creative critical reflection task 2
Within this task I created a poster and chose 6 key moments of my sequence to present the engagement of audiences and distribution.
For the past few weeks we have been exploring and developing an idea of what we want our target audience to be. I did research into similar products and conventions within other media products so that I was able to identify which age range this was going to be, after some detailed analysis we as a group thought that an age range above 16 from 17- 22 would be the best age range for our target audience. When learning about the BBFC and how they work, we also learnt how to identify our age restriction and what it should be:
https://lolacorcorana1media.blogspot.com/2022/03/similar-products-and-conventions.html
https://lolacorcorana1media.blogspot.com/2022/03/bbfc-lesson.html
we used a male lead within our opening sequence. The horror genre mainly targets a male dominant audience as well as females, having a male lead would mean that our target audience can identify with this linking to Blumer and Katz uses and gratifications theory and the idea of self identification. However we subverted a key stereotype by having a male victim which would shock and surprise our audience by the fact that he slowly becomes a victim within our sequence. This way the sequence becomes unexpected and our audiences would want to continue seeing the sequence in order to see the surprising outcomes.
Within the opening of our sequence our male lead doesn't allow the audience to see a lot of his emotion which follows the key conventions of a male stereotype. Yet we slowly start to see a change with the interactions with his dog. The opening of our sequence allows the audience to see the development of our character and who he actually is once he realizes that something he cares about is in danger. It is a key moment within our sequence as it is an introduction to our character as well as the location and suggests what is going to happen further on in the narrative.
- Another key part/ moment of our sequence would be the inclusion of violence and gore. A key part of horror that horror fans and target audiences expect is the goriness and scariness (its what makes a horror) without this it would not match up the expectations and end up disappointing the audience. We used fake blood, a pigs head, animal skin and flesh as well as small pieces of fabric covered in wood. The effect of this caused our audiences to question everything that has happened. I am able to link this to Roland Barthes enigma theory and the idea of unanswered questions to intrigue audiences. With these unanswered questions that grasp our audiences, we are able to explain the, later on (if our sequence was a full film). This means that the audience would have to continue to watch which is why the conventions are so important.
The next key moment within our sequence would be when our character has a realization that something is wrong and starts to look for his dog Ziggy (the turning point of the sequence). This is the moment within our sequence that symbolizes the problem and negative turning point, it increases tensions and wariness for our audience. We have purposely done this so that our audience feel anxious about what is going to take place. Within Horror its about engaging your audience in a surprising and unexpected way, there are clear expectations and conventions that come from the audience and the genre, but they can be achieved in creative ways. When Ziggy (the dog) went missing, this reinforced the key themes of isolation and abandonment in a scary (and stereotypical) location. This way our audience are kept surprised at all moments.
An spect of our genre was the fact that we based it around the issue of cult like group of religion based groups. The use of symbols reinforce the ideologies for them. For example the use of a collection of sticks and branches of trees, which we ended up creating a star like symbol as well as a cross. This has negative associations and connotations that tend to scare large audiences. As well as the fact that we used spray paint (red/silver). Red has connotations of danger and blood and are an immediate warnings. The color of silver stands out in our woods locations
And finally our cliffhanger, this is one of the most important factors to my opening sequence as its what keeps our audience engaged and ready to watch the rest of the film/sequence. We did an over the shoulder shot and got our actor to abruptly turn around and scream. This is effective as it demonstrates he is no longer alone and something has happened. As an audience member watching this sequence I would want to know what is happening and what happened to this sequence. Typically in a horror someone will be killed off in the opening sequence, yet we didn't do this (its what is implied) and so our audience are wanting to continue. In conclusion to what we have achieved I think we successfully targeted and engaged our audience through following the key conventions and stereotypes that are associated with the genre of horror as well as the fact that there is audience expectations that we needed to adhere to. Overall I did feel we targeted our audience successfully. Something that I feel though that we could have done differently next time would be embedding more sound effects or symbols across the forest that were signifiers for the audience. At times we kept our symbol use to a minimum, which I feel could have been explored further.
My film poster:
Looking at the way that I hinted things within my poster, one of the key suggestive was the use of a woods location at the bottom of my poster subtly. This is significant as it is an immediate connotation to my audience that whatever this is about it most likely takes place in the woods. To further suggest and reinforce a horror I have used a sharp red font on the word 'gathering'. Red has connotations of violence, death, blood etc (all things associated with our genre and sequence). The main image includes the use of a pigs head on a stick which is invasive and forceful onto the audience (makes them uncomfortable). This also makes our audience immediately question why there is a pigs head on the screen. All of these connotations are associations of a horror and go with our sequences narrative, which is why this is effective and intrigues our audience.
I have then used at the bottom the names of the actors, writer, producer, editor, director etc. As well as the use of the shudder logo. The use of the shudder logo is associated with the horror genre. Shudder is a streaming platform for horror films and targets a specific audience, immediately by associating with Shudder its a clear enforcement and association with the genre of horror. Something else that I have done to communicate the dark horror genre would be the use of the dark color scheme of black and reds. This is effective as it allows the audience and viewers to be exposed to the darkness of the film. Our film classification is a 15 due to the fact that theres nothing within it that would stop a younger audience from seeing it, but we feel that its targeted towards an older audience of 17+, this is because the topics and ideologies of the film are more enjoyed and understood (stereotypically) by an older audience and won't scare them too much.
We decided that the best time to release our sequence (film) would be in October. This part of the year is when halloween and the ideas of scariness are celebrated. Audiences across the world are more interested than normal in watching and celebrating horror films due to the holiday. So we would use this time by releasing the film just before halloween (released between the 10-29th October) so that we can grasp the attentions of bigger audiences who are wanting to watch horror films for halloween. The company that I feel our sequence gathering would be best distributed by would be the company vertigo studios. Its an independent studio and a realistic studio that would distributed a small film like ours. Another film that has been distributed by Vertigo would be the film host which was released in 2020 targeting a covid audience. The studio Vertigo was launched in 2014 by its CEO Rupert Preston.
Finally looking at the way I would chose to market our film/ sequence using the distribution company of Vertigo. I think that I would avoid doing a cinematic release as that requires an active physical audience to go see the film, and considering there wouldn't be a large audience waiting for our film to be released we could focusing on using an online and physical marketing strategy. It is a lot more expensive to release a film in cinemas than it is to release on online streaming platforms like google play, iTunes, amazon etc. As we will have a much smaller production and marketing budget compared to the large conglomerates like Disney and the big 5, I would probably think about doing an immediate release on these platforms and even look into releasing the film on Netflix and spend the marketing budgets on online platforms as well as physical strategies like billboards, posters etc. Netflix is an International film distributor where millions of people watch content. Putting our film there would mean that it immediately gets that attraction and international exposure that the film needs to succeed.
Physical (old media) is more expensive, but its also another way to reach other audiences who aren't as in touch with the social media accounts and websites that would be marketing our film. For example, posters which we can not only upload online but can get printed. They are easy eye catching elements that advertise and target specific audiences. As technology develops there is a mass growth in online audiences and it has been proven that studios today can survive going straight to their online audience instead of targeting audiences through cinemas (which is why distribution chains are getting smaller) Looking at the way we could use the niche providers would probably be more successful for a small independent release like our product, as its cheaper and more accessible.
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