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

Any film needs to be attractive and enjoyable to its audience in order to succeed and my opening is no different. To attract the audience of 15-21 year old white British people, my film would need to appeal directly to the interests and personalities of this audience. In any film, mise-en-scene, narrative and references to genre or other films can all be linked to attracting audiences, encouraging them to consume and enjoy the text.

My opening attracts and appeals to its audience in a number of ways. The audience is engaged by the mysterious, strange, cold and removed mise-en-scene, connoted by the frost that covers and obscures the landscape and the grey colouration of much of the shots in the opening. many aspects of the mise en scene links to the art-house audience as this tone removes the film from typically highly-saturated  Hollywood films and also links to the avant garde Dogme 95 film-making movement. The characters are all within the 15-21 age range, so that would be an appealing and engaging element of the film to this audience, which could also link to the technological prop of the camera, an interest many of the young and arty members of the audience may share. The characters are all dressed realistically and appropriately for their age group, which makes the film appear more believable as well as helping the audience to relate to the characters.

The use of flashback, cross cutting and unconventional narrative makes the film more interesting to somebody who is a regular and in depth consumer of films such as my creative and educated audience. This prevents the audience from being able to predict the course of the story too easily, which would make the film boring and un-engaging. The genre of thriller is also a good way of attracting the audience as the action of the murder is an interesting focal point, but the realist and surrealist tone counter acts it and stops it from becoming blander and more formulaic.

Furthermore, there is the appeal of the openings ending, a cliff hanger, which goes a ways towards gaining the permanent attention of the audience.  The audience are left without a definitive conclusion of the fate of the character of Grace and this builds tension and fear for the fate of the protagonist. Without this, it is arguable the audience would not be encouraged to keep watching the film and that the narrative would lack a hook. 

I interviewed a small selection of people who would fit into my target audience, aged from 16-18 and interested in art-house independent films. From this audience feedback, I learnt that the cinematography and tone of the film are appealing to the target demographic along with the mysterious and enigmatic narrative progression and characters, although for some the pace of the start of the film is a little slow.

Overall, the opening has many elements I believe the audience would find to be attractive.