EVALUATION - Audience and theories.

After learning about audience reactions to films and various other media texts, I thought about our target audience and our attempts to clarify them in our teaser trailer.

Overall I'd say that our target audience is directed towards mid-late teenagers to early adulthood. Though it may primarily be targeted at males, I imagine from our female protagonist will also attract the opposite sex. The general consensus is that females enjoy seeing their own gender in a position of power. This is however contradictory to our trailer where you can see the lead female isolated within her own home. It can be assumed that our character is easily related to, perhaps through similar situations.

The appeal behind a thriller/horror genre like this comes mainly from the interest in gore and fright. There have been theories made that suggest some people enjoy the twisted nature of seeing gore, an otherwise considerable taboo subject in the real world. Another possible reason may again be the lead character who is female. For sex-driven males, it is a selling point. Look to other such films where the overly attractive female characters usually get killed off after risqué encounters with a male counterpart. To reinforce the idea, our marketing campaign has reflected such ideas. The composition of our poster and teaser trailer are one such example through the use of subtle techniques such as editing.

Our film is very much targeted at those who are active in decoding films and creating their own meanings. This is partly due to the enigma that's shown in the trailer as well as the confusion that would be caused if it were a real film. This active audience applies to the Uses and gratifications theory. This theory suggests that the audience play an active part in a film, interacting with it in different ways. These people use films as a point of social conversation and to escape their daily troubles. It involves themselves being entertained whilst at the same time creating their own understanding of the narrative through their own experiences.

However, having said this, some members of the audience may fall under the Hypodermic Needle Model. This assumes the audience are passive members whose reactions are predictable, measurable and related to the stimulus the film gives. For example, witnessing a decapitation in a film may generate a shock from the audience as was intended. It can vary as these 'measurable' reactions do not account for their own personal experiences. This theory 'injects' the audience with ideologies. Both theories can be applied to our film, however I'd think that the Uses and gratifications theory is the likeliest one.

-Dale