Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

Audience Research

• Through my audience research it has helped me look at how to address my audience needs i.e. what the they like

and want. By having this feedback it gave us the ability to change/ develop our initial ideas in order to make our

thriller more appealing. This information was collected before I created the opening sequence and therefore I was

able to use it to my advantages in making the product as effective as possible.

• Sound: Additionally from this research we found that the two most important things in creating a successful thriller

film opening is mystery and suspense. This gets the audience thinking about the sequence and keeps them

interested by giving a brief taster of what is going to happen throughout the course of the film. These key points were

addressed through enigma i.e. the mystery of who the antagonist could be. As well as this we created suspense

through sound, both diegetic (sound of the ocean wind and rigging) and non-diegetic such as atmospherical music

creating suspense build-up and change of atmosphere in certain key areas of the feature. Such as where the

antagonists goes to close the boot of the car on the victim, this is a particularly key part of the film and this is shown

through the music tone (suspense building up as well as the enhanced thump of the cars door). For the main backing

track we created it was by music from the beginning of Batman the Dark Knight composed by Hans Zimmer.

Location

• A coastal location was used in our thriller as it is the

most common setting for this genre of movie making

it familiar to the audience. It would appeal to

teenagers as it is a scene relating to excitement and

action as well as suspense linking to genre

conventions. This links to how it is mysterious but it

could be argued that the ocean is a force out of our

control and it cannot be tamed.

Characters (1)

• The characters that were chosen fro the clip are selected to appeal to the audience. The idea behind this is

that by having a teenage protagonist it will appeal more to the audience as they will be able to empathise with

them more (as oppose to elderly people who stereotypically see teenagers as ‘troublemakers’). By having the

protagonist as female this is also intriguing for the audience because it is unusual for a main character in a

thriller to be female therefore people who are more familiar with the genre are likely to watch and appreciate

the film due to its uniqueness. It was focal in casting to make the characters seem realistic, this was achieved

by choosing realistic characters i.e. real teenagers to play the relevant parts, this was easy enough as we were

able to chose friend and participate ourselves as oppose to having someone playing a student/ teenager which

for the audience would not be believable nor as effective.

Characters (2)

• Protagonist: Costume of the characters was also important in attracting the

audience again adding to the realism factor it has to be believable (continuity) it is

no good wearing something which is not typical for those kinds of characters.

Likewise the costumes need to be the same throughout since the opening takes

place over a night it would be unusual for the characters to have changed in this

time therefore if they were to look different it would not appeal to the audience since

it would not be accurate.

• Antagonist: These costumes were also used for effect, such as the hood on

antagonist character, this creates mystery as they the audience are thinking who the

character could be, the question is not answered immediately they are left in

suspense. This appeals to the audience from both primary and secondary research

younger (teenage) audiences enjoy thrillers which make them think. This is typical

for a villain in a thriller movie to be hidden or wearing a mask of some description

e.g. such as The Joker in The Dark Knight.

Camera Shots

• A wide variety of camera shots were used in the filming of

the clip e.g. long shot to establish the beach setting and

close-ups to convey the emotions of the victim protagonist

character as well as high and low angle shots for characters

to symbolise who is in control of power and who the

audience should empathise with. Audience interests kept in

this section as we kept to thriller conventions regards

camerawork and editing. The use of a cliff hanger ending as

it is left at a climatic ending that is unknown to all, you never

find out whether the protagonist is alive or dead from the

suggestive visuals in the sea.

Production Process

• The way the we produce and distribute the film would

address the target audience. Since teenagers are very

technologically active it would make sense to promote the

film on social media i.e. advertising on Facebook, Twitter

etc. maybe releasing teasers on YouTube or Vimeo. This is

keeping in line with the virtual world which is ever increasing

and is important to teenagers. It also addresses how they

responded in the audience research since most said online

through streaming services on Netflix/ Amazon Prime, by

releasing on a digital platform in addition to physical format it

would be more out in the market to the younger generations.