Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Costume• The costume we chose for the protagonist Billy would

be appealing to our audience because it is very casual and carefree, reflecting teenage lifestyle. The headphones Billy wears as well as the jogging bottoms and Nike sports jumper would be familiar with young people, therefore making them empathise with the character.

• The antagonist Holly’s costume, on the other hand is a contrast to Billy’s; she wears a large, dark winter coat which gives her a menacing look. This look is familiar with teenagers and associated with violent people by them, so the audience is immediately positioned on the side of Billy as opposed to sympathising with Holly.

Lighting• In our film, there are a couple of instances

of chiaroscuro lighting. Although teenagers would not be attracted by this lighting choice, it would appeal greatly to fans of film noir and other thrillers because of it being a very well known and commonly used convention. Chiaroscuro lighting is also very aesthetically pleasing to the audience because it creates a beautiful contrast between light and dark.

• Another lighting technique we used in our film was black and white, which was implemented in the editing stage. Black and white appeals to the audience because it has connotations with film noir, which will make some audiences feel nostalgic from the film.

Location - Interior• The interior location in our thriller was a small, confined kitchen inside a

suburban house. The audience will be very familiar with this setting, therefore giving them a vicarious thrill when the safety of the home is broken by the knocking on the door and violent visitor.

• The kitchen space is also noticeably narrow, giving the audience the sense of claustrophobia that the main character must be feeling. The tight space gives the impression to the audience that there is nowhere for Billy to escape to; attracting them through the simple location turned into a thrilling one.

Location - Exterior• In contrast to the inhabited suburban setting of our interior location, we used

a large forest in Reepham to film the dream/hallucination sequences. What I liked about this forest was the symmetry of the trees, which gave the location an eerie and dreamy look, as well as allowing us many places to film clear shots and vanishing points. The idea of using a forest came from a scene in The Killing, where a young woman runs away from a killer in the woods; we liked the thought of a barren, isolated place where someone could easily hide in and where no one would be able to come to the character’s rescue if something bad were to happen to them. Audiences in Norfolk would find this forest very appealing due to its location in Reepham and its strange appearance.

Camera Angles and Shots• A common camera angle we used was the POV shot,

which attracts the audience by involving them within the action. We chose to do a couple of POV shots from the killer’s eyes, to install a sense of hopelessness and fear within the audience.

• Another shot we used was the tilt shot, which confuses and disorientates the viewer making them empathise with the main character’s situation.

• Furthermore, a shot which did not make it into the final cut because we did not think it was necessary is (what would be) the ending corpse POV shot. This shot would have served to attract the audience by making them feel like they have lost a likeable character, and the killer standing over the audience causes the viewer to dislike the antagonist Holly even more.

Cliff Hangers• Our film features a very enigmatic cliff hanger – ending with just a close up of the main

character. This is enticing for the audience because it makes them want to know what’s going to happen next; will the protagonist die or not? The effect of this cliff-hanger is significant because it hooks the audience with just a couple of minutes of footage, which is essential for the viewer to be interested enough to stay for the rest of the film.

• The cliff hanger also leaves lots of questions unanswered within our thriller. The audience is not told why Holly is trying the kill Billy – is it out of revenge? Is Holly just a deranged psychopath? Or is Billy really a red herring and is really the villain, despite being presented as completely innocent? The audience is left guessing at the answers to these questions and must untangle the web of this narrative to form their own conclusion.

Narrative• The complex narrative we chose for our thriller leaves the viewer uncertain as to what is

real and what is a figment of Billy’s imagination: is the forest a dream, or is the kitchen a dream? This psychologically tormenting narrative is similar to other thrillers such as Identity and Vertigo, which keep the audience in the dark as to the true meaning of events. This similarity to other psychological thrillers would make audiences feel smart for knowing the sub-genre of our film.

• The narrative also immerses the viewer into the film, as they become so interested and curious as to what’s really going on that they will want to watch the rest of the film to understand the confusing events in the opening.

• We used lots of dissolves between the kitchen and forest scenes to indicate mystery and ambiguity, as well as to distinguish scenes from each other to not confuse the viewer more than we intended to do. The use of black and white also keeps up the mystery of our film; usually black and white is used for flashbacks or dream sequences, but the black and white scenes taking place inside such a grounded location such as a kitchen as opposed to the eerie dream-like forest keeps the audience wondering what’s real.