Media Evaluation V - Anissa Daud

Question V: How did you attract/address your Audience?

The fact that the protagonist is a teenager already helped to attract the audience, due to the fact that the target audience is also around the same age range as Sophie. Additionally, we've tried to tackle issues that would undoubtedly allow our audience to relate - although the kidnapping element of the film is one that is slightly unrealistic, the theme of bullying is an issue which is quite prominent within our clip and this helps our Target Audience relate considering the fact that they will have come across this issue during some point of their teenage years.

To further attract our audience, we have carefully selected the location to be on school grounds - this again ensures that our audience is able relate to the Opening.

Louisa Cheung: Evaluation 5) How did you attract/address your audience?

Following the convention of the opening of a thriller, we chose to include a distributor and a production company. This is so that when viewers are watching, it gives a  sense of professionalism and also that as we have a distributor, it gives the impression that the narrative of the film is successful.For the Rising Star Productions,we used Adobe Illustrator to create the logo.Afterward to make the ray of light appear we imported the logo onto iMovie and put on a title effect.

We created the animation by using After Effects and created the Soundtrack by using Garage Band. We used the idea of a light bulb because when researching how other films introduce their distribution and production companies a common trait used are lights (e.g. 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Dreams). Another common trait is the  sound. The triumphant soundtrack played on top also makes a big impact, as viewers relate back to the company once hearing it.

We used the school toilets to start our opening thriller because it's where we introduce our protagonist. As she is a victim of bullying, we looked at how other films illustrate victims when they are alone and so like in the beginning of Mean Girls when Cady is eating alone in the toilets, we filmed our girl alone in the toilets crying and looking at where she was injured and hurt by the bullies.

Our target audience is aged 15 and on-wards and therefore will either still be in education or have left start work. The narrative is set in the school scenario and therefore our audience can still relate to it. Also by using a young protagonist will ensure that our target audience can relate to her situation.The smudging that we applied on the mirror with paint was intended as it was a reflection of Sophie's life. It shows her inner conflict and barrier within herself to which is unresolved in the opening.

During the process of editing, we also distorted the lighting of the shots where the girl was being bullied. It shows that it's a flash of the past and is continuously used when cross cutting occurs between the toilets and the flashbacks.


To confirm to the audience that caretaker is involved in the film,we dressed our actor (Mr Gibbs) in dirty overalls and got him to push a red trolley.We added subtle appearances of the caretaker to entice our audience and therefore it is them to question why is he in the shots and what sort of relationship will form?


Once again by using After Effects, we were able to animate our title which causes the letters to expand. This ironically contrasts the words together which is included within the title, but is supports the unconventional, confusing relationship between the protagonist and antagonist.We decided to choose a shattered bold font that reflects the couples relationship within the film. Also by applying the soundtrack inspired by David Lynch, it gives a jerky distorted impression which is generic of a thriller as it makes you uncomfortable.

Another convention we included in our thriller opening, is the late appearance of the antagonist. We shot this with a low angle shot to illustrate his importance and power in the film. The low angle shot not only reveals his sense of power over Sophie but also it feels like he is belittling the audience.

We were able to attract the attention of our target audience by the issues raised within our thriller opening. The issues of bullying can be applied universally and therefore the issue can be applied to the mainstream audience. Bullying is a sensitive topic to which our mass audience would relate to.With there having many dimensions to bullying such as cyber bullying and physical bullying etc. we had to take precautions to what we could film and include in our thriller opening.