G325 Sec. A b)

MY TARGET AUDIENCE

My AS production,"The Unhinging", was a thriller/action film. It was about a young innocent 16 year old girl (named India) who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and is kidnapped by a mentally unstable man (named Jack) who keeps her held captive in his basement. After managing to escape from the antagonist man, India runs back to get home to her family. However, Jack is soon chasing after her and is more distressed and mentally unstable than ever. The target audience for my film, was aimed predominately at teenagers as the protagonist is also a young teenage girl and so this target audience will be particularly drawn in to the film as they can relate to the predicament India is in. Young adults, aged 20-35, are also part of the target audience since it is an action/ thriller based film with many fast-paced, gripping scenes.

In order to attract and address my target audience I used a variety of promotional methods. Social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter were the main tools I used since they are not only free, but they can also allow me to attract a large audience and since my target audience is aimed at teenagers and young adults it is very likely that these people will have Facebook and Twitter accounts, thus I was able to attract my audience more easily.  Furthermore, when people "like" my film it will be visible on their "wall", allowing all of the friends and on Facebook to see this. Thus allowing more people to become aware of the film. Therefore, this form of social media has been very useful when attracting and addressing our audience. Twitter is another well-known and widely used social media site that I have used in order to attract and address my audience. By using twitter, I have been able to promote my film due to regular tweets and uploading pictures of my behind-the-scenes film. This will therefore create a buzz for my film as anybody is able to not only view my tweets but are also able to "retweet" my tweets. This will then appear on their twitter feed, allowing all of their followers on twitter to view my original feed. Thus making my film more well-known and it will also inspire more people to watch the film. Twitter also allows us to "tag" people using the "@" symbol. This means that I am able to interact easily and quickly with my followers if they have any question or want to provide feedback about my film. The two-step flow theory is widely used on twitter and Facebook. The theory states that "audiences influence others". This means that if someone watches or hears about my film and then tells other people about it other people will then also be inspired to watch the film. However, we didn't just use social media to attract and address our target audience as I also made a film poster for my film. In the poster I included the name of the film, the people involved in making the film and the release date of the film. I also added a slogan on my poster, saying "From her fear she gained strength". This is an important slogan for my film as it is about a young teenage girl experiencing a traumatic experience, yet she is still able to escaping - highlighting her pure strength and determination. This emphasises the female power in society today and this will therefore attract my target audience. Often, people will watch a film because their favourite actor/ actress is playing the leading role. Therefore, by adding in all of the actors/ actresses names it may mean that my target audience is more likely to watch the film as they are a fan of that particular person. Including the director and producers is also another way to pull in our audience as, again, people may see the film since they are a fan of this person work.

My target audience are able to sympathise for the protagonistic character since she is a young, innocent and vulnerable teenage girl and many of the audience will too be a young teenage girl and so can therefore share a connection with the character. But also, I think that the audience may have some ambivalent feelings towards the antagonist because although he is a kidnapper he is also mentally unstable and so doesn't fully understand the situation and what he has done and so from that point of view the audience may feel some sympathy for the character as he is not quite in the right frame of mind. Whereas, others may feel no sympathy towards this character as he is the one who has kidnapped an innocent girl, held her captive in his basement and has a dangerous weapon when chasing after India.

I have studied the reception theory framework and have learnt that the audience doesn't always interpret the meanings of the text (be it in a book, movie or song) in the way that the writer/producer encoded it. It is up to the reader as to how the text is decoded. They will decoded it based on their individual cultural background and life experiences. However, in my film I feel that the audience will decoded the text similar to how it was encoded as it is a simple storyline, where we are made to feel sympathy towards the kidnapped girl and strong dislike to Jack as he has kidnapped an innocent girl and carries a gun in his hand. In my film there is fast-paced music that builds up the tension for the viewers, creating the sense that something bad is about to happen. Also, when India is running deep into the woods trying to escape from Jack the lack of light in the woods and the fast paced music and heavy breathing from India all suggests there is danger close by.

I have studied the uses and gratifications model of audience behaviour. Researchers Blulmer and Katz published a theory in 1974, stating that individuals might choose and use a text for the following purposes:
- Diversion ( escape from everyday problems and routines)
- Personal Relationships ( using the media for emotional and other interaction)
- Personal Identity (finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from text)
- Surveillance (information which could be useful for living e.g. weather reports, the news)

Since then, the list of uses and gratifications has been extended, particularly as new media forms have come along, such as the internet and video games. In my film I think the audience may use it as a diversion from their life because by watching the film they may realise that actually their problems aren't that bad and this can make the audience feel better about their own life. Hopefully, the audience will experience tension, a cliff hanger, jeopardy and apprehension in our film. To create this suspense and tension I added fast-pace, dramatic music when India is trying to escape from the basement and then running away from Jack in the forest.