Target audience

Target audience:

I hope to attract a specific audience for my thriller opening and need to target and reach out to that age range in particular but if my film is to be a commercial success I need to be mindful that my work appeals to the broadest possible age range. I am working on my own and I decided to research the different groups of people that I felt would be most drawn to the plan of my thriller film. Initially I considered that I should aim for an audience slightly younger than my age, however I also recognized the need for broader appeal. As a certificate I think I should give my thriller an age rating of 15, this would widen the scope in terms of plot build up and enables me to  develop more mature ideas than would be possible in a film restricted to a 12 rated thriller -  without the thriller being too explicit or inappropriate. My thriller target audience is late teens and adults as this target audience would have the life experience and empathy to relate to my central concept the realization that a child is missing the fear and concern as to what could have happened to her and the slow release of a series of grizzly clues which build up the suspense.

The thriller targets ordinary people who are quite comfortable in their lives, possibly verging on complacency to the extent  they are cushioned from reality and the majority assume nothing bad can happen to them directly. However I feel that the possibility of a child going missing is a universal fear for parents ( Madeline McCann being a case in point) and is a situation that would render most people in the audience very uncomfortable and uneasy because in reality it could actually happen to anyone thus making it a very scary concept, with lots of potential to build on and develop suspense as to what could have happened to the child.

 For the reasons outlined my film would not be accessible for people under 15. If the thriller was rated at an 18 it would cut off a lot of potential audiences. In my opinion younger audiences around the age of 15 would be made very uncomfortable by the story line about a child being abducted because they are still around the age where a kidnapping could happen to them, resulting in heightened awareness of the traumatic situation .