Initially we did not know what the audience was going to be for our media product. The typical thriller genre would usually collect a broader range of people who would be interested in viewing the product at mainstream cinemas, however with the low budget we had and the distinct lack of high quality actors it would be difficult to generalise our films to other of a similar nature. The inclusion of an element of the psychological is also vital in differentiating our films from others of a similar genre, adding a feeling of the intellectual. Although this would narrow our range as a for targeting an audience, we saw this as a positive as we could cater to make the film appeal to the audience as much as possible. We did this by including action and character development, while maintaining a sense of mystery and ambiguity which was considered "Paramount" by the sample audience of our screening. Vox Pop's of reactions to the film can be seen below from various people who were in the audience of the screening, showing what they liked and disliked about the film, as well as what they would have wished to be done better. This sort of feedback is useful as in future projects we can not only see what to do better but what to subtly change in order to cater to a wider audience.
The idea of a 16-24 year old target audience came from the results of surveys we did which will be shown below:
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The paper Based Survey was as follows:
1) Please State your age group
- 0-15
- 16-24
- 25-40
- 41-60
- 60+
- Male
- Female
4) If there are significant sub genres of this film, please state which one is preferred (space under)
5) State a reason why you prefer this genre/Sub-genre and if there are any specific characteristics of the film genre which appeal to you
6) Please Rate the following films from 1-5, 1 being not seen the film hated and 5 being outstanding -
Se7en
Dual
Skyfall
No Country For Old Men
Dark Knight Rises
7) Where do you prefer to watch films? Please circle 1
- Cinema
- Online (streaming or other)
- TV
- DVD/Blu-Ray
- Tablet
- More than 2 per week
- Once a week
- Once Every 2 weeks
- Once a month
- Less than once a month
- Arthouse
- Multiplex
- IMAX
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This research was majorly infulential in our understanding of what sort of films were enjoyed by different age groups, as well as which tropes we should include and which we should leave out - this was to avoid stereotyping our film in to a specific genre while still making it accessible and typical of a psychological thriller. A follow up questionnaire was held post screening as well, asking similar questions but with a slight bias towards the thriller genre. The questionnaire and results were as follows:
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1) Please State your age group
- 0-15
- 16-24
- 25-40
- 41-60
- 60+
- Male
- Female
4) Of the product you have seen, please state what you enjoyed and thought could have been done better. If there were things you think could have been done better - please expand on this
5) Finally, what do you predict to come in the rest of the film?
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This was filled out on a whole 14 times. Of the people who took part in the screening, 10 were of the age category 16-24 with 3 from 41-60 and 1 from 0-15. This range in audience participation was vital in seeing what could be improved as well as what was enjoyed. A mainly male audience however does not show the effect gender has on the opinions of the film opening which is something which we would definitely change in a future screening. We also found that of the 41-60 year old group, who were all male, 2 out of the three were massive psychological thriller fans. We believed that growing up with films like Se7en, Dual, Fight Club and many others which are influential in the genre it has created a niche market for fans of that age. Because of this, we believe that in future productions we should cater more to this audience as not only would it increase attendance but also possibly allow for our film to go in to the larger cinema's. One of these fans was shown previously in my audience research.
Summarised, The elder age group preferred very specific parts of the psychological thriller genre, not wanting too many stereotypical parts of it but maintaining the best sections. Chase scenes were seen as boring, whether in cars or person, as they had been overused previously and did not uphold much originality.
A final group in which we believe our media product could cater to is that of Media students taking various degrees. As a similar project to one undertaken globally, it can be looked to as an example of the use of more advanced technologies and equipment in order to create a film opening which both looks good and uses steady transitions and sound bridges to maintain a story line, moving from past to present and back again. This narrative structure is one commonly practiced in the genre, and as seen in both the vox pop's and the focus interview above, is one of the stronger points in the genre.
Finally, we found that the certification of the product was going to have a major effect on the audience we were going to attract. Previously in the term, a lot of time was spent researching the guidelines of the BFI Certification Ratings and the categories which were associated with each of these. Deciding on a 15 was a good choice in our opinion, due to what it is allowed and disallowed in this specific category. Quoting from the BBFC website, "No theme is prohibited, providing the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds". This means that we could undergo our exploration of the psychological and pursue the causes of it without having to feel like we would hold back, as a 12 or 12a rating would have us do. Similarly, if we were to have an 18, it would rule out the lower two years of our target audience and also dissuade fathers from our niche audience to take son's as it suggests a more graphic, violent and disturbing tone in which nothing is prohibited. The lack of a moral compass found in 18's compared to the need for a moral compass in 15's was very influential in our decision, as it was the only thing that really determined the two certifications as separate. My partner and I decided that for the sake of a few changes in narrative (providing the final product was made) we could introduce people over 3 years younger to the film legally than a lack of a moral compass would have us do.
Audience and exhibition of film
The institution that would most likely want to exhibit our film would most probably be the Art House cinema companies. Although the Art House cinema chain is actually quite popular and large, our film would require small screening places in comparison to the City Centre cinema style of Multi-Screen Cinema. This is because our film is aimed at a younger generation who are more interested in studying film at University and at A Level than always going to see mainstream action thrillers in mainstream cinemas. The addition of the psychological element to an already overused plot was something which we wished would set our film aside, and as such move away from more typical blockbusters and independent thrillers.
The age of our target audience is 15-24 and so these would also be the ages studying film at higher levels. This makes our audience much smaller and so probably would not attract enough people for a place in a huge cinema. The niche market of mid 40's however allows scope for a broadening in marketing, and if was proven to be popular in Art house could be transposed to main cinema's as a father son or even father and mates film.
Because our film obviously is, and looks, low budget (especially as it is shot in London without big star Hollywood actors), our film may not attract the larger audience for mainstream films, such as Skyfall. This means that if distributed in a Multi-Screen or Multiplex cinema, the majority of people who went there to see mainstream/high budget films would not want to watch our film. Again, this could be questioned as success on a smaller stage would broaden our audience.
The low budget concept also means that if our film was distributed, it would be impossible to have enough money to advertise it on a big enough scale for it to be screened in main-stream cinemas. Because of our low budget, we also would not be able to carry on distributing our film over a number of weeks in Multiplex cinemas that tend to show the same film repeated over a series of weeks. By distributing it within a 'indie', arthouse cinema, people would come to see it, knowing that it would be of low budget.
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