AS Evaluation Question 5

Question 5. How did you attract/address your audience?

The primary research that I took out was vital to the production of my opening sequence. The pie chart questions that I used were very helpful as they allowed me to determine what elements should be included in my thriller. I thought that it was extremely important that I got feedback from my target audience because they were the ones that my film was aimed at therefore it had to appeal to them. Using primary research was essential as it allowed me to ask my own questions and therefore make sure I got the feedback that I required, as oppose to secondary research where I would not be able to control what questions were asked.

In order to create my thriller film I had to go through several stages of research. These included analysing thriller films, researching my target audience, researching film certificates and researching conventions of the thriller genre. For each research stage I conducted I created a blog explaining what I had found out and how I would try to incorporate it into my opening sequence. The main research stages that I found helpful was the questionnaires that I gave to members of my target audience, this allowed me to see what they characters, plot, setting etc they wanted to see in thriller films. I also thought that the research into conventions was another helpful research stage that I did. The conventions that I found were most prominent in thriller films were very important in the making of my film, overall they were what made my opening sequence part of the thriller genre. Putting the research that I did into blogs made it easier for me to go back and check what I had found out, this meant when it came to creating and editing the opening sequence I was prepared with what I wanted to include. 

Carrying out research made it much easier when it came to planning my opening sequence this is because I knew what characters, setting, conventions, narrative etc I wanted to include. When I and my group members planned the opening sequence we already had a mental plan of what we thought it would be like, this is because of the research and feedback that we got from our target audience and from watching other thriller films. I took inspiration from the research I did into thriller films. I took the inspiration of using a hidden identity from The Strangers, I thought that it worked really well in this film as it created an enigma aswell as striking fear into the audience, so I decided to incorporate this into my film. I used the idea of a point if view shot through a mask, this inspiration came from Halloween, where Michael Myers is walking up the stairs and we can see through a mask. I thought this worked well as it created a lot of low key lighting and it also gave the audience chance to see things from the antagonists point of view, which I thought was chilling.