5. How did you attract/address your audience?

When attracting my audience, I had to bare in mind that I must include the conventions of a thriller that make what it what it is. Audience’s opinions have also been taken in giving me a better creative influence. Giving the audience what they want will result in a better coverage for the final outcome. In my research as mentioned prior I found that the most popular age that watch thrillers are those in their late teens and young adult years. With this in mind I could set an age appeal on my film helping me sculpt in more to them as it is the most popular age to watch these films. The next thing I also found out was that the most common gender to watch modern day thrillers was males with a result of 62%. The question’s that followed where to determine what differs the male and female interests of thrillers and what age groups prefer. This helps me create a final outcome that can appeal to larger audience, ensuring a better positive reaction of the final outcome. From my research I found that the most popular conventions in a thriller are suspense and twists. With this in mind I was able to find popular thriller titles with these conventions and see what they have done to emulate these chosen conventions. From what I found the common setting in these films have an eerie and suspenseful tension flowing through the full film, keeping audience members hooked to the plotline. The antagonist was also a main contribution, as without a unique character of the antagonist, the films wouldn’t be as strong as they are. Once an idea of how it’s going to be laid out was made I then created mystery into my opening sequence. The mystery was there to lay out this eerie atmosphere, as this will keep people hooked wanting to find out what is going on/going to happen. Accompanying this was also the setting of opening sequence. I created this dark and ill looking place that was quite common in modern day thrillers, especially for the antagonists lair as this will help represent the character and show the audience what he really is like. The evidence can be shown in the character known as ‘Buffalo Bill’ from the film ‘Silence of the lambs’. With these conventions taken in, I was then able to emulate a desired creation from the audience. Popular thriller titles where also a main contribution creatively, as these films helped me understand more as to what makes a thriller what it is, giving me an idea as to how I can create an opening sequence that will appeal to the audience. During the production process, I had to maintain an eerie suspense through the use of camera angles and point of view shots, as the wrong angle can ruin the emotive effect given.

From my nine-frame analysis, I was able to find what works well for successful modern day thrillers. My chosen film to analyze was the film ‘seven’. With this analysis I was able to find what angles where used to show particular key props and the setting itself. I found that handheld canted angles where a popular choice. Extreme close ups as well where also used, highlighting key points. This helps build the mystery as to what’s going on, keeping an interest in the audience. I took these angles on board giving me a better overall understanding of what to expect in a modern day thriller. In my opening sequence I followed similar guidelines of ‘seven’ using MCU and ‘ECU’ angles only revealing a small amount as to what’s going on, building this mystery for the audience. Canted angles where also used as this represents a sign that something in the shot is not right which helped me portray the character. With the right portrayal the character was able to appeal to the audience, as this is one of the most popular things in modern day thrillers. Characters such as ‘Hannibal’ and ‘the joker’ have this unique depth to them that attracts the audience and contributing massively to what the audience see of the film. If the antagonist is remembered well the overall film has a better chance of being remembered in a good light. When I released the opening sequence, I asked for audience feedback to see if I have achieved a successful piece that has maintained what makes a thriller so successful.

‘My favorite part was when the protagonist flipped the table, due to the excessive amounts of negative effects used, because it shows me that the character has some sort of psychotic condition. I find it amazing that this was only a 2-minute clip created by an AS student. Good work milo’

This is a couple of the feedback that was given in return. From the feedback I believe I made quite a successful result as people enjoyed it. I do however reckon I could do better if given more time but from what I’ve been told, the outcome is a success.