Evaluation - Question 5

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Our main character is a 17 year old male who fits in nicely with our target audience as he would be somebody they can relate to. The male lead role would probably attract a more male dominated audience. We have therefore added a love interest between Jack and one of the female victims later on in the film, to attract a more well-rounded audience. This has proved to be successful in other films such as Pirates of the Caribbean, where the love interest between two of the main characters could be why it attracted a large female audience and did so well in its box office.

Will and Elizabeth in Pirates of the Caribbean

In order to appeal to our young market, we tried to make our film thrilling and fast paced. We did this through use of fast basey music and quick choppy editing during the chase sequence. To engage young audiences we used language and mannerisms that they can relate to. The realism of the film, and the fact that it tackles relevant issues such as gang culture and drug abuse, is also appealing to this market.

In order to anchor the fact that this is a British film for predominantly British audiences, we followed the same styles and conventions that other films of the genre have. For example the gritty and realistic way that the film is shot is appealing to the slightly sadistic British audience. Similarly to the film Shank, we would use relateable urban locations in London throughout the rest of the film. We hinted at this in the beginning of the film when we used this shot:


The alleyway and houses in the background show that Jack comes from an urban environment.
Also, the police siren connotes danger and violence, and again suggests urban roots.


After we had finished editing our opening sequence, we conducted a screening of our film, and gave a questionnaire to 50 members of our target audience (all aged 15 - 18.) We did this to to find out if we have successfully targeted them, and if our film makes sense so far. Our results showed us that everyone who was at the screening rated our film between 6-10 out of 10, with an average of 9/10 for the boys, and 7/10 for the girls. This reflects what we originally planned, as we said from the beginning that males would be our primary target audience.

Here is a sample of one of the filled out questionnaires:

IMG_0017 THE WITNESS QUESTIONAIRE