4. Who would be the audience for your product?

We initially planned for our target audience to be aimed at the 15-24 age group, since this is the largest age band of cinema goers therefore can ensure maximum profits. This was also the target market for films similar to ours, such asChangeling and Taken.

Due to the high levels of violence in our film, we would expect it to receive a ‘15’ certificate having examined the BBFC guidelines, which state that “Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury.” This is relevant to our film since the violence is likely to be stronger than that acceptable in a ‘12’ where it “should not dwell on detail.” A ‘15’ certificate may also attract our target audience since the certificate would suggest this film is aimed at an older audience so they are therefore more likely to see it.

In order to confirm our audience we took a survey, inviting friends and teachers of different ages and genders to give their opinions of our film.

From the surveys taken, we discovered our predictions were correct, as we largely asked people aged 15-24, 85% of whom said they would choose to see this film at the cinema. We also asked roughly the same number of people from each gender and found our film appealed to both a male and a female audience, since girls were able to relate to the teenage daughter while boys enjoy the ‘thriller’ genre.

Our research also confirmed our niche audience we thought the film might also attract, since in our questionnaire we asked whether or not they were a parent. The majority of parents questioned said they would also choose to see this film in the cinema. This therefore shows that our initial predictions were correct and therefore our film is likely to be a success since it was enjoyed by people from a variety of different age groups. 

Finally many of the questionnaires showed people could relate most to Eleanor, the teenage daughter, in the opening. This suggests she is a well-cast character as she is at a similar age to those in our target audience, aged 15-24, so she is a key character within the film. In addition, parents in our niche audience said they could relate to the Dad, therefore we provided characters which appeal to a range of audiences.

Sample questionnaires:

KDS