Audience Research

The audience is a very key factor for any film as without them no one would go to see the film so it would not make any money. Because of this it is important to determine who the target demographic for are film is so that we can cater towards them attracting them to our film. To determine who are audience we have created a mind map showing the audience for the Action/Horror genre.

As you can see by the mind map we have split it into three sections action, horror and action/horror so that we can find out what the audience is for both genres is and if we see any similarities between them.

Psychographics

Before I get into the main audiences for both genres I want to firstly explain what a psychographic is as they can be used to further determine who my main audience is. Psychographic is very similar to the word demographic but where demographics usually focuses on the population as a whole psychographics focuses on single people and what they are like such as their lifestyle and personality. There are many different psychographics that a person can fit into these can be seen below:

Tribe Wired: Digital, free-spirited, creative young person
Fun/atics: Aspirational, fun-seeking, active young person
Renaissance Women: Active, caring, affluent, influential mums  
Rugged Traditionalist: Traditional male values, love of the outdoors

Dynamic Duo: Part of a Hard-driving, High-involvement couple

Priority Parent: Family values, activities, media strongly dominant

Home Solider: Home-centric, family-oriented, materially ambitious

Struggling Single: High aspirations, low economic status

Settled Elder: Devout, seniors, sedentary lifestyles

Free Bird: Vital, active, altruistic

As you can see compared social classes there are a lot more that my audience could be meaning that it is useful to find out the main psychographic that my audience is so I can include things that they would like. For example, if the main audience consists of tribe wired people I would include links to the films social media pages so that they can follow the film.

Audience of the Action genre
as you can see the action genre is one of the most popular modern film genres meaning that its audience is very mainstream with a larger part of their audience coming from the the B - D social class which is a very big part of today's society. In addition to this a large part of action genres audience consists of men as it shown that many of them go to watch action movies for the intense actions and explosions however that does not mean that literally no women see action films its just that there is only a small amount who go to watch them.

The age of the audience who got to see action movies can range from younger audiences all the way to adults. However the primary age of the genres audience is 15 - 18 as it allows studios to put in more intense content into their films that the audience without having to worry about children seeing the film and attempting to recreate scenes from the films. On the other hand, there are many action films made with a larger age range for their audience which can be something like 12 - 30 + this is mainly for family action films such as many superhero films as they are meant to be enjoyed by children who find them fun and for adults who are entertained to the film.

The main psychographic of the action genre varies this is due to a large range of ages who watch these films so there are many different psychographics who will watch my film. So to determine who my main psychographic I'm looking at the action genres audiences primary age which is 15 - 18. Because of this it is very likely that they are part of the tribe wired psychographic. The reason I think this is because a majority of young people nowadays have their mobile phones with them at all times and use them to search the Internet and communicate via social media. So to make sure that my film appeals to them I will include links to the films social media so they can follow the films production. in addition to this I will also have the film trailer uploaded onto youtube so that all of my audience can easily view the trailer.

Audience of the Horror genre
Like the action genre the horror genre is a mainstream genre just not as much as the action this is because while their audience share the same social classes (B - D) the age of the audience is much more limited as younger audiences will not be able to get in and see the film as they would be much more prone to the copycat effect when seeing a horror film instead of an action film because the content is a lot more violent and gory. The primary age group for the horror genre is around 15 - 30. You have probably noticed how large this age range is well this is mainly because of the content that is commonly found in the horror genre is definitely not suitable for younger audiences as you rarely see horror films below the 15 rating. This is actually beneficial my film as it will allow me to put more violent scenes into the film. However, despite being limited to older audiences the horror genre manages to attract large audiences as many people go to see films as part of groups as thrill seekers so they can have fun (Blumler and Katz 1974) by being scared. Also there isn't a specific gender who sees the film more than others with most horror films attracting both genders.

In addition, as the age range is so large this also means that I have a variety of different psychographics. While tribe wired is still very prominent in the the horror genre this does not apply to the older audience who will watch my film as they most likely use their mobile phones as much as the youth of today. Because of this they could be a variety of different psychographics but I believe that they would mainly consist of Priority Parents, Rugged traditionalists and Renaissance women. The reason I think these would be the most likely psychographics because many older people do have children so they would fit the Priority Parent psychographic as when going to see a film they may wish to do so as a family so the film they go to see will may have to include less mature content so that the younger family members will enjoy it more. Many older women would also be part of Renaissance women as like I mentioned with Priority Parents many older women would now be mothers and because of this they would be very active and caring with their children who she will be very influential to. Now Rugged traditionalist will also be part of the older audience as there are many men who have very traditional values.

As I mentioned earlier while the genre is mainstream its not as popular as the action genre. This is mainly due to the popularity of the genre decreasing not because of bad films being released but because they are no longer in the peak popularity as when they first came out in the 20th century they were extremely popular and this can be scene through many of the classic horror films from the 1950's as to this day many people still considered these films to be some of the best horror films to ever be released and these were so popular the BBFC had to create their own rating for the genre H.

Audience of the Action/Horror genre
After looking at the two separate genres audiences I believe that I have an idea of what the audience for an Action/Horror film would be. First of all, the main social class that would watch my movie would be from the B - D class which is a majority of the public so I definitely have an audience for my film. Next, as my movie is incorporating  many elements from the action genre my film may be enjoyed by a male audience due to the action scenes I will still try to make the enjoyable for female audiences as well.

Going on to the age of the my audience I can say that the main age group for my film is going to be 15 - 18 + the reason that the age range doesn't go any lower is due to the some of the scenes that will be in the trailer will not be suitable for younger audiences who may be scared of the film and in a worse case scenario try to replicate what they see in the film (copycat effect). This is also beneficial to my film as it means I can add more violent scenes to the film which can be enjoyed by older audiences.