Audience Research Conclusion

Considering the fact that the maximum allowed certification for our film is 15, our target audience has to be above this age.

Certification:

Films that are a 15 have no prohibited themes as long as the handling of said themes are appropriate for 15-year-old viewers to see. Most swearing is allowed, but stronger words will only be permitted if they are used sparingly or in an acceptable social context. Discriminatory language is only allowed if the film makes it clear that its use is not condoned. Nudity and sexual themes are restricted to not stressing detail. Any strong sexual references must be justified by context. Horror/threat and violence are allowed as long as there is no strong focus on sadistic or sexualised threat. Behaviour that teenagers may copy (eg. suicide, self-harm or drug use) can be shown as long as the film doesn't show enough to be considered instructional. (Sourced by BBFC.)

Target Audience

Most commonly, thrillers are seen as aimed at men in the usual target age of 15 to 30. The reach of our online survey, however, showed that our audience will most likely be predominantly female (over 55% of responses were from women) and hit the age range from 15 to 21 (83% of responders). The fact that our responders mostly saw films at least once a week (34%) and went to the cinema every few months (44%) is an important sign of the fact that the people responding are fairly knowledgeable about this part of the media sphere. The most popular genres in this demographic were Comedy (given, on average, about 4 points out of a possible 6), Thriller (given about the same) and Sci-Fi (given just above 3.5 points). This seems like a good match, considering that it hits two of our main genres, ranking them 2nd and 3rd. Our film has two female protagonists, and so the near-80% answer of "Yes" to the question of whether an audience member would see a film like that is also an encouraging sign.

The responses in the Vox Pops revealed the wide range of tastes that we will be expected to cater to within our target demographic. The most common response for people's favourite thing about films was the expectation of either amazement or other strong emotions; something we plan to attempt to evoke with our work anyway. The sampled people also seemed to be more concerned with filming style/directors than with actors, which was surprising to me, but pleasing considering the fact that we are running a very small-scale production and so style and production is more significant to us than an unobtainable Hollywood cast. Predictability, cliches and romcom conventions were most commonly disliked features of films; in short, the audience obviously doesn't like it when film makers treat them as stupid or try to force-feed them things they've seen many times before. This is, naturally, something we will try our best to avoid, as patronizing the viewer is a crime almost as abominable as boring them.

DY