Target Audience

In previous years the target audience for the productions I've done is a lower age however, this year I have made my production a certificate 15 meaning that it's appropiate for people age 15 and above to watch it but anyone below 15 years old isn't adviced. I chose this certifcate because we felt that the idea we have for my production is on a mature level, both graphically and internally. I did consider uping the age however, the next certificate up was 18, meaning only people 18 and above allowed to watch it however, I thought that this was too high, so seeming as our production wouldn't have any crude language in it or any majorly grusome or violent scenes we felt it was appropiate for a certifate 15, by having this certifcate that would mean my main target audience will range from 15 years old to a possible 20 years old as horror films intertest a wide range of age groups.
 



To help me decide which certificate and target audience was best suited to our production I looked at some other horror films such as:

I looked at films I knew had some elements the same as the idea for my production. For example, Ouija has a giant element in common with my idea (explained in inital ideas and idea developments) a Ouija board and paranormal involvement therefore, I thought it would also be a good idea to look that film's target audience and certificate because it gives a clear indication to what mine should be. While searching through IMDB at a range of horror films I noticed that the majority of horror films are either a 15 or 18 with the odd 13 PG/ 12A , all of the 15 and 18 ones are put into the R for restricted catergory. I did look at a certificate 18, Clown and even by looking at the poster you can see it a lot deeper into the horror genre then the others, clowns are already a well known scary horror convention and I felt that my idea didn't go in the same direction as theirs which was the Clown being at a a childs birthday party and ultiminatly ends up killing, even though the inital plot does involve killing it's more to the plot-line of Carrie where it's becuase of revenge and has more of a meaning but it's done in a much less grusome way then in the Clown.  All of these films helped us decide my final conclusion of having my production a certifcate 15 with a target audience ranging from 15 years old to 10 years old, it could possibly reach 20 years old.

Not only has going through these films helped me decide the certificate and target audience for my film but it's also helped me come up with further developments for the initial production idea.