How did you attract/ address your audience?

Genre and narrativeGenre:

HorrorFrom our research we were already aware that women enjoyed horror films, so we felt the selection of this genre would immediately appeal to the female demographic. Further research online revealed that ‘psychological thrillers’ and ‘vampire films’ were the best- ranked horror sub- genres amongst women, while ‘slashers’ and ‘horror parodies’ were the most disliked. In order to appeal to the target audience we chose to avoid the categories which were not popular, and chose to produce a ‘psychological horror’ film opening.

Narrative:‘Sinister child disappears into forest, later followed by present- day teen.’The main protagonist in the narrative is female, appealing to the audience as it makes the storyline relatable and provokes empathy for the character. Also in the narrative is an element of thrill, from several discussions we learnt that most people watch horror films in order to experience the ‘fear factor’, so we made sure to include this in our opening. The ‘flickering’ shots of our sinister child character and her sudden disappearance was intended to be the most shocking and engaging section of the narrative for the audience. After her disappearance there is no other mention of the child character; leaving the opening as a cliff-hanger, hopefully appealing to viewers that enjoy the mystery and fear conventions of the horror genre.

EditingContinuity editing

Creates a sense of verisimilitude as the audience are led to believe that the film opening is a realistic scenario. Examples of the continuous editing can be scene in the shots of the swing in which the camera changes angles yet the movements of the swing are consecutive.

Increasing speed of cutsAt the beginning of the film opening there are eight landscape shots, all of which last six seconds. These long takes introduce the setting and also creates a slow pace for the movie. Yet this later changes as the tension heightens. As the narrative becomes more exciting, the shots last merely 1 tenth of a second, this helps to create the ‘thrill’ for the audience and should engages them more.

Camera work In order to appeal to our target

audience, we felt it was important to include a wide range of camera angles in order to keep the opening exciting.

The wide shots used at the beginning of our titles established the setting, introducing the location to the viewers and showed how isolated it was.

Close up shots are generally used to

show character’s emotions, but we used them to show Keely’s lack of emotion, creating more ‘frightening’ moments for our audience.

There are several examples of over-

the -shoulder shots in our film opening, this particular camera angle allows the character and the audience to see the action together, building both tension and fear.

Wide shot

Close- up shot

Over- the shoulder

shot

Graphics and soundGraphics:

Sound:

The titles which appear at the beginning of the film opening were designed to fit the ‘Victorian’ style era in which the sinister child is from. The thin, spindly font, Adobe Song Std, was chosen to reflect the specific time period. Yet this font also reflects the female target audience as it is particularly feminine. However, the neutral colouring of the text means that the graphic could appeal to a much wider audience.

‘Night Terrors’ was the lullaby- sounding piece of music we selected in order to exaggerate the sinister appearance of our child character. The instrumental sound began slow in pace but gradually increased. ‘Tises- high pitched’ is the sound of shrieking violins which we chose to play in sync with ‘night terrors’, slowly increasing in volume. The combination of the two pieces helped to build tension and create a sense of ‘thrill’ for viewers as together they created an loud, piercing noise, typical of the horror genre.

Mise- en- scene

In terms of props, we used several which fit the typical horror conventions. In order to appeal to an audience of horror movie enthusiasts, we specifically selected props which have been used before in the genre. The doll, for example, is an icon which can be seen in other films such as ‘Chuckie’, ‘Annabelle’ and ‘Finder’s Keepers’. The swing we set up was another important aspect of our film

opening, this a prop which has featured in ‘The Strangers’ as well as ‘It Follows’.

The costume of our sinister child character was another part of the mise- en- scene that we considered during production. It was important to us that the image of character fit the time era in which we

wanted to portray, we wanted to entice our audience with historical accuracy and realism.

Our movie opening may also appeal to viewers because of the location choice. An isolated, unsettling background may draw in audiences as it is a typical horror movie convention. Fans of the genre

may choose to watch our film opening as it complies with horror movie expectations.