Luke Dixon

How did you attract/address your audience?

The video at the bottom of this document is the final focus group we put together. Just like the first one, we ask them questions about our opening sequence, the questions centred on and around what they liked, maybe didn't like so much and how they believe we could have improved it. The purpose behind this final focus group is so that we can compare it to the first focus group and see if we managed to meet anything they wanted to see or believed would look good. From what the four people in the focus group said, from they enjoyed our opening sequence and would like to watch on, this is - as stated before - exactly what we wanted to create. Therefore, in that department, our opening sequence has been as success. The feedback they gave us was great as they told us what they really liked and what they thought of it, and then also what we could of improved which we will talk note of if we ever do it again in the future. We tried to tailor our opening sequence towards what the viewers wanted, but without compromising and changing our own personal ideas and what we wanted to do. We had to find a good mix between the two. From the first focus group and the audience questionnaires, we found out what they wanted and what they would like. We then incorporated these into our opening sequence; this is where we were able to tailor our opening sequence to what the viewers wanted. One of the questions asked in the final focus group, above, was "Can you still clearly see the storyline or is there sill mystery?" We asked this as we wanted to see if the storyline and the genre of the film were clear. From the responses we can tell that although there is a lot of mystery in the opening sequence, the genre is quite clear because of the angles and the sound used, it creates tension and builds fear. Thus making it feel more like a horror film. In order to engage people and make the audience want to watch more, the opening sequence had to be compelling and engross the viewer. Going back to the responses from the final focus group we can tell that the opening sequence was exactly this as they said how they would want to continue watching the film if they could. This is really pleasing to hear. We incorporated a few shots in order to make it a better viewing for the viewer and therefore make them want to watch on. The best example of this is the high angle tracking shot where the camera goes into the gap in the roof. It is an aesthetically pleasing shot and makes you want to watch on because it looks good. The long hand held point of view shot of the man walking towards the girl standing in the corner is another shot that makes the viewers want to watch on as it builds suspense and you wonder what she is going to do.

Luke Dixon
Especially when she turns her head and it cuts to the title, people want to see what happens when she turns around and they want to see what she looks like.

There are three uses and gratification theories; Blumier and Katzs Uses and Gratifications Theory Richard Dyers Utopian Solutions and Maslows Hierarchy of needs. Essentially what these three audience theories mean is that they are supposed to make the audience feel something, they are meant to make the audience happy. They include reasons to why audiences view media. A few reasons that are included in these 3 theories are: For entertainment To be informed and educated The ability to identify personally with it To interact socially To feel like they belong to something To escape their daily grind

Our opening sequence allows some of our target audience to identify with some of the characters, such as the four teenagers at the end of the clip. They are going out, exploring for a laugh and just mucking around. This is a stereotype of teenagers nowadays. The obvious one that we aimed to meet was that we hoped that our opening sequence would entertain people as that it the main purpose of a film. The last one I believe that we were able to meet to a slight degree is the wants to be able to socially interact. This is because once the audience has watched the film, they can then go and talk about it, share opinions and ideas on what was good, what could be improved etc. Below this document, at the bottom of the blog post, there is our final focus group that I have embedded. This shows exactly what the four people we spoke to think of our opening sequence.