Having established the audience for the thriller opening ‘Homeless’ as primarily young people (15-24) we aimed to attract this group with a cast comprising entirely of people of this age group, allowing the audience to better engage with the action as a result of their ability to relate well with the situation being portrayed. The theme of homelessness and poverty is one that a young audience will be able to identify with and so I believe that it was appropriate to incorporate characters who the viewers will feel a likeness to.

Sam, as a character will be particularly appealing to our audience who are most likely suffering similar problems to. The fact that we make such close reference to a social issue that affects our target audience means that viewers will be flattered by the fact that they feel represented within the media, thus creating great support and interest from this area of the market. This is further maintained by the fact that the audience follows Sam throughout the entirety of the opening; something which an audience able to relate to the character will appreciate, as it gives a fair and realistic portrayal.

Another media text that provides a representation of youth culture is the TV drama ‘Skins’, in which this representation is built from the perspective of this age group. As a result, according to IMDb statistics, it overall has a greater appeal to the under 18 age group. This shows that audiences far greater appreciate a text where the characters portrayed are similar to them, and so therefore our thriller opening is specifically targeting a young audience as a result of the fact that the characters involved are young people.

We tried to make our thriller opening ‘Homeless’ appeal to an audience who enjoys viewing thriller films, and are fans of the genre. This is evident through the many choices we made regarding the mise en scene of the opening in which we attempted to incorporate as many generic aspects of the genre as possible.

CostumeNorma’s costume is one way in which we tried to make our thriller opening appealing to an audience who enjoys watching and has a good knowledge of films from the thriller genre. By mildly referencing the costume and attitudes of a femme fatale character, seen notably in film noir productions of the 1930’s, we were able to make ‘Homeless’ a production which has an appeal to a more intellectual audience, who will appreciate the reference to such an iconic era in film production.

Cliff hangerWe continued to target our audience at the cliff-hanger, when we are still in the shoes of Sam as he is violently attacked by Norma. This climactic event gives an uncensored presentation of British youth culture, in which our thriller opening represents the idea that young people in Britain actively prey on one another. This was a key factor in how we addressed our audience, being set around a representation that they will hold a strong view on.

Lighting The lighting in our thriller opening makes reference to similar thriller texts in which its use is to create tension and suspense, as well as highlighting significant characters. We use chiaroscuro lighting in our thriller opening to similar effect as that used in ‘Nosferatu the Vampyre’ where Count Orlok is highlighted for dramatic effect. For example we use chiaroscuro lighting when establishing Norma, something which fans of the thriller genre will recognise as a generic element, thus targeting this audience.