target audience

The target audience is a very important part of a film. It specifies a certain group of people, and can limit who the film can be watched by. For example, being rated 18 can clearly rule out the younger audience. Other factors such as costume, makeup, location, props, and most importantly characters can be used in many ways to distinguish a target audience.

An example of how these factors can clearly distinguish a target audience is shown in the images above. These images are of the posters of scary movie and its sequels.

    As you can see, in the top right-hand image of the four, the characters, costume and facial expression have all been deliberately chosen and set out to attract a specific audience and represent what type of movie is being shown. The costume consists of casual t-shirts and jackets, as well as costumes which represent what a person’s role is (top left-priest). The majority of the characters on this poster are young and in particular this movie consists of a attractive women who looks like she will play the ditsy blond.(bottom right) Her top reads 'I heart dead people' which brings out the comedy factor of this movie. It is very unlikely that anyone over 50 will be attracted to watch this movie; it would be past their time and modern, including a twist of a horror comedy which they might not find appealing.

The target audience for this horror trailer is of a young audience, aged from 15-30, it’s a large target audience and because it’s not a teen comedy like the example above. Which rule out people that dislike comedies. Our trailer as well as the poster and magazine will have elements which can help to distinguish the target audience we are aiming to attract. For example the image below is of our main character that will play be in the film and throughout the trailer. Considering this image alone, the character, her costume, the location and the prop she’s holding all come together to disqualify anyone younger than 15 and older than 30. You can clearly tell this character is walking to or from a party, has been drinking as she’s holding an empty red cup. The red cup is famous in teenager’s eyes for drinking, as it has appeared in many teen movies and TV sitcoms such as American pie, glee and 90210, almost glamorising drinking. Therefore anyone who sees the red cup, and understands what it signifies will obviously be of our target audience. The costume is party wear, short skirts and heels representing femininity of the character and a typical teen on a night out, something which won’t be appealing to an older audience of over 30's.  

Overall I have understood how important a target audience is and it is essential to go about certain elements the right way in order to fully attract the targeted audience, everything from costume to facial expressions is vital presentation in the trailer, poster and magazine.