The document discusses research conducted to understand the target audience for a thriller film opening. A survey was created using SurveyMonkey and distributed on the filmmakers' blogs and social media to gather feedback from their target 16-40 year old audience. The survey asked about thriller genre and element preferences. Research also included sharing a draft film online to engage the target digital native audience and gather feedback through social media interactions.

2. Older Teenagers (16+)
To be able to incorporate more mature content into our thriller opening, we set our
target audience to the more mature audience age of 16+. We believe that they are
able to handle more mature themes (such as mental health), and they also have a
longer concentration span and are able to handle complex storylines; thus,
making a better film.
Our age range will cover from 16+ to around 40, however there will obviously be
no age limit, because of the diversity of different ages within the genre thriller,
they have the ability to attract females, but mainly men of all ages.

3. Interests of our Target
Audience
The interests of our target audience will vary considerably depending
on their age. However, we expect our male audience to have an
interest in more violent themes (such as war, death, murder,
explosions). Also, some of our target audience will have experienced
mental illnesses which will enable them to relate and see similarities
within our opening. We predict our female audience to show more of
an interest in the wellbeing and emotional side of our thriller, as
stereotypically they are the more caring gender. This will work well as
they will feel more involved naturally, and thus concentrate and
become emotionally involved.
The majority of our target audience has fairly high media
consumption, this helped us to carry out numerous audience
feedback tasks (such as SurveyMonkey). Teenagers check social
media hourly and are constantly being updated with what is going on
in the world. Mental health is a topic largely discussed on social
media, especially Twitter, as many people are trying to lower the
stigma around it. Therefore, having mental health play a big part
within our thriller and it being rife on social media currently, it makes it
relatable and relevant to today.

4. Why did we pick our target
audience?
We chose this particular target audience because it allowed us to explore
more complex and mature themes. We also are this age ourselves, and
thus are able to relate and understand the feelings and emotions of
characters this age. We also know what appeals to our target audience,
because we combined and used our own personal preferences to create an
opening which would hopefully specifically target and meet the needs of our
audience. We decided to use a young female actress, and this led to our
decision of a young target audience as they are able to relate to a young
teenage girl (whether they are one themselves, or are friends with one a
such).
Its also the typical audience of a thriller, and therefore already appeals to
them as they have an interest in thriller films already. Teenagers tend to
love tense films which make them think and feature plot twists and shocks
which are not expected. Therefore, because we wanted our opening to be
tense, full of mystery, uncertainty about what had occurred and who was
guilty. This meant for us, our target audience was obvious.

5. Research
In order to gain more knowledge about our target audience and their preferences, we
carried out research as a group and individually. We created a survey using the
programme: SurveyMonkey (https://www.surveymonkey.com). Within this survey we
asked specific questions about their preferences for weapons, thriller sub-genre,
location, editing techniques, Mise-en-Scene techniques, Sound, time of day to set the
thriller. Many of these questions were multiple choice which enabled them to pick more
than one option, and us to gage an idea by combining all the answers. Some were also
open ended questions, where people could write in more detail. We published this
survey first on our blogs, so people with a direct interest in thrillers and media could
easily see (through use of labeling on our blog), and also our classmates could easily
answer it.
This is the survey
on one of our blogs
(Ellie’s). We
embedded it and
the format made it
very easy and
accessible for
people to answer.

6. Research
After publishing it on our blogs, we all shared it on our
social media sites because that will directly target our
target audience. This way we can ensure that our
feedback mostly comes from people our age, and
therefore we will be able to gage a really accurate idea of
what our target audience enjoys to watch and wants
within a thriller. For efficiency and consistency, Libby
wrote all the posts and then Sam and I shared them on
our profiles, so our friends/followers could all see it and
answer.
We also targeted our audience directly with our draft film on Twitter, Blogger and
Facebook. After creating and producing our thriller film, Truth, we uploaded it to Youtube
and Vimeo and shared it on sites such as Facebook, Blogger and Twitter, this was to
establish a link between us and our target audience; this is because our audience is
modern and young and participate in sites such as Youtube, Vimeo and social networking
sites to watch videos and search for other media group student examples of their thriller
films for inspiration, so they are likely to stumble across it. Also by using theses sites we
would appeal to a larger audience as our film would be more accessible, whilst bypassing
the major production companies.
Also, by posting it on Youtube, Vimeo, and social networking sites we have dealt with the
problem of money as by targeting a younger audience they are less likely to have masses
amounts of money. Therefore, we have made it free for them to watch and download. By
using social networking sites such as Facebook, Blogger and Twitter, it was possible to
cover a wide range of audience bases appealing to lower and middle classes who would
most commonly use these and other social networking sites and also the upper and
middle class who are more likely to see it whilst browsing through blogs - which are free
for the public to access.