Target audience

Readers,

Today I am going to talk about the target audience of our film/products and how we decided to do this.

As you all know we have decided to make the genre of the products HORROR and to make the codes and conventions of the genre understood by the audience (you) we have to look at what is needed in the products and who we are aiming them at (target market/audience).

General codes and conventions of the genre horror are:

• Darkness
• Terror
• Provoke hidden or inner fears
• Intense music to create drama + tension
• Enigma (what's going to happen next)
• Strange/mysterious person or threat 

We want to add as many of these codes and convention into our trailer as possible so that the genre is recognised easily by the viewers. Robert Stam (genre theorist) said that genres can be categorised or defined on certain things, these are:

1. Story content
2. Literature
3. Budget (Block busters or Indy films)
4. Artistic status
5. Racial identity
6. Location
7. Sexual orientation

This can be definitely said for our trailer. The location of our set (school) defines/shapes the genre as we are at an all girls boarding school set in the middle of now where in a very large Victorian building. These factors limit us to the genres we could do but we both liked the idea of horror as it is very versatile.

The target market/audience for my product would be ranging between the ages or 14-35 year olds who enjoy the adrenaline rush and the sense of the unknown in a film. To target my audience I would 'play' on their emotions and create an enigma to increase the tension and then finally reveal the enigma (mystery person or monster) at the ultimate moment to produce an emotional reaction from the audience.

Thanks everyone and next time we will have the storyboard of the film trailer posted up!

Phoebe