Evaluation- Activity four

Target audience for our opening two minutes
The picture on the left shows what our target audience would look like, 15 year old's and above. The target audience with the age of 15 usually do different things compared to the other side of the spectrum of our target audience, as our audience ranges from 15 to at least 30.
Stereotypically, girls of the age of 15 do a lot of shopping in, such as, the high revenue shops Office, Hollister, Urban Outfitter to the lower end which consist of New Look, Primark, Republic and Topshop. Their other interests consist of listening to pop styled music and watching TV programmes such as, Friends, Keeping up with the Kardashians and America's Next Top model. These stereotypical interests of 15 year old girls, suggest that they would like films such as romances, rom-coms, comedy genres. However, girls above the age of 16 become more independent and mature, so their interests differ, for example, going into lingerie shops, perfume shops and male shops for boyfriends, friends or if they want something baggy to wear. Also they start to watch programmes such as, Geordie Shore, The Valleys, CSI etc.
Now, 15 year old boys have many interests, for example, stereotypically they all love sports like football rugby, cricket, tennis and basketball. They also like video games on various consoles (Xbox, Playstation), which would keep them occupied for hours with all the countless games which are designed for these hardwares. They usually play action filled games, such as, Call of Duty, Halo and Bond games. They also watch TV programmes such as Match of the Day as theyre associated with sports, which like I have said, stereotypically they like sports like football. As they grow up they begin to like shopping to get the newest trends and fragrances, which they purchase from shops such as Topman and American Eagle. They also listen to music with the genres of R&B and Rap.
We thought our target audience would range from 15 and above as the males usually like the adrenaline buzz, which horror films usually provide for them due to the fearfulness they create. Males also like horrors as there are elements of blood and little violence in them, which stereotypically males like, which is why our target audience would probably be around 51 % male,  whereas females would be 49%. Females would also be part of our target audience as they would want to watch a film, which allows them to escape their everyday life. Also horrors do not promote violence, which stereotypically females do not like violence, which would be another reason why females would want to watch a horror as they are not promoting violence but fear, which the female audience would sympathise. Also females like horrors as they can easily engage and relate to them as usually the main character consists of an attractive male or the protagonist is female. This is explains why we used a female protagonist as the males would be attracted to her but the females would engage and associates themselves of being in the protagonists' situation.

Evaluation- Activity two

Social group comparison- Protagonist
Our protagonist is a young, innocent, blonde haired girl, which is being stalked and followed by a masked figure, which we assume is a murderous killer. We decided to have our character to be portrayed in this way as it makes the girl seem more vulnerable making the audience feel sympathetic as she may not be able to defend for herself; stereotypically this is viewed. Our protagonist represents the social group of the vulnerability of young girls, which conform to horror films as they are usually the first or one of many victims within a horror genre film. The picture below our protagonist in our opening two minutes, is the young lady from the well known serial horror films, 'Scream'. The protagonist in 'Scream', played by Drew Barrymore is very similar to ours, which we mainly based her on. Both antagonists are blonde haired, which makes them seem more vulnerable as stereotypically blonde haired girls are seen as less intelligent and weak so would be easy targets for the antagonists to hunt. Also, stereotypically blondes are seen as being attractive, which would appeal to more of the male audience, which would make them not wanting that girl to be harmed. Another similarities between these protagonists are the use of mise en scene of both of them wearing white tops within the films. The use of mise en scene, enables the characters to look defenseless and harmless, which increases the sympathy the audience would have for the characters. The white colour connotates many things such as purity, which makes them both seem more of a target for the antagonists desirable intentions. Also having the top long sleeved suggests that they are preserving themselves and covering themselves up, which attracts the antagonist even more. The ages of the protagonists are around the same as each other, which makes them more of an obvious victim for the antagonist as stereotypically, the antagonist go for young ladies rather than little girls and older woman. The similar ages also allows the audience to relate to the character as our target audience ranges from ages 15 and above, so these protagonists relates to the more mature audience, such as 18's and above. This is because they can compare themselves being in this situation, which would make them more scared and frightened, which horror films want to achieve from the audience. Stereotypically, the protagonists are usually white skinned rather than dark skinned, as stereotypically white skinned woman are seen as being more vulnerable and less able to defend for themselves; this stereotypical view is flawed as it can come across as being a racist stereotype.

The second comparison of social groups is with the protagonist from 'The Grudge' and the sequel 'The Grudge 2', who was played by 'Sarah Michelle Gellar'. The similarities between these two protagonists are the use of mise en scene, for example, the use of the white tops which connotates purity, innocence and youthfulness, which is reflected to the audience. Also another similarity would be them both being blonde haired, which I have already commented on above. However, 'Sarah Michelle Gellar' character subverts to the social group in horror films. Her character subverts as although she is the victim within the film she does not die or get hurt which subverts to a stereotypical protagonist. Furthermore both these characters are seen as the main characters of the film as they are in nearly all of the shots and the story is following their lives due to the point of view shots etc.
Social groups comparison- Antagonist 
The antagonist in our opening two minutes was revealed in the final shot of our film, as the whole opening was building up tension and suspense to this. However during our film we used different camera shots to make it seem as though the antagonist was following and stalking the protagonist, such as, the point of view shots behind the trees. Also we used diegetic music, such as the twig snapping, which again reinforced the idea of the antagonist following the young girl. Our antagonist was mainly based on the antagonist from the film 'The Strangers', as you can see in the picture to the right. There are many similarities between these two antagonists such as the role they have within the film. Both their roles are vital within the films as they make the audience scared and frightful as they jump out and appear unexpectedly, which scare the audience, which horror films like to achieve. Another similarities are the use of mise en scene, such as the use of clothes and costumes. Both antagonist are wearing everyday like clothes, for example, the jacket and trousers, which makes the audience feel as though this could happen to them and they would not know who it is due to the everyday clothing they are wearing. The major similarity is that both antagonists are masked evidently hiding the identity of the antagonists. This makes the audiences full of fear as the antagonist could be anyone, even the least expected. Having the prop of the mask creates many enigmas, such as, who is that, and why are they doing this?

Evaluation Targets

You've done so well this year Charlotte - so let's not fall behind at the final stage of the year for your coursework! Revisit your recent posts and see if there are any more opportunities to use specialist terminolgy to explore mise-en-scene, ediiting and camera composition and comment on the way you intended to appeal to your target audience even more - there's so much to comment on to show how reflective you can be. Get working with your group tro complete director's commentaries and comment more on what you have learnt from your audience feedback.

Audience feedback

Feedback of opening two minutes

As we put the finishing touches of editing and titles to our production, we had to gain feedback from our audience, so we would know what we have to improve on and how we will ensure this. This type of feedback is vital for film directors as it tells them if they met the audience demands, which our film hopefully does due to our target audience research we completed before establishing and finalising our film. It is also important as it gives the film makers an idea of how well the film will do, in terms of economics of profits and box offices hits. Our feedback for our film was very positive and encouraging as we had minor corrections and improvements to consider about. We found out that the audience liked the characters who were present in the opening minutes as they conformed to the stereotypical horror film of having an innocent girl as the antagonist. They also liked how the use of camerawork created the effect of someone following the young girl, as it creates enigmas and makes the audience scared as they don't what will happen. Another piece of feedback was that the background soundtrack of non diegetic and diegetic and the use of close up shots created suspense and tension. Using the underwater camera was said to be very effective, as it was a new unusual way of filming, which made them more intrigued. They thought it was very effective on the choice of location as having it set within a household, makes the film more relatable, as they feel as though this could happen to them. The only piece of criticism we gained from our target audience was that the use of the non diegetic sound of the bang, which was made by us slamming the keys of a piano. They said that the slam was ever so slightly out of sync, which may make the continuity of the film a little interrupted. This may be out of sync as we produced all the music by ourselves, which made it hard trying to organise and sync all the music up together. However to improve our film we would sync this non diegetic music so it gives our film the best potential it has against competing films.