How did we attract an audience?

Another reason why we wrote a questionnaire was to get feedback via them after our opening sequence had been shown to friends. With the answers we obtained, we understood what our target audience wanted to see, and the changes we needed to make. After this, we downloaded our trailer and opening sequence onto YouTube in order to get more feedback. As a whole, the majority of people who filled out our questionnaire enjoyed our thriller opening sequence and our trailer, and would watch the whole film if made.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The film we would like to continue to make would be either a 12 rating film which means only viewers aged twelve or over are able to see it, or a 15 rating film where only viewers aged fifteen or over are allowed to see the film as the majority of people are often too scared to watch 18 rated films which allows only those who are aged eighteen or over, and the opening sequence is far too scary to be a PG or a U, as the film is not Universal and not any one could watch it as it wouldn’t be suitable for everyone.


The audience who this film would be aimed at would be anyone between the age of fifteen and early twenties as the opening sequence of the thriller would not be suitable enough for younger ages, and those who are older might be bored with our thriller and would not speak good things of it.

However, we produced a survey which we handed out to teenagers aged 16-17 and this is what they thought after seeing our opening sequence and trailer.

Question 1
Did you understand the narrative?
Two people said yes, no one said no and seven people said a little.

Question 2
Overall how much did you enjoy the OS?
(1= not at all 5= A lot)
No body rated one or two, six rated their enjoyment as three, three rated four, and nobody rated five.

Question 3
Would you watch the whole film?
Three people said yes, nobody said no, and six people said maybe.

Question 4
What do you think of the effects?
Some people said these comments, 'The effects were relatively good', 'Lovely', 'I think they set for something good to happen', 'Good', 'They're good', 'The music', 'Very effective at the beginning'

Question 5
Did you know it begins with a dream?
Three people answered yes, four people said no, and two people said a little.

Question 6
Was the soundtrack effective?
Eight people said yes, nobody said no, but one person said a little.

Question 7
Did it build suspense?
Four people said yes, one person said no, and four people said a little.

Question 8
Was there any confusion whilst watching it?
Nobody answered yes, four people said no, and five people thought it was a little confusing.

Question 9
Does the title grab your attention?
Six people thought it does, one person didn't, and two people thought the title did grab their attention a little.

Question 10
What could be improved?
Here are what our audience thought we could improve on both our opening sequence and our trailer, 'Clearer narrative' , 'The narrative', 'Narrative clearer', 'The talking interacting scene between characters a little confusing', 'Make narrative clearer', 'The shot of the two people talking talk louder'.

All of these answers are helpful as we can focus on our target audience and the films they enjoy watching. We have learnt that many aspects of the opening sequence needs to be a lot clearer and bolder than it already is; the title so it really captures the viewers attention, whole story to be more clearer so viewers can watch it and instantly know what was going on, make the narrative clearer and to make viewers want to watch the rest of the film after seeing the opening sequence.
Our typical audience target member would be daring and fun but they'd know their limits, their dress sense would be fashionable but not big on fashion. The entertainment they would enjoy and in to would probably be going out to parties, the bar and going shopping. Our film would be enjoyable to them as it is daring, slightly scary, and the narrative can often frighten people, and this typical member would be in their mid-teens, so like 15,16,17 years old as people at this particular age seem to be more open to this type of genre films to other age groups. This typical audience member for our opening sequence would look a bit like the picture below;

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

Dark Castle has distributed many films like ours such as Gothika which was distributed in 2009. The majority of the films Dark Castle have distributed have been a success and all of them have similar genres to our film and to Gothika. This distributing company would be a major company which would enable the film and the company to get more earnings and we wouldn't have to find a distributor to distribute our film.

Below is a trailer for Gothika



Another thriller film which doesn't share the same thriller genre as ours, is called 'DeJaVu', whose distributer is Touchestone pictures. Touchestone pictures is the distributing company for Walt Disney, but often distribute more mature films, such as our thriller, 'Reinventing your Exit'. DeJaVu was a success from Touchstone pictures' distributing; however they would not distribute our film, as the films they tend to distribute don't have such a graphic genre. This particular distributing company is a major distributor as it is apart of Walt Disney.

Below is a trailer for DeJaVu

How have we developed our skills from the preliminary task and the opening sequence?

We have developed our skills by producing various techniques and using them effectively. An example of this would be when, in the opening sequence, the girl in the white top vanishes on the road, and reappears further up, towards the camera. We could have used a similar technique when the girl is walking to the library, or looking around in the library in the preliminary task. Also, in the preliminary task, there is almost no background music where as in the opening sequence there is. Another aspect of our development are the camera angles we have used, the special effects and our use of sound; disappearing then reappearing, slow motion running, various transitions, heart beat. This all shows our progression from our preliminary task as in our preliminary task we had no special effects, not many effective camera angles, and our use of sound was at very minimal. However, in our opening sequence we have increased our ability and have included effective techniques which we weren't able to include before.

The aspects which make a good thriller opening sequence.

To produce a good thriller opening sequence you need to create suspension which will get the audience to want to watch the rest of the film to know what the climax is. Another aspect is that a thriller shouldn't contain too much action unless it is an action thriller, as in a thriller, it is important to build up the suspense first and to unleash the action slightly further on in the film as viewers may grow bored as the main piece of action has already taken place. Also, it is quite important for the viewers to know the narrative.
These few aspects I think feature in our thriller opening sequence as we have created suspense throughout the sequence which is constantly being built up, and our narrative is quite clear from the very beginning. Gothika for example, has an opening sequence which builds up suspense and gets the viewer to want to watch the rest of the film, to see where it leads to.

What have you learnt about technologies creating this product?

After completing our thriller opening sequence, we decided to experiment with various sounds, music tracks, and various special effects, which was very enjoyable. However, after doing all these experiments, we decided we liked the seriousness of our opening sequence to our thriller as it built up the suspense of the film. The different aspects we added was a new sound track which was 'Gold' by Spandau Ballet. From this experiment, I have learnt that the mood of the film your are trying to portray comes is very much involved with the music you allow along side it, as the message you are trying to put across to the audience won't be taken seriously with a humorous music track.