CCR Task 2- how does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

 Which audiences would typically watch films similar to mine?

1) Horror audience- Similar to "Seven" (film about a mass murderer). The typical age of audience members for this genre fit between 15-25. Which is the age rating of our film (15). 58% of the Horror genre's audience viewership is men, whilst 42% is women. Our film, having a man to be the main protagonist, appeals to men, which is the majority of the horror audience. However, our film being made in English reduces its appeal to the horror industry as the nationalities that watch horror films the most are Mexican and South Korean. Horror audiences typically enjoy the development of the character and how the film becomes more and more unrealistic as they can reassure themselves that the film is fake. Our film shows the development of the character and at the end has a game of cat and mouse as his victim escapes her captivity.

2) Thriller audience- Similar to "Don't breathe" (film about a cat and mouse chase between teenagers and a blind man in a house they can't escape) The typical age of audience members for this genre is between 18-25. However, much of the thriller genre's audience are of mature age (typically 50 years old or higher). Which is above the age rating of our film. As the thriller and horror genre typically intertwine when it comes to the product of film studios, this means that the same statistics of men (58%) and women (42%) watch the thrillers. Which means our film, featuring a male protagonist and having a higher viewership by men, is more appealing to our target audience.

3) Psychological audience- Similar to "Zodiac" (film bout the manhunt for the 'Zodiac killer', a mass murderder who terrorised San Francisco Bay). The typical age of audience members for this genre is 25 and onwards. As most psychological films feature a dominant male and damsel in distress, ideally the genre appeals to both men and women as the both the protagonists are presented as strong and resourceful.  Psychological audiences typically enjoy the rush and excitement as the films starts slowly, but becomes incredibly tense in the last 25 minutes. This is similar to the structure of my films story as we see the character move onto human victims and the struggle as one of his victims escapes at the end of the film.

Identifying my target audience:

My films target audience would typically be men between the ages of 25-50. This is due to the mature story of the film. Most young men won't know enough or witnessed kidnappings and women being targeted/ victimised. Because of this, I believe my film would appeal to a slightly more mature male audience. I also believe my film would attract a large female audience, between 15-30, as women enjoy watching films where the damsel in distress develops into a strong, independent character that fights back. Furthermore, as one of the main characters is a young girl, this would attract a young audience of women as they can relate to the girl but also older women who might have children. My film would appeal to English speakers (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and America) as the film starts English actors and probably would not be dubbed due to our low budget. The setting is late at night in alleyways of busy cities, which is more relatable to the working class. The narrative revolves around kidnaps which typically happens to working class women. I believe the socio-economic classes my film targets would be: C1 status- lower middle class- supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professionals, C2 status- skilled working class- manual/ labour workers. I also think that my film would target the mainstreamer and explorer psychographic groups as the film is about adventure, struggle, energetic/ chaotic and targets the sentimental values of the mainstreamer audience with the story being about a girls kidnapping.

How does my film engage a specific audience?

My film opening attracts an active audience through the theory of 'Uses and Gratifications'. The first audience my film would attract would be the 'Entertainment & Escape' (people who enjoy drama or action e.g. fight sequences, horror chases...) My film attracts this audience as it includes a dramatic horror chase (game of cat and mouse in the building he hides his 'collection'). This is foreshadowed in the opening sequence as we see him fill a syringe with an extremely powerful sedative. We also see him opening a drawer where there is a girls ponytail and a photo of one of his victims. Furthermore, the excitement and Proairetic and hermeneutic codes draw the 'Entertainment & Escape' audiences attention to the film as we see the man fill a syringe with liquid which raises questions such as: "who is he going to use this on?" and "when is he going to use the syringe?". Another example of enigma code that hooks in the audience is the heart and liver underneath the table; "who's heart is that?" and "who has been killed?"

Another audience I think would engage in my opening sequence and want to see the rest of the film would be the "Personal identity/ Relatability" audience. As the film is about a murderer who kidnaps a girl as a 'trophy' victim, and we see her difficult and dramatic escape for her captor as police try to locate their whereabouts, the film is widely relatable as many people know at least 1 person who has suffered or witnessed some kind of attack on women. The film featuring a young teenage girl (shown as a photo in the drawer) also appeals to a young female audience as well as parents as they are able to feel a closer bond to the character. Finally, my opening sequence attracts the "informed & Educated" audience as the film educates people (specifically young men) about the struggles women face regarding harassment and attack from men.

Regarding technical/ media language, I have engaged horror fans and psychological thriller fans through the mise-en-scene. We created a dark and dingy setting and followed the theme of psychological thrillers by showing lots of close ups of specific things which forces the audience to engage and think about the images on screen. We also changed the pace of the editing to engage the audience and highlight some of the enigma codes that were raised during the opening sequence. For example, at one point we created a brief montage, referring back to Doug drawing in the book twice, to break up the slow paced editing and make the action shots between Doug's drawing stand out, such as the girls photo or the syringe. We also created a 'horror' themed introduction by using creepy music. The music increases in volume and creates an uncomfortable atmosphere and discomfort the audience. 

Audience feedback. How were they engaged?

My class watched my opening sequence and said that they found it made them feel "uncomfortable" and that they thought it was very "interesting", "cool", "well edited", "creepy".

Friends and family said it "looked very professional" and like "an opening to a real horror/thriller film".

My teacher thought that it had "Great camera work, really interesting lighting and amazing variety of props."

However, Becky also said that "It might be nice to have some weirder or creepier items eg insects, more organs etc or have Doug cutting in to organs etc..  The sound at the start of the opening is a little quiet as well." Which is what my initial idea was and shows that Matt's idea (other media teacher) to remove any animals negatively effected our opening sequence. 

Distribution:

Film distribution is the process of making a movie available for viewing by providing cinemas, streaming sites etc... with the product to sell.

Distribution companies:

I think the film distribution company Kaleidoscope because they are a very cheap company to hire and distribute the product very well. An example of their success is Belstone Pictures film 'Tank432' which they hired Kaleidoscope for £20,000 and made lots of profit (for such a cheap film. Predicting between £250,000 and £300,000). Not only did Kaleidoscope help distribute the film, but they changed the name and CD cover of the film to give it a global audience appeal. I think Kaleidoscope would be a good company to distribute my film as they are cheap to hire, help improve global audience appeal and, if the film is a flop, share the loss or if the film is hit, share the profits. 

Marketing methods:

I think the marketing methods best suited for my film are digital and traditional media methods. To attract local audiences I would have articles and pre-view reviews put into my local newspapers. I would also have posters put up in cinemas to attract existing audiences such as horror genre fans as they enter to see a film. as for digital media, I would post the trailer on YouTube and contact large YouTube channels, such as Buzzfeed who posted Tank432's trailer, to promote my film freely to a global audience. I would also create  a film page on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to draw attention to my film across all audience ages, genre fans, genders etc... On these social media pages I would hold contests for people to sign into and win prizes related to the film to promote my product. I Wouldn't hire airtime on TV or put posters on buses/ trains as it is quite expensive for a small budget film. 

Distribution methods:

I would have my film put onto digital platforms such as streaming sites or digital download as it is much cheaper than big cinema releases on film reals. If it was a cheap/ affordable cinema, it would be shown on a digital projector to save production costs of film reels.