How did you attract and address your audience?
I tried to attract my audience by creating characters that could be related and similar as possible to the target audience. An example of this was having my main characters a similar age as the target audience. Also I thought having my characters going and exploring a weird scary place could also get some people relating with them from very early in the film.
I thought a great way of addressing and getting my audience’s attention would be filming the majority of the opening in a handheld camera style. I wanted to give the audience that sense of breaking the fourth the wall and having them as involved and engaged as I possibly could. I did this by having one of the actors talk directly to the audience explaining the backstory and the reason for the boys being in the forest on a one to one connection. My actor dominated the frame and addressed the audience directly.
An example of this is that I haven’t made my audience feel superior to the characters. I have tried to keep that connection as strong as possible. So if something unexpected happens to the characters it is also going to be a shock to the audience as well.
When one of your main characters gets snatched away we do not see any physical harm occur. I thought it would be a good choice to do this because that means the character and the audience won’t lose that built up connection. Rather than just seeing that character die.
Before filming my thriller I made a questionnaire to get some audience feedback which I found really helpful. I was originally going to film my thriller in an old house. But after looking at the feedback I saw that people thought It would be better to be set outside in an already scary place. I was also going to have an increased cast, there was originally going to be three lads going to explore the forest but I and the audience thought that it would be easier to get a connection with two characters rather and three. Also using the uses and gratification theory if the audience find the product more appealing they are going to want to consume more of it. That’s just not films but all things in life if you like it more you are going to be more interested in it.
