Group: Evaluation Questions 4+5

4/5. Who would be the audience for your media product? How did you attract/address your audience?

• As ‘Snatched’ is a horror film, our target audience is a typical horror audience aged between 15 and 24. Despite members of the core audience traditionally being predominantly male, we think that our film will appeal to both genders.

• Before planning our opening, we agreed that our target audience would be the core ‘horror’ audience in terms of age, with a focus on appealing to both genders. However, to ensure that this was accurate, we surveyed a range of people both in and out of our original target audience to see if it would appeal to them, including different ages and genders.

• From this, we found that the idea and initial concepts of our film did appeal to our audience. We also got feedback on ideas for titles and themes to see if they appealed to our target audience too.

• Many horror films feature a male antagonist, and therefore appeals to a largely male audience. However, when we surveyed our target audience before making our opening, we found that the majority of our respondents didn’t mind which gender the character was. We then decided to support the stereotypical horror convention of having a weaker, vulnerable female protagonist and an older male as the antagonist.

• We felt that as the protagonist in our opening sequence is female, it would seem appealing to a female audience, and at the same time as it has a typical horror plot, it will target itself to a larger male audience as well.

• Also due to the fact that our protagonist is a teenage female, our target audience of 15-24 year olds would be able to relate to this character. In our opening, the audience is positioned with the female protagonist as we felt that our target audience would be able to identify with her due to her age and also the recognisable mise-en-scene, for example the costume that she wears.

• We presented the protagonist as being in a vulnerable state and being exposed to dangers and threats, and as the rest of the narrative in the opening sequence follows this character, the storyline would appeal to both males and females.

Audience research prior to 'Greenlight'

• Our initial audience research conducted before the pitch, sent out via surveymonkey.com, reflected the fact that our target audience was the core horror audience as 95.9% of our respondents were aged between 15 and 24. This affected our decision to create a film which would have a 15 certificate, so that none of our target audience would be excluded from viewing it.

• This link is to our pitch which was mainly based on our initial audience research, and also to the pitch's feedback from our teachers and peers.

Pitch

Pitch Feedback

• Furthermore, our results influenced our choice of genre; initially we had expressed preference to make a combination of horror/thriller film. The fact that our respondents were predominantly from the core horror audience and wanted to see a horror film rather than a thriller reinforced our decision to create this for them, and that it would be a successful choice.

• The fact that we got our target audience’s approval for our initial ideas gave us more confidence in our work, as we felt we could deliver something that they wanted to see.

• We also consulted our target audience about how much of the killer’s face should be visible in a horror genre of film, and found that 79.2% of the respondents preferred to not be able to see the killer’s face properly as they thought that it would make the horror genre more effective.

• Based on our initial research and also secondary research, we decided that our film should feature a young female character and an older male character, as these would be most relatable to our target audience, which was something considered to be quite important by the respondents in our survey.

• We also decided that we would use realistic locations which would also be relatable to them, such as the house and the woods.

• We were pleased that people considered having an interesting plot and also a climax at the end of our opening sequence to be an important aspect, as this made it more achievable for us to create something that they would all enjoy.

• The soundtrack and sound motifs to represent characters were also considered to be quite important from the survey results, so for this reason, we incorporated a tense soundtrack that ‘built up’ to a climax at the end of the opening sequence. We also used a sound motif to distinguish the killer when he or something representing him came onto the screen.

Feedback on Rough Cut

The rough cut was submitted on the 11th March, and shown to peers and teachers to gain vital feedback for our group to improve our film opening sequence.

At this point in the production the aspects of the opening we were looking at were:

• continuity
• variety of shots
• 180 degree rule
• action codes
• drawing in the audience
• titles
• sound and Dialogue

The positive feedback we recieved was:

• good use of titles and the way they worked within the shots
• good continuity editing
• creative shot ideas, using varying distances and angles

However some negative feedback and parts of the production we need to work on were:

• too many long shots
• some shots not relevant
• too long
• some editing was too sharp
• some shots were in the wrong order
• requires more CU's of characters
• not enough action

We made sure to respond to our constructive feedback and harness our strengths. We  responded to our feedback adding in a scene before which adds some depth to the plot as well as making the whole opening more interesting. We also shortened the shots of the protagonist walking as we realised we could focus on more action orientated shots.

Screening to Audience

• We showed the opening of ‘Snatched’ at a screening for our class, and issued them with questionnaires on the effectiveness of various aspects of the opening, such as understanding of the narrative, effectiveness of the titles, how successful the soundtrack and visuals were, and general opinions of the film opening sequence. This allowed us to gain in-depth responses which could be easily analysed, therefore giving us feedback on how successful and effective our production was in general.

• Our results assured us that we had successfully engaged with the target audience, and that we had created a production that everyone enjoyed and were interested in.

• We feel that we have successfully reassured the dominant horror ideology by creating the stereotypical scene of a young, vulnerable girl being stalked by an older, fierce male, with the idea being accepted by the audience.

• This pie chart shows that the aspect our target audience would improve most was the repetitiveness of the child’s laughter when the antagonist appeared on screen, as some viewers thought that the sound motif occurred too often. Other aspects that some people wanted improving included less walking of the protagonist and more action, and to have a crescendo on the end shot such as a scream.

• We were very pleased with the reaction to our soundtrack as we created this ourselves on Cubase software. This was one of the aspects of our film opening sequence that we personally considered to be a strong point. Creating our soundtrack ourselves allowed us to combine the isolation of the protagonist, and the fear of the antagonist too which appealed to our core audience of 15-24 year olds. Other aspects of our production that our audience particularly liked included props such as the lollipop, knife, blood and the mask. As well as this, our respondents also found the killer character engaging to watch on screen.

• We were also very pleased with the response to our window shot as this was one of the shots that we considered to be one of our best shots and of a high standard. Our respondents said that they found this shot to be one of the most frightening, and that it built up the precise amount of tension needed in our opening sequence.

• We asked the respondents if they understood the meaning of the opening sequence, to which over half of them did they did understand. Other people had said that they didn’t understand the meaning; however some of them had written that they would watch the rest of the film to then understand.

• Our locations were chosen because our audience may have been able to relate to them, as well as ease of access when we needed to film. The deserted woods and graveyard is traditionally associated with the horror genre which was another reason we chose to film there, as we wanted to comply with dominant horror ideologies.

• We contrasted this with the domesticity of the house scenes, which would also be relevant to our audience, and encouraged them to identify with the female character.

• In general, the responses suggest that our audience appreciated the clues given about the nature of both characters, and that the sequence created a sense of enigma. Because of this, we feel satisfied to the extent that we have completed a successful project that conveys the correct amount of horror needed for the horror genre.