How did you attract/address your audience?

Here's the link for the video if it doesn't work on your computer:

Question 5 

Here's our written answer:

Patrycja
Dawn

Stereotypical audience for genre:

The stereotypical age for the Horror-Thriller genre is younger people, typically aged between 15-30 years; our TA being 16-mid20. Younger people are attracted to the excitement and suspense of the Horror-Thriller genre more often than the older generation,this is because the older generation are matured and would be more inclined to watch Political-Thrillers or Crime-Thrillers to name a few this is unlike the younger generation who are more inclined to watch Horror-Thrillers or Action-Thrillers.

The Thriller genre is generally associated with the male gender. The implied violence in our opening sequence through the mise-en-scene – our female’s bloodied costume – is an aspect within our piece that would typically attract a male audience. This is because they are not as squeamish when being subjected to graphic visuals and or     violence. An example of a film that also uses mise-en-scene to imply violence would be ‘The Negotiator’ which is displayed through the use of firearms, attracting a male audience.

Thrillers involve action, suspense and enigma; these elements are understood as being enjoyed by men because they are associated with adrenaline. Thrillers like ‘The Negotiator’ are therefore less likely to attract the female gender as it is filled with these aspects. Our film is heavily focused on suspense and enigma – the suspense being a build up in the threat of the female character and the enigma revolving around who these characters are, how they are connected, how and why the female character is suggested to be violated and possibly the question to what has made her a threatening character. Our lack of action will also appeal to a female audience because it focuses more on the tension/suspense. These qualities are balanced, not overly masculine or feminine, to attract both males and females. In addition, enigma is a feature that both genders will be attracted to, as anyone of any age, race, ethnicity or gender can be interested in this. We wanted to incorporate these aspects into our opening sequence, hoping to attract a unisex audience. 

How are you attracting that audience?

Involving young actors as our characters, camera shots that depict the lively setting of Camden – a youth filled area – and current trends teamed with creative titles and editing techniques make our opening sequence interesting for a younger audience. Using young actors help our audience to relate to them and be attracted to our film. A young audience would more likely watch a film with actors in their age range because they can associate with their peer group. The young actors in our film also reflect the youthful content that’s captured through the camera. Shots such as a close up shot of a row of fashionable shoes,a high angled mid shot of a skull top and a high angle long shot of a robot were chosen to use young people’s general interest in fashion trends and curiosity of the out-of-the-ordinary keeping them engrossed and intrigued. The high angle shot of the robot is also used to intimidate the audience, through the angle, suggesting a negative event is about to happen and that appearances aren’t always what they seem.

We have displayed fashion in our sequence to also interest and attract a young female audience. Rom-coms are heavily targeted at female audiences and films such as, ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ and ‘Sex and the City’ also use fashion as a means to attract their audience. Incorporating fashion elements that are trending, although not feminine images, they won’t alienate our male audience because the images we have chosen are not extremely feminine or masculine and appeal to both genders. In a close up camera shot, the mise-en-scene displays a neon sign; this is to represent the nightlife in our Camden setting. The highly feminine colours, pink and purple accompanied by a female dancing figure on the sign would attract a female audience via the implications of exiting, bright nightlife. However, this will also appeal to the male audience as nightlife is heavily associated with sexuality the dancing girl in the sign highlights this.

Clubs and pubs (show examples) often advertise using young women, attracting both genders. Nightlife itself is heavily focused on sexuality and can be associated with mysterious or sinister activities. Alcohol being a part of this nightlife in our opening sequence, can be associated with the idea that people can be taken advantage of at their moment of vulnerability, the idea of hidden identities, hidden agenda and drugs or violence are often associated with activities happening at night. Our female character’s costume, as previously said has connotations involving suggested violence which supports this comment. The pathetic fallacy in our opening sequence is a prime example of dark secrets being suggested; setting the scene for our audience. The audience, as young, will either know of the dangers regarding nightlife or will have experienced it themselves and will therefore be interested in what happens to the male character because he is at a state of vulnerability, displayed in our blurred POV shot suggesting his drunkenness. This will attract both genders in our audience, as the excitement of knowing something bad will happen and the tension rising to it, acts as a hook for them.

Our male character is very laddish. He is suggested to be drinking beer in the long two shot of him and our female character along with following the over the shoulder shot. Drinking alcohol, especially beer, is associated with youthful male behaviour. This is an aspect used in our piece to attract our male audience. Younger aged males in our target audience, roughly 16-18 years old, would more likely look up to our male character because drinking alcohol, especially late at night, is heavily associated with ‘being one of the lads’ and being a young adult male behaviour, specifically having fun, messing about, being cool etc. The Strong Bow adverts (show example) suggest this – the idea that alcohol is instinctively masculine would make a younger audience look up to him. In addition, the younger males may appeal to the idea of being late out at night, drinking alcohol and generally rebelling against society – as our male character is suggested to do. Similarly aged males to this character in our target audience, 18-20, can relate to him, as drinking beer and being out later at night is something that they can understand as they may also do this. The male characters dress sense can reflect the 18-20 year olds social economic status – by not having large amounts of money to spend on fashionable clothing. The older part of our target audience 21-25, as expected to have more understanding of alcohol and it’s exposing effects on people, would realise and understand the danger the character could be involved in – especially as he’s drunk and wandering the streets at night – as opposed to the younger ages of our target audience – because they have more life experience. This section of our target audience may also reminisce or be reminded of events in their lives associated with late drunken nights; another aspect that could help them relate to our character. Films such as ‘The Inbetweeners Movie’ have characters that follow a similar stereotype of young British males. On the whole our choice of male character can attract a male audience through his characterisation – one that they can relate to, be intrigued by or understand.