Audience Profile

This is a poster I've created for our film

In the poster, I’ve included a large, central snapshot from the film. The image is of the victim in the film, with a particularly frightened expression. It is slightly blurred, giving the impression of motion, and creating a sense of fast-ace amongst the image. This reinforces the action-like theme, which my research showed as the most popular theme amongst the target audience. This would help to attract that audience further.

I’ve made the edges of the photo darker. I did this to emphasize the darkness of the film, both in mise en scene and character personality, which would attract the audiences who enjoy films of a dark genre, and particularly the thriller theme.

I used red writing set against a black background, immediately indicating the sense of danger, thus reinforcing the genre. The words, written over the image, ask a question to the viewer, which creates a cliff-hanger increasing the sense of intrigue and drawing the viewer in.

I’ve included awards on the poster. They’re awards for independent film festivals, and also a short film competition. A young audience may be attracted to this award, as they may have heard of the competition, be interested in film making, or have entered the competition themselves. 
Our thriller film is an independent film, not just because we used unknown actors and no special effects, but because of the more psychological theme. The main influence of our film was “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” by Niels Oplev, which is an independent thriller film from Sweden.

The sub-genre of our thriller film is crime, which would appeal to many audiences both our young target audience and older audiences. It would appeal to people who would watch such mainstream media texts as CSI, Ocean’s 11, Public Enemies and other crime films involving stealing, as well as independent thrillers such as Red Road.

We used only city locations in our thriller, so as to address a modern day audience. We felt that setting a thriller on crime in a city location was best to emphasize the sense of fear and anxiety within the audience, not just the characters. We felt that audiences who live or work in the city would be able to relate to the anxiety and paranoia that the victim characters portrayed, as the fear of theft (of possession and identity) is common in 21^st century cities.

The audience of our thriller film would be of the 16-24 age group. The film would target students, part-time workers, and the unemployed in particular, because the characters within the film are all of this age and social class. In this way, the film would directly address these types of people.

Our film represents young men, of the male character’s age, as thug-like and dangerous by the character Will Block as he targets and mugs young women. It reinforces the somewhat stereotypical view of teenage boys as criminals and uncaring. Females are represented as strong and independent by the character Scarlett Fraser, as she fights back against the male mugger. This reinforces the progressive view of female characters in film, and therefore challenges the traditional use of females in film.

As well as these representations, our film targets the problem of unemployment amongst young people, and the social issues that this problem creates. Thus, the film addresses a common problem amongst the target audience and therefore is something they can relate to.

The narrative of our thriller film is based and focused around the character Will Block, as the opening introduces the obsessive behaviour of his personality. The narration includes a flashback of Will Block which identifies his behaviour as money-focused, and helps develop the picture of his jealous personality. The action focus occurs when the first mugging takes place. 

Soundtrack choice

This is the soundtrack chosen for our thriller opening. We chose this because it creates an eerie sensation it adds to the action. We also really liked the modern, electrical sound it has. It makes it very contempory and unnatural.


This is another soundtrack that we considered. We liked the thrilling, creepy effect it has, but it wasn't long enough and didn't match the action as well as choice 1.


This is another soundtrack we considered for our thriller. We really liked the high pitch sounds with the low pitch sounds running all the way through it. We felt it made the thriller feel much colder. We chose choice 1 over this because of the exciting climax it had in the middle, which matched with the action of our thriller very well, whereas this soundtrack didn't have the same climax and was the same all the way through.

Evaluation of my thriller opening: Question 7

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Since the preliminary task, I have progressed a great deal in the making of my full product. In regards to the performing and shooting, what I have most learnt since the preliminary task is the planning. When planning for the full product, I was much more thorough in planning the details of the shoot.

As well as this, the shooting of the film progressed a lot from the shooting of the preliminary task. The group put a lot more time into the shooting, and was more aware of the time in which we shot the scenes as well as the control over the environment (noise level of other people/ cars, amount of other people around etc). This was because of the problem with background noise that we had during the shooting of the preliminary task.

The editing of the full product progressed considerably since the preliminary task. I used the effects that the software offered to much greater affect, and appropriately to reinforce the thriller genre. I was able to adjust sound levels, colour and length of clips more than I was when editing for the preliminary task.

I’ve learnt that working in a group produced much more ideas than working alone. When one person in the group suggested an idea, the rest of the group were able to produce similar ideas or develop that idea. This is one of the main benefits that I discovered about working in a group. I found that this helped a great deal when coming up with the original ideas, the planning, and identifying an appropriate soundtrack. I did, however, learn that working within a group meant that decisions took longer to make as it had to be agreed with by the entire group, and this elongated working time.

My individual contributions to the planning were some of the ideas in the storyline, identifying the locations, the creation of the shot list, the character designs and the costume designs. To the shooting of the film, I contributed to most of the camerawork and the directing. I produced my own version of the final edit, separate from the other 2 members of the group, and so I decided upon my own narrative structure, which shots to use, the cutting of shots, the sound adjustment, the transitions, colour and shot-stretching effects, and the addition of a flashback scene. 

Evaluation of my thriller opening: Question 6

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have developed my technological knowledge considerably during the process of creating my film. Before, I had rarely used digital film cameras and so this new experience enhanced my knowledge of the technologies. I discovered how different it is to use digital film cameras to using still cameras, both in the way they work and the photographic effects they create. Aspects of the camerawork I’ve learnt from this experience are: modes of use, replaying footage, using the tape, using the camera with the computer.

I’ve also learnt a great deal about camera angles, shot types and movement of the camera. In particular, I’ve discovered how effective tilt shots can be in creating a distorted and confusing image, such as this shot from “The Third Man” which connotes disorientation and a kind of vertigo, thus placing the audience with the character. 

I used this same shot type to the same affect. The tripod, as part of the equipment, aided with this shot.

I’ve learnt a great deal about editing films from this project. I learned the importance of sequencing shots to create the narrative structure, as I used this a lot to change and develop the original narrative structure.  I also learned how to cut the shots I used to make them fit into the sequence and to create a better effect. Using different effects is another aspect that I learned a lot about, such as using transitions and changing the colour of the footage, as well as the addition of slow-motion of certain shots. I also learned where it is best to use these effects within the film. I learned how to adjust the sound within the film, which was particularly useful to me when dealing with different sound mixes such as the loudness of the skateboard and the beeping of the buttons. I learned that I could put points within the shots in which I could adjust the volume without having to adjust the volume of the entire clip. Adding music to the film was another point that I learned.

 Adding titles to the film was important. I learned where to place them on the image, how long they should last for, the colour and font of the writing and which information was important to add (such as cast names and director). 

Evaluation of my thriller opening: Question 5

Question 5: How did you attract/address your target audience?

The audience is attracted to my thriller by the use of similarly aged characters that can be related to. The characters’ attitudes may be appealing to the audience as teenagers of the same age may be able to understand them. The audience can also identify with the characters and issues such as theft and mugging. The film also communicates what it is like for ordinary people living in contempory Britain.

Another aspect of the characters that might appeal to the audience is the costume. The three characters wore different types of costume: Eve White in recognisable high street fashion, Will Block in a costume associated with skateboarders; hooded jumper, jeans and trainers, and Scarlett Fraser in a costume that connotes the “gothic” or “emo” style, for example the leather jacket, hooded jumper and skinny jeans, suggesting she has an edge.  

The city location would address those in the target audience that live or work in the city. It might reinforce their views of what a city is like. The British city location would be familiar to the British audience.

The cliff hanger at the end of the thriller opening would encourage the audience to watch further into the film. They would want to know whether the same situation would occur for Scarlett Fraser, or if she would challenge and defeat Will Block.

The research I conducted previously indicated that my target demographic of 16 – 24 year olds enjoyed the action genre. The pie chart below shows ‘action’ scoring highly amongst the participants. 

Following this, I conducted a short study on 10 non-media students, ranging from the lower age of my target audience (16) to older audiences. I asked them to view my film, and then give a rating out of 10 on 5 separate aspects (music, costumes, location, editing, and how well they understood it). Below are my findings:

The results show that the lowest score was an average of 8, and the highest score was an average of 9.2. This shows how the audience were most attracted to my film. Qualitative responses from the study suggested that the aspects of mise en scene that the viewers liked the most were the ATM and underpass locations, because they felt more anxious and tense whilst the action took part in these places. 

In addition, I asked for feedback from 5 year 12 media students. The questions I asked were:

1. Was it easy to understand the narrative?
2. Did the sequence hold your attention?
3. How do you rate the camera work and editing?
4. How do you rate the standard of mise en scene, to include colour, figure, lighting and objects?
5. Is the production clearly the opening of a thriller?
6. Would the opening inspire you to watch the rest of the film?
7. Can you suggest anything that would improve the appeal?
8. Were there any aspects that you find offensive? 
9. Was there any part that you found confusing or hard to understand?
10. What were the best features of the production?
11. Does the soundtrack effectively reflect and enhance the mood and action?
12. Rate the overall production

The results from the questionnaires show a general score of 4 or 5 (out of five) for the first five questions. 4 of the students said that they would be inspired to watch the rest of the film after watching my thriller opening.

The aspects of my film that the students said appealed to them the most are the camerawork, editing and soundtrack, as well as the performances and the ethnicities of characters.

G321 Thriller film production “Thief”

Evaluation of my thriller opening: Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product? 


The main audience for my thriller film is 16-24 year old, white British people. This is due to the characters within the film; they’re all within this youthful age group and ethnicity. Because of this, audiences of this age group may be able to relate to the attitudes, behaviours and opinions communicated by the characters.
Female audiences may also relate to my thriller because of the positive, strong representation of women intended by the character “Scarlet Fraser”. Evidence for such effects on audience is present for Niels Oplev’s film “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”, in which the greatest demographic is for females under 18.

Ratings by users on IMDB

This demographic in particular are attracted to this film because of the positive representation it provides for them, of strong, powerful and intelligent. It is this same demographic that would be most attracted to my thriller.