Evaluation - Question 5

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

We decided to stick to certain conventions of thrillers and appeal to what the audience knows and will therefore enjoy. It is also a genre that is popular with our target audience; therefore this will also gain their attention. However we also challenged and changed some conventions in order to create further interest and curiosity among the viewers. We also drew on people’s likes, fears and real life experiences.

As our opening sequence is a thriller, we mainly tried to create suspense to interest the audience. We built it up to the moment in the sequence where we intended for the audience to be shocked. We also tried to achieve suspension of disbelief and get the audience into the world of the film. We wanted them to see it as realistic as possible.

We then wanted to build up the audience’s anticipation as the protagonist leaves the house. The audience is now aware that he is the villain, but become anxious as to what’s he going to do and who’s it going to happen to.

We also wanted the audience to ask questions and therefore to create and build up enigma in order to interest the people into watching the rest of the film. This was successful as many of our audience at the screening commented that they would be interested in watching the rest of the film. Also many wanted to know why he was carrying out these murders, which would be revealed later on in the movie.

Everyone fears a serial killer. Our main character is killing innocent people for a decision that wasn’t made lightly and was out of their control (deserting him during a battle.) There is this notion of realism that it is actually possible for this to happen to someone and for them to be so deeply affected by a certain experience that it changes them forever. It is also ironic that he joined the army to prevent further upset and worked as a team with these people who he is now killing for revenge.

In the market, there have been a lot of films released relating to war such as Apocalypse Now (1979) and Saving Private Ryan (1998) and we therefore thought we’d use this theme but add a twist to it. I thought this interesting take on it and overall film image would appeal to people.

As the main storyline involves actions that have taken place as part of a recent issue; the war, we thought it would relate to people who have had real life experiences in the war and understand how that may affect people and cause them to do things that they normally wouldn’t do.

We also drew on what the audience knew and therefore made the setting of our opening sequence familiar and realistic. It is in an ordinary suburban house which many people will be able to relate to.

Overall I think we successfully addressed our audience and attracted them to watch our film.