QUESTION 5HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

THE DISTRIBUTOR

After much consideration, Blumhouse productions was the distributor to our horror film that we created an opening sequence for as they have a film profile with a lot of films similar to ‘The Child’. Other films they have released are Paranormal Activity and Insidious which were both very successful films, meaning that they already have an audience to target. This enabled our film to be attractive to the audience as it is similar to the other films that Blumhouse has released.

Another benefit of choosing to release our film with Blumhouse was the conglomerate it worked with (Paramount) as it would attract more of an audience due to the knowledge that the audience has of the bigger company. Insidious and Paranormal activity were released by both of the companies working together, and both were extremely successful and attracted a lot of audience.

CHARACTERSThe first antagonist introduced to the audience was a young boy, the reason why we chose to use a child as the first antagonist was to captivate our audience; most horror films that include children are unpredictable like Insidious. I wanted to challenge the stereotype of children being innocent, just like many horror films do such as Annabelle. Other than being a conventional technique, it makes our story plot much more interesting which will interest our audience, making them want to carry on watching the film after viewing the opening sequence. The child character in the opening sequence was representing the loss of innocence. The use of the child also shows the audience another side of males inflicting gore, normally older males are ones to brutally murder people but in our opening sequence it is the child.

The first scene within the opening sequence shows a child playing with a toy, at the top of the stairs which doesn’t connotate any danger but because of his dark eyes, sinister look upon his face tells the audience otherwise. The high angle shot and just off centre framing puts the child at a vulnerable state; which contradicts the upcoming scenes of his evil ways, making the audience want to find out more about the character like his true traits.

SCENESHaving a chase scene within our opening sequence is very conventional for the horror genre as they instantly create tension for the audience. The location of the chase scene was very conventional to the genre as it was filmed in the woods, this allowed the audience to apprehend the danger that was approaching, meaning that we conformed to Pye’s theory of audience expectations. To create disorder and add more tension to the atmosphere we used hand held camera shots, rather than using a tripod. The unsteadiness of the scene created an uncomfortable atmosphere for the audience but also captivated them so that they would want to carry on watching; these feelings portrayed through the opening sequence are very conventional.

During the start of the chase scene we used a low angle shot that only framed the legs of the characters which created mystery for the audience as the characters shown had not yet been introduced to the audience yet. The second character shown was female (recognisable by her clothing) carrying a knife, introducing a second antagonist to the audience. The mystery excites the audience as they want to find out more about the new characters that have just been introduced.

ERAS The average age of our target audience would have been born near the year that part of our horror opening sequence is set in which means that the horror film has grown with them and has been happening their whole life as we wanted to base our film on true events. The fonts used to display the eras suited the genre and was conventional to the opening sequence conventions that we researched.

Having the majority of the film set in the current era allows for the audience to relate more to the story as features of it will be more recognisable to them. Another drawing factor for the audience is the characters used within the newer era side of the opening sequence as they’d be able to relate more to the characters due to being similar ages.

CHARACTERSHaving a female antagonist in the opening sequence makes our film different and more interesting to our audience as most horror films that I researched into had a male antagonist, meaning they won’t get bored of seeing another male antagonist for the lead role. Another way having a female antagonist in our opening sequence attracts audiences is by the way the stereotype of the female is challenged. When females are portrayed they are normally represented as vulnerable and need saving, typically by a man. Using a female victim creates binary opposites between the two characters as one is

fulfilling their stereotype and the other is challenging it. This attracted our audience because it fulfilled their want for both a female antagonist and female victim; especially when they are enemies going against each other. To identify them we used costume and props so that they were both conventional to their characters; the antagonist was carrying a knife which is extremely recognisable to our audience as a weapon, she was also wearing a leather jacket that has connotations to evil and danger. The victim was dressed in typical teenager clothes; a t-shirt, jeans and a hoodie. The hodie was a reference to the gang the victim was a part of.