class because the shared interest of the
target audience tends to also be aimed at these classes.

Ethnicity This is the race of the target audience. This is something that all
film companies would have to consider before filming.

Family This could be a factor on target audiences as it depends how the

individuals were brought up by their parents and what restrictions their
household had on the exposure of these films. Also it could depend on what
religion the target audience are. For example, depending on the religion then
there will be restrictions from their family on what is acceptable and what is
suitable to show in their culture. The main thing that comes to mind is sexual
references and scenes before marriage and this is something that applies to a
wide range of religions.

Nation Target audience will be targeted by aiming at people from the

same country as the film is produced or those countries that speak the same
language. For example American Psycho would have been aimed at
USA/Canada/United Kingdom/Australia because it is an American filmed whereas
Kairo which is a Japanese psychological thriller was not released to America
until 2005 but was renamed as Pulse on release. This is because it had to be
slightly remade and modified because it could have lost some of its effect in the
translations stage on changing over to English subtitles/voice-over dialogue.
This would not have happened if Kairo had not been a success in Japan. This
signifies that a film primary audience will be people who speak the same
language as the film but the secondary audience could be become people from
other countries.
For my trailer I will be looking to aim my work at a very particular target
audience. I will be looking to aim my trailer at 15-25 year olds; therefore, the film
will have a 15 age certificate. This is because our film will have violence and
therefore be suitable for an audience older than 15 years old. This is because
there will be no ultra-extreme blood and gore scenes, however, there will be
enough to make it a 15 age certificate. The audience will also be from an English

Target Audience Research Ayat Saeed

speaking country such as the UK or USA. I believe that this target audience
would be the most suitable after I have done my target audience research.