One of the challenges we faced was ensuring that when drawing in our primary and secondary audiences, we did not come between our chances at attracting other segments of the population, for example limiting our marketing strategy to purely viral. Despite deliberately choosing those groups who gave the most to box office takings, in alienating the rest of population we would dramatically decrease this figure. Therefore we knew how vital our strategy would be in making the film a success.
Audience Reaction
The above clip is of two target audience members watching our opening for the first time. It shows their exact reactions and they seem to be enjoying it. They reacted how we wanted them to react - laughing at the comical moments and relating to the music.
The above clip is an interview with two members of our core and secondary target audience. They identify what they found successful and what they didn't. We were quite pleased that they managed to know exactly what happens in the opening sequence, showing that they can induce a level of understanding about the story line and perhaps predict what will happen next. We also briefly interviewed other members of our target audience which can be found in more detail here: Neil Shah and Katie Dadswell.
Ways in which we engaged our audience:
- Conforming to Expectations - Through films like Project X and television series' such as Skins, our audience are familiar with the party scenes typical of teen dramas. However, we have developed the conforms and stretched to a more negative viewpoint of drug taking, making the party concept more realistic and gritty than the glamour previously associated with the lifestyle we connote.
- Creating Relatable Characters - We tried to represent all genders and ethnicity in our opening sequence, succeeding definitely with ethnicity. Although our gender mix was theoretically equal, both the main characters were female. With hindsight, we could have made one of the main characters male in order to relate more to our secondary audiences. However, keeping our key audience in mind, we feel we have created Eve as a powerful, likable and potentially inspirational character.
- Use of Shocks and Surprises - Part of the USP of our media product is that it displays realism of the modern British teenagers social lifestyle. When this lifestyle does rarely occur in films, is usually either glamorized or portrayed unrealistically. Using the graphic overdose scene and incorporating the often tabooed concepts of teenage homosexuality and active sex life, we attempted to engage the audience through shock. Thirteen is an example of a film that benefited greatly from this technique and our film would hope to follow in it's footsteps.
- Choice of Film Style - Our film style is very much inspired by Skins and its renowned edginess which can be seen in the below video. As you can see there is a certain haziness that we also tried to achieve through the echo effect. We feel like associations with Skins would be a good thing in attracting our chosen audience due to the fact that it was such a success among our generation. It is engaging and most importantly, different to the style of conventional films.
- Continuity Editing - The montage present in the overdose scene quickens the pace in order to focus the audience to this element of the narrative. The audience are shown a variety of reactions, and are given a choice of which reaction to abide to. Feelings of guilt are encouraged, as the audience are taken out of the action to see people lounging around carelessly. On the other hand, sometimes this provides an element of humor - conventionally to black comedy making light out of a serious situation.
- Enigma Codes - We use these to attract our audience by engaging them with enigma codes. This leads them wondering questions such as 'Is [Hannah] dead?' or 'Why is [Eve] smiling? Did she cause the overdose?'. All of these questions lead the audience into wanting more. This technique is particularly relevant for attracting an audience outside our target, as curiosity is something any age or gender would have at this point.
Genre Choice
During our research, the biggest factor in deciding our genre was looking at what our target audience enjoyed most. Using content from the BFI Statistical Yearbook 2012 we made the discovery that themes of partying were very much enjoyed by our target audience. As you can see, the films that feature partying as a key theme actually account for their top 2 most seen films of 2011. This clarified our decision to go with the party themes. We also noted that The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 included sure elements of teen drama.
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