Question 5: How did you attract/ address your audience?

Though men are generally more interested in watching thriller films, women would also be interested in watching Dark Summer. This is because they may be able to relate to the female character Zoe. However, the theme of our film, kidnap, should attract both men and women, due to the recent reports in the media of children being kidnapped. Cases such as the Madeleine McCann Case and the Josef Fritzl Case are very current and extremly shocking. Dark Summer addressing primarily the theme kidnap should attract audiences because of their relation to such real life subjects.

Addressing the audience: Context. How does Dark Summer relate to the audience?

• Madeleine disappeared from her hotel bedroom in May 2007.
• The disappearance of Summer, in Dark Summer is similar to this case because Summer was also taken from her bedroom, as Madeleine was.
• The audience would be interested in watching Dark Summer to learn more about the subject of kidnap as it is currently a subject which is talked about a lot in the media.

Addressing the audience: Uses and Gratifcations
Why would the audience want to watch Dark Summer? Below, I have applied this to the theory of media uses and gratifications.

Uses and Gratifications

How does Dark Summer attract the audience?

• A psychological thriller revolving around the theme of kidnap attracts the audience because of its relevance in today's society.
• The genre of psychological thriller should attract the majority of men and some women.
• The character, Zoe attracts the female audience because she is someone they could relate to.
• Zoe also attracts the male audience because she is attractive. 

EQUILIBRIUM:

• We started off with an initial equilibrium to settle the audience into the film.
• By doing this we are also following the classic narrative pattern as there is initial equilibrium in the story.

DISRUPTION:

• Following the classic narrative pattern, there is disruption later in the opening sequence when Zoe finds Summer missing from her bed. However, the disruption in the sequence could also be identified in the shots with the masked man at the door or the screaming.
• By following the classic narrative pattern, the audience will be able to fully suspend their disbelief as they will be expecting disruptions in the narrative.LD UP OF THE ENIGMA
• The shot of the masked man at the fridge is the twist in our opening. The audience does not suspect this as there is nothing prior in the sequence to indicate something like this.
• The enigma is whether the masked man is the real culprit of the crime.

IS THE AUDIENCE OBSERVING THE SEQUENCE OR PARTICIPATING IN IT?

HOW HAS THIS INCREASED NARRATIVE TENSION?

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  The audience see the masked man at the window but Zoe does not. This heightens tension as Zoe is not aware of the danger which the audience are aware of.
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  This knowledge means that the audience are observing the events taking place, and are not participating in it as they are aware of the dangers but are unable to intervene. That they are not following the narrative from Zoe's point of view means also means that they are mearly observers to the opening.
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  We can see this in the bird's eye view shot, which connotes surveillance. This is also shown in the hallway shot, where the audience stays on the view of the stairs and the hallway whilst Zoe is upstairs looking for Summer. This increases narrative tension as the audience cannot see the events as they unfold. The use of the bird's eye view also connotes suveillance and observation.

HOW WOULD WE MARKET DARK SUMMER?

As Dark Summer is financed primarily by BFE Productions, a big-budget production company, we would be able to spend more on marketing the film if it were a real media product. The callouts below show how we could market the film commercially.

HOW DID WE ATTRACT PEOPLE TO THE SCREENING OF OUR OPENING?

As we were required to screen the opening in school, we made sure that we targeted those students that would fall into our primary target audience.

To do this, we set up an event on Facebook and invited those aged 15 and over...

We also made notices to go into class registers to increase awareness of the screening...

Below: A shot of our audience at our film opening screening.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK: DID WE ATTRACT THEM SUCCESSFULLY?

Below are some examples of the feedback we got from our audience in our screening:

Audience Feedback

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  Overall, the audience feeback we got was positive. We had both young male and female adults attend so we could get the widest range of feeback possible. 
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  Many members of the audience correctly identified the genre of Dark Summer as thriller, though some thought the genre was horror. However, this is because many conventions of thriller films also fall under the conventions of horror films.
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  The audience also correctly identified the target audience being "teenagers", or "older teenagers", or "young adults".
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  We recieved a mixed response for the question "What type of cinema would you expect to see this film". Some members of the audience expected to see it in an independent cinema, whilst others expected to see it in a large multiplex. This is probably because of the professional look of the BFE Productions logo contrasting with the more arty feel of the shots.
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  The audience correctly identified the themes of Dark Summer.
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  The audience liked our variety of camera angles, titles and music.
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  Improvements suggested were: more music, darker lighting, more suspense.
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  In conclusion, we were rather successful in attracting our audience. The majority would have watched the rest of the film if it were a real media product and gave sequence relatively high scores out of ten.