libby Sorsky: Analysis of how my actor choice fit into the thriller genre and how they will appeal to our target audience

Our actors of choice will be very contrasting, for the villain we have chosen a male of a large size, in terms of height and width, in the age range of 21-35. And for the protagonist we have chosen a female with an average height in the age range of 16-21. This contrast between the actors will help amplifying the horror effect we are trying to achieve.

The reason for his size is because we wanted to give him the visual power over the protagonist. Even if you don’t actively see the villain in the film, you will still see how his surroundings adjust to him, his shadows will be over powering and his movement will be greatly noticed. The effects generated from his size can be viewed Cat and Mouse like. We wanted him to be older too, because then it gives him the upper hand in viewer’s expectations, people will expect him to be wiser and more diplomatic. The choice for a male rather than a female, is because making him being aggressive towards her brings out this vulnerable, sympathetic subconscious emotion from the viewers towards the girl, automatically making him the target of hate; making the villain a female wont usually produce the same intensity of an emotion towards her. The reason for the girl’s age is because societally, someone of this age range is usually viewed as more fragile, they are viewed as still developing. Therefore, this choice of age aids in amplifying the sympathetic emotions from the viewers, in addition to, amplifying the emotions of suspense.

Both actors will appeal to the target audience because they both bring new and unique characteristics to the horror genre. Their age will also help assure they will appeal to a wider range of audience beyond our targeted. To our target audience (people aged between 17 to 31) they will find the age of the actress favourable, as she is considered more relatable and similar in whatever aspect to them.

Our actors are quite unique but there are some films which have actors with similar traits, such as hair colour or overall size, therefore below are a few examples of films with these similarities:

Protagonist