Q5: How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience

 

 

We made our thriller opening “Hunted “appealing to our audience due to the innovative camera angle which give a more open-ended and appealing perspective of our mise-en-scene and props. 

 

An example of this is the gun on the table whilst the camera moves along it in a diagonal fashion to emphasize upon its menacing appearance and the audiences expectations of it to be a significant danger to people’s lives.  The editing has also made it dark and has more of a shadow effect around this shots periphery. This would finally attract our target audience, which is predominantly male, due to a gun being more relatable to things they typically like such as shooter video games and action/war/thriller films.

 

Another example is the watch lying on a brick wall before being taken by an unknown person. The camera is completely still and positioned above the watch so the audience gets the best look possible at it before it is taken. The audiences could get the impression that time is running out for somebody as the watches hands are pointing towards the right side so their impression is most probably that out of all things. The editing has made it ever so slightly blurred along the edges of this shot to make it feel more numb and surreal than it actually would be. This would attract our target audience due to its curious nature and it makes them want to delve deeper into our thriller opening to find out more.

 

 

Another good camera shot is the “I Have Nightmares All The Time” newspaper text is positioned at an angle so it is clearly visible with some slight debris on it to make it out that its abandoned in a degraded or abandoned area. Then it is walked on by somebody to give an eerie and unsettling effect due to the nature and the implications of what the text says. This gives an impression that in the narrative, one of the characters is plagued by physiological problems or another similar type of illness. The editing yet again creates a slightly dimmed effect around the edges of this high angle shot to make it feel like its literally dark and emphasizes upon a potentially satanic  sub-theme or genre even though it isn’t to give a more effective, disturbing feeling. This would definitely attract our target audience due to it being a really innovative, intriguing shot that really gets the audiences minds thinking.

 

 

In this shot, this shows a gun magazine being loaded with brass bullets. It is a high angle shot to represent the power and dominance bullets hold due to their sheer stopping power and deadliness, which emphasizes further upon the murder and death theme of our thriller opening. This further gives an impression that in our narrative, many or some people get killed by firearms at least on one occasion due to the fact we put in a gun related prop in our opening to suggest this. In addition, the editing is yet again dimmed on the edges of this shot. We have also added an increased saturation effect near the fingers and the top of the magazine so it creates a more gleam and shine effect to represent their use by evil people and the general damage that they cause. It also keeps the viewer’s full focus on the bullets s they clearly know what is going on. This would definitely attract our target audience, especially the males due to its relation to items and tools that young men typically take interest in due to the liking of Films, TV and Video Games.

 

 

We overall filled our target audience’s expectations due to several reasons. Firstly, they wanted a dark theme with creepy mise-en-scene’s alongside an eerie soundtrack to create senses of enigma and tension throughout the opening. We achieved this due to never showing full body shots of our actors which included me and Conor. We also used dangerous looking and sinister props which relate to ideas and situations expected by our target audience. We also had a run-down and badly wrecked mise-en-scene, which gives the post-apocalyptic and degraded look to the scenes, more than surpassing our audience’s expectations for our environments. Finally, our soundtrack met the expectations due to its western tone and the extra creepy feel it gives to our thriller opening as it is the only sound heard during its duration.

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, our thriller opening was well-received by our target audience, praising all the unique and typical aspects they saw. Comments said included “Effective”, “Intriguing” and “A really good soundtrack and editing”. It is safe to say that all of the audience’s expectations were both met and surpassed due to our hard work and consistency with the audio and visual effects alongside the creative camera shots and angles.

 

Our thriller opening links to similar films and TV Shows like The Walking Dead and True Detective. The opening links to The Walking Dead due to the very similar and diverse mise-en-scenes, from overgrown woodlands to abandoned buildings.