Evaluation

EvaluationJake WisemanHow did you attract/address your audience?

In our crime thriller, Silencer, we have aimed to attract the audience in many different ways. One of the main strategies was to create lots of ambiguity in the opening sequence. Making the audience ask questions early on that they want to find the answers to makes them want to watch the rest of the film so that they can find out. Our first shot in the opening sequence is that of the car. This instantly creates questions in the audiences mind: Who is driving the car? Where is it going? This instant interest will attract our audience to continue to watch the film meaning they will find out what happens and are then more likely to recommend the film to a friend or family member.

We also used a lot of fast cutting and a huge variety of camera angles. This will make our opening more dynamic and interesting to watch. I think the quick pace of the chase scene being backed up by the quick cuts will attract the audience, especially those who are teenagers in our target market group. For example, during the chase scene we used a lot of fast changing shots to give a variant of angles and perspectives and also to match the pace with the on screen action.

We, as a group, feel that there are some scenes which our target audience will like more than others. Some of the ones we think will be enjoyed the most are the ones below.

The fast pace of the running will appeal to our target audience in this shot.The sudden start of the chase seen will appeal to our target audience.The dynamic ground shot of the water being splashed will be a real favourite for our target audience.The close up of the gun and the man holding it will appeal to our target audience.The classic detective cover your back shot and the interesting foreground will make this shot a success.The interesting angle and the introduction of a new environment will appeal to out audience.QuestionnaireHaving carried out a survey prior to filming our thriller we had some good ideas of what our target audience would like to see in a crime thriller. We used our results to make decisions such as the gender of the victims and the locations we used to film in. To improve our film we considered what our target market audience wanted to see in the thriller and then tried to include that in out work.

The first question we asked in our questionnaire was Of the following, which would you most want to see in a thriller film? Select a maximum of 3 options. This question provided us with vital information about our target market group. We were able to analyse the results and then make decisions upon them to choose what to include in our thriller. You can see the statistics we received in the screenshot above. As you can see; murder, crime scene and detective characters were the most popular selected options. This is why we decided to include these components in our media product.Questionnaire ContinuedOur questionnaire was highly successful to our project. It allowed us to create a clear idea of what to include in our opening sequence to attract our audience. The variation in question subject also meant we got a good understanding of different aspects of our audiences needs.

Here is another example of a question that featured in our online survey. I have also published the results which you can also see on this slide.

This question, Which gender would be better suited as being a criminal? had a very clear outcome. Over 70% of the people who completed the survey said a male character would be better as a criminal. The clear winner in terms of the two answers meant we felt we should definitely include it in our thriller. The male character was a success because they provided a look of authority and power through their role as detective/murderer. I think the male gender also created a sense of mystery and ambiguity because the male detective is often seen as professional however our detective turns out to be the criminal of the case.To address our audience of teenagers we thought it would be best to show it to a class of students in our year group. We showed them our short opening sequence and then asked for feedback. They told us different things about what they though was good and what maybe would have needed improving.

The most common thing that kept coming up was how they all loved the variation in camera angles and how we had used fast editing to match the pace of the soundtrack.

This was a good way of addressing our audience because it allowed us to get our product shown to a large number of people at once and also meant we could receive useful feedback to develop our film further.