Untitled Prezi

Evaluation Q5

How did you attract/address your audience?

To address our audience, we used technologies like YouTube. We uploaded our videos onto YouTube, to advertise our production to our target audience. YouTube provides a strong platform for advertising our productions, as millions of people around the world use the site every day. Our target audience is 15-24 year old's, however by uploading our work onto YouTube it allowed a further wider audience to view our productions.

Because our target audience is a teenage/young adult age group, we felt it was appropriate to cast a teenage group, enabling the audience to feel an emotional connection with the characters. The group in Camp Ivy are on a walk to visit a friends grave, in a rural wooded area. Although a teenage audience may not be able to entirely relate to the situation, they can easily relate to the setting, as camping in rural areas with no adult interaction is a popular activity amongst teenagers throughout the world. This convention helps us to attract our target audience.

Sound

Casting/characters/mise-en-scene

To keep the audience engaged, we created a 'special sound' which is heard every time the killer is shown on screen. This has the effect of making the audience feel nervous and anxious when they see the killer stalking the scream queen. The long low notes held throughout the entire sequence make the audience sub-consciously hold their breath, and the high pitched strings layered on top increase the heart rate. This technique makes the audience feel constantly tense, yet also makes them more attracted to watching the film as they want to know what happens next.

Theories

We applied many theories to our production to attract a wider audience. We incorporated Barthes' narrative enigma into our opening a lot with the killer, by having them wearing a black hoodie so their identity is unknown to the audience. The jock and the outsider of the group both have their hoods up too, so having the killer wearing their hood up gives a polysemic meaning to the audience, however the preferred reading is that from this it can be signified the killer is a male.

Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze is also reflected in our production. This theory states that the scream queen is an objective figure put on screen to attract a male audience. It is not very clear at the start of our production, as our scream queen is wearing a jumper and a loose blouse. However, as she begins to be chased, her jumper and blouse are ripped off so she is left wearing a tight, low cut vest top. This is the point the theory can easily be identified.

Technologies

Editing and shots

It took us quite a while to edit our killing scene, as it proved difficult to make it appear realistic. We had a range of shots to work with, and used fast paced editing to try make the scene look effective. However, after gaining audience feedback, we were told it still needed more work. We decided that in order to keep our audience engaged, we needed to change the scene. We ended up using layering, which signifies the psychosis and madness the killer is feeling and seeing. Audience feedback from this new edit was very positive. It was important for us to listen to our audience, as we need to keep them engaged in the sequence. The ending also ends on a cliff hanger, which is an effective technique as it makes the audience eager for more.