Audience Feedback

One of the things that my group and I thought would be helpful would be to get a group of people, let them watch our thriller and then give us feedback on what was good/ what to improve.

Some of criticisms we received and one of the most popular view was that they didn't get our intended reading, as they thought the actor killed himself afterwards, not getting the view of him threatening the police with the gun. However, they all did agree that if it was a full film, they would of understand the next scene and realised what our actor was doing.

A lot of positive feedback was related to mise en scene as everybody commented on how well our room looked like a motel room and little details were noticed like the fire safety sign at the back of the door. They also commented on the lighting and how they thought it looked very realistic but could of had another colour to add to the street lamp.

Another positive was towards our overall editing and sound as they thought the sound effects used were useful in telling the story and really built up the tension whilst the editing was slick and quick.

Evaluation Task 7 - Looking back at your preliminary taski, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

 



Evaluation Task 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your product?

My group and I have added annotations to our sequence as we feel that best represents answering the question.

Evaluation Task 5 - How did you adress/ attract your audience?

Within our opening sequence we have purposely done things so that we appeal to our target audience which is ages between 15-50.

 

In order to do this we used a rugged looking male as our main character as we think it will attract our audience as he is a 'standard guy' who then has superior status over the forces. For age purposes we didn't want our main character to look to young as we feel our older audiences would not want this so we thought a character in his late 20s would suit.

 

Within our film we have planned to use lots of music to create the feeling of suspense through out and at the ending of our opening sequence has lots of tension building music including the sounds of helicopters and police sirens. We feel that this will interest our audience especially the people that focus highly on soundtracks and big names within the sound of a film.

 

Our thriller is mostly targeted at men as our film is a political-spy-on the run thriller with some violence but from my research into audiences I did find that there was a female audience as the idea of a female heroin (played by Megan Lee) was very attracting to them.

 

Another thing that we think will appeal to our audience (especially teenage boys) is the idea of our main character standing up to the police forces and playing a game with them (as they would see in the next scene, he only threatens to shoot himself and it's then revealed that he has power over them and manages to escape unharmed).

 

We also know that many British people like watching typical American films which may not be the greatest  movie or the most original storyline with the most realistic factors but still deliver being a good, watchable film. The incorporation within our film, I think, will appeal to our audience as it has a mixture of moderate violence and action sequences.

 

Evaluation Task 4 - Who would be the target audience for your media product?

Our thriller is going to be a certificate 15 as it will include moderate violence and strong language.
 

For this task I have gone and collected data to support my evidence that our product will most likely be viewed by people aged between 15 to 50 as our film can appeal to many different ages. I filmed over 20 people who are all in the brackets of 15 to 50 and have asked them a few basic questions to help me get an understanding to who our target market is and how to advertise our product.

My group and I have discussed and we think that our product most likely will appeal more to men than women but will still have some interest from women.

These are the questions I asked:

1. How old are you?
2. What is your favourite genre of film?
3. What do you expect to see in a thriller?
4. What do you like about thrillers?
5. What is your favourite thriller?
6. Would you watch a thriller about a man on the run, who has intelligence about the American government?

Within my research I found that most people would watch my thriller but also noticed that is was quite similar to other films. Many people also said that the thriller had to have suspense and keep the audience guessing in order for it to be interesting.

Here are a few of the interviews:

 

Evaluation Task 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our thriller had no budget as my group and I are only students and we can not provide substantial finance for this project. As it was very cheap to make, it suggests that small independent companies would be more suited to our film however our concept and story has the potential to translate into being a big film with possibly a Hollywood/American distributer. I do think that our product is more American than British and may even in fact appeal more to Americans as it is an American political thriller and there will be multiple stunt scenes which I think Americans in particular find very interesting. Some of these films include: Vantage Point and State of Play.

Our product is central towards an American theme and getting an American motel across to our audience as well as a whole film is our main goal. Our idea definitely could be made into a sizeable motion picture and we think that an medium sized American distributor would be ideal.

I have been researching American distributer companies that would fit within our outline and have found a few that may fit nicely. It also included their company logo and the range of money usually spent on an individual film:


Castle Rock ($5-$20million)





Film District ($10-$30million)





Gramercy Pictures ($5-$25million)






Lionsgate ($10-$40million usually but does have one off $100million budget films)







Overture Films ($20-$50million)









Working Title Films ($20-$35million)

Evalation Task 2 - How does your product represent particular social groups?

We wanted an American theme to come across through our one and only on-screen character . To do this we had to be very stereotypical and create a 'regular American guy' in our thriller.

 

The costume we dressed him in was very consistent of a low key American trucker type and we did this in particular by combining a plaid shirt, cap, trousers and trainers. Tom was of white ethnicity- we thought this would be more suitable for our film and suited our main character more. We always said we wanted a rough looking adult, who has brown/black hair with quite a medium to big frame and facial stubble who was approximately aged between 25 to 30.

 

From our groups point of view we had to make our character very stereotypical as we did not have the budget to go to America and film in an American motel and have all the specific props. I think that if we did have a big budget and were supported by an American distributor we most defiantly would of not dressed our character the way we did. I think we would have dressed him more casual for example, the picture on the right demonstrates what we would have gone for as its more understated.

 

I think our actor still did a very good job for the purpose of the day but I do think that for our film he is possibly not the right person as he is too young and does not have our 'perfect look' in mind. The man pictured on the left was our first option but he was unable so overall when filming our real film we would make sure we had the suitable actor.

I think our audience quickly can understand our theme of our thriller and we give many clues to them that our character is possibly on the run and waiting for the police. From his costume, I think its clear to see that  he is low key and not trying to come across as anything other than fitting in and being a normal man.

 

Another aspect to consider is the policemen that we have (you can hear them but not see them). We do want these to be very stereotypical 'doughnut eating cops' and this will be done by having them speak and act in a certain way.



Evaluation Task 1 - In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge of conventions of real media products?

 

Finished Opening Title Sequence