Evaluation - Question 5

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

Primary research was essential to the production of my thriller opening. This is because myself and my group did not have much knowledge of this media product. This research helped us find what was conventional to the thriller genre to help us with creating a successful narrative and helped with parts which not to include in our opening sequence.

We began with researching history of thriller films, with help of the internet to find which thriller films were most popular and famous in particular eras and how technology and equipment has changed.

We then moved on to researching age certificates and the organization the BBFC. This stage helped us to understand age ratings and guidelines of films, to know what we should, and shouldn't include.

Following on from this we then started research into our thriller opening sequences. The conventional camera shots and how they could portray characters differently, to the costuming of characters which helped to represent them clearly. We also researched generic sounds within the thriller genre, as this would help to create the best effect for our audience, building up tension and suspense.

We also researched into editing styles, and how this would work in our thriller opening sequence and if they would create the right effect for our target audience. With deciding our target audience, we created questionnaires which asked a series of questions trying to find out answers such as what age watches thrillers most, and their favorite conventions that they expect to see in a thriller film. This helped with the making of our opening sequence as we could incorporate these answers into our opening sequence to appeal to our target audience.

The research helped plan our opening sequence as it showed our group what conventional aspects we needed to include in our thriller film to engage our target audience. 

Our group took inspirations from films such as Scream and The Strangers. The research found that  many thriller films have a male antagonist. This helps to create suspense and tension as the victim is stereo typically a female, so a male may look alot bigger and threatening than a female as they are usually perceived as weak and vulnerable in thriller films. This however would help for the target audience to build a relationship with the victim as they sympathize for her as she looks less inferior to the antagonist. We also have taken inspiration from many thriller films for using low key lighting in each scene. This helps to create an dark and eerie effect for the audience, and immediately puts them on edge as somebody could be out to get the victim and harm her. We also took inspiration from The Strangers as the victim is alone in an isolated setting. Much like our film is located in the isolated forest. This puts the audience on edge as it is unknown if the victim will escape, or get any help if she needs to. 

My primary and secondary research assisted me with the planning of my thriller as we then new what conventional thriller aspects our target audience expected to happen in our opening sequence. Not only this but it helped my group to come up with a narrative as we could see what thriller films each had in common to create something which our target audience would enjoy.