Who are your audience & what have you learned from your audience feedback?
Our target audience is ranging from late teens, who will be looking for a change from the typical marquee action film they would usually watch, to people who are middle aged who will be interested in the film noir elements of the film. The mystery/action/thriller elements of our trailer will encourage young people and adults in this age bracket to come and watch our film. The demographic will have a high frequency of girls who will be likely to watch this due to the male who is in the starring role and the fact that is heavily psychologically based.
The demographic of our audience is varied due to our huge range in ages, it is more than likely that our younger demographic will be heavily based within popular culture with their habits and culture revolving around friendships and their expenditure of disposable income. They will more than likely shop in high street shops such as Topshop, American Apparel etc and eat in big multi complex shopping centres which will usually include a cinema. However, for the older demographic they will more than likely be working class with a standard family set up.
From audience feedback the main criticism was the fact that the story wasn't clear. In order to make it clear, we added a 999 emergency call as diegetic dialogue at the beginning of the trailer in order to immediately establish the mise en scene of danger and violence. There was also criticism in regards to the sound used so we had Adam recording the 'Angels' by The XX into Cubase and used that as our music in the background. From the feedback throughout it proved more effective to have just the single guitar as the music rather than the original recording that had lyrics on.
In order to make it look more professional we added the Green Pearl Filter which from audience feedback proved most effective and appealing. We were also complimented on those created in-camera, namely the car bailout scene.
Also, like a real film we used social networking as a tool to gain more audience feedback and interaction but despite posting a link to a production on Twitter, we received nothing more than a couple of 'retweets'. And feedback from family and friends was rather ineffective.
What stylistic techniques were used to create audience appeal?
By using certain techniques that are integrated within the genre of trailer conventions we were able to create a lot of appeal for our film on our heavy focus on enigmas. As, for example when Louis is tying Caitlin up we purposeful framed it so that each of their identities are hidden making the audience question and giving multiple interpretations of the situation. We also knew that by adding the car roll sequence that it would appeal to the younger male demographic and to those seeking the adrenaline rush moments. A particular appeal established through feedback was the use of the filter which gave gravitas to our trailer but also added an indie edge and that was a particular appeal across the demographic.
What media theories were utilized?
The work of several media theorists were applied and utilized in our production. Through conforming to them on the most part, we were able to produce something that would be somewhat familiar to the audience, without appearing as a carbon copy of other films from the genre. This is in accordance to Steve Neale’s audience theory that pleasure is derived from ‘repetition and difference’ and we have tried to incorporate both repetition and difference. For example, we used generic elements such as chiaroscuro lighting but we also opposed that by showing the antagonist's face in the trailer, suggesting to the audience that this a mutation of the genre. Mutatation of a genre is a theory proposed by Chrisitan Metz who says that 'to survive a genre must mutate and join with others to form a hybrid genre'. The recognition within the elements of each genre will also add a lot of audience appeal to our production. However, it is fair to say that our film has referenced lots of different elements of different genres with film noir/murder mystery 'who dunnit'/action/thriller rather than simply just mutating and blurring genre boundaries.
Within our production we adhered to Tvzetan Todorov's equilibrium theory where he states that narrative begins with an equilibrium, followed by a disruption then the equilibrium is re-established or a new equilibrium is created. In 'Procure' there was the equilibrium - happily married couple, then the disruption - staged kidnapping and then a new equilibrium - kidnapper runs off with the wife. Another theorist Vladmir Propp suggested reoccurring character types within texts and within our production there are:
HERO - Adam Nixon
VILLAIN - Louis Pring
THE FALSE FRIEND - Caitlin Heaton/the wife
THE HELPER - Police respondent
THE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS - Caitlin Heaton/the wife
Through the use of situations that wouldn't be faced in everyday life, the audience may escape their everyday life problems even just for a little while. They may also find that it acts as an emotional release due to it's content, and personal identity they may find within it. As, for example, relationship problems (although not as exaggerated or extreme as in this case) are frequently faced by lots of people in everyday life and could also make them see that they're problems are not so bad. This is in relation to the 'entertainment' section in Blumer and Katz's 'Uses and Gratifications'.
With our revealing of the antagonist's face we have flouted Roland Barthes enigma code, which states that there is more than one way to read a text. By including the antagonist's face there is no doubt in the audiences mind who the criminal is. This differs drastically to other typical thrillers such as Hitchcock's 'Psycho' where their identity is hidden until the very end of the film.Within Procure there are clear binary oppositions, which is a theory created by Claude Levi Strauss. There are key oppositions in character roles suggested within the mise en scene of frames and editing pace for each of them i.e. Louis (the kidnapper) is always presented in a dark chiaroscuro frame with high speed edits whereas Adam (the hero) is presented in low key high contrast lighting in a slower speed edits; in the kidnapping scene the editing pace is increased which juxtaposes the calm, contemplative nature of the establishing shots.
