Evaluation Question 5

Question 5 – How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted the audience in various ways, for example by posters of my film "Lets Dance". These would be seen in places like in magazines, on banners at bus stops, and places were people would drive by. These would be put in these places to attract the target audience, as they would be likely to read magazines as they are teenagers, and they also would be in school, so if they are put at a bus stop they would be likely to see it. Another reason is if they are put in places were people would drive by, they are likely to see it on there way out with parents or driving past on a bus for example. This would attract them as they would be seeing it in various places making them curious as to what it is about, and therefore going to watch it.

The entire opening sequence as a whole shows the audience that the girl is doing ballet and has a passion for it, and this is shown through her actions, for example being very worried before dancing and looking around to see no one is watching before starting, and this gives the audience the impression that she is doing it in secret and it makes them wonder why, especially in the part of the opening sequence where she hears someone coming up the stairs and so hides her wig behind her mirror and jumps in to bed to hide the ballet shoes she has on and pretends to read a magazine. This makes the audience ask questions as to why she is dancing in secret and also wonder why she does not want anyone to know, making them continue watching to find out this. I also attracted the audience by doing some fancy ballet looking credits. These were the colour pink with a bit of blue in it, as the film is targeted at female teenagers, the primary target audience and this colour gives the audience a clear of who the film is targeted to, as pink is usually a girls colour making them want to watch it as it is directed at them. And the colour blue, is for the secondary target audience, as blue is usually represented with boys, and this could make them want to watch it too.

The audience were also attracted and addressed by the mise en scene used. The hair in the opening sequence is normal and plain, and the character is wearing a wig. This is to show the audience that she wants to be someone different and it also shows them that she has insecurities about herself not being famous and this shows the childlike side to her, like in the children’s series "Hannah Montana", she wears a wig to hide her “famous identity” so she is two people, and this can also represent that the character in my opening sequence also has two sides to her, her inside “famous side” and her outside “good child” that her parents perceive her to be. This can make the audience want to see the film to see if her true inner self will come out eventually. The audience may be able to relate to the character having two sides to her as they too may be hiding a secret hobby from their parents that they want to do, and may not be able to show that side of themselves much as their parents may want them to concentrate on the most important things in life like their education for example. This keeps the audience interested, primarily as they can relate to the character, and secondly as they would want to see if she will tell the truth eventually.

The character is not wearing any make up in the opening sequence, although some are on the table. This is done to show the audience that she usually does wear make up as there is some on her table near to the mirror, but her not wearing any at that moment shows the audience she is not planning on going out anywhere any time soon. This aims to keep the audience interested as the target audience would have the same interests, meaning they would most probably wear make up too, making them relate to the character in some way.

Costume also addresses the audience to keep them interested in the film. The costume consists of black plain leggings, a plain white shirt, pink ballet shoes and a wig. The leggings and shirt can show the audience that she is just practising in her room, as these clothes are easy to move in, and the ballet shoes show the audience she does ballet whilst the wig shows the audience she is hiding her identity and wishes to be somebody else. This keeps the audience interested as they would want to know why she wishes to be someone else, and also the plain looking clothes show the audience that she is just a normal young child practising in her room however as she hides two parts of the costume, the wig and ballet shoes the audience will be gripped to the film as they will want to know if she will get caught later on or not.

Facial expression also aims to keep the audience interested. In the opening sequence, the girl's facial expression is a panic expression when she hears someone coming up the stairs and this gives the audience an impression that she is very worried and scared of someone catching her, which makes them wonder why. Also in the opening sequence the girls facial expression is relieved when she notices that no one had caught her doing her ballet dancing and she had hidden the shoes, giving the audience the impression that she desperately does not want to get caught dancing for some important reason, which is what the audience would want the answer to, keeping them interested.

Body language is also an important part of mise en scene that helps to keep the audience interested in the film. For example, the girls body language is very calming and elegant when she is doing her ballet dancing, showing the audience that she is very passionate about her ballet dancing. But when she hears someone coming up the stairs to check up on her, she panics and her body language changes to all panicky and nervous, and she shows this by running around confused trying to find somewhere to hide the wig. This makes the audience wonder why she is calm when she is by herself doing ballet, but very nervous when she thinks someone may catch her doing it.

Colour also aims to keep the audience interested, and it does this by the actual colour that is used. The colours used in the opening sequence are quite bright and vibrant to reflect the type of dancing the girl is doing. The colours consist of a lot of pink and other bright colours shown through her duvet cover and her ballet shoes, plus the credits. This shows the audience that the film is to do with quite a stereotypical teenage girl, as the colour “pink” usually is to do with girls when it is mentioned. This lets the audience know that the film is mostly targeted at girls, as if the colour dark blue was used for example, the audience could get the impression that the film is not targeted for them, and actually for boys, so pink was a great colour to use. This also keeps the audience interested as if they notice the colours used it can make them realise the genre of film which is a teenage high school drama, rather than a horror, which would most likely have the colours black and red dark mysterious colours in it.

The lighting of the film is a natural lighting, and this is done as it works with the genre of film we are doing, and reflects it too. Ass if a crime mystery thriller were to be done, the lighting may be dimmed and dull to reflect the mood, so a natural lighting was best for this genre as any other lighting would not make sense, and would be confusing for the audience to watch. Also, if the audience like this genre of film, they can find out clearly what it is, by the lighting which is a good thing.

The position of the props in the framing of the film also keep the audience interested. This is so, as for example, in the shot were the teddy was in focus in the foreground and the girl in the background was blurred, which was also the rule of thirds, this can give the audience the impression that the girl has a childlike side to her behind all of her obsessions, but she is blurring who she really is from society, which can be shown by this. Another example of the position of the props in the frame is when all the girls make up and other beauty products were in front of the mirror. This shows the audience that she uses her make up and beauty products often as they were in front of the mirror. Also most of the things in the bedroom were placed neatly, apart from her magazines on her bed. This was done to show the audience that she likes to take care of herself and her bedroom, and the magazines on the bed can show that she likes to read them a lot an also wants to be updated regularly on celebrity news. This keeps the audience interested as they can clearly see what type of person she is by the way the things are organised in her room.

I also attracted and addressed the audience through the editing in which was used. The editing which was actually used was making the cuts flow together well as a whole. We did this by using continuity and match on action. Continuity was used whenever the girl would do something different. For example, in our actual opening sequence the girl walked from the mirror to her bed to reveal the secret hiding place of her ballet shoes, and this was done by showing a medium shot of her turning away from the mirror to walk to the bed, and then a cutaway was used when she was taking out the shoes under the mattress. This was done so the film would flow better, and make sense, so if the girl was in the mirror at one second and taking out her shoes the next this would not make sense for the audience and would not keep them interested in watching the film as this would look quite odd and unprofessional for them to see. Match on action was also used in this opening sequence, and this was done when the girl was smiling in her bed and when her sister was looking at her. When shooting this was done in a different order, but when editing we made the shots come together to show that the girl was hiding what she was doing by a fake smile and the sister locked the door and went out with no suspicion. This was done to show the audience that the girl did not want her sister to know what she was doing, and she hid it by doing a “smile” and “reading” a magazine, which keeps the audience interested as they would want to know if the girl would get caught later on, and also as if the girl just randomly smiled at the door when no one was there yet it would look odd, so match on action had to be used here to make it flow well and make the audience interested.

Sound is also anther factor in which was used when attracting and addressing the audience. For example, no dialogue is used as if it was it may give too much as the storyline away and not build suspense as to what it is about, and there were no sound effects either, as they were not needed for our genre of film and would most probably be suited in a comedy kids film more than a teenage high school drama one. There were also no voice overs used in the opening sequence, as we thought it would be best just to put a normal soundtrack to it instead. So we put two soundtracks in. A happy uplifting one was used at the beginning when the room was being shown, giving the audience a clear image of what genre the film is, and a slow at first but building tension soundtrack was used from when the girl picked up her wig and was doing her ballet routine, to when her sister came and nearly caught her. We chose these soundtracks as we thought it would be much more interesting if these were used and it would also suit the film more, especially the second soundtrack which built tension towards the middle to show that the girl was panicking and also to reflect her feelings inwardly at the time. This also keeps the audience gripped if the music reflects what is going on in the film at the time as it is much more interesting to see, keeping them interested.

Camera movements/angles/shots also keeps the audience interested. This is done by a slow camera movement at the beginning and when all her personal belongings like make up etc. are being shown to reflect the mood of the beginning of the film, and it also leaves the audience not too sure about what to expect. The camera angles used are a wide angle shot for example, and this was done to show that the setting is the interior of a girls bedroom, and this type of angle also exposes her posters and make up etc. showing the audience that this is a typical teenage girls room. And the shots used are quite creative in some areas for example, the rule of thirds shot with the bear in the foreground in focus and the girls in the background blurred, giving the audience the impression that she is childlike but also hiding her personality, making the audience wonder why she feels the need to feel this way. These uses of camera movements/shots and angles help to keep the audience interested.

The prior knowledge of a particular genre I would expect my audience to have would be knowledge of how a particular genre actually comes across. For example a horror film would be presented in a much more different way to that of a romance film for example. I can make use of this to attract them to my film by using a particular type of font and colour used or soundtrack for example. In my opening sequence Lets Dance, the soundtrack we used was a happy cheerful and classical soundtrack and this gives the audience the impression that it is a teenage high school drama, and not a mystery horror, as if it was this, we would have most probably used a dark and mysterious soundtrack. Also the font and colour used is a pink and blue bright plain looking font. This again shows the audience what genre the film is as it it were horror it would be dark and red type colours.

The themes chosen is obsession, and this can attract our audience as the girl has a deep loving passion for ballet and so it restricts her from her education, and so she does it in secret in order to be happy. The audience may be able to relate to this theme as they may inwardly want to do something, but it is restricted due to there parents wanting them to focus on education for example. Other successful films that have addressed similar themes are films like:

• Black Swan
• Ballet Shoes
• Step Up
• Billy Elliot

The film Black Swan addresses the theme of an obsession with ballet, which eventually over powers her life. And Ballet Shoes, Step Up and Billy Elliot involve the kids wanting to do dancing but it has been disrupted by something or someone not letting them do it, but they eventually find a way out of the situation, and still end up dancing in the end. All these films helped us with our theme and presenting the opening sequence.

Overall, the audience were attracted and addressed by various things like the mise en scene, editing, sound and camera, which helped the film be successful and get the message and point of the film across to the audience.