Evaluation Question 4/5(CONTINUED)

Here’s what people had to say about my media product…

I really liked it! I thought the music fit really well with the general tone of the piece and the use of close up shots of Kieran’s face work really well. It works really well as a horror and the atmosphere is set as soon as you start. I’d definitely watch this if it was an actual film!

I think the lighting and the use of the photos as both props and the credits works really well! I like how you can see what he’s thinking when he picks up the photographs is really good; the use of editing to cut in between the scene and what the character is seeing makes it all the more creepy!

I wasn’t really sure if the main guy was a good guy or a bad guy? That could’ve been clearer. I also think that the shots of 9/11 and the car could’ve been missed out as they aren’t really very clear.

I asked a few people – ranging both inside and outside of my target audience – to give their opinions on my media product. I wanted to know whether or not they enjoyed the piece and whether or not they would watch it if it was made into a feature length film.

The responses I got were very pleasing and I was happy with the fact that even though I only asked a small number of people (if I were to do this again I’d probably get a bigger sample size of people to ask), they all gave very helpful responses. A lot of people liked the atmosphere of my piece and they liked how Kieran’s character was having flashbacks when he looked at the photographs.

A few responses I got were confused about whether or not Kieran’s character was actually meant to be a protagonist or an antagonist; although I did ideally want it to be understood that my character was definitely a protagonist, after evaluating and re-watching my piece I’m actually quite pleased the line is slightly blurred initially and it presents my character as an enigma and also links to the representations I was talking about in question 2.

How did I present my character in my piece to attract my audience?

As my target audience is 18 +, I wanted my protagonist to appear to be of a similar age; this would encourage the audience to relate to my character on certain levels. However I also wanted to use the age of my character as a tool alongside mise en scene to set the atmosphere and make the audience uncomfortable. The images my character sees and the fact he keeps himself locked away in a dark room makes him the antithesis of a “normal” 18 year old and this therefore throws the audience, creating a sense of intrigue and mystery around my character and ideally attracts them to find out more.

My target audience is also obviously interested in the horror/thriller genre so I used mise en scene and sound to attract the audience to my piece. Horror films are conventionally disturbing in tone and usually contain gory, scary or unsettling imagery and I used this convention in my piece to attract my audience; in the photographs, there are images of broken glass and blood, as well as the disturbing images I edited in to symbolise what the character sees in his head. I also made sure that the area I filmed in was dark and small, giving a slightly claustrophobic feel, and that the props were positioned to be everywhere you looked, like they were surrounding the character. The music I used was also intentionally dark and foreboding. All of these elements correlate with the conventions of the horror genre and by using them, it enabled me to create the disturbing and menacing tone that horror films nearly always have. This attracts my audience as it is appealing to what they like and are familiar with.

Linking back to Question 2 about how I represented my character, I think the complex representation of my protagonist will attract my audience. Through the age of my character, mise en scene, props and set, I have deliberately stuck to horror conventions and the common components of the genre in order to attract my audience. However my protagonist strays from the usual representation of males in horror films (the jock, the nerd etc) and also it is not immediately clear whether or not this is a character you’d want to root for. I’ve done this by representing him on one hand as a brother who is desperate to find his missing sister (represented by the baby photo and the reaction he has to the flashbacks) but on the other a young man falling quickly into the hands of a disturbing obsession (represented by all the photos, the gory imagery and the dark lighting). I believe this would attract my audience as it provides them with a character who is slightly different to the usual conventional characters you get in horror fims, without straying too far from the aspects that make the genre what it is. It also allows the audience to try and work out my character and actually enables my film to be even more disturbing and scary as they are left unsure of what my character is going to do next.

Shots I used to attract my audience

These gory shots appeal to the audience as they stick to the conventions of the horror genre and provide the audience with something they know and love.

These two shots link to my earlier point about using the complexity of my character to attract my audience. The shot on the left is right after he has a disturbing flashback; the lighting on his face is bright and his concerned expression conveys his worry for his missing sister and represents him in a positive light. However the shot on the right is the other side of the coin, it shows my character staring intently downwards at the photograph, his expression dark and the lighting on his face is very dim. This is used to show the darker side to my character and how his obsession is slowly taking control over him and he’s becoming deeply intertwined into the disturbing images he’s seeing (the dark lighting and expression is a physical manifestation of the dark thoughts overcoming him).

Why I chose my actor and why he decided to take on the role?

I’ve worked with Kieran closely many times before, both in acting and directing, so I already knew he was a highly talented actor and that he could carry the role easily. I also trusted him to be able to convey the complexity of the character which he did so very well. I think Kieran took on the role because he was interested in how obscure the character was and how different he appeared in contrast to your usual horror film protagonist. In real life Kieran is very easy going so it was also probably a nice change to play a character who is extremely intense and obsessive. Kieran is also somebody who I believe would be in my target audience so to have him play the main character would attract the audience towards my piece as they could relate on certain levels.