Evaluation question 5

M.H.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Our aims

As a whole:

• Achieve a sense of tension, suspense and mystery in order to entice the audience and make them want to carry on watching the film to find out what is truly happening.
• Using the social realism to build a stronger relationship with the audience as they are able to relate to the content of the film further.
• Use modern aspects of cinema (e.g. inter-racial relationships) to address a young adult audience as it is a realistic representation of today’s society.

Camerawork and editing:

• Using a shallow depth of field (so the protagonist is in focus and the background blurred/out of focus) in order for our cinematography to look aesthetically pleasing, and to help the audience build an intimacy with the protagonist as she is the centre of focus.
• Using a combination of lengthy shots and fast paced editing/quick jump cuts, as the contrast between the two enhances the tension at the end of the opening - the fast pace is juxtaposed with the poignance at the start which emphasises the suspense of the red flashback and the phone call.
• Using a combination of handheld and tripod shots. The handheld shots helps to build intimacy between the audience and the protagonist as it gives the feeling of a personal insight. The tripod shots help to frame the shots and improve the cinematography.

The flashbacks:

• Helps to break the opening up into sections which adds another level of depth to the film and adds further intrigue and complexity.
• This also allows further emotions to be conveyed which will help the audience to connect further with the film.

The use of red and ambiguity:

• The red colouring gives semiotics and colour connotations to the film; red usually signifies danger, blood, death and threat. This will give the audience to an insight to the themes of the film, and also help them to understand what is going on in the scene.
• However, the use of ambiguity prevents the audience from knowing what is fully happening. This helps to entice the audience as they want to carry on watching to find out more.
• Both the red colouring and the ambiguity masks the person in the flashback, which heightens the mystery and suspense. This is good as it keeps the audience guessing.

Music and sound:

• We chose to use an emotive soundtrack rather than using dialogue. We did this for a number of reasons.

1. The protagonist appears alone for most of the opening, so dialogue is not necessary.
2. We wanted to give the cafe flashback a hazed/distant feel, and the lack of dialogue gives this distance.
3. Soundtrack can intensely build an atmosphere and emotion. This helped us convey sentiment and the start of the story in the street scenes even though the protagonist was doing nothing but walking. This keeps the audience engaged and allows them to build ideas in their heads
4. Most importantly, we decided to use soundtrack instead of dialogue as it aids to build the mystery and suspense, as the audience are revealed much less about both the story and the characters, and will therefore leave them guessing and wanting to watch more. It also hides what is truly going on as the audience do not have the clarification through the use of dialogue.

• We used ambient sound in order to ground the film and help build the atmosphere.

1. We used it for sound bridges and soft background noise - helping to enhance the street scene and to give an immediate feel for the location. This places the audience in the film and helps them to engage.
2. Sound matches - helping to blend the memories of the past with the present. These sounds are enhanced and louder than they would normally be, so the audience acknowledges the sounds.

• For a little part of the opening we used no soundtrack at all, which helps to break up the scenes and allows a new atmosphere to begin. This helps the audience notice and understand the change in mood.

These are some responses from our target audience. In the video they talk about aspects of the film that they enjoyed, and why they were drawn to them.