How did you attract/address your audience?

Half way through production I asked some people for feedback on my film. Some of the people I asked fitted into the target audience, and much of the criticisms and suggestions made by them I tried to improve on.
As mentioned earlier the audience can identify or at least understand the main character as the age group would be similar (therefore the clothing and hairstyle etc… is very much recognizable amongst the audience.)

Choices I made in editing my product allowed the audience to identify with the character and the film. The choice of music was cemeteries of London by Coldplay. Apart from Coldplay being a band well known and recognised by young adults and teenagers, there were other adjustments I had to make to fit in with the actual content and genre of the film. I chose to use the instrumental version as the music was the tense and creepy element to the song. Apart from that, I took out the lyrics as I thought they would distract the audience from the actual film and they could also influence the viewer.

Laura finds the letter^

In terms of editing to show the genre of the film there were several things I took into account. One of the positives the viewers commented on was the effect of black and white I put on my film. This gave it an element commonly used in crime films to show ‘what happened’ but also as the shop was very colourful and bright, this did not give the right tone so it had to be ‘dampened down.’ Another comment which was commonly made was the lack of fast pace cuts used. I agree that thrillers should be fast paced, and to increase the tension (a build up) to the end of the sequence I realised I had to add quicker cuts which I managed to add when Laura was walking to the back of the shop and her reaction and the viewer seeing the light under the door.

Looking back at my original idea, not much has been changed. The main story line is there, but the choice of shots I used to make the film make sense has slightly altered my story board. I have used shots and editing that I had not thought about previously. For example, using black and white effect made my film much better but not to confuse the audience and thinking perhaps the whole film would be in black and white I had to add a small sequence after the titles to establish and show the audience the film wasn’t in fact ALL in black and white. Initially I had plans of inserting more establishing shots of the shop but the feedback I received (and I agree) it showed that it did not give the right tone and the cuts were too slow- the thriller had to be pacey.

Showing the audience the film wasn't in black and white- a shot from the scene in the office.