Audience and Representation Theory

Ideaology

An ideology is a set of ideas that constitute ones goals, actions, and expectations. There is no set dominant ideology for short films; however there are dominant ideologies that are withheld for feature films that follow the horror genre. When creating our film we will be attempting to appeal to our audience’s dominant ideology of horror films whilst also attempting to create our own ideology for short films, this will allow us to easily establish that our film is categorized as a horror as it will follow the general consensus of feature horror films.

As our target audience is primarily teens and young adults, the film we are creating will need to fit the expectations that our focus group want, one of the features that our focus group mentioned that they liked about horror films was being able to relate to the characters of the film, we feel we will be able to fit this ideology by using actors that are around the same age group as our focus group, helping to fulfil this expectation for our focus group.

Target Audience and Focus Group

Most commonly people who enjoy horror films are people aged from around 15-30; it seems that this age range enjoys horror films for the thrill of being scared. Horror films are able to take people out of their comfort zone and make them vulnerable along with the protagonist in the film. Our target audience is aiming at a younger audience age ranging from 15-30. Therefore we have chosen to use young actors/actresses in our film; so a level of equality is created between the viewer and the characters in the film.

I asked a group of people aged from 15-16 why they enjoy horror films and what aspects of them interest them most. Heres what they said:

• The thrill of being scared and kept in suspense
• An interesting storyline with a twist
• An unusual concept
• Characters which are relatable and equal with the audience (Usually Victim)
• Being taken from their comfort zone

These aspects helped us reach the conclusion of a young character and a gripping and thrilling storyline, this should please our audience and help them enjoy our production.