Evaluation - Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

       

We used many methods that we hoped would attract the audience we had set out to gain. This is our opening shot, we chose this shot because we thought it would interest and intrigue the audience the most and help to give them the enthusiasm to watch the rest of the film. We thought that this shot could achieve this because we wanted the audience to wonder what the significance of the watch was. By giving this watch some significance we hoped it would make the audience interested to watch on and see what this significance was.

Below are some more screenshots of our thriller opening and an explanation of how we thought that these shots and editing would help attract our audience.

I think this shot would help to attract the audience. This is because it is quite a mysterious shot as we can’t actually see who is in it. This mysterious effect is achieved by the mid shot as oppose to a close up of the character as well as the camera being positioned as to not show the whole of the character, especially not focussing on his face. The face is also concealed by the lighting and the dream style lighting effect that has been put on the shot during editing. This makes the audience immediately wonder who it is and what he is doing as he looks a bit suspicious in a suit but surrounded by countryside. The costume that we have chosen really matches the sub-genre of the film too and so will help to appeal to people who like this style of film. The framing of the shots makes the character ‘stand above the horizon’ therefore making him look more important as the shot camerawork makes him look like he’s standing on top of the world and over everyone else and again making the audience wonder who he is and what he is doing.

This mid-shot clearly shows that there are now two people in the scene however one is sitting down. This builds the tension up as the other character is kind of standing over him making the audience think that he may be about to do something to him. The framing of the shot allows for both characters to be in the shot and the effect of them looking at each other and the character standing over the character sitting is achieved by the composition of the shot in that they are the only two important figures in the shot. There is broken glass on the floor which helps to add to the effect and the sounds created by the footsteps on this just help to add to the tension and how the audience might react. As the shot turns the graffiti on the bridge can also be seen making the audience think that the sitting down character is in a very vulnerable position. This is something that would attract people as they would want to know what was going to happen to him.

This shot would help to attract the audience as we have previously seen this watch being worn by the supposed villain earlier on. This will make the audience wonder what has happened to the villain as now the character that the villain was once standing so tall against seems to have got the watch. This shows that it is some item of significance as the shot is focussed in on it therefore giving great detail. The meanings we wanted to create from this watch was that it meant something to the villain and may reveal something shocking to the victim later on in the movie. Because of this potential for importance it draws the audience in and makes them ask what is so special about the watch.

This shot shows that the character is about to do something. This is because he takes his hat off and puts it on the side then returns to face the other character. By taking his hat off it helps to show that he means business and that he is not to be messed with. In this part of the movie there is a little bit of violence which may appeal to some people and especially the kind of audience that we were targeting. This shot pans across while he puts his hat down. This helps to show the audience what is going on and will help them to understand where everybody is situated. The shot is also a slightly low angled shot which helps to show that although the villain may be in-charge at the moment but may not be soon. This will attract the audience as they will wonder what he is going to do and therefore what is going to happen to the other character who is sitting down. The movie opening is constantly asking the audience the question of ‘what is going to happen to him?’ which should draw some interest and attract a larger audience.

Again this shot will help to attract the audience because, as the audience profile shows, they are likely to be into violent games involving guns. With the introduction of a gun to the film this is likely to encourage them to watch the film. Because we don’t see whether he shoots him or not the tension and suspense build up and we have given the audience what they said they wanted on our research – some mystery. Despite the audience not seeing whether the gun is fired or not the shot type provides some clues. This is a high angled shot looking down towards Callum therefore showing that he is completely vulnerable. The composition and framing of the shot shows the chair that Callum is tied to therefore showing the cause for his distress. Because we have proceeded to give the audience what they want they are more likely to be attracted to our media film.

Our thriller film opening related to some other films in the fact that it is predominately made up of flashbacks from the characters past. This effect would appeal to the audience as instead of just following a storyline throughout the film it also follows the character’s personal timeline, this makes the whole film more interesting and has more meaning. Because of this and the way that we have tried to include other things the audience said that they wanted in the planning and research stage of the project we have managed to get some positive feedback on the film opening from our audience members and they have said that overall the film would probably appeal to them.