Q5 (3)

Q5: How did you attract/address your audience?By Connor Southwell

Mind Map of things that could appeal to our audience

How can we attract our audience?

Narrative

Mood

Characters

Technical codesFlashbacks

Equilibrium/Disequilibrium

Cliff hangers

Binary Opposites

Fear

Create suspense

ThoughtfulScaringJuvenile

Delinquent

Characterisation

Facial Expressions

Body Language

SoundCamerawork

EditingLighting

How does narrative engage your audience?

DisequilibriumThis is a narrative technique we use to create a sense of imbalance at the beginning of the film. The use of circular narrative structure leaves the audience excited for the main body of the film. Also, the film is creating a fight where it has to get back to equilibrium, but will it? We have done this because the character of Josh Masterson due to the vulnerability of him. Creating disequilibrium doesn’t allow the audience to settle into their seats. Disequilibrium is achieved through Josh Masterson’s obvious vulnerability and mental fragility in the woods of our scene. Whereas the antagonist, Tom Rush is a character who has, not only a psychological advantage over Masterson, but a physical and spiritual advantage due to Masterson’s state and physique. Disequilibrium allows the audience to think from the start of the film, and makes them uneasy. Disequilibrium relies on a disruption in some sense. In our sense, the character of Josh Masterson creates a disruption to the narrative which, according to Todorov’s narrative theories, meant the narrative would be fighting to get back to the normality of everyday life.

Masterson is vulnerable due to his mental illness. The repeated action of the scratching of his face presents the idea of a tortured mind.


Binary OppositesOur film conforms with Levi-Strauss’ binary opposites theory in our films. Strauss was an anthropologist who was born in France in the early 1900’s. Binary opposites are used often in the horror and psychological thrillers. The main example of binary opposites is good and evil or hero and villain, and these roles are often used as a basis to understanding a story as equilibrium, however, we use binary opposites to create disequilibrium as there is question over to who is the villain, Rush or the thoughts that escalate in the mind of Masterson? An example of binary opposites is the story in the The Twlight Saga as the Werewolves battled the Vampires. Binary opposites are used in our film effectively and help enhance feeling towards our characters but also creates opposition and conflict which requires the audience to pick a side.

The ‘protagonist’- Josh Masterson

The ‘antagonist’-Tom Rush


Flashbacks

Flashbacks are a narrative tool which enhances engagement and characterisation for the audience to interact and immerse themselves with. During the sequence as Masterson walks through the woods, fast paced editing is used to show a clip of running. This shows a past event for the character which enhances characterisation and provides a broader knowledge 0f the event. Also, it reinforces the idea of disequilibrium by showing there is history between these two sets of characters which makes the film more immersive and easier to follow. It helps us encourage a greater sense of character, thus making our character more insightful. The purpose of a flashback is to either progress the narrative, or to reveal more of the character to the audience. For our production company, it is most definitely the latter as we use it explicitly at the start to aide characterisation and also to create disequilibrium as mentioned previously.

Flashback of running as seen in our film

How does your film opening entice your audience to keep watching?

Cliff Hangers

Cliff hangers are a narrative device used to entice the audience to come back and enjoy the film. Using a cliff hanger at the conclusion of the opening sequence creates tension. Cliff hangers are essential to engage and attract the audiences attention, and if your opening is exciting and creates tension then your audience will be engaged. To create an incomplete scene is something we wanted to achieve because it frustrates the audience as they have unanswered questions going into the film. By using a cliff hanger, it leaves our narrative room to develop and breathe, whereas a one dimensional scene which answers questions is one that means the narrative is only going in one direction. In our film, cliff hangers attracts the audience as it allows the plot to develop and grow.

The cliff hanger used in our film at the closing sequence

How does your film opening entice your audience to keep watching?

Also in our film, we use suspense and fear to create mood in our film. Creating mood allows a naturalistic approach to acting which draw emotion from the audience in a more interactive way which entices the audience to immerse in our film. The emotions we are creating in our film allows for a connection with our characters which helps with the binary opposites. By creating fear and suspense, we are playing with emotions to entice our audience into watching and enjoying our film. These are emotions created by technical codes such as underscores. Underscores are used to helped crank up the suspense. The suspensefulness is attractive to the audience because it provides a narrative engagement and attraction which keeps the audience enticed in a manner that is engaging and exciting. Using The Sixth Sense, we decided to show how narrative can change and be dynamic. For our film, we would develop the narrative to twist and turn into something that creates suspense at multiple points.A

suspenseful moment in our film

How does your film use mise-en-scene?

Mise-en-sceneMise-en-scene is something we thought about significantly

during the production process of our film. It was highly important that all aspects of muse-en-scene had purpose and significance. For example, the use of the candle was use to symbolism the hope of our protagonist being vanished by our antagonist. Costume wise, we ensured we conformed to stereotype and connoted ideas of stereotypes which makes our film relatable to our primary target audience which allowed us to use it in a way which manipulates the audience to think subconsciously so they relate to the material they are consuming which in turn, makes them engaged. The representation of characters and social groups attract our audience because our production company finely balance the difference between conforming and challenging stereotypes in one film. For example, we conform to the 1950’s media opinion of teenagers in the character of Tom Rush, but with the character of Josh Masterson, we portray the delicacy and vulnerability of young people in modern society.

This shows a Nike trainer, which is a stereotypical shoe for a teenager

How do your characters engage your audience?

Character types

Tom Rush’s character is a juvenile delinquent. Being big fans of TV Drama, Skins influenced our character representation of Rush as we wanted to show how stereotypes shouldn’t be listened to and that young people are humans. It would engages our primary audience because they recognise the stereotypical viewpoint which is held by society. It makes it engaging because our target audience is keen to see the development of our stereotype which is engaging for our audience.

For Josh Masterson, we opt for a character who is challenging stereotypes. Masterson suffers from a mental illness and shows the fragility of younger people in a society with ever increasing strain of pressure due to a range of factors. This is perhaps more relatable to our audience. Balancing issues of the lack of consciousness and provision for mental illness in people who are of a younger age. For our primary target audience, this will be relatable and make the issues of mental illness relevant, particularly in modern Britain.

Juvenile Delinquent Tom Rush playing with fire


Body Language

In our film, our characters are particularly expressive through the use of body language. Tom Rush’s body language is strong and powerful to show he is the dominating character in this moment in the film. Rush’s shoulders are broad and wide to connote the idea of strength, both physically and socially. When he strikes the match in the film, this is slow and almost ritualistic, this is show how he is control of the narrative but also symbolises the hope that Josh Masterson feels.

Masterson’s body language is enclosed and confined to show the psychological illness which he suffers from. We decided to portray Masterson in a way which makes him seen vulnerable and weak. To do this, we decided Masterson’s body language would be enclosed and draw up with tension to show how scared he is as the narrative is progressing. The body language shown by Masterson is crucial to our scene because it enhances characterisation and allows an interaction with our audience which draws emotion.

Tight body language to show vulnerability and fear


RepresentationRepresentation of the two characters allows an immersive relationship with our primary audience who may or may not relate to our character types. Rush’s character is someone who we decided to conform with stereotypes, whereas Masterson challenges the conventional stereotypes of younger people. For younger people, this makes our film engaging as the character of Rush is dramatised and stereotypical, whereas the character of Masterson is relatable and engaging due to the dependability of this fact. Representation of characters is something we thought massively of when constructing our narrative. Representation of characters is huge when attracting our primary target audience as it becomes more relatable and consistent. In modern media, young people feel they have lost identity and purpose, we wanted to give that relatability and challenging the stereotypes which is engaging for our primary target audience.

Josh Masterson is challenging stereotypes of younger people


Facial ExpressionsOur naturalistic approach of characters means that facial

expressions are another element of characters which engage our audience because it strengthens the relationship shared between characters and audience. This is noticeable particularly through the character of Josh Masterson. His character relies on the use of facial expressions as it is a key factor of his portrayal as a vulnerable and a character drowning in his own thoughts due to his mental illness. It is also important for helping reinforce this idea of disequilibrium in our opening sequence, as Masterson is considerably lower to Tom Rush. We opted not to show the facials of Tom Rush because it creates intrigue and mystery around his character which reinforces his power and dominance, as he is in control of the narrative.

Masterson’s use of facial expressions engage the audience due to how drastic and frantic they are.

How will your use of technical codes engage your audience?

Camerawork

Our camerawork is attractive and engaging to our audience due to the variety of shot types we use. We follow the traditional conventions of film making by conforming to the 180 degree rule and 30 degree rule. We did contemplate breaking these rules


Sound


Lighting


Editing

How do inter textual references attract your audience?

How is the audience positioned? Whose shoes are we in? How does that increase the film’s appeal?

Q5 (3)

Education

Transcript of Q5 (3)