Audience Research

From what I previously know about thriller audiences, they generally seem to aim for a predominately male, 15-35 audience. Our film is generally quite a conventional thriller, seeing as it does not include any aspects from different genres, such as a love interest or a historical setting, therefore, it would be best to stick with the general audience expectation for the thriller genre.


In reading the UK Film Council study, I found the concept of an avid fascinating. While it would be good to aim for all three types of avid, perhaps the most accurate and likely to be part of the target audience would be the summit avids and the scattergun avids. The summit avids would be an ideal part of the audience as our thriller combines several aspects of thriller sub genres, with the technological aspects in the YouTube clip, the religious and crime aspects in the antagonist and perhaps aspects of a psychological thriller. I feel this combination of sub genres and the way in which we plan to do this is fairly unique and so would attract the summit avids. However, this combination of sub genres may also dissuade the specialist avids, as they have a dismissive nature towards films, which sadly may include our film. Also, scattergun avids would be included in our audience, as they have a wide love of film, and so it would be easier to consider them as part of the audience for our thriller film.


From the research of the film journey, I feel that our thriller film fits into most of the parts of the film journey. Although it does not fit the youngest audiences approach, that does not damage the film, as it would never be marketed to an audience of that age. It does fit into the "film as identity" section, although somewhat loosely, as it goes beyond mainstream film choices. Also, the "film as culture" would be appropriate, as again, our film seems to be more alternative than mainstream.


In terms of audience types, our film could be marketed to all of the types, except "Mainstream". Our film could be considered as quite alternative, but for a "Mainstream Plus" audience who would watch a film they would enjoy, our film could be considered. As a slightly more specialist and alternative film, it could be aimed easily at both the "Aficionado" and "Film avid" audience types.


Finding a direct case study to compare was difficult, as our film is mostly a religious thriller, and that in itself is a generally quite obscure film genre, and our film also combines aspects of other films. From this, finding a single film which I could compare the audience results from would be too hard, so instead I chose to view several different films which had a similarity with our idea, and then see if they shared overall similarities in audience.
Chatroom, has a similiar technological aspect, but its audience was mainly female (60%) and the story only drew 12% of the audience, which would suggest a complete opposite to our proposed audience. However, this modern technological aspect seemed to be reflected in the majority (84%) Under 25 audience, which seems a promising similarity with our proposed audience.
NEDS, shares an urban setting and a similar age for the cast.  While it again, has a majority female audience (55%), it has a majority under 35 audience (53%), which while the films itself are very different, the superficial similarities could help our film share this under 35 audience.
Troll Hunter, shares a similarity in being a combination of genres: fantasy and found footage, and as film shares found footage aspects, this could assist our audience predictions greatly. It has both a majority male and under 35 audience (Both 58%) and interestingly, the bait of it seemingly like a cult film drew 16% of the audience, and our film, could also be somewhat said to share this cult aspect. The "docu-style" bait drew 21% of the audience, and while the similarities with our film are somewhat vague, the found footage aspect is a shared aspect, so it could draw audiences.


Overall, I would say that the audience profile for our film would be male, either in his late teens or early 20s, with a love of film, particularly more alternative and obscure films, and a passion for different kind of films, and perhaps an interest in religion or the issues involving it. I feel that someone of this kind of description would be the most interested in wanting to watch our film.