QUESTION 5: HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

Audience research.• Our audience research was our main starting point as it enabled us to

understand what our target audience liked and disliked. It also allowed us to understand what we should include in our thriller in order for them to be attracted to it.

• We carried out our audience research by producing two questionnaires, one addressing the person themselves and the other addressing their views on thrillers. We also did a focus group in order to discover what their reactions were to certain thrillers.

• http://curlyhaircrew.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/questionnaire-audience.html• http://curlyhaircrew.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/questionnaire-thrillers-we-

made-10.html• http://curlyhaircrew.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/focus-group.html

• We found that our target audience would be 16-22 year olds that did not like thrillers that were cliché. They wanted to watch thrillers that had lots of suspense and tension, and that left them wanting to watch more.

• We addressed this by challenging conventions in mainstream thrillers. The protagonist is usually a man, but in order to challenge this, we made sure our storyline was not cliché, not to straight forward and made our main character a female teenager.

• From gathering results from our audience research, they said that they would most like to see a psychological thriller. Therefore we decided to create a psychological thriller as they would be most intrigued and more engaging to our opening.

Use of music.• The opening background music is somewhat eerie like ‘The

Machinist’. Although ‘The Machinist’s opening music is somewhat more aggressive. Which supports the genre conventions of Thrillers. In the bathroom scene the crescendo of the music and the heartbeat, the intensity provoked in the scene supports conventions. However in the party scene the music is more up-beat which subverts conventions. This is important because it builds tension, and makes the made the scene more suspenseful.

Setting.• For our opening, we decided to set it mostly at the main characters

house. However, we set part of it in a park, showing that she is a social, popular person. In her bedroom, the audience are able to see that she is a student at school due to text books on her bedroom floor. Therefore, in order for our target audience to relate to our character, we decided to have a link to education in order for it to relate to their day to day life.

Characters and narrative.• As 80% of our audience that we questioned were female, we decided to

cast an all-female cast as it would be more relatable.• Our audience do not find out much about Scarlett’s two friends, but they

enable the audience to further understand our storyline that Scarlett is a popular student who is a role model for those at her school.

• This links to the film ‘Thirteen’, where the main character is led by her friend down a path of drink, drugs and sex.

• Our character Scarlett is the protagonist in our thriller. She is made out to be a perfect student who is a role model. This perception changed as she wakes up with blood on her hands, leaving the audience wondering what has happened and who she has killed due to her taking the illegal hallucinogenic drug.

• We thought that this would attract our audience as it presents a teenager killing someone. We thought this would be interesting for our audience to watch because it challenges perceptions.

Codes of clothing.• We decided for two of our characters to dress similarly and the other differently.

This again relates to the film ‘Thirteen’ where Tracy befriends the most popular and beautiful girl in school called Evie, who influences her to change for the worst.

• During the park scene, the audience can observe that they’re wearing similar coloured blue jumpers. This connotes a sense of trust and loyalty between the two characters. In the party scene, they also wear dark, black clothing which connotes themes of danger, evil and mystery. Our other character wears a white top which highlights her innocence and the clear difference between her and the her two friends.