Coursework planning and research:Target audience

Target audience

For planning and research I have tried to look at what kind of ideas and concepts I need to implenet in order to attract people to watch my film.

The target audience I hope to attract is the under 25 age demographic. Im doing this because I think that the under 25 age group are the main consumers of the  horror and thriller genre.  A primary example of this is the 2008 disater/horror film cloverdield. For this film the film distributor paramount used convergence through the use of viral marketing to gain publicity and anticipation.  The significance of this is that cloverfield was made for only 25 million dollars. This meant that it could not marketise in convetional ways eg posters, adverts because it couldn't afford it. And so it targeted the under 25 age group with advertising on facebook, creating fictional websites etc, and as a consequence the film was a hugh success. It made 170 million at the box office.

How do I attract the under 25 age group?

Well the first thing I should do is add convetions that will appeal to them in the trailer. What me and my partner could do is inlcude things like quotes from famous from fictional websites, newspapers and even from ordinary member's of the public.

This is from the first paranormal activity trailer from 2009. Here is a quote from a person who has already seen the movie.  This quote helps to excite the audience because it will show them the movie is of actual quality.

Timing
The release of the film is also an important factor. At the end of the trailer me and my partner Jack will reveal the release of the movie. We proposed that the fictional movie will be released in halloween. And possible christmas. The advantage of this is that usually horror trailers are released during halloween because halloween and horror are synonomous with each other and this means people during Halloween are eager to watch horror movies. This is further vindicated by the fact that the 3rd paranormal activity movie made 54 million in its opening weekend at the box office. Which is unprecendented for a horror movie.

Film poster
 Also in my ancilary task I will be making a film poster. What I could potentially do to gain anticipation and attract the under 25 age group is possible post my poster onto facebook. And hoepfully get some feedback from my friends. This would be essentially replicated the way film companies advertise there trailers on almost all forms of social media.

Setting
By using locations and settings that the under 25 age demographic will recongnise will help to familiarise the audience. For instace using schools and possible parks will show the target audience that the horror trailer will relate to them.

Take this scene from the trailer of the first paranormal activity. The location is in a house with ordinary people. This attracts its intedned target audience because it implies that the horrors that are filled within the movie could happen to any of them. And so there eager to see how the characters deal with there predicament.