Question 4 (Connor Snell): Who would be the audience for your media product?
Age:
The age of our audience which we were aiming for was decided straight away because this would be the most important thing to think about when we filmed our scenes and how the film was displayed to the public. We decided from a very early point that we would make the audience from the age of 15 to around 45. The film certificate for ‘Gone’ is a 15 due to the horror and gore content. We knew through knowledge that anyone below the ages of 15 or above the ages of 45 would not be suitable to watch our opening sequence, let alone the full-length feature film. This is because some scenes would be disturbing and potentially unsettling.
Age links into the narrative and style of ‘Gone’ because some parts of our film would not be appropriate to watch by young children or the elderly. These sorts of scenes would include jump-scares, blood scenes and offensive language. Horror films do not appeal to these age groups because they respond much more sensitively to everything.
Gender:
The gender of our audience was also important to us because we didn't want our film to be sexually dominated. We also knew from knowledge that a large proportion of people that view horror films are stereo typically ‘couples’. This is why, even though there were not any females in the opening sequence which we probably should have done but it was hard as we were a group of 3 boys, we were confident that both genders would watch and enjoy our film.
Gender links into the narrative because in the opening sequence we have only included characters which were boys. This may have warned of females if the film genre had not have been horror but because of the certain genre, the main group that would see our thriller/horror would be 'couples'.
Films with similar target audiences
All three of the below horror films have young children as the main character, just like 'Gone'.
The Omen (1976) is an old film and had a core audience of males and females aged 16-40
Insidious (2010) is a modern horror that has a core audience of males and females aged 15-30
Orphan (2009) is another modern horror that also has a core audience of males and females aged 15-35
