Follower - A Thrilling Independent Film

1. Question 5 How did you attract your audience?

2. T A R G E T A U D I E N C E Our classification for Follower is age rated 15. Therefore, the audience for our film will be for anyone above the age of 14. Our specific, main target audience is for young people aged 15-20, as we found that these ages would potentially be interested in watching our film – this could be for reasons such as being relatable, as the our main antagonist and protagonist are similar aged. As for our main targeted audience being young people, we had to think about the where the possibilities could be of marketing and advertising. Social media is an essential advertising factor we need in order to reach our audience. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube are popular trends in the 21st century, so is the platform we will use to advertise our independent film.

3. S O C I A L M E D I A Similarly said before, we would use social media as our main platform for advertising. The modern day world is run by social media, and hundreds of companies use interactive media for success in their film productions, therefore, we would use pull advertising in order to get the attention of our young viewing audience. As “Follower” isn’t a mainstream film, we are limited on the amount of advertising due to cost. Advertising interactively is free, and our film could easily be spread by word. For example, people get lots of messages through Twitter, to random users, to viewer their trailer, and to spread the word to receive a follow. The same process can also be used on Facebook, Instagram and other social networks. YouTube is something we would like to use, as we feel that this social network is what could potentially grasp a wider audience. YouTube stars could use a tiny publish of our film before their video; however, we could use lots of stars as this would cost money.

4. O T H E R P L A T F O R M S Other ways we could advertise our film is by posters on bus stops (where a lot of young people find themselves) and on buses to spread the word through the city. The beneficial side of things, we could attract an audience of people who live in Brighton straight away because it’s their hometown, and people who love Thriller’s could relate to our film even more. One final way we could advertise “Follower” is by giving out leaflets in the streets. This may draw the attention of many “thrill-seeking” viewers, as well as costing very little money to print the leaflets. There are many other ways we could pull our target audience in, but for our main audience, for young people, these detailed advertising descriptions are the way forward for us. The various other ways are issues in the newspapers – for older viewers, who may come with their children – and more expensive ways by promoting on the big screens in London and on TV. We like the idea of advertising on TV, in the evening when our audience are more likely to sit down and relax. This is something we would like to consider, according to expense.

5. W E L L K N O W N S T A R S The characters in our film are not similar to any global film star. One of our inspired films was Collateral, and this was because of main antagonist Vincent. He is similar in the way to our main antagonist Sam, although Sam seems to belong the British Hoodie group. Vincent doesn’t stand out in the society that he lives in because of his business-like persona, in a professional city, therefore doesn’t come across as a dangerous threat to society, and isn’t seen to be questioned by the police at any point for his actions, as people mis-judge his character, putting others in line for his crimes. This is the same for Sam… if anything happens to Laurie, will Sam be to blame? Spectators may question. Fans of Collateral may find this a film they may enjoy if we reference this in our description. However, as for my film being independent, it will not include any famous stars.

6. A U D I E N C E F E E D B A C K We showed our opening title sequence to our friends and members of our family. This way, we could get feedback from the target audience we are aiming our film at, which gave us a good insight to the popularity of our film according to age, and if it was overall positive of negative feedback. The feedback we received from friends (aged 16/17/18) were things such as: • “Very typical, had lots of elements that compliment each other.” • “The soundtrack fit the genre style, it was well thought out.” • “The cinematography was effective in giving it a creepy tone.” • “Low key lighting, remote area of the city (urban setting).” • “The pop up text messages were really clever.” • “The antagonists identity was revealed but his background was explored, which was good.” Overall, we were happy with the feedback we received, as our target audience found that it was conventional of a Thriller, which was our aim. Showing members of our family gave us a good insight to what our “broader audience” would think of the film. We received feedback such as “You can clearly see that every aspect of the sequence has been thought about”, “You can automatically tell that it is a Thriller down to the desaturated colour grading” and “Special Effects really reinforced important parts of the narrative, e.g. Laurie becoming aware and suspicious of being followed by something she thinks is unknown”. Obviously, our film isn’t going to be everybody’s cup of tea, but by the feedback we received by older family members, it sounded like are going to be successful with our younger viewers.

7. G E N R E From the viewing to our peers, we were able to find out what people of our target audience really thought of our opening title sequence. Our peers commented on elements of the film that conforms well to the genre conventions of Thriller and why they thought it worked so well. Overall, every piece of feedback we received was pointing out that our piece was “very conventional of the Thriller genre”. The characters seem typical because of the stereotypical male antagonist and female protagonist, as she is an ordinary person. Another person said that “the settings and narrative idea matched the genre because of the whole stalker scenario in the urban settings”. Our antagonist is left in the dark and unknown, so it keeps the audience keen to find out more about this character, building suspense, which is typical of a Thriller because of the secretivity of the threat. Others say that “the main elements that add to the genre are the music and the lighting”; they really liked these two aspects throughout the film as they help build a tense atmosphere and a mystery element.

8. M I S E – E N – S C E N E Our audience thought that we had a variety of mise-en-scene that made our film effective. The settings was seen as “very conventional of a Thriller, in remote areas of the city”. We had a good range of locations, and these were ordinary, iconic places, which could potentially draw in a niche UK audience. Another person mentioned that the “location in the darkened room was very typical for the mystery aspect”. Another prop that people found impressive was the Facebook pop up message on screen; “this could be seen as a narrative device, hinting at the climax of the film”. Other comments that come up quite often was the prop of the necklace – it hints at the past which is common in Thriller films. Lastly, costumes. Our audience said that “it was made clear when the characters were no longer in a relationship”. This is positive feedback, as our audience can tell that all aspects were thought about.

9. T E C H N I C A L A S P E C T S Technically, our audience thought that “the overall camerawork is clean and works well”. It was mentioned that our “title placing and editing was thought well of, and we paid attention to detail when and where we should”. Special effects that our audience as a majority thought was effective was when I (Laurie) disappear on the bench. This was said to be “well edited, as the sound effects at the moment were good”. “The soundtrack gave the effect of making the viewers want to keep watching, as it has a very eerie vibe to it”. Therefore, we feel as though our audience has supported our aim, that of which, is to be conventional of a Thriller.

10. S U M M A R Y I feel as though our Opening Title Sequence has successfully grabbed the attention of our target audience. From the feedback that we received, we know that our core audience found the sequence conventional of it’s genre. Our film has a huge twist at the end, which the audience wouldn’t know unless they really found the opening gripping, and wanted to stay on. In order for our audience to want to stay on till the end, and eager to find out more about the mentality of Sam and how he got there in the first place, we had to ensure that our opening had as much tension as unanswered questions as possible. Some may find it confusing, but I guess that’s the point of a Psychological Thriller.