Evaluation: Question 5: How did you attarct your target audience?

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

The importance of doing the secondary research into existing films:

The secondary research in existing films was important for me as it gave us an indication on how to address the thriller audience through conventions and how to attract them.

The target audience of thriller films:

From my research into thrillers I found out and I believe that the thriller target audience ranges between the age group of 15-40. Thrillers have a big range as there are my different thriller genres and it is the most appealing to this age range which I had to appeal to from my research.

Also thrillers are not aimed at any specific gender as thrillers are based on unisex narratives for any gender to watch and understand. This gender appeal made it easy for me to attract and appeal the audience as both male and females would watch the thriller. Also to make it appealing to the audience I ensured that there was an attractive and young female victim who would appeal to the audience and attack many others.

There are specific ethnicities in thrillers which the audience expect to see, for example to attract thee audience in my thriller I used a female victim who was of white ethnic background a the audience expect to see the white ethnic background female to be the victim as they are the most likely victims of crime. In addition the ethnic background of the antagonist is of a black ethnic background as the audience expect to see a black ethnic antagonist as they are most associated with crime, however there can be different ethnic background antagonists in thriller but to appeal to my target audience best I chose to use a black ethnic antagonist.

The occupational groups that thrillers are aimed at are E,D, C2 and C1. Thrillers are mostly aimed at student’s and the you eople who like to go out and have fun and they like to have a thrill when watching thrillers once a week to watch something and the unemployed.

The hobbies and the interest of the target audience is that they like to go out and have a good time and watch a good thriller. Also the target audience is fairly young and they like to party and fun with groups of friends.

I believe that from thriller films that target audience enjoy setting, iconography and the conventional characters. The audience enjoy the setting of the thrillers as they are set at home they enjoy the thrill of the location as the audience feel the safest at home and that security is taken away from them during the film. Also the audience enjoy the use of iconography as it gives a thrill and a chill when the knife is a murder weapon used to kill the victim or any other character. Lastly the audience enjoy the conventional character which are the female victim and the antagonist also the audience expect to see them in every thriller. The audience enjoy seeing a young and attractive female victim and they are chilled by the appearance of a dark, mysterious antagonist.

Further to this, the emotions that I believe that the audience are likely to experience are that they sympathise for the female victim and they fear for what is going to happen to her, also the audience feel helpless when they know what will happen to the victim but they cannot help her. The audience also fear the antagonist and are chilled by the attacks. Lastly the audience feel lost and isolated by the dark settings and the isolated locations.

This was good research as it meant that for my thriller I had to consider delivering all the emotions that the audience like to feel hen watching a thriller and appeal to the target audience. Also I meant that I could make a thriller that the audience wanted from the research gained.

My target audience:

From my research the target audience I wanted to attract for my thriller was the ages of 15-40 for a conventional thriller. 15 was the minimum age that our thriller would attract as a 15 year old will be bale to watch our thriller and it they can handle the thrill from our thriller. Also the gender that I wanted to attract is both genders as both genders watch thrillers and they both find it appealing. We also keep an open ethnicity groups in our thrillers as are thriller narrative can be universally understood.

Addressing my target audience:

I carried out a questionnaire as I wanted to know what my target audience thought and I wanted to get their response on what they thought about thrillers which would help me in my production of my thriller and it would be the most appealing to the target audience as I would have made my thriller to the target audiences feedback and liking.

The importance of a primary research such as my questionnaire is to find out what the target audience want in the thriller film that I will make. Also this primary research is important because it means that I can find out which a specific target audience want in my thriller. Also this questionnaire will give me a lot of feedback and it will give me good idea if my thriller idea can be suitable to what the audience want.
I asked people from the age of 15 and above this was because my thriller film that I will be making will be for those who are 15 and above. Also thrillers can only be viewed by people who are 15 and above. I had to ask only the target group that I was aiming my film at otherwise the questionnaire feedback would not be very helpful.

Some key questions I asked to ensure I was attracting my target audience:

This is one of the question that I asked my target audience:  

What attracts you to Thrillers?
Excitement, Thrill, Tension, Suspension

This was an important question to ask the target audience as I needed to know why the audience watches thrillers and what attracts them to thrillers. This was important to me as I could attract my target audience y giving them the desired experience from their feedback from the question in what attracts them to thriller.


 













The graph shows that most of the target audience are attracted to thrillers due to the tension and excitement. To ensure that I attracted the target audience and I addressed my target audience I made my thriller excitement and I built up tension by using soundtracks which will create tension and fast editing to create excitement.




Another key question I asked in my questionnaire was:

 Which of these are common conventions?   

Iconography (blood), Victim, mise en scene, low key, lighting

This question i asked the audience to see what conventions they knew and this gave me a good indications of the types of conventions that the audience knew there were.

The result showed that the audience knew that that one of the convention was a victim or the female victim and iconography(blood). This enabled to attract my audience as i used these conventions that the audience were use to and i used the conventions that the audience would understand. Lastly it meant i could address the target audience as they could see the their desired and expected conventions in my thriller.



  How do thrillers make you feel?

  Scared, Chilled, Shocked, Frightened

This was another key question that I asked my target audience as i wanted to know how thrillers my chosen target audience feel to ensure that i can deliver that feeling towards the audience to make my thriller a success.

The results show that most of the target audience felt chilled and scared. To attract my audience and to address the target audience i ensured  that my thriller would chill and scare the audience. For example on way i archived this was by using chilling soundtracks and very scary shots to address this felling that the audience like to feel.




What do you dislike about Thrillers?

Graphic scenes, Violence, Death,  Murder, The antagonist


This was another key question asked as I wanted to find out what the audience don't like in a thriller as I did not want to include anything in my thriller that the audience did not like and i did not want to use something that will put the audience off my thriller.

The results show that most of the audience disliked the antagonist and death in thrillers however these this was expected as the antagonist and death chills the audience the most and it would not be a thriller without a antagonist or death. Therefore is used an antagonist in my thriller and the theme death as well as this will chill the audience as they dislike the antagonist and the thee death.


I asked open questions in the questionaire to the target audience and they were the following questions:

What makes a Thriller entertaining?

The response that i got from this question gave me the answer to what the audience think makes a thriller entertaining. From this information i used it to make my thriller more entertaining and this would address the audience and attract the audience as my thriller is entertaining to the audiences standard.

What was the best Thriller you watched?  

Name of film

Why?

This open question allowed me to gather information on the type of thrillers that the audience watch the sub genre of thriller they watch as well. This question indicated to me what sub genre my thriller should be and what film should inspire me to make my thriller which would then attract the audience and appeal to them.

Overall the primary research was important because it helped me gain a better understanding of what the target audience wanted to see in my thriller and it helped me in my production of my thriller as with the information from my primary research i knew what the audience was expecting and i could make a thriller that was idea for my target audience. This helped me attract and address my target audience as because from the primary research I could make my thriller idea for the target audience from their feedback of my questionnaire.

Audience Feedback:

After creating my production, I held a focus group because i wanted to show people my thriller and I can receive their view on how my thriller appealed to them. The people that were asked to come and view the production were friends and young people who were in the target audience that our thriller was aimed at. Below is some of the criticism that I received.

These are the pictures of our focus group.

One bit of feedback that I received from the focus group was that our thriller was "very conventional as it had conventional themes such as death, friendship and obsession, also the thriller is a very modern thriller that made us feel very isolated and chilled"


Another feedback that we received from the focus group was" The thriller narrative is very easy to understand and the thriller was very chilling as the obsessive antagonist is shown and especially when the antagonist smells the victim jumper and enters the victims bed"

Bill aged 18 said that " The thriller was not appealing as i believe that the thriller was similar to other thrillers where there is an obsessive boyfriend or an obsessive antagonist"


Furthermore, Meah aged 20 said" The identity of the antagonist could have been hidden to create more tension  or there could have been more emphasis on the antagonist when he was in the victims house without her knowing"








How did this make you feel in terms of attracting your audience?

After the feedback that I received from the focus group the positives and the negatives i felt that I had made a conventional and appealing thriller that attracted my chosen target audience to the best of my ability and the audience liked my thriller and the effort that I put into making the thriller.

Evaluation: Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Question 3:What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Question 3 from abmiah228

Evaluation: Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social group?

Evaluation: Question1:In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The task that we had was to produce a thriller opening which would last 2 minutes. At first, to ensure we had an in depth understanding of thrillers we did research into thrillers to see the different types of thrillers and the different types of thriller sub genres. Also with the research on the thriller we researched how thrillers make the audience feel. Then we looked at cinematography where we researched for the types shots that are used in thrillers. After we had researched into thrillers we were put in group where we would produce our 2 minute thriller as a group. Then we went on to plan for the production of our thriller and the planning consisted in us planning a narrative that we wanted our thriller to follow. Also we planned a storyboard for the filming of our thriller as the storyboard organised and set out what scenes and shots we need to film for our thriller. After the planning we filmed our thriller and with the filming finished we edited our thriller on final cut pro. We edited and we also added soundtracks in our thriller to give the audience a chilling experience in watching our thriller.

Does my Thriller follow conventions of a Thriller?

In my opinion my thriller does follow the conventions of a thriller but in a unique and new way. The conventions in our thriller are iconography the characters (female victim and antagonist), the location and use of mise en scene.

The most significant conventions in my thriller are the characters and how they are represented. The characters in my thriller show that my thriller does follow the conventions of a thriller. For example my thriller only has two characters, a female victim and an antagonist. These characters are very conventional as these characters are used in most thrillers and my thriller uses these characters which ensured that my thriller followed the conventions of a thriller.

The female victim follows the conventions as the female victim in my thriller is young and attractive. This also illustrates her innocence and vulnerability.  Also the costume for my victim in my thriller is conventional as she wears light colour costumes and has a very simple make up. Lastly the female victim in my thriller is conventional as she has a very weak, small and timid body language.

This is the female victim in my thriller. She is conventional as she is young, attractive and innocent and all the characteristics for a conventional female victim can be seen.

These are other examples of female victims from other thrillers such as scream and Spiderman. My female victim is conventional compared to these victims as they all are young, attractive and innocent and they are all females, with simple make up and light costumes.

The antagonist is conventional and follows the convention of a thriller as the antagonist is a male as usually the antagonist is a male. Also the costumes are conventional as the costumes are dark and the identity of the antagonist is hidden as this is very conventional the audience not knowing who the antagonist is this mysterious character which in many thrillers the antagonists identity is hidden. Lastly the body language and the facial expression of the antagonist are very confident and bold as the antagonist dominates the female victim this is very conventional in thrillers.
 

This is the antagonist in my thriller. He is conventional as the antagonist is wearing dark costumes and he is a male as that is what the audience expect to see. Also he has a very confident facial expression and a bold and tall body language.

These are examples of other antagonist from other thrillers such as Batman, Scream and James Bond. These examples show that my antagonist is conventional as all these antagonists have a very confident facial expression and have dark costumes which give them the fear factor towards the audience.

Also my thriller is conventional as the setting of my thriller is very conventional as the thriller is set at home. This is a very common place for a thriller to be set as the audience feel most safe at home and that safety is being taken away from the characters and the audience. The home was conventional place to set a thriller, for example prom night and scream. These thrillers are set at home and these thrillers have chilled the audience by the setting. This is the one way I used and developed conventions of real media products.

This is the location of my thriller.

 

These are examples of other location from other thrillers such as Prom Night, Scream and Insidious. My location is conventional as most thrillers are set at home and they have the most effect on the audience.

Lastly my thriller is conventional because of the use of iconography. The iconography that is used in my thriller is a knife and blood. The knife is a significant murder weapon in thrillers. Also the use of blood in the thriller is conventional as the audience expect to see blood and when the audience do they think that someone has been killed or has someone been injured.

The iconography is conventional in my thriller as the antagonist is holding the knife as in most thrillers the antagonist does which chills the audience.

Generic conventions of a thriller:

I carried out a lot of research into thrillers in order to get a better understanding of the conventions used. In order to create an effective thriller opening, I also looked at the target audience appeal and other aspects of thrillers such as the use of micro-elements. I also researched further into the following conventions like age certificates, narrative structure and theory, themes in thrillers films and character representation.

The films that particularly helped me use and develop conventions were iconography from the film scream and prom night. The knife was shown many times and it showed the victim playing with the knife before it was used to kill her, in both Scream and Prom night the antagonist uses the knife to kill the female victim. This is conventional as the antagonist attacks the female victim with a knife which is a significant iconography.

For the use of lighting I found that a lot of low key lighting is used which creates shadows and this creates tension within the audience. This is a convention that I wanted use in my thriller.

The characters that were conventional in thrillers was a female victim who is always a female, murdered in a brutal way due to an obsessive boyfriend or a serial killer. Also the antagonist who is usually a murderer in the thriller, which then causes the audience to fear the antagonist. There are also children in thrillers and other additional family members however I did not want to use these additional characters.

The types of settings that were used were houses and bedrooms because this is where the audience feel the safest. Also the settings can be in very isolated and dark places such as in a warehouse, forests, derelict building, ally way and many other locations.

The audience response from the thrillers was that the audience were chilled by what they saw and their emotions were manipulated as they feared for the victim and they are sometimes given the hope that the victim will survive but the antagonist gets the victim. The audience also are made to feel scared as the location and setting isolate the audience when they are watching.  I wanted to use this convention and develop it to make a successful thriller and the chill the audience to the best of y ability in my thriller.

Generic convention in my thriller:

The first duration of our opening it shows the female victim entering the house and there are many camera angle used. There is a high camera angle used and a low angle used. The high camera angle was used to show the female victim as vulnerable and an easy target as she is walking up the stairs to enter her bedroom, the high camera angle makes the audience anticipate that something will happen to the female victim as she will enter the bedroom. The low camera angle used on the antagonist as he is caught in deep thoughts it shows that the antagonist is superior and inferior to the female victim and that he is plotting a sinful act.

This high camera angle of the victim shows how vulnerable she is and the audience can immediately see that she is the victim as she is wearing light colour costumes and the location that is in a house.

This is the low angle used on the antagonist the low camera angle shoes that the antagonist is inferior that he is planning a devilish act.

The victims costume is shown when she is in the house. The costume is very simple and this is used to show the audience that the victim is innocent and she will be a victim due to the conventional costume that she is wearing.

This is the a comparison of the costume that the female victim wear in prom night and the similarities can be seen as the female victim in my thriller also has light coloured costumes. This shows that my female victim is conventional as her costume is conventional to a thriller








The antagonists costume is very dark and the antagonist’s identity is hidden from the audience. The antagonist is made to wear a dark costume as it shows the audience that the antagonist is hear when they see the dark costume and it creates a sense of fear around the antagonist.

This an example of an antagonist from scream the costumes of the antagonist id dark costume and the identity of the antagonist is hidden. This is conventional as my antagonist is very similar to the antagonist in scream this shoes that my character was conventional to my thriller.

Opening Credits:

My opening credits are conventional as it shows the characters in the opening and it introduces all the characters to the audience. Also the typography in the opening credits are very conventional as they have a spooky and thriller like font with the colour red to connote danger and death.

 







 

My thriller following a conventional narrative structure:

My thriller follows two structural theorists. The first one being Propp. Propp looked at mainly folk tales he believed that characters had a narrative function and they provided a structure of the text. My thriller follows Propp as the characters in my thriller can easily be understood and their roles and purposes and creates a lot of meaning in the narrative.

The second is Todorov. Todorov’s theory was that a film always has an equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium. In my thriller I think that it follows that structure because in the thriller opening it shows the antagonist having flashbacks of their troubled relationship which leads to his obsession over the female victim.Then the victim comes home and she goes upstairs and the anatgonist creps oput of the other room an enters her room turning off the light and smelling her clothes and creeping into the female victims bed this is the disequilibrium. Then the female victim wakes up and looks around and she sees the antagonists face right in her face this is the new equilibrium.

Overall i beleive that my thriller is conventional to a real media product as my thriller has many conventions that are conventional.