How did you attract / address the audience?

Audience Research
In our initial audience research we asked several questions as to what they would expect to see in the film, so we would incorporate them into our opening sequence, and also help to attract our target audience into seeing the film. This can be seen in our VoxPop videos which we made during the research stage of our opening sequence, and also in our survey results, as shown below:

Do you expect the protagonist to be male or female?

What type of music do you expect to hear?

What time of day do you expect to see in a thriller film?

To appeal and attract our audience we attempted to incorporate as many of the things that they asked for as possible. For example in our survey, we asked whether they would expect a male, or female protagonist, in which the majority of people said male. We used this information to make the film appeal to our audience by casting a male for our opening sequence, as our audience said that was what they would expect, and enjoy viewing the most.

When asking our audience, they also said that they would expect the film to be set an night time to create a more eerie tone for the audience. We did follow this, however we set it at night for a different reason. Instead of trying to put the audience on edge, we did it to make the audience ask themselves as to why he is awake so early in the morning, and to show how he can't sleep as he is suffering from reoccurring nightmares.

As for the pace of the music and editing in our thriller opening sequence, our audience felt that a fast pace would be most appropriate. Despite this we still decided to use a slower pace. We felt that this was more effective, as we tried using a faster score but it didn't work with what we was trying to portray to our audience. Also if we was to use a faster pace of editing the audience would not be able to pick up on some of the hints as to what has happened to the character in the sequence.

Audience Feedback

After making our final opening sequence we asked our target audience what they thought of it. We asked them several questions after them viewing the sequence, which went as follows:

• What was the plot of the opening sequence?

We asked them this question as we wanted to know if the story of our sequence was properly conveyed, and whether the audience would interpret it in the way that we wanted them to. Our feedback shows that everyone we asked had a general understanding of the story, and some had more specific interpretations of what had happened due to certain visual clues that they had noticed.

• Was the plot of the opening sequence easy to understand or did you have to think about it?

In our audience feedback, the majority of people we asked said they did have to think about it. This shows that our opening sequence was successful in what it was attempting to do, as we didn't want to directly tell our audience what was happening. This is due to us feeling our target audience would be the kind of person who would enjoy figuring out things on their own.

• What was the sexuality of the Protagonist?

Most of the people we asked in our audience feedback realised that the characters were either in a homosexual relationship, or were very close to one another. This is good as it shows that we was able to effectively show the audience what we wanted, without having to tell them.

• How did you feel about the sexuality of the Protagonist?

Our audience said that they would be comfortable with the protagonist of our film being homosexual, and said that is worked well and was fitting. This is due to us showing homosexuals in a positive light. This also shows how our target audience was chosen correctly as they was comfortable with the topic of sexuality, and was mature enough to understand that aspect of the film.

• Would you be interested in watching the entire film?

All of the people we asked in our feedback said that they would be interested in watching all of the film. This is positive as it shows that our opening sequence was engaging and interesting enough for our target audience for them to carry on watching.

• What did the props and costume tell you about the protagonist?

In the feedback, our audience spoke positively of the range of props that we used, and were able to state and understand our reasoning behind using such props. This shows how we carefully thought about each prop and costume piece, and how we used them correctly to convey the meanings that we intended.

• Were there any cinematography or editing techniques you particularly enjoyed?

This question was asked to our audience so we could understand what parts were the most effective and for what reasons. This allows us to see the strengths in our piece, and also some weaknesses, such as were the audience did not enjoy it as much due to the cinematography and editing not being as advanced. This allows for greater evaluation of our piece and so we can rectify this problem in future work.