5. How did you attract/address your audience?

By carrying out the research previously mentioned we were able to take the data and assess it to produce a thriller opening appealing to our target audience.

 
The use of close-up shots in our film is vital to the overall look. This opening shot would attract the audience because it is very mysterious; the only information the audience can make out is the date and year of when the film is set. In addition the rope in the background is an ominous addition and foreshadows the victim’s death.





 
Our production was able to make the victim appear more vulnerable at certain points than others. This shot here is an example of this as we can see the victim looking around as if something is watching him. In addition the camera looks down at the character emphasising his exposure, something that would attract the audience.

 

The shot on the left demonstrates the killer’s point of view, although the audience do not know it yet. It adds suspense because it implies that someone is in the back of the car watching the victim enter it. This attracts the audience because it hints of what is to come whilst remaining mysterious.

 

 

This is another good example of close-up shots in our film. This specific shot accentuates the fight that the victim has to put up; you can see this because of the strain in his hands. It also accentuates the thought that the killer has gone to by wearing leather gloves, both muffling sound and helping to suffocate him. This shot would attract the audience because it is very graphic violence, which intrigues people.

Our questionnaire results told us that the audience like an element of mystery, therefore this shot should entice the audience. The lipstick-print suggests that the killer is a woman however we do not know this because they are never shown fully. Also, we chose red for the colour as it symbolises blood and would hopefully ‘stick’ in the audience’s minds.   

 

The non-diegetic sound that we used for our production has a vital role in not just linking the video together but also attracting the audience’s attention and interest. The opening soundtrack to the scene was stereotypically minor and used chromatic notes to build suspense and create tension.  The second soundtrack combined with the strangulation scene would definitely catch the viewer’s attention, as it is quite unique in comparison to other thrillers. It is in a major key.  Both sets of costume for each character make use of the conventional view of dangerous people. The victim is dressed in dark clothes to suit his role of a spy, however the killer’s costume includes black leather gloves, black boots and a dark hat. This would make the audience feel uneasy because of this association with danger, dark clothing and the fact that the killer is typically a masculine man. Having a masculine woman would hopefully leave the viewer feeling unnerved. 

In summary I believe that we successfully produced a thriller opening that met our target audience’s expectations. The feedback from our questionnaire told us that the favourite genres of thriller were conspiracy and psychological and we met this need by creating a conspiracy thriller. We also discovered film favourites of people that included The Machinist and the Bourne Identity. We tried to take techniques from both films to please our audience. From The Machinist we took the idea of being run down and lack of sleep to add character to our victim. The Bourne films helped us fulfil expectations for a good fight scene by using similar fast-cut editing. We were cautious about disclosing a lot of the storyline and character development early on because this is what the audience want. Finally our target audience told us that we should create ‘interesting characters that betray the audience’s trust’, we achieved this by, as mentioned, not revealing too much about the character creating mystery around them and the idea of a woman killer and the supposed protagonist being killed off within 2 minutes.