Evaluation - Question 4 (Elliot)

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for our psychological thriller, "Broken", would be both males and females that are aged 15-25. A reason for this is that individuals who fall into this category are considered to be "the key demographic" as they tend to have most leisure time and also surplus disposable income to spend on recreation, thus making them ideal candidates for an audience. Additionally, we can look at recent similar films, such as Lucy (Besson, 2014), where there has been great success amongst a similar audience - making around $126 million in gross (according to the IMDb profile). In addition, we could look at The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Lawrence, 2013) where a similar film to our thriller made the majority of its profit amongst the lower end of our audience and was particularly unsuccessful amongst individuals older than our target audience. I recently found on YouTube some videos that demonstrate these differing opinions and shows exactly
why our film would do best amongst teens and early adults rather than anyone else.


Reactions to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Teens vs. Elders)





It is clear that films similar to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire are particularly unsuccessful amongst older generations whilst they are significantly profitable among younger individuals. Also, it is clear in the first clip that that film struggled to connect with the 14-year-old audience members and so this could perhaps explain why we have cap-lined the audience at a certificate of 15. Having a younger rating of 12 or 12A would mean that a lot of action and violence from our thriller would have to be cut, not only this but perhaps those younger members would struggle to connect with the film and therefore give bad reviews of the thriller. This would in the long run be detrimental as this means negative word-of-mouth press would spread and the profit of the film would decline and not be at its maximum.

Male audience: The male audience members seek to be thrilled. They enjoy spending time with their friends and would fully engage with the action of our thriller and the eerie ambience of the opening sequence. They have part-time jobs and have disposable income to view our thriller. As young adults and teens, they can relate to themes surrounding our thriller and and engrossed with the action. The representation of the male character in the opening presents males as dominant (which is a stereotype of males in a patriarchal society) and so this thriller would appeal to them.

Female audience:  The female audience members love spending time with their friends and have the time and energy to spend at cinemas. In part-time employment, they have the means to afford trips to the cinema regularly. Also, the portrayal of the female protagonist as damaged and vulnerable makes her fit the stereotype of women as being vulnerable in our society. This therefore appeals to the female audience. Casting the protagonist as female means that this film becomes relatable for teenage girls and the theme of self-identity is universal to this.