How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

By Dylan Mann-Hazell

What Elements of my Production Will Attract my Target Audience?

• My target audience for my horror film is ‘young adults’. One way in which I have managed to attract this type of audience is by using teenagers as the main characters. Although I had to make the film a 15 due to the violence and swearing that would take place, I think that it helps establish who this film is aimed at, and could possibly persuade more people, especially of that age, to watch it.

• Another way in which I have managed to use elements of my production to attract my target audience is by sticking to the conventions of horror. These conventions include the setting (dark, no sign of human contact nearby), props (knives, guns, fake blood, chainsaws) and Era.

• People that enjoy horror are more likely to watch my film than those who prefer any other genre due to these conventions, therefore they have helped attract my target audience.

How Does My Production Reference to Other Horrors?

• Through my secondary research into horror films, I found that quite a few films have used the ‘fear of the unknown’ as the main focus of the story. My production has referenced to such a fear due to the fact that the antagonist communicates through text and cyberspace under the username ‘Unknown’, so the protagonist is unable to see who is texting her.

• I also found that many horror films use jump-scares to their advantage, making the audience feel on-edge throughout the entire viewing of the film. I tried to include a minor jump-scare in my film in an attempt to receive such a result.

How Did I Advertise and Promote The Film?

• I have addressed the audience and allowed them to be informed on film updates through social networking sites. I made a Facebook page, occasionally updating the cover photo and profile picture. On this page, I posted the film opening to Full Moon with a link from YouTube.

• The way in which I spoke to my audience was very informal. I did this because I found that talking to the audience as if they were friends of mine is a better approach than talking to them as if I don’t know them, for they are more likely to want to pay attention to the progression of my film.

Audience Feedback: Quantitative Data

Audience Feedback: Qualitative Data

The Importance of Engaging the Audience in my Film Opening.

• It is very important to engage the audience within the first few minutes of a film or their opinion of it may change, giving them the idea that the film will be boring. I think I have succeeded in engaging my audience due to the fact that I have supplied unanswered questions, such as ‘Who is texting the protagonist threateningly?’ and ‘What did the next text message say?’. This is called the enigma code, and is used frequently in most popular horror movies.

Conclusion

• I addressed/attracted my audience in various ways, through the use of social media and through the construction of the film itself. Examples of how I did this were through Facebook, through conducting secondary research to find conventions of horror films, and by using surveys to ask for my target audience’s opinion.