R+P Post 2: Our target audience and how we plan to attract/address them

Our core audience is action fans and thriller fans. Our secondary audience are teenagers and young adults of the 15-24 age range.

We will appeal to the action fans in the opening sequence through the climactic disappearance of the news reporter in the woods that will follow an intense fast paced montage. The climax will be further emphasised by a crescendo in the eerie soundtrack and a cut to black. The teenagers are conventionally appealed to by not only the action genre, but also through themes such as suspense and mystery, Both themes will be clearly present in our film opening through an eerie, tense soundtrack, a quick introduction of the antagonist whose face we don't see and low lighting. Mystery will also be built through the deserted woods which makes our main setting as the audience will question what is in there, Young adults will be appealed to in a similar way through mystery and suspense. 

A visual representation of the age group we are targeting

Similar action thrillers e.g. Resident Evil, Blair Witch and The Shining all have a 15 certificate and therefore we have followed convention and given our film a 15 certificate. 

In order to appeal to this audience we will have a cast of relatable characters. They will all be young adults and live typical lives of contemporary young adults and some will have aspirational qualities about them such as courage. An example of one such character is our main character, a 19 year old university student who is studying criminology. This is relatable through a university lifestyle but also aspirational as criminology has strong associations with aspirational traits such an ability to deduce and analyse to a good level.

Conventionally speaking, an action thriller will usually be skewed to the male audience with no real appeal to the female audience, To counter this and appeal to both genders our main protaganist is going to be a female and she will also be the only one who survives. This not only serves to empower and provide an aspiration to the female audience but it also falls in line with the 'last girl' theme - a common theme amongst thrillers.