2. Target audience research
Throughout our planning and post production we did audience testing to
understand our target audience and be able to adapt our film to what the
target audience wanted.
In post production we did a lot of audience testing. First we did a small focus
group for the first draft and made them watch the film and then asked them
questions about it. After watching the first draft they did not want to watch the
rest of the film. They liked the camera angles of the shots and the way we
had a variation of the shots and they also thought that the transitions.
However they felt that the film needed more action in it for it to be more
suitable for an age rating of 15.
We considered these points and made the decision to re-film the second of
the film where the boy was getting dressed. We changed it so the shots were
shorter so that it was more interesting for our audience and had more action
and tension.
3. We also did a focus group for the two idents that we
produced. Again we showed them the idents and
asked which they prefered and they both agreed the
first one was the best so we decided to ues this. They
said it was more modern and had a better transition
and so we took all this into account and decided to
use the one they preferred as to please the target
audience but we also preferred it as a group.
we did audience testing for the titles and sound as well and decided to go with
what the target audience preferred. This meant that we would be able to aim it
our target audience successfully and make sure that they would be interested in
it and want to watch it if it was made for real.
4. Audience pleasures
Throughout our film opening we wanted to give the audience the emotional
pleasures of tension, drama and grief. We did this by having short takes to build up
the tension and drama and we created the grief with the commentators talking
about the boy’s father who died.
In the first scene of the film with the shots of the car we used a point of view shot
from the interior of the car to give the audience a visceral pleasure of adrenaline.
We did this so the audience would be able to see what the driver was seeing and
in motorsport films the fans are likely to enjoy feeling the adrenaline.
The only character in our film was the boy in the second scene. As our primary
audience is teenage males we wanted them to be able to relate to the character
and that is why we cast a male teenager. We used the prop of an ordinary sports
bag as it would be a bag that many teenage boys would have something similar to
and could therefore relate to our character.
5. themes
The themes in our film are wining, losing and overcoming events in life. The
winning and losing theme would be a conventional theme for motor sport films
as it is to do with racing which is in most motor sport films. These themes will
help engage the audience and interest them as it aids in making the narrative
more interesting.
We represented this theme throughout our film and it began with the scene of
the car which ended in the crash meaning that there was a loss due to the death.
In contrast to the theme of loss there was the theme of winning which was
represented by the hype in the second scene which was about the boy’s
potential to win the race. The other theme of overcoming events in life was
shown with the boy overcoming the death of his father and carrying on the racing
that his father once did.
