Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

We first had to decide who our target audience and our secondary audiences were in order to decide on how we were going to attract them. As mentioned before our target audience was females aged 16-24 and our secondary audiences were males aged 16-14 and older viewers, such as parents. Although we were targeting a specific audience, we also tried to have a broad appeal in order to make our film more successful and bring in more revenue.

 Here is a chart showing the top grossing  independent UK films released in 2012. In the top 20 is the film Seven Psychopaths: a black comedy like our film and distributed by the same institution; Momentum Pictures, showing that unique independent films generate good revenue within the UK. Comedy and drama films are also in the top 20, showing that our chosen genre is quite popular in the UK, however our film is slightly more unique combining both genres to produce a black comedy.

To attract our target audience we had to consider Katz and Blumler's Uses and Gratifications which outlines what an audience want when they watch a film, and we used this as a focus for how to attract our audience and keep them excited.

Information -  Parents, one of our secondary audiences may want to watch the film to be educated about what their children might get up to when they are out. This age group may also want to watch the film and remember what it was like when they were young. Our film also provides insight into the culture of British teenagers, so people who are not part of it can see what it is like and how many British teenagers live.

Entertainment - Our genre: black comedy is a hybrid of drama and comedy, something more unique for the audience to keep them interested and wondering what is going to happen. Black comedy is less cheesy and more gritty than many of the blockbuster Hollywood comedies, and therefore the realism of our opening sequence may be attractive to our target audience. The video effects we have put in our video and the opening point of view shot also bring the audience straight into the action, seeing everything that is happening at the party as the protagonist does, immersing the audience in the opening.

Personal Identity - We have represented British teenagers realistically, and avoided stereotypes, so teenagers that watch the opening sequence may relate to some of the characters within the opening sequence when they watch it and therefore want to know more about the character. Older audiences may recognise their kids in some of the characters or even themselves when they were of a similar age. People are able to identify with characters and therefore want to watch the film to learn more about them, and therefore perhaps about themselves.

Social Interaction - Our film is full of common British themes related to teenager culture, such as alcohol, drugs, parties and different types of teenagers. Watching the film may help the audience gain insight into how other teenagers live and want to talk to their friends about the film because of the knowledge they have gained about other people's cultures. The film helps the audience connect with family, friends and society as they watch, discuss and think about the film.


 Other ways of attracting our audience:

1. Building up Enigma: As Hanna collapses to the floor and everyone is trying to help her, one girl; the protagonist leaves the party with hardly anyone noticing and the audience want to know why she has left and not stayed to help Hanna.
 
2. Continuity Techniques: The audience are taken on a journey through the party with a perspective shots, and as the sequence goes on we have used match on action and the 180 degree rule to ensure the audience follow the storyline easily and do not get confused about what is happening in the sequence.

3.  Genre: As our opening sequence starts, there is a dark, mysterious mise en scene, with eerie titles fading into the party with weird effects and a strobe light. It introduces the genre of our film and sets up audience expectations for the rest of the film. We have immersed the audience into the party, with a point of view shot, in the opening sequence, grabbing their attention as soon as the film starts.

Here is a sound clip of what two members of our target audience, two British teenagers aged 17 and what they thought about our opening sequence.

We also filmed a couple of members of our target audience, aged 17, watching our opening sequence to see their reactions to our opening sequence and if we had the desired effect. Here is the video:

They laughed at some of the footage, and were questioning who the girl walking out of the party at the end was; all reactions our group desired when we were planning our sequence. Although it is hard to hear what they are saying over the sound of our opening, Ellie said 'Who's that' as our protagonist Eve walks up the stairs, showing that the enigma we aimed to create was successful. They looked like they enjoyed our opening and were making comments to eachother showing that they were interested in what was happening.