Evaluation (5) - Attracting Our Audience:
We were inspired by the use of representation in this shot and decided to make our character a young female, exploiting the thriller stereotypes of females in danger. Our film makes a connection with the audience as they can find relation with the home location which creates the feeling of sound in order to create an atmosphere of unease and suspense. The use of lighting also gives the audience an indication about the genre and the supernatural feel. In relation again to lighting dark sensory is used and is effective as it is associated with an impending evil and mystery.
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| Safe at home - not? |
We also use a point of view shot which places the audience in the position of the character making them share her feelings of being confused and disconcerted. The use of juxtaposition is powerful as we see our character as innocent and pure in contrast with the danger and impending evil she faces.
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| Tired, vulnerable and girly in pink |
In relation to the costume, we used pink and white colours on our leading character which connotes youth and vulnerability this is a form of In terms of attracting our target audience we placed high emphasis on conforming to the conventional features that supernatural films have.
Using slow and uneasy non- diegetic verisimilitude and establishes a sense of realism. The age of our character also comes into consideration as she is of the similar age as our target audience so again another connection which will appeal to the audience. finally our catchline for the film is "Who can you tell when your reflection is out to get you" which is effective as it draws the viewer in to find out about the film, also it appeals to our target audience for whom checking their appearance in the mirror is a thing of habit.
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| Mirror, mirror |
In the case of our film, Beyond Reflection, our female character is a young adult who, as shown in this still, still clearly has the open expression and innocence of a younger child, which is still a part of her, compared with the more mature, sophisticated facial expression of the female character in Mirrors. Not only does this accentuate our protagonist's vulnerability but, in terms of target audience, it is effective in inviting younger social groups, both female and male, to want to become more involved in the film as they would be able to identify with our female protagonist's daily lives and routines, such as the way our character holds her hands to her mouth connoting insecurity and lack of self-confidence as she observes her reflection in the mirror.
In terms of audience feedback on our film product, we showed our draft cut to audience in the region 15-17 which provided us with an indication into how effective our film product as this was the part of the age group that we were targeting our film at. Feedback was mainly positive. Examples of the reviews included: "Very good use of lighting and camera work to present the supernatural theme" and "Very scary, kept me on the edge of my seat".
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| Soon to be home and safe - not? |
However, there were some negative reviews regarding the exterior shots, for example, that it was "Too dark so I couldn't see a lot". Another comment was that "The titles are too fast."
We have taken on board this feedback and recognise that we would need to ensure the film is shown where it is possible to arrange full black out to maximise the ability to see. The fast titles was an issue we did attempt to address during the editing stage, but would the critical feedback suggests the speed of the titles would need to be even slower, were we to make another film.
