My media product would be targeted at 15-18 year old, white, males audiences, the age targeted is mainly because the themes are mature and may disturb younger audiences. Our target audience is mainstream as the action thriller hybrid genre applies to most teenagers needs. We used films such as Reservoir Dogs in our research to come to this conclusion, although a more mature audience was discussed as films such as Kill Bill were very successful but it's content was more advanced. To make sure I got the needs of my target audience I went to the local Vue cinema and gave several viewers a questionnaire that had just come out of the film Non Stop, a new action thriller film, to find out what interested them into the thriller genre and why they went and saw the film Non Stop. Predominantly the answer that was most common was that they went to see the film because the main storyline gripped them as soon as they heard about it; so I then pitched my films storyline to them. 35 people out of the 50 I asked said that they would go and see my film if it came out in major cinemas. I then asked the 15 people who said no why they wouldn't see it and they said that the film didn't have any stars but the concept was good. As this was a school project with a minimal budget I couldn't get any stars to perform in my feature film I explained and a further 13 people said they would then see it, so my film then appealed to 48 of the 50 people I asked. In our film to appeal to our target audience we used tense and suspense music used in the video game Far Cry 3 (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaAL4uwXgTE), as a key piece through my film, this piece of music is a convention used in most thriller films, with loud crescendos and quiet sections this should grab the audiences attention in the action scenes and to create tension; used by Hitchcock in nearly all his major thriller films. My film had no dialect in the opening 2 minutes which went against all the codes and conventions we researched in my film analysis, however the people I asked in the Vue cinema said that films with no dialect in the beginning have a deeper storyline that makes them think in greater detail. We also shot our main character in casual clothing instead of wearing a suit showing him to be a 'normal' teenager, this initiates the audience to connect with the main character faster than if he was shot in formal clothing, this is also used in Terminator 2 where the main character John Connor is shown as a teenager in his everyday clothes, this clever use of mise en scene shows the main character to be young, vulnerable and not deserving of the situation he is placed in making the audience sympathize for the protagonist, this bring the audience closer to the main character (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMzsDsYtnFc). The use of parallel editing was successful in the thriller film Memento; my film also used parallel editing in an attempt to attract a similar audience. This link below is to show how parallel editing is used in hit films such as silence of the lambs. (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts1x6uADFtM) Although The Silence of the Lambs was an 18, the editing techniques are transferable and can be effective in lower rated films such as Memento. Our main character was also used to attract teenage audiences, his pubescent aesthetic look not only shows him to be naïve and innocent to the world but also allows the audience to sympathise with him as he a 'baby' face. He is also aesthetically appealing to teenage girls, this would mean that single girls would come and see the film; also girlfriends would go to see the actor and the boyfriends would go to see the actual film for the plot. The countertype of using a male in a vulnerable scene in the opening intrigued many people I asked at Vue cinema, with several asking why we hadn't chosen a females, like in the stereotypical Hitchcock thriller films. This is because I felt using a blonde male would attract audiences as it is unusual for the male to be the vulnerable one.
