Evaluation Question 5

Foundation Production- Evaluation

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

This image is the second shot we had and would attract our audience because of the distinctive newspaper letters that have been cut out and separated apart to spell the words 'death'. It would also engage our audience because it’s dark around the edges of the shot. Also the shadowing around the words also creates enigma as you cannot see what is going on around that area. By using a close up it also draws in the audience’s attention to the words and what our thriller has in it. It is almost like a teaser to what is to come. By using the newspaper it also shows how modern our thriller is going to be. It represents what's happening in the world today and references what's going to happen by watching this short opening. Editing has been used here to fade out the shot to the next shot, we felt s group that this would be the best transistor to used. Editing has also been used to add a filter to the original shot which changes the look of the shot to make it seem dark and to highlight the main prop in this scene so the audience can see the murder weapon. The sound in this shot has only just started to build at this point. Therefore the tension will begin to build as the opening carries on.

This image would attract our audience because of the blurry and dark lighting around the figures neck.  The mid shot of Laura’s neck in this shot highlights Becky’s name and darkens the outside of the shot. This would appeal to the audience as it focuses on specific features in the shot that the audience would be intrigued to see. Editing was used in this shot to fade from the zoom in towards Becky’s name. This was done so that the character could be introduced and still continue on to the next shot of the thriller. This would appeal the audience as they need to have an understanding as to what character they will expect to see in the thriller. The mise-en-scene in this shot reveals Laura’s white top and the rope around her neck. The rope symbolises how she dies and connects the narrative to the character. Her white top suggests her innocence and her purity in the film. The setting in this shot is unknown as the picture only highlights Laura’s neck and the rope around it. This would appeal to the audience as it would lead them to question Laura’s death and how she died. The sound at this point continues to build which increases the tension and the suspicion of the narrative.

This image would appeal to our audience as the shot is now leading up to the reveal of Laura’s body being discovered dead. This close up of the door knob, suggests that somebody is about to enter the room where Laura body is resting in and discover the tragedy that happened to her. This builds on the enigma and suspense in the scene already and questions what the victim will expect to find inside the room. The editing here has been used, to shoot the grasping of the door knob and then fading out to the entrance of the room. The audience will soon be able to see the conclusion of Laura’s discovery which would help reveal some of their subconscious questions. The mise-en-scene in this shot again does not reveal as much as the audience would like, withholding the suspicion. The door knob creates a key focus and suggests the old and derelict location the characters are in. The sound at this time is beginning to lead to a crescendo as the reveal to the body in the room shortens to create a tense and suspicious atmosphere to make it feel like something bad is going to happen.

This image would appeal to the audience as it shows a distinctive figure at the back of the shot. The figure is in fact Scott playing in his character role. This shot is a long shot, this is due to the fact that the audience is able to see quite a lot in the image. The shot is used to that the audience is able to see more of the location the scene is shot in and so they can see more of the hidden mysteries that you could not see in close ups. Editing in this scene was used to cross cut to the rope leading to the discovery of Laura’s body. This would appeal to the audience as it look to the audience as though Scott is watching over her body to make sure nobody takes it. Mise-en-scene in this image is minimal. The audience can only see the chairs and table in the setting and Scott in the back of the shot. This means that we are still withholding information about what the location looks like which keeps the mystery in the thriller. The sound at this point is very high pitched and almost screeching. This would appeal to the audience as it would add drama and intensity to the shot.

This shot would appeal to the audience as Becky has just entered the room and is moments away from discovering Laura’s dead body. The shot is a long shot of most of the location and the two figures in the room. This shot now reveals a lot more to the audience which would appeal to them as the conclusion of the thriller is almost at it penultimate stage. The editing has been used to jump cut to the next shot of Laura’s body to see more of her injuries and wounds. Mise-en-scene in this shot shows the chairs and the table that Laura is lying on. The lighting highlights the left hand side of the shot to reflect the light coming into the room. The sound in this shot has become quite now as Becky has just discovered Laura’s body. However this then leads into a loud crescendo leading up to the end of the opening.

We fulfilled our audiences’ expectations by including the main conventions of thriller genres and the vox pop questionnaire we did. One of our questions was, ‘what do you like to see in a thriller?’ and the responses were, “Suspense and tension.”, “Action.”, “Action and some adventure.” and “I like to see a lot of action so it’s a very fast paced movie with a good soundtrack.” We felt that we managed to included action, suspense, tension and fast paced action into our thriller. We wanted to create a thriller that would appeal and meet our audiences’ expectations as much as possible. So we made our narrative action based when Scott grabs Becky from behind. We heightened suspense and tension leading up to the discovery of Laura’s body. Finally we included faced paced edits and scenes towards the end of the thriller. Our opening links to other similar films such as ‘The Woman in Black’ as their opening begins with the three girls playing happily together with the toy china. The scene then heightens in tension when the girls become hypnotised by the woman in black, leading them to jump out of the window causing them to die. We feel that their target audience and our target audience would be similar in that our thriller would attract our audience in the same way. We used sound in our thriller to intensify the action and the enigma that was occurring in each scene. Towards the end of the opening we added another more dramatic sound track to build a crescendo creating more drama and elaborating the faced passed movements. We used editing in our thriller to add a transitional effect such as a fade to each scene so that the shots of different footage would merge together and create one smooth opening. The editing was also used to flash and cut between scenes so that the opening did not seem like one whole piece of filming. The editing also made our thriller look more professional. 

This would appeal to the audience as it would make it look more realistic. Mise-en-scene was used in our thriller through the use of props to give off a message of how dangerous the place we were in and the mystery that is hidden behind them. The props also gave clues to the story of what actually happened so the audience has to work it out for themselves which will keep them interested in watching the thriller. The lighting was used to highlight certain focal points in the shots. This was done so that the audience would not miss any key important features in the thriller. The costume was used to symbolise certain colour representations such as red meaning danger. The costumes were also used to modernise our thriller and the make it look current and up to date with thriller in cinemas today. The location was used to look derelict and suspicious so that the narrative could also do the same by withholding the mystery that happened to the characters. The plot and the sequence were used to tell the story of the characters and to create a new scenario for the audience. The narrative was also created to make the audience ask questions and to give something new to an audience that already expects something from thriller films. We wanted to attract our audience by creating a thriller that would have a younger take on a thriller film and that would have youthful ideas towards it as well. To conclude we attracted our audience to because we listened to our vox pop and our feedback to create an opening that would suit and entertain our audience. Therefore we created our thriller solely for our audience’s pleasure.