5

1. Evaluation question 5
How did you
attract/address your
audiences?

2. Audience testing
❖ Throughout our research we carried out
several audience tests. Using our
research we found our target audience
and people who fit into our target
audience and asked them their opinions
on specific aspects of our film throughout
the production process. We asked them
questions on the narrative, typography
and our rough draft. And took their ideas
into account when changing elements or
carrying on with the process. We found
this to be an important process and we
have a direct link with our target audience
and it allowed us to edit our film to suit
our target audience.

3. Our target audience
❖ Our target audience is males aged 18-25
and secondarily females aged 18-25 we
found the pleasures men got were the
intense, suspense moments where as
women like to try and unravel a plot, these
are known as intellectual puzzles. We found
our film catered to both these needs.
❖ For the males we included a tense following
scene with tense music, faster cuts and a
mysterious antagonist.
❖ The true intentions of the antagonist are not
revealed until the end and the planning
board implies that something is to be
planned and the audience have to work out
what that plan is.

4. Audience pleasures
❖ We found our film to have two main audience pleasures,
these being visceral and Intellectual puzzles. The audience
for the horror and thriller genre conventionally enjoy visceral
pleasures as well as intellectual puzzles, the jump scares
and unsettling nature of these films challenge audiences,
which then enjoy which is why they are fans of the genre.
❖ Visceral pleasures are the physical effects a viewers
receives whilst watching a film, e.g. a jump scare or a laugh.
We tried to include a jump scare to add a visceral pleasure
as this appeals to the audience. This jump scare comes 2
seconds before the final title and shows a CU POV shot of
the antagonist throwing a blanket over the protagonists
head, during several viewing of our opening we discovered
that some viewers “jumped”at this part of the opening.
Proving that we succeeded in our attempt to create a
visceral pleasure.
❖ An intellectual puzzle was a harder pleasure to create for
are audience, as we only had a two minute opening, the
intentions of the antagonist is not fully clear, and several
viewers attempted to guess what was the purpose of the
planning board.

5. Characters
❖ Both our characters were aged
between 16-19 meaning they are
relatable to the target audience
according to our research. The
protagonists costume is very generic
for a girl of that age therefor she is
easily relatable for the secondary target
audience. Despite being all black the
antagonists costume of jeans, hoodie
and trainers is relatable to the primary
audience. No costumes had to be
specially purchased or made for this
opening meaning that they are even
more relatable to the target audience.

6. Location
❖ Most crime thrillers are located in a city, or built up area.
We subverted this and filmed in a small, rural village. Which
may not be as relatable for some audiences, however for
more rural and local viewers is more relatable.

7. Narrative
❖ The dual narrative of our film appeals
to our audience, the audience will be
trying to figure out who the antagonist
is? what is he doing? and what is his
motive? This is an intellectual puzzle
which horror/thriller audiences expect
and enjoy. The audience expect
certain elements from this genre, e.g.
jumps, fear, violence. We feel that are
opening set’s up a film where
audiences can expect this later on.
❖ One example of this is Silence of the
lambs (1951) where audiences are put
on the edge as there a many tense
scenes, as well as trying to figure out
the motives of both killers.

8. Conclusion
❖ To conclude, we attracted and addressed our target
audience by consulting with them throughout our
production and research stage, furthermore we used
relatable characters, locations and costumes; And
created a realistic narrative in which they can relate
with. We used our target audiences desires, using our
research (Tension, suspense) and included these
within our film opening.