Audience Profiling and Research

From researching into existing thriller film target audiences, we could effectively choose a target audience and also construct an audience profile for our very own thriller film.

Target Audience: Age Group & Gender

I have decided the age group of the target audience would be around 16-25 years. Research and statistics show that this age group generally watch more thriller films than any other of the age groups (shown in the audience age range chart with the biggest percentage of 40%). In addition, I also think this because the scenes, conventions and general narratives of some thriller films may be overly brutal, dramatic and even involve a hint of horror within it; I therefore think anyone in the age range of 15 and below could be negatively affected by what the thriller film presents through its storyline - outcasting the 10-15 age group for appropriate reasons. From research I think the gender of the target audience would not need to be as specific as the target age group, however, it is still important nevertheless. We have decided that for our thriller film the gender of the target audience would mainly be aimed towards males, however, females could also be attracted to the film and its storyline as well. This was decided because in a stereotypical sense, along with statistical data (the majority of thriller film audiences being males at 59%), males seem to be more interested in on-edge, mysterious and frightful elements of films (therefore, thrillers), rather than the female gender. From this I presume that males find thriller films more exciting, spine-tingling and edgy to watch, achieving thrills by watching them, as opposed to females. By taking the audience gender and age groups into account, we have decided the majority of our target audience will be made up of male university students and other young adults.

                     Audience Age Range Chart                     Audience Gender Chart

Audience Profile

Here is a predicted, yet detailed, example of a general representation of our thriller film target audience:

His name is Mark and is 19 years old, successfully studying at university. He is a very average young adult who wears casual clothing, shirts, chinos accompanied with designer glasses and a new-trend cap. Despite being a student at university he often visits his friends and also likes to hang out at bars for friendly drinks and chats. He has a part time job which helps him through any living expenses, such as food, exercising, and socialising. He mostly eats ready-made meals and sometimes the one-off fast food as it is quick and easy to get a hold of. He also enjoys going to the cinema with his friends once in a while. Mark is entertained by listening to music, watching thriller films and playing console games.

     Mark generally enjoys watching alternative thriller films, rather than the mainstream blockbusters; this is because he finds the excitement, mystery and thrills within the alternative thriller films much more appealing, whereas the mainstream thrillers that 'everyone is talking about' usually gives too much of a hint into what the storyline of the film will be. Mark finds these mainstream films to be less enjoyable as he likes the on-edge, intrigued feel of what is to happen when watching a thriller. On the other hand, Mark does indeed watch the occasional mainstream film along with some of the new horrors which are out at the cinema.

     Mark is very healthy and fit as he plays a lot of sports in his spare time such as rugby and tennis, along with cardio sessions at the gym. He is also very good at creative arts such as music and art, however spends less time doing these due to being occupied with more important things to do. He gradually became more interested with technology (computers, game consoles, films) as he got older, now spending alot of his time doing these things compared to when he was younger.

     Mark reads a wide variety of magazines and also newspapers as he has a great interest in the latest news and gossip out. He likes film, gaming and health magazines which provide exclusive information about the particular subjects he is interested in. Mark also spends some of his spare time searching the internet for the past and present thriller films which he can buy off eBay or watch when they finally come out on screen at the cinema - in addition, he likes watching youtube film reviews and trailers.