Stephen- Evaluation Question 5

How do we attract our target demographic

From the previous blog post, we established that our demographic would be both males and females, of ages 15 to 24.

To make sure we reach the target audience we had to take a few ideas from other thriller films. To start with, we needed a family man, someone that people could emotionally feel for. Someone such as Bryan Mills (Taken). Geoff, our main character, is the Bryan of our film. He is emotionally distraught. With this, it appeals more to a female audience, as seen in the graphs showing Taken's popularity.

Secondly, we needed a romance sub-plot, to also appeal for the female audience. Susan and Geoff are clearly seen as being in a relationship, The rose also makes it clear that there was a relationship between these two characters. The rose is a flower typically used to declare love and desire; the colours also reflect these traits: white being unity and red being passion. In a way, the white of the rose unites the two in the pain that they are feeling; one emotionally and one physically.

The inclusion of a strong female character will also prove to be attractive to the female viewing audience, who will look up to this character for the strength she displays. Due to the fact that our character is not 'eye candy' girls will be more likely to watch the film.

For male audiences, we saw that they liked danger and thrills. The short fight sequence would appeal to them, as it also foreshadows the future violence in the film; as seen in most thriller films. For example; the fight sequence in Brighton rock featured violence and that applies to a male audience, and so we copied their idea.  

Additionally, the inclusion of a male detective gives the male audience something to look up to; they will look at this character and wish to grow as a character, like the character does. This will be more towards the younger, 15 year olds, who watch it. Moreover, towards the upper bound of the age limit, Geoff's emotions will reflect what some viewers in the audience will be feeling- making the entire film more relateable and in turn more thrilling.

The violence in the film will make this rated at 15; this is not a family film due to the violence and the dark scenes. It's also not an 18 rated film, as it's not too gory and doesn't feature a tonne of profanity.