Discuss one of your media productions in relation to the concept of audience

When producing a product such as movies and music videos, audience plays a key role in developing and producing the product. I am going to talk about my first product which is my thriller opening for my foundation portfolio. While producing this crime thriller, i had to take into account what the audience expect of the product and how they will affected. I will now talk about my thriller " Mindgames" in relation to the concept of audience. My target audience are people aged between 18-28. I found this information on the pearl and dean website which displayed data that showed what particular age groups watch which genre of film.

Referring to the uses and gratifications theory, my thriller offers "escapism" where the audience after a long tiring day at school or at work just want to esacape reality and relax and watch the thriller. My thiller is full of nail bitting scenes providing the adrenalin rush and the thrill. Additionally, it can be social as the cliffhanger/enigma codes can cause conversations between friends as to perhaps what will happen next.

The "  hyperdermic needle" effect theory suggests that we are passive audiences and that we are directly effects by media texts that we are presented. In my thriller there is gore, use of semiotics such as the drugs, violence, strong language and killing scenes. This theory suggests that these actions will be replicated. In reality, people are old and mature enough not to replicate what you see, hence my target audience. in conjuction to the cultivation theory, if the audience are exposed to these scenes, i think that they will still resist to replicate what they say.


The "reception theory" is when the producer/director encodes a text and the audience decode this text in relation to stuart halls theory. Different people will decode the text differently according to thier status for example, age, gender or personal terms. By the way i have reprsented the antagonist, some people may think of him as a rebel and someone eho should be punished severaly, however other may think of him as sneaky and michievious as he avoids the police numerous times. The enigma code in my thriller such as the laugh at the very end suggests that the antagonist has possibly killed the policman or the policman has not come to look for him at and knocked on someone elses door. The oppositional reading of my thriller is that there are fewer and fewer female protagonists and that they have less important roles in films like this. From a feminist point of view, males are more dominant than females and that the antagonist and protagonist are males.

I also used audience research such as a questionniare and a draft viewing so i can get feedback along the way, this ensures that i make my thriller as best as possible for my audeicne. Out of 30 people, most of them wanted to see more violence and more suspense. The cross and parralel editing in my thriller where the policman enters the flats and the antagonist realises he is there. This scene is shot purely to create suspense and tension in the audience.