Question 4 Who would be the audience for your media product?

In order to research the audience for my thriller I had several groups of people watch my thriller and make a quick evaluation. As expected it was more popular with the male audience of various ages – however all under 30. Furthermore I looked at similar the reception of similar films such as Leon. IMDB tells me that Leon was most popular among males under 18.

My thriller is likely to attract a predominately male audience between the ages of 15 and 20. As the protagonist falls into this category the audience is able to relate to him and the feelings he harbours – i.e. anger, aggression and betrayal of friendship. Furthermore as a heroic figure he represents what many teenage males aspire to be.

Another character who male teenagers may relate to is the friend of the protagonist. In this opening he is seen as the victim and we as an audience can’t help but pity this boy who has been taken hostage, tortured and ultimately even had his friend turn against him. The feelings of betrayal and being placed in a compromising position can be related to by the audience. 

There are no female characters in the opening scene of my thriller which backs up the idea that my thriller is likely to attract a mainly male audience.

The antagonist of this film is in his mid to late twenties. For this reason you may argue that my film may also attract people of this age however the character being portrayed is not easy to relate to and it is unlikely that people would aspire tolerant that be like him. Furthermore people may actually see him as a negative representation of adults which would further attract a younger audience as they could relate to the concept of being at odds with older people.

In my film I have specifically placed misé en scene that could relate to this audience. For example on the protagonist’s desk we see a phone, an ipod, alcohol, coffee, cigarette packets, etc. all of these items create a link to a teenage audience as it humanises the protagonists character and subsequently makes him easier to relate to.

The action aspect of my thriller traditionally appeals to male audiences as it represents a display of masculinity. For the same reason the motorbike scene would also appeal to a male audience. Furthermore the sub-genre of my film (crime thriller) attracts male audiences more than female audiences. This can be seen by looking at almost any other film of this genre on IMDB, for example Reservoir Dogs, No Country for Old Men and Leon were all most popular in males under 18.

A film which has close themes to mine is Leon. For this reason I used Leon as a basis to find out what other media my audience may consume. Amazon tells me that people who bought Leon also bought: The Usual Suspects and Wasabi above anything else. Both of these received the highest user ratings from the males under 18 category on IMDB. This further backs up my belief that I will attract a male audience between 15 and 20.