'How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as real media text?'
When concluding your target audience, there are two determining factors to consider, age and gender. Referring to my previous blog post from March regarding target audiences, our group came to the settlement that our target audience was 15-year-olds, with an equally distributed gender spectrum. Regarding the gender, we felt females would enjoy seeing an overpowering female figure combat the oppression of males in a modern-day context. We also felt the men would enjoy the action, weaponry and violence that leans further toward the conventions of our genre.
Location -
When initially devising the product location, we wanted somewhere conventional of the thriller genre that audiences felt encapsulated by. We chose the woods, as it connotes to desolation and solitude, further linking to themes of the product whilst appealing to our target audience therefore further engaging them in the fundamentals of the product. The many trees within a forest can often appear overwhelming, we attempted to echo this notion to illustrate the emotions of the two hunted women battling the discrimination of the higher class.
This was seen within the beginning of our sequence, as the first woman you're introduced to sprints, petrified through the deserted woodland to later meet her demise. Which conforms to Blummers and Katz theory of 'uses and gratification' referring to personal relationships. The audience have built a foundation of attachment to the first hunted woman, as they feel an emotional bond or connection with her and feel empathy for her struggling. Furthermore, this engages target audiences and demands awareness to the product.
Enigma codes / cliff-hangers -
At the end of our sequence, we see our female protagonist survive the hunting by murdering her perpetrator, as she's about to do this the screen cuts to black and the title of the film appears. We did this as it is conventional of the thriller genre further engaging target audiences and it evokes a sense of the unknown and mystery regarding what happens next within the narrative. Initially, when in development of the product we discussed that enigma codes were essential to target audience engagement, we then implemented this whilst filming and we are happy with the result.
Themes -
The moment where the first female's throat is slit by the oppressive higher-class males i a key moment regarding the themes of our product. This moment demonstrates the themes of violence, weaponry and oppression. When the product was still in development, we concluded that we wanted to illustrate the discrimination of the lower-class through conventions of the genre such as weaponry. This has the multi-purpose of illuminating the message we wanted to send to audiences, how class divide still remains prominent in modern-day society, whilst also portraying the conventions of our genre to engage our target audience.
Casting -
A moment that demonstrates casting would be the moment where the main female protagonist subverts the stereotype of victimised woman within the thriller genre and combats the aristocratic, higher class male perpetrator. Initially when casting, we wanted equality regarding gender. Therefore, we chose two females and two males to echo themes of equality that would be juxtaposed within our sequence via the oppression of women creating contrast. In today's social climate, gender equality is imperative to modern audiences specifically within the generation of 15-year-olds. Furthermore, this engages contemporary audiences and target audiences.
Costuming -
The costuming within our sequence is substantial to the success of engagement with target audiences due to colour connotation and depiction of wealth and status. Initially, when deciphering mood boards illustrative of our costuming we concluded that the lower-class oppressed women should wear jumpsuits. This demonstrates how the men have stripped them of all forms of identity, their lack of self-expression and individuality links to modern-day youth and how forms of media can perpetrate insecurity resulting in a lack of expressionism from teenagers (our target audience) wanting to fit in with society's conformities. The women wearing jumpsuits had coloured t-shirts underneath to illuminate essences of their personality through connotation. The first female is wearing white, connoting to optimism, hope and innocence which is later diminished by her inevitable death.
Whilst the main female protagonist adopts a red t-shirt, portraying her dominance and determination to survive. Red is also opposite green (the colour the hunter's wear) on the colour wheel, demonstrating their opposition regarding status and morals. The men's aristocratic, tweed, wealthy costuming creates juxtaposition and the green hints at themes of the location / nature. All of these creative decisions made by our group, engage target audiences as the connotation hints to elements of narrative the audience decipher without even realising.
Props -
In initial stages of development, our group discussed the significance of weaponry within our sequence to engage our target audience. A moment that portrays this would be as a hunter goes to shoot another female victim sprinting for her life through the woods. The utilisation of a prop gun illuminates themes of violence and weaponry a common convention of the thriller genre further engaging target audiences. The reason we felt this would engage our target audience is that stereotypically male 15-year-olds enjoy video games that revolve around shooting and weaponry suggestive of violence and hostility.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, our group utilised key conventions of the thriller genre to engage target audiences and I feel we were successful in doing so. All elements of conventions were covered within our opening sequence, further engaging target audiences in our product whether it be narrative devices, costuming or casting.
Within the poster, I implicated PNG images of both female characters to hint at themes of gender within the opening sequence. The makeup on both characters is smudged, hinting at themes of the narrative, to accompany this the first female victims' facial expression appears alarmed and alert whilst the main female protagonist's facial expression implies themes of victory and superiority. All these elements of mise-en-scene are crucial to audience's engagement with the product. The colour red was utilised within the poster to resemble the themes of brutality and cruelty within the sequence, further embellishing the narrative elements and engaging target audiences. Regarding the size of imagery, the first female victim appears smaller than the main female protagonist. This hints at the social message being portrayed within our sequence, that oppression cannot diminish your self-worth as long as you always fight back.
When establishing a style and theme regarding my poster that I felt would help sell / distribute my film I did some independent research. In most thriller genre posters, the colour red is featured alongside a cool toned blue to illustrating complimentary moods such as sorrow and danger.
I wanted to feature red connoting to decease, crisis and menace, embellishing the themes of the product itself and remaining conventional of the thriller genre posters further lending itself to distributors of the genre.
When developing my poster design, I referred to my blog post 'The BBFC & Film Certificates'. Our group concluded that our film would receive a 15-film certificate as it contains scenes of violence and brutality. Therefore, would receive a higher certificate. I implicated the age certificate onto my poster, supplying crucial information for all audiences.
The release date of the film was imperative to the poster design, as it evokes a sense of anticipation for audiences. When considering the release date, I felt May would be a superb month to release our product due in large part to the effect of Academy Awards that typically take place in the winter months.
The distributor I think would distribute our film is 'Universal Pictures', an American film studio owned by Comcast through its owned subsidiary 'NBCUniversal' and is one of Hollywood's 'Big Six' film studios. Distribution and other corporate offices are based in New York City. It has distributed films similar to our product, such as 'The Purge: Election Year' and 'The Hunt'.
To construct my marketing campaign, Universal Pictures would manage marketing and distribution We could attend 'Sitges Film Festival' A US film festival specialising in products of the thriller genre further appealing to our target audience. In terms of distribution, we would do a targeted, limited cinema release to intrigue our niche audience. We would direct to Universal Pictures' streaming platform 'Peacock'.
My annotations -
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