Evaluation - Question 4

Evaluation - Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

After doing a lot of research into who our film would be most suitable for, and who our film would target, we created a film that would target both male and female audiences, this is because of the equal focus and division of both male and female characters within the film. This helps our movie target both genders as an audience because it not focused on appealing to one specific gender, it actually focuses on appealing to both hence why there is a equal amount of male and female characters on screen during most of the film, and there's a equal amount of male and female main characters as well to make the story more appealing to both genders. This is very different to typical "Gothic Horror" films as usually they target only a male audience by using the female gender more within the characters. Therefore by appealing to both male and female audiences equally, we also subverted the conventions of "Gothic Horror".

We also researched into the age groups that we would target with our film piece and then decided that our film would be aimed at the age group of 16 year olds and over. We based the creation of our final piece around this age group as well and this also helped us conform to the conventions of a "Gothic Horror" film. Stereotypically, adults are the main age targeted with these types of film and to make our film appeal to this type of audience as well as the younger adults, we matched conventions of the "Gothic Horror" genre and also added a modern twist so that we could also appeal to a wider range of audience. During our research we also looked at the different types of certificate ratings and ages that films are rated and decided that the film certificate for our film should be a 12A because our film does include some scenes of violence and death but they are not hugely focused and dwelled on, there also isn't any reference to sexual activity or drugs so the film couldn't be pushed to a 15 age certificate as it does not meet the standard requirements.

Our film also aims at certain stereotypical backgrounds of people as well as age and gender, typically a "Gothic Horror" film aims towards two main backgrounds as these certain stereotypical backgrounds of people tend to enjoy "Gothic Horror" the most. Typically this genre of film aims at a "Gothic" audience as they typically tend to enjoy this genre of film the most, also normal "Horror" fans would also be targeted by this genre as it also appeals to them because of the conventions that make it a "Gothic Horror" genre. The film we created also follows these same conventions and is aimed at this same background of audience, because they are the main audience to a "Gothic Horror" film and these conventions are what please the audience who are watching this genre of film.

The film that we created for our final piece doesn't have targeted ethnic background, as there is not a chosen background to target in the codes and conventions of "Gothic Horror". Therefore most "Gothic Horror" films also have no ethic background to target. This is also the same when it comes to the class of an audience or the job they have. The "Gothic Horror" genre aims to please as many people as they can, while sticking true to the conventions that make a gothic horror so unique. Therefore they have no class of audience, no ethnicity of an audience or job background within a audience that they singularly focus on because to make a enjoyable "Gothic Horror" film, you don't need to focus on a specific audience that in depth, also if they did go into that depth, it could lower the audience that they could target and could affect how successful there film is.

I am very clear and confident on what type of audience I am aiming to target with my media piece, and what about this audience makes them find a "Gothic Horror" film appealing. This is because the research that was carried out during the making of our film was very thorough and all of the information that we gathered and based our film off came from reliable sources like film databases and verified reliable websites. During the period when I was researching what makes a "Gothic Horror" film and the conventions that have to be followed to create this genre of film, I gathered information about how "Gothic Horrors" are unique and different from other films, what codes and conventions they have and also the audience they aim at and the characteristics of this audience.

I also did a lot of research into other "Gothic Horror" films and looked in depth at three main "Gothic Horror" films, these were "The Woman In Black", "The Conjuring" and "Van Helsing". They all conformed to the conventions of a "Gothic Horror" film and all pretty much targeted the same audience, because these conventions that they followed helps appeals to this type of audience. The "Woman In Black" had a age rating of a 12A after 6 seconds of the clip was removed to change it from a 15 to a 12A to reduce the level of violence in the film and make it available to more people, "The conjuring" was rated at a 15 and "Van Helsing" was also rated at a 12 so this also further supports that the target audience for my film is right and accurate.