Q5. how did you attract/address your audience?

Leanna Ioannou

How did you attract/ address your audience?

To answer the following we created a questionnaire as a group based on the opening sequence of our film, which we then presented to an audience. This then enabled us to gain feedback on our opening sequences appeal to our target audience by asking them various questions on different elements, one of these being the technical codes for example our use of camera shots, angles and movement. We next created graphs of the feedback from each individual.

Whilst presenting our film to a niche audience of a total of 14 people. From our feedback we were able to conclude that our target audience will be mixed. As we received back feedback from a mix gender audience of 6 females and 8 males, this was identified (U&G) through the results of our questionnaires. We then converted this information in to a pie chart that enabled us to identify that our film targets a mix target audience.

This pie chart displays the age category of the viewers that watched our film the chart shows that a 100% of our audience was in-between the age range of 15-17 years of age. This not only helps us in identifying who our target audience may be but also that our certification will be of a 15+ also. However this question does not clearly help us in finding who our target audience may potentially be as we only presented our product to a small niche audience of the same age range. So this does not clearly demonstrate who our potential audience may be.

Audiences answers tell us that 13 out of 14 people found that our music was appropriate and effective for our opening sequence and only 1 said they didnt with no reasons why. So overall this pie chart suggests that the majority of our audience found that our soundtrack worked well and conventionally to our genre.

Here a total of 13 answered yes to our question do you feel we have used appropriate camera angles, shots and movements thats conventional to our genre? and 1 person answered no. those that answered yes stated why below by giving us feedback such as we could identify characters good range of camera shots close up shots helps show facial expressions well-constructed and nice low angle of main character these are all conventional elements of mystery films that we successfully managed to represent in our opening sequence and our audience to identify (U&G).

Our questionnaires show that 13 people answered yes to our voiceover contributing to the effectiveness and understanding of our opening sequence and 1 person who didnt think that it did. So this tells us that most of our target audience liked the voiceover and that we used it well in the way that we did. As they found that they were easily able to identify who the voiceover is and who whats happening and are also being entertained (U&G) 13 said they felt we fulfilled their expectations they had of the genre. This allows us to recognise that our making of a mystery genre film was made conventional allowing our audiences to identify its genre is mystery and that we managed to entertain our audiences successfully (U&G)

When we questioned our target audience on what they felt about the overall Mise-en-scene of our opening sequence such as whether our use of lighting worked successfully in creating tension and pace, we had twelve people that answered with yes and 2 people that disagreed with our lighting creating tension. Those who responded with yes gave reasons such as; adds suspense creates mystery the music wasnt too fast the lighting focuses your attention to where it is needed I felt tension whilst watching all of the above comments are exactly what we wanted to create, being stereotypical conventions of the mystery genre.

2 people disagreed with our titles being conventional to our genre; however 12 agreed that they were. This tells us that the majority of our audience agreed that they did therefore overall our titles have been designed conventionally to a mystery genre. The slow pace we chose the to come up in , going black between footage helped to build tension and anxiety in our audiences attention, suggesting they worked well in creating enigmas.

Everyone ticked yes on our questionnaire to whether our opening sequence fits in with our chosen genre-mystery? this tells us that we creating our opening sequence effectively by following the conventions of other mystery genre products in order to achieve this success. Some of the responses we received back were good interview scene, conventional to genre lighting was conventional we are unsure of why she is being interrogated? use of flashbacks we are presented with more questions than answers slow pace eases in audience leaves viewer felling confused/lost. All these answers are conventional of our research into the mystery genre.

Once we asked this question we also went on to question them if they responded with yes; What technical codes have encouraged you to want to watch more? and we received comments such as the use of camera angles and editing the lighting the music and camera shots lighting was great this shows that all of the above comments have allowed our viewers to feel a sense of enigma and dis equilibrium encouraging our viewers to want to continue watching.

We asked our viewers a question on the narrative of our opening sequence and whether the pace of our sequence and the effectiveness of our editing explained our narrative effectively. And only 1 person disagreed. This shows us that we have well composed our sequence with the little time we had of 2mins 30 seconds been able to achieve our viewers to understand whats happening in our narrative through our use of technical codes the overall mise-en-scene and narrative theories such as staring of with a fairly settled equilibrium however slowly building anxiety and tension in our viewers because of our uses of conventional elements like flashbacks lighting camera angles and shots and also our use of atmospheric soundtrack.

How have you made your product appealing to the audience? (Refer technical codes)
Ways in which we appealed the audience to our product was by ensuring we used a variety of shots to draw our audiences attention around the screen as each shot changes it builds up tension especially as each shot becomes a close up shot of each character. The extreme close up shot of Anastasias eyes make our audience feel they are in interaction with her as they start to feel the emotions that Anastasia is feeling and this relates to the uses and gratification theory. As these close up shots are used we are grabbing the attention of our target audience building the narrative as we go along bringing our narrative nearer to the main equilibrium of the film whereby Anastasia murders her husband (not seen within the opening sequence) however the snappy quick shots from character to character build this sense of enigma, suspense and anxiety making our audience question what may happen next. Conventional of most mystery products so we have used this element throughout our piece. We used Laura Mulveys theory of the male/female gaze we used Anastasias character in a way in that she perceives to have the sex appeal. Her actions and persona come together in creating this idea of her being the perfect women that all women desire to be like this relates to the (hypodermic needle theory). Her whole image works in creating this stereotypical perfect blonde her red lips which connotes sex appeal however also danger. Men are also part of the Laura Mulveys theory of the male gaze as they are who she intends to trick and challenge with her role, using her excellence in talents of being this seductive women she draws the attention of our target audience of men as well as women. The overall Mise-en-scene works in this way of creating a seductive atmosphere the dimmed dropped yellow lighting and shadows created is almost romantic yet mysterious due to the fact that its dark. These appeals to the audience by making them feel slightly at unease and showing they have escaped into the movie and are beginning to feel the atmosphere of whats happening as though they are there. (uses and gratification theory)

How has your narrative attracted/ addressed the audience? Our narrative has an immediate effect on our audience. We have used the use of the technique of timelessness with in our film, showing that what you first see has happened recently hence they are in an interview scene. This draws the attention of our audience as they are dropped right into the middle of the scene drawing their attention as they have escaped into the scene and want to watch on to find out whats happened, and why an interrogation scene is being taken place. (U&G) this is a stereotypical convention of a mystery genre film. so the film starts in the middle of the (Todorovs theory of the) equilibrium just after the dis equilibrium has taken place (the murder) our use of sound has worked in addressing and attracting our target audience in order to grab our audiences attention we have used a mysterious soundtrack thats subtlety playing in the background as an atmospheric creating tempo to help in setting the scene it slows down and lowers in pace as our characters begin to speak so we are able to hear what our characters are saying without the atmospheric soundtrack in the background being too interfering. Our soundtrack also works in immediately attracting the attention of our audience straight away as we see the first visual image come up on screen of the shadow casted onto the floor of the interview scene. This not only allows the viewers to identify that the film has started but it also allows our viewers to recognise that there is a shadow and to question themselves who it might be as we have created an enigma almost straight away. This is perfectly conventional to our genre as we have realised this to be a stereotypical convention of mystery movies.

How well do your titles inform the audience of your product and genre? Our titles work well in informing our target audience of our chosen genre; mystery. This is due to the fact that they are appropriate to our chosen genre they are white so that they appear to have contrast against our dark background working in binary oppositions. The duration in which they appear and last for is at a slow moving pace so that they match the pace in which our film is going at creating suspense. We have gone for a font that is not too fussy or distract full to the eye, as it might distract the attention of our audience from our film playing at the same time. So we decided to go for a more serious formal looking font relevant as our film is based on a serious narrative. We have also decided to have our titles going to black between footage this helps in building the tension between scenes and also causing viewers to feel anxious as flashbacks occur between titles causing our audience to feel at ease. Our questionnaire which asks our viewers what they thought about our titles and if they found that they were conventional to our genre, told us that a total of 12 people ticked yes to our titles being conventional of the mystery genre.

How have you represented the genre in your product? We have represented the genre of mystery very well within our product we accurately did our research into the genre and applied all of the same conventions in order to achieve the mystery element we needed. For example the dark mysterious lighting, the characters personas, and acting skills the camera shots and angles to create dominance in character roles for example low angle shots used for Anastasia to show she has authority and dominance and the same for pc Laurence. We used the composition of the camera also to create an effect of tension between both characters, conventional of the genre and also anxiety in our viewers creating an enigma in our opening sequence such as why is she in an interrogation scene? this encourages viewers to want to watch on and find our whats to happen next. we also used our editing skills on final cut to achieve the finishing touches to maximise our atmosphere we wanted to create. And also the use of our atmospheric background music created on garage band was mysterious uneasy and suspense building just what the mystery genre involves. The way in which our music builds up in volume when flashbacks occur, and decreases back down again when characters begin to speak shows that our characters have a sense of authority, and also allows viewers to hear character more clearly. The slow pace at which our atmospheric music plays at again adds to the suspense creating effect of our opening sequence, causing our viewers to feel nervous and anxious as to what may happen next.

How have your characters represented the genre and attracted the audience?

Our characters have represented our genre perfectly, through their accuracy in acting skills the personas they let off and the way they both have dominance with in their roles is even more appealing to our audience as they want connect with each of the characters and the use of the camera shots helps in doing this. Close up shots help our audience to feel the emotions with in the characters role. (U&G) for our female target audience the hypodermic needle theory takes place as women want to be and look like Anastasia as she comes across as the perfect women. And men also are attracted to Anastasia in a sexual way rather than wanting to be like her. This relates to Laura Mulveys male gaze theory. Our questionnaires give evidence to support whether our characters have represented the genre and attracted our audience Such as when we asked our viewers if our camera angles where conventional many viewers responded with their was a good range of camera angles and shots, such as close up shots that enabled us to interact (U&G) with how the characters where feeling and whether they had dominance low angle shot of main character conventional to genre this was one of the many comments we received.

How has your Mise-en-scene attracted your audience? Our overall Mise-en-scene has attracted our target audience especially when it goes back to the interview scene when there is a strong binary opposition in scenes between flashbacks and the present interview scene. The darkness and Suspense of the atmosphere works perfectly in creating the mystery genre we wanted stereotypical conventions of most mystery genre films. The spotlights of brightness in light on each of the characters informs(U&G) our audience that they are the main characters of the film and that they are the most important people of the scene. The dark lighting also ensures that our audience are immediately drawn into the scene through escapism and entertainment (U&G). Our questionnaire gave us feedback on our Mise en scene when we asked our viewers the question; do you feel our Mise en scene e.g. lighting adds tension and pace to our opening sequence? and the majority answered us back with yes it did with reasons such as adds suspense creates mystery the music wasnt too fast the lighting focuses your attention to where it is needed I felt tension whilst watching all of the above comments are exactly what we wanted to create, being stereotypical conventions of the mystery genre. Helping our opening sequence to be recognised by viewers as a mystery film, that has a stereotypical disequilibrium like most conventional mystery genres.