Target Audience Research

Target Market for our opening sequence: 

The Exclusion. 

Our audience that we would like to attract are a Niche Audience, those who have a unique interest in psychological thrillers but also an interest in a particular shot that we have included in our storyboard where a spiritual impression has been purposely added to reel in our audience. The shot in our opening sequence will show a room which seems very grungy and run down, covered in candles which will highlight various objects within the room, such as a diagram on the floor.

We think that judging by our storyboard and storyline of the opening sequence we could attract the younger generation rather than the older (50+) without stereotyping, we feel that the younger generation (15+) would be attracted to the Psychological Thriller opening sequence because it includes many scenes with jumps and high uses of intensity. However, because in our opening sequence we've included scenes that the viewer could find possibly disturbing and uncomfortable, we feel that our audience are NOT people who are over 50, but also that the viewers who are 50+ may not find some scenes acceptable because of disturbing actions such as: jumpy-ness, off-screen violence and uncomfortableness.

Our opening sequence is influenced by a film 'The Skeleton Key' which is also a thriller from 2005, the film is also rated as a 15 because of the infrequency of strong violence, however, our opening sequence will NOT include any strong violence on the screen. We've used ideas from The Skeleton Key to create the spooky impression on the viewer, such as the candles and diagram (The Skeleton Key is based on ''Hoodoo'' a sign of witchcraft.) We've been influenced by this movie to come up with our Niche Audience - those who are interested in a gothic and spiritual type thriller.

However, the start of the opening sequence will be set in a woodland area with a frequent use of sound effects (heartbeats), which will attract our audience with the level of intensity which we wish to endure on the viewer. The scenery will be bright and it will look innocent than the other shots which will be seen further on.

But  as the Niche Audience has been selected as our target audience, there are many other theories surrounding the film which will need to be taken into account rather than age, Such as the Class System:

This system is also known as a Socio-Economic Scale and it basically categorises the different types of audiences which are grouped into A B C1 C2 D and E which are to represent what type of social class they are based on their occupation.

Grade	Social Class	Chief Income Earner’s Occupation.
A	Upper Middle Class	Higher managerial, administrative or professional
B	Middle Class	Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional
C1	Lower Middle Class	Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative or professional
C2	Skilled Working Class	Skilled manual workers.
D	Working Class	Semi and unskilled manual workers
E	Underclass.	Casual or lowest grade workings, pensioners and others who depend of the welfare state for their income

Judging by our storyboard, we feel as a group that our opening sequence will attract the Lower Middle Class (C1) because the genre of our opening sequence as a thriller may attract an audience which are more mature which could fit in with the social class that we've selected, also the main character in our opening sequence will be portrayed as a Lower Middle Class, because although we want the character to be an adult role, we've chosen one of our fellow members of our group to play the role which will be the main character. 

Another type of representation of the viewers is the Cross-Cultural Consumer characteristics. This theory was developed by Young and Rubicam, this method categorises people in terms of their personal aspirations.

The four Cs's are:

• Mainstreamers: this group consists of about 40% of viewers overall, they require to watch movies which are more comfortable other than movies which contain any disturbing scenes, as they seek security in conformity, so they tend to watch blockbuster type movies rather than independent movies. Meaning they are likely to watch movies on the big screen in cinemas rather than DVD.

• Aspires: This group are a range of Upper Middle Class status as their motivation often reflects on the type of group they are by what products they buy i.e: smart, high-tech and high-fashion goods which reflect them on a higher status image.

• Succeeders:  This type of group are the type who have built themselves a ladder and once they have reached the top to what they want, they want to keep it within their control. Control and Power are aimed at this type of group. 

• Reformers: This group contains people who are professionals and educational such as: Teachers and Doctors who want to make the world a better place by buying eco-friendly products and healthy foods. This type of consumers are small however they have an influential voice. 

Uses and Gratifications: 

This theory basically emphasises all the different ways which people use media products, in a simpler note: we use media to achieve personal purpose. Media products can even be the same by used by different types of people to obtain differing satisfactions. 

This is also known as the Blumlers Theory, which suggests four broad types of uses: 

• Diversion: An entertainment, something to do, a relaxation. A film which will entertain the audience and take them from their lives into immersion and making them want to watch it over and over again but in a relaxed environment.

• Personal Relationships: We can become involved in the lives of the people with how they are presented in Media texts. We start to obtain knowledge of the range of different behaviours. We learn about the dynamics of interaction with others. We start to grasp a sense of Empathy. 

• Personal Identity: We can identify with characters the way they are presented in the media. We receive confirmation of the sort of person we see ourselves being. We can see ourselves in other and know what sort of person we are and how they would react in a certain situation.

• Surveillance: Simply feeling informed and having the knowledge of what's happened. Most films aim for this stage. 

Both theories however, does not specifically target to our Niche Audience. But when it comes to Narrative Pleasure, our example which we think would appeal to our audience is: 

• Some stories are appealing because you have to try and solve mysteries. 

Because with our opening sequence we hope to draw attention and attract the audience with things such as the storyline, the type of genre and even the star power. 

Personal Relationships however, could specifically appeal to our audience because the way the character is presented in the opening sequence, it could abstract the empathy throughout the entire film, as we become involved in the social lives when watching the character on screen and seeing his life in a flashback.