Audience/Target Audience

I have decided that I will try to aim my product at mainly a male audience, possibly mid-teens (15) to mid thirty year olds (45). In comparison to real texts, this is the normal age range thats selected for a thriller film due to the type of content that's usually in these films. For example the film prisoners is very violent, contains graphic scenes and strong language that wouldn't be suitable for younger viewers. The narrative for my text is fairly simple to understand, it follows a typical revenge style film. However, could possibly quite violent and therefore unsuitable for younger viewers. People who liked prisoners, taken, Leon, shutter island and law abiding citizen will like my film as it will have some of the same elements. Like each of the past films mine will also have a main central protagonist who is very focused on what it is he wants to achieve.

After carrying out the questionnaire I can see many different trends, such as the key traits of elements people expect to see in a thriller text. 75% of the people asked said they expect to see tension or tense scenes. When people named their favourite films, most of the ones that were named were one word and very punchy. Other trend I noticed is many people said when they watch thrillers they were gripped to their seat and anxious to see what happens next.

After carrying out the research, it has outlined many different and useful trends that people expect to see in a thriller text. This will affect what traits and or elements I will add to my opening text and by doing so will hopefully mean that my sequence will have the key conventions that make a thriller successful. Therefore, I may need to add or remove a few elements to make sure the text is definitely a thriller and doesn’t have a sub-genre that could lead the text to be or have a different genre. The audience expect to see a text which keeps them ‘on edge’, a central protagonist who is ‘outgoing and strong’, and antagonist. My idea contains many of the typical traits, such as tense scenes, action, suspense, and chase scenes. It follows a somewhat typical revenge story, I want it to be gripping but at the same time very exciting. A typical trait of a thriller text I think is an element of chase, whether that’s a car chase for a short scene or one character on the hunt for another throughout the whole film. Also there should be a point when the audience start to question whether the ending will really be the one they expect; this is possible through the use of ‘suspense and tension’.