Evaluation Question 5

5. How did you attract/address your audience? 

We carried out different types of research in order to find out what would be the right target audience for our opening title sequence. We firstly wanted to create an opening title sequence that would suit a horror genre. Having this in mind, we researched different film certificates on the British Board of Film Classification in order to get the right certificate that would suit our opening title sequence, and decided on rating our opening title sequence 15+, which would mainly be aimed at people aged between 15-25. This is because our opening title contains some disturbing scenes and effects that may effect viewers under the age of 15, and may influence them to play the Ouija board, which is not what we are trying to convey, so by rating our opening title with an age restriction of 15, we are not setting any examples of being influenced, as people of this age group are responsible enough not to be influenced in any way and are able to handle any disturbing scenes or effects. 

Evaluation Question 4

4. Who would be the audience for your media product? 

The target audience for our opening title would be aimed at people between 15-25. This is because our opening title sequence is of a horror genre, as it contains scenes not viewable for people under the age of 15 because they may disturb people of a younger age, as well as influence them by getting an idea to play the Ouija board, as well as trespass private property as they could think it could be fun.

Our opening title sequence will be aimed at an audience who seek the thrill and suspense of horror movies that seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience’s primal fears. Our opening title features scenes that will startle the audience in a supernatural theme, which overlaps with the supernatural horror genre. Our film is mostly aimed at men, as they are more likely to be able to interact with the characters on the screen. Women on the other hand would react differently to men, which could affect them in a negative way, for example giving them nightmares.

We as a group have also done a lot of research on the BBFC age certificates for film, which helped us target an age group for our opening title. Under the BBFC 15 age certificate, films can include strong language, portrayals of sexual activity, strong verbal references of sex, sexual nudity, discriminatory language and drug taking. Graphic detail of sexual activity should only be moderate. There may be strong violence, but not a lot of graphic detail that is not suitable for someone aged 15.

From this research we have targeted our opening title at the right age certificate, as in our opening title there are no scenes that people aged 15 cannot watch.

Evidence of horror target audiences

Below is a screenshot from an entertainment audience website that consists of segments of people who are highly engaged with entertainment, as they are looking to access the latest news on celebrities, TV shows, movies, and music. The screenshot below gives evidence of what people like horror films, as shown below it says that horrors are mostly attracted at males, as males have a target audience percentage of horror movies of 54.98%, whereas females only have 45.02%. This information is relevant to us, as we have targeted our opening title at males mostly between the ages of 15-25. 

Below is a graph from the national metro showing that people aged between 18-24 are the target audience for horror films, even though this age group is classified as the smallest population group, as seen on the second graph. 

Evaluation Question 3

 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? 

Midnight Releasing

'Midnight Releasing' is a company that distributes new horror movies mainly in North American Territory. They also distribute films of other genres such as thriller, and supernatural ghost story films, which is exactly what company I am looking for to distribute my film, a my film is of a horror/supernatural genre. 'Midnight Releasing' releases new films each month on DVD, VOD and more, which will benefit me, as this company will be able to distribute my film for me and making it available for people to view on DVD. 

Below is evidence given of what 'Midnight Releasing' does, which i have explained above. By 'Midnight Releasing' distributing my film, it will not only benefit me, but also the company, as they will make a percentage from the DVD sales made, so this company will distribute my movie, especially that my movie is of a supernatural/horror genre. 

Below is a screenshot of "Midnight Releasing's" Facebook page. From this Facebook page we can see that "Midnight Releasing" advertises and promotes the films they are distributing on here. This is a good way of 'getting their films out there', as many people all over the world have a Facebook account, meaning they are able to log into their Facebook account and view any promotions and advertisements on the "Midnight Releasing's" Facebook page, for example trailers of films that they are distributing. This shows us that 'Midnight Releasing" uses different types of media and technologies to promote and advertise their films, which helps to attract more customers and increase the number of sales made. 

This would benefit me a lot, as they can advertise and promote my film on Facebook or any other sites to help attract consumers who might be interested in my film and make sales. This would benefit the company, as well as me, as my film will be distributed and the company will get a percentage of what I make out of the DVD sales. 

On the left is a screenshot from "Midnight Releasing's" webpage. This screenshot shows us that they also advertise and promote their films on ITunes, which you are then able to download. This tells us that this is a successful company, as they have a wide range of advertising techniques such as convergent technology in order to attract as many customers as possible and help distribute films. This is why i would use this media institution to distribute my film, as they are able to target and attract a wide audience. They will be able to distribute my film by attracting audiences this way, as the more convergent technology they use, the better. 

Below is a screenshot of "Midnight Releasing's" Twitter page. This again shows that they are using convergent technology in order to advertise their films. This allows people to view information on their Twitter pages about any films that "Midnight Releasing" advertises, as well as watch trailers. This also helps to attract a wider audience, which is what will be good for my film, as by reaching a wider audience, my film will become 'more known'. 

On the left is a screenshot of "Midnight Releasing's" YouTube page. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original-content creators and advertisers, large and small. This again shows that 'Midnight Releasing" is able to attract a wider audience through YouTube, as YouTube is the biggest online company where you can view and upload videos or films. You are also able to download full films on YouTube. This is a great convergent technology for distributing my film, which is why I think that "Midnight Releasing" would be the perfect company to distribute my film for me.

Evaluation Question 2

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents particular social groups through the use of clothing used, as both characters in the opening title sequence wore casual clothes such as jeans, a t shirt, sneakers and hoody’s. This shows the audience that both characters are of the same social standing and that most teenagers wear similar clothes.

Our opening title sequence also conforms to the stereotype that teenagers get up to mischief and are not fully aware of what they are getting themselves into. We have shown this by having the 2 characters trespass a farm on which there was an isolated barn where they broke into to play the Ouija board. Many of the people in the audience may also relate to the characters, which shows that we have represented them stereotypically, as many teenagers don’t take responsibility over certain things, causing them to do stupid things that would get in in some sort of trouble, in this case, them trespassing private property and playing the Ouija board.

We have also used positioning within the frame by placing the 2 characters close together, which indicates that they are friends, which is used in a lot of horror movies, for example Final Destination. This creates a contrast in horror movies between close friendship and separation, as many horror movies start off with a group of friends, which shows friendship, but further in the movie the friends become separated due to certain things happening, for example demons or spirits killing off the friends one by one, which is also shown in Final Destination.

Below is a table i created showing how our opening title sequence represents social groups

Evaluation Question 1

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Narrative Our horror movie had a supernatural story which is a convention of many other horror films such as “paranormal activity” however the narrative structure of our title sequence is very similar to todorvs narrative theory and many of the films I analysed did not follow the narrative theory such as “Dawn of the dead” however for our film was also set in an abandoned building which is another convention often used because it makes the audience feel uneasy and tense. Other films, which use similar abandoned locations are “SAW” and “The shining,” I think that using this location was effective because it strongly indicated that our opening title sequence was a horror genre of movie.	Mise en scene Low-key lighting was used throughout the whole opening title sequence; another horror film which used low key lighting was the woman in black, in both cases the low key lighting was used to build tension and mystery for the audience.  Ways in which our title sequence has challenged codes and conventions of horror movies were at the beginning of our title sequence when the characters were outside on a bright, clear day with high key lighting. This challenges conventions of many horror movies because high key lighting signifies happiness, which is the opposite of what horror films try to convey, however it was used in our title sequence because due to time constraints, we were unable to wait for darker and dull weather. In our opening title sequence, blood was used as a prop which is a convention of action, thriller and horror films. An example of a horror film which uses blood to scare the audience is  “Texas chainsaw massacre”
Camera work In our opening title sequence we used many shots which are often used in horror movies, for example we used close ups to show facial expressions as well as point of view shots when we took a handheld shot from behind a wooden beam to suggest and signify that something was present whilst hiding.	Editing The editing of our sequence also complied to codes and conventions of horror films, for example when the situation became tense we used fast and sudden editing to create tension for the audience when the blood fell onto the Ouija board.  The pace of our editing was used to build tension which many other horror films do to scare their audience as well.
Sound The non-diegetic sound, which we used, conforms to codes and conventions of horror films. This is because when the characters were inside the building, spooky and unnerving music was played in order to make the audience feel uncomfortable in this situation and make them feel that something else is present in the room.	Other Other ways in which our title sequence follows codes and conventions of horror movies is through representation. Our movie represents young people very stereotypically and similarly to other horror films such as Friday the 13th. Both represent young people as being mischievous and often getting into trouble.

Final Opening Title Sequence Analysis

Final Opening Title Sequence- The Ouija Board