Group 4 Media Studies Evaluation Questions 4, 5 and 7

Q4: Who would be the audience for your media product? Who is your target audience?  As ‘Ditched’ is a horror film, our target audience is a horror audience aged between 15 and 24. Despite a horror audience traditionally being mainly male, we think that our film will appeal to a predominately female audience. Before planning our opening, we agreed that our target audience would be a predominantly female ‘horror’ audience. However, to ensure that this was accurate we surveyed a range of people both in and out of our original target audience to see if it would appeal to them. From this we found that the idea of the film did appeal to this audience. We also got feedback on ideas for titles and themes to see if they appealed to our target audience. Many horror films feature a male antagonist and therefore appeals to a largely male audience. However when we surveyed our target audience before making our film we found that the majority of our respondents would either prefer a female antagonist or didn’t mind which gender the character was. Because of this response, we decided to break the horror convention and feature a female antagonist in our film. We felt that the as the plot of our film is based around a love story, this would make it appeal to a female audience. However, it also has a typical horror plot which targets the film towards the horror audience age group rather than a broader female audience. How do the characters appeal to your target audience? The main character in our film is a young woman, so the target age group of 15-25 year olds would be able to relate to this character. The film also revolves around relationships which is a typical theme for films targeted at this age group. In the opening, the audience is positioned with the female antagonist. The narrative for the rest of the film follows this character, and this would appeal to a female audience rather than the traditional male audience. We presented the antagonist as a typical femme fatale style character so the props we used reinforced this representation, for example the perfume and candles. We also used a lipstick mark motif throughout the opening and on the title which also presents the film and being targeted at a predominantly female audience.

Question 5: How did you address/attract your audience? We identified our target audience as the core audience for the horror genre This audience ranges from 15-25 years old, and is predominantly male However, because of the gender bias in this audience, we considered the idea of attracting a higher number of 15-25 year old females to watch our film We considered having a young female antagonist, which would be our film’s USP (Unique Selling Point) We decided to issue surveys to further find out what particular features of a film would be most important to our target audience, and we chose to send these out online to gain as many responses as possible. This was done before we had decided for certain on a storyline, as we wanted to test our concept on the audience before going too far ahead with it, and then possibly having to change it. We wanted the highest level possible of feedback and guidance from our target audience.

Question 5: How did you address/attract your audience? Our initial audience research, sent out via SurveyMonkey.com, reflected the fact that our target audience was the core horror audience as 82.6% of our respondents were 17 old or under. 8.2% were 18-20 years old. This affected our decision to create a film which would have a 15 certificate, so that none of our target audience would be excluded from viewing it. Furthermore, it also influenced our choice of genre; initially we had expressed preference for a horror film, and the fact that our respondents were predominantly from the core horror audience reinforced our belief that this would be a successful choice.

Question 5: How did you address/attract your audience? Our research slightly more responses from female respondents than male, which was very helpful for us as part of the USP for our film was that it features a young, female antagonist, thus reversing the traditional horror role of young women as the victim We were unsure about the audience reception to this idea, but the responses we received were largely indifferent to the gender of the film’s antagonist The fact that we got our target audience’s approval for our choice gave us more confidence in our work as we felt we could deliver something they wanted

Question 5: How did you address/attract your audience? We also consulted the target audience about the best title for our film We came up with a list of possible titles and let the audience choose, based on a brief summary of the film’s plot We found that the most popular one was Ditched. 34.8% of respondents said this best represented the film idea we pitched to them.

Question 5: How did you address/attract your audience? One of the most important aspects on which to gauge the audience opinion was the method used for the murders We were relieved with this response as we couldn’t have staged a convincing torturing scene in our opening, and fight/strangling required less make up for the actors than torture or a stabbing would have done

Question 5: How did you address/attract your audience? Based on our initial audience research, we decided that our film should feature young characters, as these would be most relatable to our audience, something which was considered very important by the respondents in our survey We also decided that we would use realistic locations which would also be relatable to them, such as the bedroom and kitchen interior, and the deserted park We felt that our storyline was already quite an original and interesting concept, so we continued with this idea as it was our USP

Question 5: How did you address/attract your audience? We were pleased that people did not consider a high budget to be necessary in a horror film, as this made it more achievable for us to make something they would enjoy Props were considered quite important, and for this reason, we incorporated the use of lipstick as a motif and used the high heeled shoes as one of our iconic shots, which also have relevance to our target audience

Question 5: How did you address/attract your audience? We showed the opening of “Ditched” at a screening for our class, and issued them with questionnaires on the effectiveness of various aspects of the opening, such as Role of the female character Understanding of the narrative Effectiveness of the title, font and colour Effectiveness of soundtrack Opinion of editing We gave respondents the opportunity to offer improvements and constructive criticism

Q1. Would you say that the girl was an antagonist or protagonist? Audience Research Survey Questionnaires were handed out to members of our target audience at a screening on 19/04/12. These are the results we received:

Q2. On the scale please circle your understanding of the narrative.

Q3. Which of the following aspects of the title did you think were effective?

Q4. Do you think that the locations were suitable for the genre?

Q5. On the scale please circle the effectiveness of the sound track

Q6. Do you think the flashbacks give enough information about the murders? Q7. If no, what other information would you include? Other information that could have been included: More clues to who the victims were Why she is killing them

Overall how successful would you say the editing was?