5. How did you attract/address your audience?

How we addressed our primary audience (16-25):

• Our film features a predominant teen cast (both male and female), aged 17
• Our young characters are empowered and independent during the film, portraying a positive image of teenagers.

• Teens would want to come and see it as they relate to these characters due to being of a similar age
• We used new technology, current themes and trends in our opening scene to ensure that we attracted 16-24 year olds from the start of our film. Mobile phones, relationships and alcohol are popular amongst our target age group.
• As our main characters are both male and female (who are portrayed as strong), we can attract both as our audience.
• The plot line is exciting, and different to what a normal teenager would experience in their day to day life. This plays on our teen audience’s aspirations and desires.
• The kidnap and death in our film is not something that a teenager would want to experience, however the idea of excitement and risk associated is appealing to our audience. By including these in our film, we present a moment of escapism, adding excitement to everyday life.

• The idyllic relationship between Dannie and Josh (Josh sacrifices his life to save Dannie as he loves her so much) is appealing to a teen audience. Similarly to the Twilight Saga, our film gives teenagers a chance to suspend their disbelief and experience this fantasy of a perfect relationship.

• City life of young people is relevant to our target audience of modern teens.
• Our use of a laid-back indie style in filming our opening scene gives a more realistic point of view, which is appreciated by teenagers who don’t want to be patronised in the representation of their age group.

How we attract our younger secondary audience (11-15):

• The opening sequence attracts girls, as the main character here is a teenage girl
• She is texting her boyfriend, which is something that girls of that age can relate too.
• The stereotypical boy of the age of 13 might not be engaged by this; however the action later on in the scene, such as the kidnap, would be more interesting to them.
• The rest of our film also contains a lot of crime-related action.
• The boys would aspire to be the hero, Josh, who combats crime and fights criminals.
• The male character is in the position of leader throughout the film (like Harry and Ron in the Harry Potter films), saving the girls.

How we attract our older secondary audience (Adult thriller fans):

• By sticking to conventions of a thriller, we can attract fans of other similar films
• We chose to use stereotypical thriller themes: kidnap, revenge, mystery, crime
• Our film complies with Todorov’s narrative theory, creating a solid, straightforward plotline similar to other thriller and horror films.
• Our films features both adult and teen characters
• We paid special attention to continuity to make sure that our audience could suspend their disbelief – an adult audience might find the plot unrealistic as the teen characters are the ones in power, so securing other ways of making the film realistic for an adult audience was important.
• Our film has many enigma codes and sudden plot twists, which keep the audience hooked and watching until the end.



Thrillers with similar themes to ours, popular amongst adult audiences

We held an audience screening for our primary target audience to see if our film opening appealed to them. Here is the recording of our event, alongside a table showing the results of our questionnaire. Both suggest that our sample audience enjoyed our film opening:

Group 6 Audience Feedback