1. 5. How did you attract/address your audience?
As my film opening has the genre of horror/thriller, it is meant to hook and engage the audience, giving them a feel of what the film will consist of. Therefore, this
attracts the audience instantly. My film opening involves several horror/thriller film conventions, which makes my film opening very appealing to my target
audience and attracts them. One of the typical horror film conventions are that, the film institutions always appear at the start. In addition, the institutions for my
product will also appear in the first frame, telling the audience who the film was produced by. My Production Company logo, which is called ‘Moon Studios’
involves the colours black and white, with a moon alongside moving water, including the word “Moon” on the Right side of the moon and the word “Studios” on
the left side of the moon. This instantly catches the audience’s attention, as it is a unique logo which seems mysterious. The moon is a typical yet not so typical
symbol for horror films, as they could symbolise wolf’s howling and therefore gives a spooky sense/feeling to the movie immediately.
My distribution company , which is called ‘Horror Films‘ also involves the colours black and white, with a simple font, that straightway indicates and addresses the
audience that the genre of the movie is going to be horror/thriller. After the institutions are introduced, the characters are then displayed and throughout my film
opening the audience is only introduced to the pre plot of the storyline, without too much being given away. Furthermore, my film opening is more about
revealing an important piece of information at the start and to make it suspenseful for the audience, making them anxious to carry on watching it further to answer
their questions of how's and why’s. For example, towards the end of my film opening, we understand that a girl is murdered, but we don’t as yet know, why she
was murdered?, how this was planned by the killer?, who was the person that killed her?, was he related to her?, was he someone special to her? Etc. Therefore,
this makes it interesting for the audience, and makes them think, making them want to watch the movie further. This could relate to the theory “Uses and
Gratifications Theory Blumer and Katz (1974)”, which includes the word ‘Diversion’ and this is a form of escape from everyday lives, in the same way, my product
greatly relates to this theory, as it takes the audience away from reality for a while and they place themselves in the movie, thinking as though they are the
characters, as stated before, it leaves them guessing and wondering what will happen next or it makes them think about solutions to the plot, perhaps putting bits
of information together from previous scenes and really trying to figure it out., therefore, this gives them a chance to escape from their everyday lives/reality for a
while and focus on the film, giving them a chance to be creative in solving plot ideas etc.
Another one of the words included in the “Uses and Gratifications Theory Blumer and Katz (1974)” is ‘Personal Identity’, and this is the ability to compare one’s
own life with the characters/situations and explore own problems etc. This word again, relates to my product, as although our product is about an extreme
happening such as murder, it could still somewhat relate to some people, as maybe perhaps someone has experienced a moment, where they felt they were being
followed by someone but in fact they weren’t or maybe perhaps someone actually knows someone who has experienced traumatic incidents like murder.
The music used in my film opening is eerie and mysterious with a creepy sense. It intrigues people and engages the audience. It works really well in terms of
building tension or to create a mood to go with at the start of the film. The music used is non-diagetic and eventually fades out. My film opening starts with
equilibrium, as it stays at a calm pace with not a lot of bold/vivid graphics and prepares the audience to get in a state of mind for the movie.
