7/31/2019 Eleni Christofi Evaluation Question 5

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5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Individually, I created a questionnaire to gain feedback on our products appeal to our target audience andhow far it conforms to the genre. I asked 10 people of different ages and genders to fill it out whilewatching the opening sequence.

The questions and some answers included:

1. What was your reaction after watching our opening sequence? Felt sympathy towards the female character Unsettled by the birth scene2. Was it evident that our product was of the thriller/crime genre? If so, how? Yes, the editing was fast-paced and built tension

No. there was not anything that indicated that it is a crime genre (no police or blood)3. Did my opening sequence appeal to you as an audience? Yes, the settings were realistic and applied to everyday life (the hospital room and the office). The wheel spinning was unusual and it intrigued me.4. Do you think there are any stereotypes in our opening sequence? Yes, the main female character is vulnerable and powerless. The man acts superior to others and is very assertive and independent.5. Were there any points in the sequence that made you feel unsettled or nervous?

The wheel turning was creepy, as I didnt understand the meaning behind it. When the shots were changing quickly; waiting for the climax. When the woman was giving birth; it is unsettling to watch someone in pain.

7/31/2019 Eleni Christofi Evaluation Question 5

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From my questionnaire, I had found that our audience had a strong reaction to our openingsequence, particularly in the birth scene. They had felt sympathy, and possible empathy, towards

the character and were unnerved by the amount of pain that the character was in. This shows thatthey could relate to our sequence, which is an example of the Uses and Gratification theory.

Again, our audience could relate to our opening sequence due to the verisimilitude of our scenesand settings. The office room appealed to average, middle-class people that work in offices for aliving. Also, many women have given birth and can identify with this situation, applying the Usesand Gratification theory.

There is a lack of conventions that adhere to the crime genre in our opening sequence, howeverwe had included Levi Strauss Binary Opposites of the villain and the hero by the use of an

extreme close up to the characters mouth, and the use of bright lighting in the scenes that the

female character is in. These also apply to Propps 8 Character theory. This was made clear to

our audience, which I had discovered from the question about stereotypes. We often used highangles on the female characters and made the male characters more superior by the use of low

angles and creating ambiguity through the close ups. The mise-en-scene causes the audience to believe that the hospital scenes are actually set in a

hospital, as we have used props such as the blanket, the wheelchair, the curtain and the hospitalbed, which applies to the Hypodermic Needle theory. This also applies to the character of thedoctor. The viewer would automatically assume he is a doctor without being introduced to hischaracter, just by him being male, in a doctors uniform and in a hospital room.

We had intrigued our audience by the idea of the wheel spinning, as there is the use of Barthes

Enigma Code theory. The enigma is that it is hard to tell what it is, and why it is spinning. Thefeedback that I had received from my questionnaire informed me that some viewers had feltuneasy and tense due to the fast paced editing and the creepy turning of the wheel. This shows

that the speed that we had applied to the wheel had made the correct effect on our audience thatwe had hoped for.

Overall, I have learnt that we could have improved our opening sequence by adding moreconventions of the crime genre, possibly by including signs of the real villains character of the

narrative in the sequence. Also, I have found that our group has been successful in other areas,such as making our audience feel uneasy in certain parts of the sequence.