Fadila Kara- Question 5

 5. How did you attract/ address your audience?

      To appeal to our target audience we produced questionnaires and used social networking sites, like YouTube to identify what our audience preferred to see in the opening of psychological thrillers.   We aimed   to   target our  thriller  at  15 to 18  year old females  we noticed  that  at  that age  they are  body  conscious  As a result  we  decided  to  use  this  idea    and  made  our  main characterlook insecure  by   showing  her  cutting out  loads  of  different  body  parts of  women in magazine. This enabled our audience to relate to her.

·          Moreover  we  used  a reoccurring  motif  which  is  common in many  psychological thrillers  like  in Alfred Hitchcock’s    thriller  “  The  Birds”   stairs  are used  as  a motif  to  emphasise  a sense  of trying to escape.  Through  our  opening  sequence  we  used  a  diary  as  motif  to  symbolise  the  privacy  of  our main character.  The  diary  was also  used  as  part  of our   title  sequence  as  we  created pages which had  cut out  images  of  different body  parts and  beside  it  was  the title credits.  This emphasised   the disturbed nature of our character.  Furthermore,  we also  filmed a close-up  of  her  writing in her  diary  this  enabled the  audience  to  try  and understand  her character and the  cause  of  the  problematic  behaviour. 

 

·             The opening to  our  film  begins  with  an over the  shoulder shot  of  the  character turning the  pages inside the  diary.  The  use  of  text  is  hand  written which  creates a sense  of realism  for  the  audience.  However  that  fact  that  you can  not see the  character  creates  a sense of  mystery  and  immediately  allows  the audience to  question the  person turning the page. The opening to  our  film  begins  with  an over the  shoulder shot  of  the  character turning the  pages inside the  diary.  The  use  of  text  is  hand  written which  creates a sense  of realism  for  the  audience. However  that  fact  that  you can  not see the  character  creates  a sense of suspense immediately allows  the audience question the  person turning the page.

We got  our  inspiration for  our  title sequence from the  psychological thriller  “ “Seven” as when we watched it we  immediately  begun to  question the unknown character who  was turing the page. 

Moreover the way in which the name of our thriller“Wrath” was positioned in the diary   added to disturbed nature our character was. As we cut the letterings that spelt out our title and placedthem in a cluttered way. We used a indistinct  effecand slowly  zoomed in on it  to make  it confusing  for the audience. 

·         When we   finished filming and editing  our  opening  sequence  we  exported it  we changed  the format  to  full quality  QuickTime so  that we  could  upload  on to  social  networking sites  to get feedback.  I posted it on to YouTube, but also  decided to  create written  questions  to  distribute  to  our  target audience,   to see what  they  liked  and  dislike about  it  and  how well it  functioned  as an opening.

 

 With the written question this is was there response:

1.       What did you like about the opening?

    The majority of our target audience particularly liked the two-shot  in the  bathroom  where  the  light  accidently  began  to  flicker  when the  confident  girl  began  to  disappear.  They  said  that  this  had  an effect on them  because it made them  confused  and they were  able to react  in similar  to way  to  the  main girl.  Additionally another scene it which  our  audience  liked  was     the  corridor  scene  in which  Joe  the  love interest  in our  thriller  is  shown  slowly walking down the corridor, we used tracks for  this  scene   so that  it  would  make the audience  assume  that that our  disturbed  character is  following him.  They liked this particular scene as it created a sense of mystery and suspense in wanting to find out who was following him.

2.       

         what did you dislike about the opening?

 

In response to this question our target said that they a little confused by the diary being a reoccurring motif.  They thought that the fact that it did  allow  them to  try  to understand  the  disturbed character  bit more,  however they would have preferred  if  we  had filmed  in  quite a

  dark  setting  in which they  have seen in previous thrillers.  They  think that filming  that way  would  create  a  dark  atmosphere  for  them  as  they  will  able to  the  disturbed  character away  from school. They also felt that this would allow them question her more.

 

3.        How well does it function as an opening thriller?

                  On  the whole our  audience  believed  in  functioned  well as an opening  because  of  the way  in which the narrative  was  structured  so that  they   question the  disturbed character  but also  try  to relate  to  her.  They  felt  that  the  opening  sequence  to  our  thriller had  the  same  effect  as  other   psychological  thriller  have on them.     The music that we used allowed them questioning the neurotic behaviour of the main character, as it would build up tension in every scene.  The opening to our psychological thriller left the audience  on  a climax   which  is a  typical  convention of   psychological  thrillers, as  the audience are  left  to wonder  where  the  character  is  going  on what  they  will do  next.

 

4.       What could be improved?

 A lot of  our audience said  that  they would of  preferred  more  close-ups  of our main character  as it  would allow them to  her  expressing her  emotions  more clearly  when she is  being  neurotic. For example  during the last  scene  when puts   the sharp weapon in her pocket  we could of  slowly  shown  a  close-up  of  her face   before  she  walked  off. This

 might   have allowed the audience to question what she may do with the weapon.  Additionally  even though we  didn’t  use  any  dialogue a  few people said  they  would  have  preferred some  of it to  be included. As  it  would  have allowed  them  try  an  understand  what  type  of relationship  she  has with  other  people  around  her.

 

   Overall  I  think we managed to meet  our  audience  needs in terms  of  what  conventions they  preferred  having in  an opening  of  a psychological thriller.  One element which was really important to them was the type of sound that was used to create tension.  However  we  had  research  what type  of music  we  were going to  use  as  it  had to  be  copywright  free;  luckily  we  did  and  the  audience  said  that it  enabled  them to further  there  enjoyment in watching the  opening,  whilst  the  music would  build  up  each scene.