Evaluation - Question 5 (Elliot)

How did you attract/address your audience?

With reference to successful films such as Lucy (Besson, 2014), The Hunger Games (Ross, 2012) and Divergent (Burger, 2014), where the main protagonist character was female, Evan and I decided that our focus audience would be within the key demographic, being 15 - 25 year olds. We felt that our thriller would have been appropriate for a younger-than-18 audience according to the BBFC as the violence contained in our thriller would not be too significant nor would there be any illicit sexual references.

Also, I found that, from questionnaires, thrillers were most popular amongst this age range and so our thriller would be most successful being targeted to this audience. More particularly, from looking at film series' such as Divergent and The Hunger Games trilogy I found that female protagonists were highly successful within the film industry - especially those that are portrayed as being on a journey of discovery. 

Furthermore, I also saw that thrillers were least popular amongst girls and so by having a female protagonist we opened our thriller up to a wider response from both male and female audiences as thrillers conventionally have male protagonists. In light of this, I wondered whether having a female protagonist would discourage male viewers but, again from our questionnaires, found this not be the case and in fact some male participants from our audience focus group said that this would make the thriller more appealing, if anything. Although females are stereotypically the damsel in distress, it is not often that they are central protagonists and so this "set the film apart from others within its genre" as the only example thriller with a female protagonist within the past few years is Lucy.

In addition to the above, our thriller opening also uses specific settings such as a busy highstreet at the weekend and a coffee shop; all settings that are familiar to our target audience and by using such settings our thriller opening becomes more appealing to our target audience. As these settings are relatable to our audience, the protagonist character becomes more relatable for the audience. Thus, this aspect of our film would appeal to our target audience.

Additionally, we felt that with current technology such as social media and internet streaming, this would be the most effective way to attract our audience. As a result, I set up a Twitter account for the movie (search @Broken_TheMovie on Twitter) and have posted movie posters, that I created, from the account. I created the (below) movie posters on photoshop and then had to translate the images to jpg format in order to upload them.

Overall I feel that both movie posters are highly effective in constructing and attracting an audience as they establish enigma and present Andrea (Rosie Gill) as the protagonist of the film. From looking at the poster above we can clearly see Andrea with a masked antagonist in the back. Both characters are visible but remain in shadow, creating mystery and establishing the thriller genre to the audience. In spite of this it could be said that the poster is borderline horror, however as there is no blood or gore I feel that the poster is effective in implying that the this is a thriller not a horror.

If we look at thriller posters such as those for Lucy we can see that the eyes are conventionally used. This is perhaps because the eyes, when in focus, are often very unnerving and also can seem somewhat threatening - conventional of psychological thrillers. Both posters for Lucy and for Broken have quotes that convey the underlying themes of the thrillers. "The average person uses 10% of their brain capacity" immediately presents the theme of human intelligence and the limits of the human mind whereas our thriller opening has a quote by Tolkien, relating to themes of self-defeat and inner-strength; "The crownless again shall be king". 

What is different between the thriller posters is that I included an age rating on both so that our audience will immediately know that they can see the film and also the extent of the violence and sexual content as lower age ratings would have less adult content. Like Lucy, the first poster also has the release date of the film so that the audience can be made aware of when the film will be available to view in cinemas so that they can keep the date, attracting our target audience. What's more, the use of the short-hand date "5/9/2015" in American Typewriter font establishes synergy within the film and portrays the theme of memory, establishing a diary-like feel to the film poster.

Also, as our film would have been marketed to a Hollywood media institution we would have had cast interviews on talk shows such as "Alan Carr: Chatty Man" where he has interviewed well-known movie actors such as Morgan freeman, known for his roles in Sherlock and The Hobbit. This would help to attract our audience, as seen from our questionnaires, those that fell in the higher age range for our target audience (around 18-25) watch this talk show and so this would likely attract our audience.

Besides the above, I also created a short film trailer that would be aired on TV prior to the release of the film. The trailer would also be available to view on Facebook and YouTube and I have posted a link to this via the Twitter page. This immediately addresses the audience and makes them aware of the film and the details of it. In turn, this would hopefully attract and grow the audience with members of the public sharing the trailer and other links via social media and word-of-mouth; "a key advertisement tool" that is essential to the success of a film whereby people essentially spread word about the film amongst conversation with friends, family and people they meet - thus, creating the mass audience, conventional of Hollywood blockbuster movies.

Moreover, the portrayal of Andrea (Rosie Gill) as a troubled female protagonist is also what might appeal to our target audience as some members from the focus group commented on this and said that this would help our film stand away from mainstream thrillers and invite viewers from other backgrounds such as those from The Hunger Games that is heavily fan-based on novels written by Suzanne Collins. In contrast, The Hunger Games and Divergent both have female protagonists that are white dark-haired teenagers and so this would appeal to our audience as this is typical of movies with female protagonists (as seen below).

Katniss, Mockingjay - Part 1

Tris, Divergent

Hazel, the Fault In Our Stars