Evaluation: Question 4-Jess Smith

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

Our target audience begins from 15 because we received audience feedback when editing our film and both people said they could rate the thriller at a 12 but would'nt expect anyone that age to watch it, that was just a basic limit and it would be for teenagers (male or female), to 19.

http://www.slideshare.net/reigatemedia/pearl-and-dean-upcoming-releases-and-traget-audience

This website was very useful when deciding what the set as the target age range because it shows what ages are the most popular with different thrillers and we also used it to give an incite to what other films our target audience enjoy. 

Thrillers such as "Buried" (2010 by Rodrigo Cortes) had figures showing that this film was split almost evenly between males (56%) and female watchers, with 44%. The most popular age group, taking up 41% of the viewers was ranged from 15-24. From this information we saw that thrillers can appeal to both genders and the higher range of teenagers. 

On the other hand, thriller "The Dark Fields" only 20% of watchers were female, whereas the other 80% was all males. But this film did also have mostly people aged from 15-24 watching the movie as the figures showed 55%, whereas the rest were older, from 25-34 with 22%, 36-44 had 13% and 45+ had a smaller 7%. From this we can see that no one under the age of 15 is watching thrillers and not many over the age of 45 are interested either. 










This thriller "Hereafter" (2011 by Clint Eastwood) had a more equal ranges from different ages that were watching the film because it began at 15-24 again with 

EVALUATION Q3 by Maria Beardall

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Due to  the fact that our media product is a low budget, independently made film by a British film company (our group, JMS Productions), we can chose from two ptions what we want to do to distribute our work and which media institution would do this; pay a third party to distribute the film onto platforms such as Netflix etc. or distribute it ourselves through mediums such as Youtube or  Vimeo etc. and cut out the middle person.

Change in Age:

Analogue to Digital:

What is currently happening with cinemas and home viewing reminds me of the transition between analogue to digital, in the sense that one loved thing (like VHS tapes and vinyls) begin to expire traditionally and make way for new technologies (DVDs and CDs), all of which are easier to sue, simpler and are better in quality.

In the analogue age, viewing films at the cinema, on TV or with DVD's has become less popular and has had to make way for the new age of viewing films - the digital way; through mobiles, tablets, YouTube, Netflix and even on consoles, physical copies or being stuck in one place to watch a film has decreased as the pros for the digital age are much more appealing. The new ways to view films are either more convenient, take up less physical space and also are in higher quality of HD, and can be viewed in the comfort of your own home.

 THEN:
 Cinemas are dying as a platform to watch big films, as established in this report, and therefore the tradition of going to the cinema is becoming too expensive and isn't as convenient as home viewing an overall cheaper form of the same media.The graph above, from this website, shows that the peak for cinema admissions was in 1946, from which it has never grown higher than. It shows that as these traditional ways of watching films are dying, it can be presumed that digital ways such as streaming and downloading to home devices to watch on the go and on portable devices has become much higher and that is where the cinematic downfall can be presumed from.

 NOW:
Many things are changing, even so Xbox users are as there has been a higher percentage of users watching TV and films, instead of playing multiplayer games. The dashboard of Xbox has undergone a design change so that TV and films are easily accessible to users. They were rumored in 2012 to produce a device for this, yet have customized this to become much more convenient. This way of viewing films is easy to access, much more appealing and as gaming is very popular this is an effective way to strike potential film viewers. The TV and film service Netflix has also become extremely popular since 2012, and is accessible through TV's, tablets, phones, computers and games consoles, and there is no physical copy needed.

Pre Digital Age - Cinema, TV, DVDs
Digital Age - YouTube, Vimeo

Cinema:

Cineworld and Odeon: 

 This method of screening our locally made, small production film is almost outlined as unreachable as they only really screen big budget films, most local cinemas (Cineworld's and Odeon's in Crawley and Brighton) are known to not screen small production films, which makes it mostly out of the question. It is not impossible, as some cinemas (such as The Duke of York in Brighton) do however screen smaller films; its just unlikely.

PROS - would be great exposure
CONS - not many cinemas screen independent films

Film festivals are a much better option and will really capture film lovers and also create great exposure for our film, with local festivals being held around London and Brighton; both central and popular. They do seem to be seasonal however.

PROS - film lovers can unite and up rise the new and upcoming talent at a film festival

CONS - only on for select days (will it be ready in time, or will competition for new films mean it won't be shown?)

Distributing Your Film:

There are a few stages to distribute our film:

1. LICENSING

The distributor is given legal rights to the film and will in turn pay the company, and deals will be made on the basis of cinema, TV and DVD deals for profits for both companies.

2. MARKETING

For our film the marketing would be minimal, yet larger produced films will want to gather a lot of attention and make it very central at this stage.

Ways to do this would be:
-billboard adverts
- merchandise
- reviews
- events
- film posters
- talk shows/interviews with the cast and creators (publicity)
- TV/radio/cinema adverts
-  trailers
- film festivals

3. PRINTS & ADVERTISING

Prints of the film; how many copies will be issued to sell on (in some cases this can be very few), and locally can be screened in Brighton and other festivals that screen 'indie' films on a low budget- and all costs are met by the distributor.

All stages can be done by ourselves or a film distributor,and a list of potential distributors are as follows:
Axiom Films
E One Entertainment
Icon Film Distribution

(more on this website, which also includes the bigger distributors too)

 

Self Distribution:

Youtube and Vimeo:

YouTube is one way we could self distribute our film without having to pay a third company to market and put our product on a platform. It can be a good way to upload a feature length film, which YouTube did in 2011, a comedic film called 'Time Expired'. This film has been viewed 700,000 times and has made a comfortable revenue of $3400 from ads the viewers have to watch to view the film for 'free'.

YouTube is appealing to use as its a popular website, 3rd in the world, meaning that finding our film would be easy to our audience; especially as it's our target audience mostly using the platform.They use an algorithm to help others find films to watch, like using a 'recommended for you' suggestion list. You can also make money through adverts, monetization, as you can set up having ads before, during or after your film, you can also also have them around the side of the screen and also have overlay ads. The more views it gets, the more people will recommend it and therefore popular it will become

It, however, is harder to make money in the sense that you need a baseline of subscribers to actually begin making money, otherwise you could get many views on your product, but it would mean nothing as you won't make money from it.

PROS - it will be easier to upload and cuts out the middle man in distribution, and can make money without being costly to screen.
CONS - it is difficult to actually start a loyal fan base and make money, therefore could be a risk

 Vimeo is also a video sharing site, where you can upload, share and view videos and is also in HD. Vimeo can make users money by paying them monthly instead of having to wait to reach a fan base like YouTube does (it only pays you once you have a set amount of subscribers, whereas Vimeo pays based regardless of how many subscribers you have.)

PROS - you don't need a set number of subscribers to make money, and is on a more monthly term and its users are mostly people who will appreciate the work made
CONS - still a risk in making money, not guaranteed

Overall Opinion:

 My personal opinion would be to either simply upload our work to Vimeo and make a substantial amount from the monetized product there, or to showcase our work at a film festival, which would attract others to see our companies work as a lot of well educated, film interested audience would be there and would have an interest in our work as a small company. This way wouldn't cost a lot of money therefore is a 'safe' option but guarantees some exposure in the best way and also will increase interest as our company as a whole; therefore working out better in the long run if we were to make another film and keeps us quite safe money wise.

EVALUATION Q5 by Maria Beardall

How did you attract/address your audience?

Through our development of product we asked members from our potential audience for constructive feedback, and how we could improve our piece to make it even better.

 

Feedback from Henri Wilcock-Fitzsimmons (17)

Feedback from Melissa Thomas (17)

Black and White & Saturated Filters:

H

- similar to 'Doctor Who'

- black and white makes character look abused

- makes sense

M

- liked, created a clear contrast; could tell were separate

 We used two separate filters, which we wanted to do from the offset, to really convey to the audience obviously that the clips are individual yet entwined together, and that both have very different tones: the black and white clip connotes she is vulnerable and has been tortured in some way, and is supposed to be very negatively portrayed to the audience, whereas the saturated clip is to show that the audience's senses should be on edge and that as it is so disorientating there is something wrong. We used the filters as inspired from Kill Bill, one of the films that also uses black and white filters to make it stand out. We believed that these filters would be appealing to our audience as they are actively viewing the piece and therefore wanted to create an alarming enigma that our audience would crave from the thriller genre. We wanted to engage our audience and also not confuse them in a sense that the clips are separate, but generally confuse them to what will happen - therefore in post production we added in the filters to feed the audience hints that would keep the film appealing to turn a potential viewer into an active viewer.

Henri and Melissa both liked that the filters separated the clips and commented that it was clear to them and made sense, and also that it gave a feeling of other similar things watched by our target audience, such as Doctor Who. This works to attract our audience that we wanted to watch our film and also addresses them as the familiarity to the concept of the product will be appealing.

Pace:

H

- quite long; dragged at beginning, however faster at end

M

- good to be slow to establish who actress is

- faster when drama started, worked well

We switched between two paces in our product through the different clips, and found it quite difficult to find the right balance in timing of cross dissolves and also how many cuts we would need to create the sense of drama we wanted to provide to our audience. We used a slow pace at the start to extend establishing shots of our main character and also for the audience to feel a false sense of security in the one scene, before we broke it with switching to the other scene in a harsher way to speed the opening sequence up appropriately.

We did have to tweak and 'correct' the scenes to really create that effect we wanted, and when first reviewed Henri commented saying it 'dragged', yet got faster at the end. We wanted to achieve audience interest and not lose them by the clip being too slow, so we sped up the cross dissolve transitions at the beginning and when we later asked Melissa she seemed satisfied with the mixture of pace we wanted to achieve and that the pace was parallel and correlated efficiently to the drama on screen; we had corrected and achieved what we desired to appeal to our audience.

Soundtrack:

H

- not thriller 'esque'

- too calm, detract from the piece

M

- needs ambient music to create eerie effect

We did have major problems trying to find a suitable soundtrack to match our piece, and we did switch what we had chosen a few times. We started with a track that was very slow paced and didn't work towards the end of the clip, where it was faster and didn't match. This created a problematic process of trying to find a soundtrack that could emphasize both of the qualities in pace and stay thrilling, and later we switched to separating the scenes further with two different tracks, a slow one at the beginning and a faster one at the end to enhance and dramatize the whole of the opening, and more so where it reached its climax in tension at the end. We also hadn't added in an off screen dialogue or any Foley's, which may have hindered our effect on the pace or chaos of the piece.

We listened to Henri and Melissa who together confirmed we needed something faster and much more ambient. Therefore we made sure to correlate the soundtrack to the drama, and to make the transition fluid in change of tracks we 'cut up' the opening with titles, where it cut to no sound. To make sure it wasn't calm we deliberately placed a crescendo at the end of the piece to add to the ultimatum of the opening sequence to leave a lasting effect on the audience and attract potential viewers to keep watching. Therefore to achieve an appealing soundtrack that worked with our clips we addressed the concerns voiced to make it much more attractive as a product to the target audience.

Age Rating:

H

- 12A

M

- 12A

Both Henri and Melissa estimated our product would be a 12A certificate, which is roughly where we set our work to be; at the 16-25 age market. This is still appropriate and works as the product is to attract a younger audience rather than an older one and both assessors said that they would recommend the film and would be something they would watch; which means we achieved engaging our target demographic, and as I believed is slightly more tuned to females watching as Melissa was generally more excited by it, saying it 'made her literally jump.'

Overall Opinion:

I feel that the filtering, pacing and soundtrack (once it had been reviewed and improved based on the comments made) has increased the attractiveness in our product to our target audience as it is engaging and full of faced paced thrilling action to entice potential viewers to stay on and watch the film based on the opening and also we accordingly addressed the needs of the audience by tweaking and improving the piece based on their comments. 

EVALUATION Q2 by Maria Beardall

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our Media product doesn't have many representations based on the fact that there is only one character seen in the whole opening, yet can represent major factors such as gender, age, regional identity and ability etc. The two main factors we focused on as a group however were gender and age as they were to be made obvious for important reasons, other than that our main character is a female, not commonly used in many protagonist main character roles and is of the target audience age.

Gender:

Mise-en-Scene is the main way we conveyed to the audience that the main character is female, as these conventions are easiest for a audience to pick up (see Propp's character types), and for the audience to identify. However her character is untypical as she is a female, yet also a protagonist; not a victim or damsel in distress, and also isn't sexualised as most other characters are in the Media industry.

We created Eliza's gender, imaged predominately through costume, hair and make up. We curled her hair to make it seem strikingly feminine and a typical hairstyle to a female character and also, in the hall scene, used very bold eye shadow which is, again, typical to what a female would wear. This was accentuated by the black and white filters which, as the visual normality of colour has been stripped from the first part of the opening, and forces the audience to notice smaller details such as her hair and make up. The visuals were also added upon by making our actress wear a white, laced dress which comes to the knee of her, seen in long shots. This reveals her skin which is usually sexualised in the film industry, yet we added it to cause confusion and also make Eliza seem more vulnerable, and also hints innocence as a white signifies the individual to be a good character. In the forest scene she is wearing jeans and a coat, very covered up for a typical female character yet is conveying the 'tomboy' female stereotype, which links with her, fittingly, being a protagonist. She does have her nails painted to however enforce the female image.

Camera and editing also contribute to giving Eliza the representation of a female character, however she is untypical. The camera work and editing work seamlessly together to produce the image of a female through deliberate close ups of Eliza's lips, eyes and chest to also add and really forces the audience to notice she is a female through the Mise-en-Scene. There is also a pan down her arm too, which would be seen traditionally to sexualise her female character, but is now to show she is vulnerable and scared through body language - her intense breathing and gripping her hands tightly. This adds to the hints that she isn't a traditional female in the industry, therefore is quite unusual in her character type (not gender, her role in the film), as she differentiates from the sexualised image of women seen a lot - she is seen as scared, yet bold and untypical as she looks around in the forest before she gets taken, and in the hall scene (possibly planning to escape) - she is a clever protagonist. These actions are all seen through mid shots and long shots. The transitions seen where the main character is introduced not only shows a dream state to the reality, but also is slow and not intimidating to show that Eliza is feminine and not a threat to anyone - she is a protagonist; which is harder to show and break away from being an untypical female, yet I believe we achieved this and conveyed this to our audience well as she is deliberately supposed to seem warm and angelic.

Sound is also used to convey that Eliza is female, predominately can be identified through the voice over which was spoken by a female. This gives major clues as the dialogue links with the actions and facial expressions, therefore hints that the off screen voice is Eliza's. It represents her as the audience can tell the voice belongs to her. The words are expressive and convey her emotions in the appropriate way which can tell the audience she has serious thoughts about what is going on and therefore is very smart and holds elements of a typical protagonist; breaking the typical traditional view of females for a positive view.

What we wanted to achieve/our intentions:

We chose to have a female for our main character as we believed it would communicate more with our demographic, and we also wanted to break the boundaries most of the media industry don't; with using a protagonist female character and not sexualisation of  her. It was a challenge we wanted to take on to communicate to the audience from her as an untypical female and in this sense draws more attention to her as it works with the thriller genre of creating suspense and sparks curiosity in the audience's mind. We wanted the audience to notice she is vulnerable yet inquisitive and intelligent, therefore morally want her to 'win'. We did use stereotypes in the sense of appearance, but didn't play on them in the way most industries do.

Age:

We wanted the age of our character to relate to our target audience, therefore kept the age of Eliza at the 17 mark, which we portrayed through Mise-en-Scene, by using hairstyles and make up in a way that is of a youthful trait, hinting she is of a similar age to the audience, permitting them to relate to her. Her nail varnish in the forest scene is also a clue to her young age as it it typically done by teens, and her nails can be seen in a close up of her taking her earphones out. This also leads on to the over the shoulder shot of her on her phone, technology most stereo typically used with teenagers, along with earphones -  these props connote she is, again, a similar age to the audience which makes the audience feel connected to her and more vulnerable and on edge as they are the same age to Eliza and make the disequilibrium more real and possible to them. Therefore, props are used heavily to convey she is youthful.

Camera and editing also portray she is a teenager through close ups to subtle hints in props, such as an OTS shot of her holding and listening to music on her phone, and also a CU shot of her when she takes her earphones out; you can see her nail varnish which connotes youth and is an activity stereo typically seen to be done by teenagers, and also shows her with more technology, her earphones. We wanted to connote her youth through technological props as it is also typically seen as teenagers who are constantly on their phones and using new gadgets. Therefore we used objects and activities related and seen as youthful through the medium of camera shots to really concentrate on her age and also exaggerate these features of her. Editing also symbolizes her age in the forest scene as the cuts show her movement is quick and expected of a teenager, therefore also add to her built up image of being a young age as she can be seen quickly looking around and actively checking her surroundings; typical to a young and aware protagonist.

Sound also adds to the portrayal that Eliza is young as the music is upbeat and correlates with the editing to show there is drama she is in the midst of, and therefore leaves assumption that she must be of a young age to be able to move quickly - unlike an older, more unable person would stereo typically would be unable to do. The off screen dialogue is also a massive hint that she is of a young age as the dialogue is spoken by someone the same age as her, therefore sets up the image that she is speaking, and immediately is presented as a teenager, or around that age, to the audience. This creates and furthers her image as a teenager to the active audience who will be of the ability to clue she is around the age of themselves.

What we wanted to achieve/our intentions:

We chose to have a teenager as the main character as we believed it would make the audience feel more personally linked to the main character, and therefore spark an interest in her as she is 'linked' and most probably in a similar situation to the audience, making the drama feel more real. We wanted this effect on the audience to make it much more intense as they feel related to her in some way due to her assumed and portrayed age, and would make a potential audience want to watch the film more and also keep people actively viewing the film. It also emphasizes the thrill and emotion felt to the audience as it feels more potential to happen to them.

Overall Opinion:
I believe that our character has been correctly presented to the audience to create a diversity in the media industry by 'branching out' and using a female protagonist, and also deliberately resonates more with the audience as they feel linked to the character as she is typical in connotation of age; therefore making the film more thrilling as it resonates with the audience on a personal level more (an effect wanted as we knew the target age we wanted from the beginning of planning this film.)

EVALUATION Q4 by Maria Beardall

Who would be the audience for your media product?

 The target audience for our media product was within the 16-25 range, and for female and males.

We chose this age gap as we wanted to create a product for others similar to our own age, with our own interests. Alike with teens and adults, we also decided that our enjoyment of the product would mirror others and through customization to young adults (close as ourselves) would mean we would work much better to make it more suitable; therefore as others would also want it to be created.

We also feel it would be open to both genders, but perhaps as we were diverse with our choice in a female character, females would therefore relate to it more and is slightly more targeted towards them than males; yet is still open to both.

What other films would the target audience enjoy?

10 Cloverfield Lane

10 Cloverfield Lane (at an age rating of 12A) has an almost 50/50 percent gender split in popularity, with males being 59% of the viewing audience and females being 41%. Our estimated age rating would be very similar to their highest viewer audience, that being the 15-24 year old mark at 47%, and 25-34 year old viewers tying second with 12-14 year old viewers at 16%. This specific demographic is very similar to our own which makes it an ideal to our audience as a similar film to watch, and even though it is a drama, it holds a lot of suspense and mystery - making it thrilling to watch also - like our own film opening. It is cleverly targeted at the largest class, C1 (professional occupations, 30% of the UK's population, the highest in the class system) which makes sense as it was seen by 37% of that audience (the highest class percentage to watch) and therefore is estimated to make a high priced £8,000,000 at the box office - a clever schematic appeal to the largest class.

 Friend Request

Friend Request (at an age rating of 15) has a larger percentage of females, 63%, and a smaller percentage of males, 37%. This is similar, or even slightly lower, than what I expect our film would have in viewing rates as our film relates more to females. The highest age percentage is 68% resonating with 15-24 year old viewers, which may be slightly unfair to comment on as it was a fifteen certificate and could not be viewed by a lower age, therefore making the percentages higher for others. The age rating is still within what our film would be and therefore again works with similarities for what others would watch. It also connects teenagers and young adults more as more young adults use the internet, found in a survey here. It therefore links them and is presumable that the younger generation would be the most interested in the film. The highest class is yet again C1, at 34% (the highest class viewing figure), which means that again the film has targeted the majority, and obviously contributes to its estimated £3,000,000 box office figure.

The Purge: Election Year

The Purge: Election Year (which has not had an age rating established yet, but from the basis of the age rating percentages, will be a 15) has, again, a fairly equal split in gender viewings - with males being at 55% and females at 45%. This is, give or take, what could be expected with our film. The highest age rating is also 66% for 15-24 year old viewers, which correlates with what we expect ours to also be. The genre matches ours with it being a thriller, yet is also an action hybrid - which makes it an ideal for this teenager/young adult mixture as it will include suspense and chaos; stereo typically what many people that age tend to enjoy as its much more active to view. The highest class is again C1 at 35%, which again links with the estimated box office figure of £4,000,000.

Overall Opinion:

I believe all above films resonate with our chosen film age and gender choices as they cover the amass of viewers to get the highest box office rating, ultimately, similar to what the above films also do. The films all have the highest age rating at 15-24, which ours is almost exact to, and also has an almost even gender viewing rate, or a tad higher for females; which I expect ours would be similar to. Class has not been established with our group, but I believe it would also be within the majority of the C1 population, the highest in the UK.

Evaluation - Q5 - Sam McLeish

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

Audience feedback with Melissa Thomas and Henri Wilcock-Fitzsimmons

Melissa is a 17 year old student from Central Sussex College.

Henri is a 17 year old student from Central Sussex College

What was explored in their audience feedbacks;

The black and white filter

The saturated filter

The natural looking filter as they dig

The 'distorted' filter

The filters - We chose to use two separate sets of filters in our sequence because it allowed for us to clearly show to the audience that there are two separate time periods in this film. We thought that this would be useful because it makes it easier to understand, in terms of narrative. This has been proven successful because when asked about the filters, Henri, said that "the distorted effect is very reminiscent of  things like 'Doctor Who' that have the view from the monster's perspective so you get the idea that someone is watching the main character", which works equally well with the sequence rather than our intention of creating the idea of a dream state. Melissa said "I like how you had the sorta contrast between the clear, but black and white, and the distortion and the colours. I thought it worked really well and you could tell that there were two separate locations, two separate ideas". This idea is also presented by other thriller film producers, most evident in 'The Disappearance of Alice Creed' (J Blakeson, 2009) when the sequence with a saturated filter which lasts until they start digging grave where it takes a dark turn. Therefore, we have clearly used these filters well. 

Pace of the sequence - In pre-production, it was clear that changing and developing the pace in the film as a whole would be an important step to take if we wanted the film to be successful. It was decided to gradually increase the pace throughout the sequence which would compliment the increasing tension on screen as the film progresses. However, the draft we showed Henri featured no dialogue, and in turn he felt that there was "a lot of dragging" when watching the sequence. Since then, this issue has been rectified and this was interpreted well by Melissa, as she said that she "liked how it started off slowly at the beginning ... and how you got to the end and it got slightly faster when you had the hand on the shoulder; I think it worked really well". This means that this aim was clearly understood by the audience. 

Backing-track - At the time this video was recorded, we hadn't decided on the non-diegetic, off-screen backing track that would accompany the film. Melissa recommended to keep the music "more ambient" and low-key rather than a full on backing-track. This was in comparison to Henri who thought that the low-key backing track "wasn't very thriller-esque", so there was conflicting opinions amongst the audience. However, when it came to choosing a backing-track for the project, it was very difficult to choose a continuous piece of music that were parallel throughout the piece. As a result of this, we chose two separate backing-tracks and used them a certain points during the sequence, and we allowed for crescendos so it was in no-way low-key. I personally feel that ignoring the advice was still a successful move for us because it contributes more to the tension, which is needed in a thriller film. This idea is also clearly presented in 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' (Niels Arden Oplev, 2009) where the music reaches a cresendo after he's opened the package.

Narrative - When asked if she would recommend it to others to see in the cinema, Melissa said "yes, I would recommend it because at the end of your sequence when the hand went on the shoulder, I literally jumped so I thought that it was very good". This is good because it shows that the overall storyline will be appealing to members of the demographic that we are targeting.

To conclude, I feel that through the above actions, we have created a sequence that appeals to our target audience because the majority are liked by our target audience. In doing so, we have attracted this audience well via content that would be interesting for them to engage with.

Evaluation - Q4 - Sam McLeish

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

It was decided that our target audience would be both males and females aged 16 - 25. This is because it is unlikely that it would be a suitable sequence for an audience any younger than this. Any older and you run the risk of the audience preferring a more intellectual film. I feel that our target audience was the right age because it allows for us to create a sequence that would appeal to us, which could be a good tester for the rest of the demographic.

What other films would our target audience enjoy? (Details provided from Pearl& Dean)

'The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials' (Wes Ball, 2015)

As shown here, it is clear that this film was targeted at our target audience as well, as shown by the fact that 41% of the audience was compiled out of people aged 15 - 24. This is significant because as it was rated 12A, which explains why the audience younger than the target audience only made up 29% because they would have also had to go with an adult. If the film was rated at a 15, these lower ages would be virtually nil and would rely heavily on audience members aged 15+, which is risky because then the company isn't inclined to make as much money as they can, meaning it is in their best interest at keeping it 12A appropriate. This film is a good example of this because it is predicted that it would make £6.5 million in the box office.


'Regression' (Alejandro Amenábar, 2015)

As presented above, 'Regression' has been able to still keep the target audience without being a 12A film. However, what is significant about this specific film is that the 15 - 24 audience is at 34% but the 45+ audience follows close behind at 32%. However, rather than remaining consistent between the age ranges, 25 - 44 has dipped to around 15% respectively. This then suggests that the producers were either aiming at the one demographic and got the other as an added bonus. I would assume that they were targeting the younger of the two through the use of the iconic actor, most connected with a younger audience, and the fact that the younger demographic is still in the lead of the two.

'10 Cloverfield Lane' (Dan Trachtenberg, 2016)

Finally, '10 Cloverfield Lane' is another key example that got their target audience as the majority, despite the fact that it was advertised as a 12A. This is shown through the fact that the younger audience consists of around a fifth of the total audience, with 15 - 24 year olds trumping at 47%. Also, as the film is expected to make £8 million at the box office, you can expect that this will be from the whole of the country because it is popular amongst lower middle/working class people (C1 at 37%) which is the majority of the population. From this, it is clear that this film is targeted at everyday people in order to reach a large audience, which in-turn would produce a larger profit if it was successful. 

In relation to the thriller films above, I feel that they are ones that my target audience would like. This is because there is an dark underlying message in each of them and they are all dramatic. As our sequence also follows the same traits, I believe that this target audience are the right people that will pay to see the film.

Evaluation - Question 2 - Sam McLeish

Question 2; How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In my opinion, albeit effectively, this product represents only few social groups; gender, and class and status are explored.

Gender

The theme of gender is explored as the protagonist is female. This is unusual for a thriller sequence because it is typical for men to be the lead characters in thriller films, and for Hollywood in general -  "new research by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University that found that females comprised a paltry 12% of protagonists in the top-grossing films of 2014". As our piece doesn't comply with the stereotype of this style of film, we are representing women in a positive light because they aren't confined to their role as secondary characters; in this piece, the male stalker is the secondary character as he has extremely limited screen time. 

The VLA shot

This idea is further supported by the fact that the female character is in every shot, apart from the establishing shot of the leaf and the shot of the male character's feet. Also, the VLA shot that is used in the hall scene challenges the stereotype of female characters because it is suggested to the audience as she is the character is in power in the scene. This progressive idea then reflects women, as a social group, positively as they are equal to men in terms of holding power.

The white dress

Also, in terms of what the character is wearing in the product, this idea of female empowerment is presented because she is wearing a dress in what could be said is a scary situation. Although what she is wearing shouldn't really effect her role in the scene, it is symbolic to the audience because a dress is white. This then connotes the fact that she is the protagonist (binary opposites - good being white) and successfully establishes her powerful role in the scene.

The quick pace of editing

In addition to this, the editing also suggests that this character is the protagonist, thus representing women as a social group. For example, the very quick pace between shots, as shown in the gif to the right, presents the character in a positive light because the sequence isn't highlighting the fact that the character is female. This then shows that she is just as relevant because the action is still happening regardless. 

Finally, the soundtrack suggests that the main focus of the sequence is the female character, as shown by the fact that the diegetic off-screen narration was read by a woman. The audience assumes that the narrator is the persona of the character as she reads in the first person. This successfully represents the social group because it is shown that she is the most important role in the entire scene.

Hanna (Joe Wright, 2011)

To conclude, I feel that the above actions were put into place so that the audience is able to sympathise with the character. This works well, in terms of the storyline, as the audience will be more engaged as they hope for the character to be safe. In doing so, we challenge the stereotype that a female's role in thriller films is to be the princess that needs saving. This idea is also shared in the film 'Hanna', as it is clear in the opening sequence is that the protagonist is female and doesn't need to be saved.



Class and Status

The POV of his shoes

The POV of the female

The idea of status is explored constantly throughout our sequence. For example, in camera-work, when the POV shot from the stalker looking at his shown. it is shown to the audience as a high angle shot looking directly down. This is then effective because it suggests that he as a character is a low-life in comparison to the female, so it gets the audience to fear/hate him during the piece. However, this interpretation shift mid-sequence when there's another POV shot of him looking at the female character from behind the tree at a eye-line level. This allows for the audience to dislike the character even more as he's getting even closer to the character that they've learnt to sympathise with. Therefore, a shift of power from the female to the scene has been presented through camera-work.

The Black and White

The natural colouring 

Status is also explored through mise en scene, specifically colour. For example, the black and white of the first scene suggests to the audience that the female character is either vulnerable or scared. This is then used to further add to the sympathy that the audience feels for the character. This is then contrasted to the second part of the sequence in which the frames are coloured naturally. As a result, it is suggested that the character now feels no fear, which is supported by the idea that her body language is confident when she walks. Due to these actions, the sequence shows the audience that the character develops the higher status in reverse from the above, which in doing so creates enigma for the audience as this chaos works well in a thriller sequence. 

The slow motion as she closes her eyes

In terms of editing, status is explored through the slow motion of the sequence. As shown here, the idea of status is presented because it allows for the audience to focus on the character in the extra few seconds and realise that she is the protagonist. This then helps, in terms of the narrative because it allows the audience to successfully explore the relationship between the two characters. In doing so, the audience then assumes that the female character holds the status within the scene as she is the one who is nearly always the focus of the shots and the male character isn't really presented to the audience until the last minute. 

The titling

Finally, status is also explored through soundtrack. For example, the echoing off-screen, diegetic dialogue of the narrator saying 'Eliza' is effective because the audience assumes that they are referring to the female character. This happens after the visuals have finished and the sequence is on the titling, which allows the audience to sink in what has just happened. This then further continues the idea that the female character holds the status within the scene as the audience only focuses on her and are then shocked as to what happened in the final moments of the sequence.

Enigma is created in Total Recall
because it suggested that it was a dream

Overall, I feel that our sequence creates lots of enigma on when it comes to class and status. On one hand, it is suggested that the male character holds the power as he causes the female to feel fear and at some moments she appears vulnerable. However, there are other moments when it is suggested that the female holds the power because she is shown more often and her body language suggests that she feels no fear at certain moments. I feel that we don't need to decide on which she feels more because they are both relevant interpretations; it may confuse the audience but this enigma is useful because it will keep them engaged throughout the film, trying to work out which is more likely. This is something that is usually used in the industry because the opening sequence to 'Total Recall' (Len Wiseman, 2012) also it abrupt and confusing, meaning that the audience wants to follow the film further. Therefore, I am happy that our sequence develops two separate ideas of class and status.