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

The opening of ‘Wilderness’ entices our audience by the use of sound and specific shots and lighting techniques. The first scene shown is of the disturbed character, looking at gruesome footage of animals being killed, whilst he is standing in the middle of a circle of candles in a large hall. First of all, the shot creates a strong build-up of tension, making the audience transfixed to the screen right from the start. The gazelle being eaten is reflected on the character, showing the audience that he could be in a very dark place that adds to this tension.  A sense of mystery is given to the audience due to the character having his back to the character, so they do not see his face. We felt that the sound had to also create tension by building up the soundtrack, and this is displayed throughout the entire video. Fear is also introduced to the audience at the end of the video, when Gareth’s character pulls out a knife when Protagonist enters the room. This cliff hanger leaves the viewer wanting more, to find out what happens to the three characters in this opening sequence.  I feel the effect of tension and fear is a good way to engage with an audience because it puts them on the edge of their seats, making it so that they do not know what could happen next.

The characters in our film were meant to engage the audience, and I think we accomplished that well. Freya was the person we wanted to show to be the protagonist, and this was displayed through her actions in the opening, running to aid an elderly relative. This gives her character a sense of honour and pride that most audiences like to see in a main character. She also wears masculine clothes that go against the conventions of the genre. This was meant to please our desired target audience, who like media products that break the norm.  Josh’s character was meant to be quite the opposite, having a sleazy style of walking that viewers find infuriating and a clear understanding that he is the antagonist. As mentioned in a previous question, Josh’s style of clothing also played a big part in how the viewer’s understand his character in a negative way. It was hard to implement these ideas into Gareth’s character, as he is just standing in a hall. However, the otherness Gareth’s character creates because of this difference makes his shots more intriguing.

 We also decided to go against the use of flashbacks in our film to somehow attract the audience. This is mainly because we felt flashbacks can be made quite clumsily and ruins the mystery of the plot. Instead of using this technique, we had cross cutting showing each characters actions, moving to places each character have just been too, creating a build-up of tension for the audience as they feel like the characters will all come together at the end of the video.  A cliff hanger at the end was made to shock the audience, and what better way to do it than having the most mysterious character in the opening to pull out a box cutter on a family member.

Intertextual references were important to add to our thriller, as it makes the audience become attracted to our work from recognising features and actions that have been shown in other media products that they have enjoyed. We made Gareth hold a glass of milk as a prop for ‘Wilderness’, as it was a major reference to the 1971 cult thriller ‘Clockwork Orange’. The childish connotations the milk gives to Gareth’s character, along with the disturbing imagery being shown on the projector, makes him seem like a more menacing and creepy person. Another intertextual reference was the box cutter, a reference from a tension grabbing scene from the popular thriller series ‘Breaking Bad’. The thought of the brutality that someone would use a box cutter as a murder weapon was very effective as a final shot in our video. This suddenly changes the audiences emotions of Gareth’s character on its head, making him seem like the ultimate antagonist. This reference from ‘Breaking Bad’ would be recognised by many, as the show was a huge success and the scene containing the box cutter was one of the most iconic scenes in the show.