How effectively have

we met the wants of

the target audience

from the

questionnaire

results?

Child and Adult Actors.

25/30 of our target audience voted that they wanted the main

characters of the production to be both child and an adult

actors. In our opening sequence, the only character filmed

was the father, the adult, although if we were to have made

the entire film, both the father, played by Charles Pickering,

and a child actor would have also starred in the film. The fact

that we did not use a child actor did may not have satisfied

the wants of the target audience, however, we believed as a

group that reinforcing the isolation the protagonist was

experiencing was so vital to the production, thus we did not

have any other character featuring in the opening sequence.

The use of wide-shots The majority of the target audience wanted the production to

use wide-shots to enhance their understanding of the

character. We used a wide-shot in our production and, as a

group, we feel it did develop their understanding of the

character, as the shot was of an extreme long shot of the

character within a wide shot. The audience would therefore

gain an understanding of his isolation and lack of

involvement within society. Having an understanding of the

protagonist also allowed the target audience to judge with out

prejudice, (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs) thus satisfying

more of their needs from the production,

Woman role The target audience did not see the role of a woman as vital

to our production, as they wanted the production to focus on

the relationship between the father and son. Due to the fact

that the protagonist was the only character featured ion the

production, no other actors were used. This therefore

gratified the opinion of the target audience. If we were to

have made the entire film we would have had an actress

playing the mother, although her role would not be in the film

for a great amount of time, due to the focus on the

development on the relationship between the father and son.

Writing the script Although no dialogue was used in the opening sequence, if

we have had created the entire film, we would have written

the script ourselves, rather than allow the actors to self-

improvise, as the target audience voted. We believed that,

particularly when working with child actors, it could prove

difficult to portray some of the ideologies we wanted to. By

writing the script ourselves, we can emphasise the ideologies

we want to in a specific way, as well as fulfilling the wants of

the target audience.

Props Ordinary, every-day props were used throughout the

production, coinciding with the opinion of the target audience.

Not only were ordinary props more simple to provide, but it

also reinforced the fact that the narrative is based on the

characters and their development, producing emotional

pleasures which the target audience would have appreciated.

We therefore used simple props, such as a shovel, beer cans

and cards. This also reinforced the verisimilitude of the

production.

Regional identities Throughout our production, we represented a fairly

stereotypical representation of an underclass man from the

Midlands. In hindsight, as our target audience appreciate the

challenging of stereotypes, we could have made the

representation of the character less stereotypical. However,

the target audience voted that they wanted the

representations of regional identities used throughout the

production and we did this well, through the use of the

country-house, the wide-shot of the field, as well as the used

of the shovel, which, stereotypically, are often used in

Midlands countryside areas.

Setting/location The target audience voted that they wanted the setting of the

production to be a combination of both rural and urban areas.

Unfortunately, we did not achieve this in our opening

sequence, as it is shot in a rural location. if we have had

made the entire film, we would have considered shooting a

scene in an urbanised area, where we could highlight the

insecurity of the protagonist when in contact with modern

society and many people. However, it could be argued that

the use of the rural setting reinforced the sense of isolation of

the protagonist.

Narrative If we have had created the entire film, we plan to have had a

new-equilibrium, with the father coming out of his isolation,

depression and alcoholism, and building a strong and close

relationship with his son. This would have suited the wants of

the target audience, as the majority of them voted that they

would want a new equilibrium. On the other hand, in our

opening sequence, there is a lack of a prospect of a new

equilibrium, due to the slow-motion shot of the protagonist

falling to his knees. However, the new-equilibrium is a

challenging of the social realism genre convention, thus

attracting our active and intellectual target audience.

Social issues One of the wants of the target audience we satisfied to the

greatest effect was the involvement of many current social issues incorporated into our production. Simply in the opening sequence, we display a variety of current social issues for our target audience to appreciate, such as alcoholism, depression, isolation, unemployment and fatherless children. This vast range of social issues will attract our target audience to great effect. In our opinion, this is the best example of how we met the wants of the target audience throughout our entire production. The involvement of social issues is also a convention of the social realism/drama genre.