Evaluation 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Both Khushel and I decided to record a video of ourselves discussing who would be the audience for our media product, whether the film is open to any gender as well as discussing features that we incorporated from other films such as ‘Cape Fear, Premonition, What Lies Beneath and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,’ into our own thriller opening sequence. We decided that rather than typing our answers onto our thriller blogs, we thought that we’d act creatively and illustrate our excellent skills by using digital technology as part of our evaluation task.

This is Sabeen Husain and Priyanka Ganatra, one is sixteen years old whilst the other is seventeen. Sabeen lives in Harrow, whiles Priyanka lives in Hayes and they both attend college together. These girls like to dress casually if they are attending college. However, as soon as they are out of the school premises they enjoy dressing up a little smarter if it means that they are going to be attending a party or an event in the evening. They both enjoy going shopping whenever they have free time on their hands, and they especially take pleasure in shopping at New Look, River Island, H&M and Topshop. Sabeen and Priyanka love to watch thriller films such as ‘The Orphan, the Strangers, Drag Me to Hell, and they definitely luxuriate in watching these films as soon as they hit the box office in their local cinema.  Both of these girls enjoy watching television programs, for instance  90210, Gossip Girl, Friends, Eastenders, Hollyoaks and

Waterloo Road

, either by themselves or with their friends for a night in. The channels that they would watch these programs on would be Channel 4, BBC 1, E4, MTV and  ITV2. Each of these girls are definitely tuned in to the latest music varying from RnB, Hip Hop, Grime and Rock. Moreover, they enjoy listening to the likes of Rihanna, Beyonce, Avril Lavine, Enrique Iglesias, Trey Songz, Chris Brown and many more.

This is Manan Vekaria, Roberto Caccaviello and Shyam Chandarana they are all seventeen years old, living in harrow and they each attend college. These boys like to dress casually whilst they are attending school but as soon as they are offsite, they enjoy dressing up a little smarter if it means that they are attending a party or an event in the evening. These boys enjoy watching television, playing football or tennis together, listening to music, going shopping, playing x-box and Shyam often enjoys spending his time undertaking flower picking! Manan, Roberto and Shyam especially love to watch thriller films such as ‘Dark Knight, Inception, Se7en, Terminator, Chucky, Paranormal Activity and the Omen which they definitely indulge in watching as soon as these films hit the box office in their local cinema. Each of these boys enjoy watching television programs, for example Friends, My Wife and Kids, Prison Break, Eastenders, Family Guy and Alan Carr - Chatty Man, either by themselves or with their friends. The channels that they would often watch these programs on would be Channel 4, BBC 1, BBC3, E4 and Sky 1. Clearly, the boys are undoubtedly tuned in to the latest releases in the music industry as they enjoy listening to the likes of Calvin Harris, Dizzee Rascal, 50 Cent, Ryan Leslie, Lupe Fiasco and Pharrell.

One might say, that our thriller opening sequence ‘Premonition,’ would definitely appeal to our target audience for the reason that the girls we interviewed as part of our audience research share the same stereotypical qualities as the female character in our own thriller opening sequence. They are both exceedingly girly and take pleasure in undergoing lots of girly events and activities. Additionally, the boys we interviewed as part of our audience research also share the same stereotypical qualities, similar to the male character in our own thriller opening sequence, as they each enjoy watching dark, eerie films that build up drama, suspense and trepidation within minutes of the opening sequence. As a result of this, if our thriller opening sequence was to be showcased at the teenagers local cinema, this may appeal to them and grab their attention immediately, encouraging them to go and watch the film instantly as our opening sequence is incredibly alike to the thriller films that they already enjoy. Moreover, I think that our opening sequence would appeal to this particular target audience for the reason that they may become drawn to the story and begin to empathise with the female character. They may also begin to question why it is that the boyfriend feels the need to murder his girlfriend. Additionally, many girls may look up to the female character and think of her as a role model due to her courage and confidence as she attempts to escape from a perilous situation which sadly only ends in debacle.

Below is some feedback that we received by our target audience after they had watched our thriller opening sequence. We received some brilliant feedback by the public as they explained to us the thriller conventions that appealed to them the most when watching our sequence. Additionally, the audience revealed to us how the violence and suspense kept them gripped to it the entire time as the movie built up anticipation and fear, allowing them to question would events might occur in the subsequent scenes of the film.

By making sure that we chose the correct classification rating for our thriller opening sequence, we visited the BBFC guidelines website so that we were able to identify what certificate our film deserved and to show our understanding of media industries and institutions. We already created a post on the group blog illustrating the reasons behind choosing a 15 certificate rating so here is the link to the relevant post.

http://mediathrillergroup.blogspot.com/2010/12/certification-of-film.html