HOW DOES YOUR PRODUCT ENGAGE WITH AUDIENCES AND HOW WOULD IT BE DISTRIBUTED AS A REAL MEDIA TEXT?

 

Target Audiences

Although Clementine and I worked together on our film, we made sperate edits which resulted in slightly different tones within the film openings. For this reason, our target audiences may be slightly different. Within my film opening, I used the song 'Run Rabbit Run', which introduces the suggestion of the couple being predators. The theme of hunting, particularly rich hunting the poor (which can be interpreted within our film due to our characters middle class appearance), is featured within films such as "Surviving the Game" (1994), "The Hunt" (2020) and "Ready or Not" (2019) - just to name a few. On top of this, the movie "Ma" (2019) depicts a middle-aged women who befriends a group of teenagers, before holding them captive and torturing and killing those who come to save them. Although this film is more about a psychological disorder rather than killing for pleasure, it carries the same idea of the illusion of a normal character having a dark nature hidden from the outside world. An outline of our target audience can be read below, or in more detail on my Target Audience blog page.

I believe that my target audience would be pretty evenly split between genders as the characters are relatable to any gender. However, the film has a romanticized element which may appeal to female viewers. The psychological element may appeal to people between the age of 18-25, however, our film opening portrays a middle class lifestyle which may appeal to viewers around the ages of 40-50. Similarly, I think my film will appeal to an upper class audience, due to the sophisticated nature of couple. The characters are portrayed as predators, while still seeming classy, which can provide catharsis for some viewers, while challenging others with the ambiguous imagery. I think my film would appeal to film avids, as they tend to like sophisticated, analytical and thoughtful films. I think my film would fall into this category, as it contains a lot of imagery that may be hard to recognize at first until the dark undertones of the film are revealed.

Audience Profiling

My film has quite an abstract presentation, with some iconography being quite unconventional (such as the clothing the couple are wearing, and the act of the  killers going for a picnic). As you don’t actually see the murder taking place, and the identities of the killers aren’t revealed, the cause and effect is not clear in the opening and instead introduces enigma codes. Furthermore, the use of imagery to help convey the dark undertones of the film challenges the audience and makes them think deeper about the meaning of the shots. This appeals to people who are analytical as the film contains deeper meanings. The audience are drawn to the film as they want to know who was murdered, why, and who killed them. 

My film can offer a sense of catharsis as middle class members of society can easily relate to the characters of the sophisticated couple. This targets people who are generally in the ABC1 class category. This connection can lead to catharsis as the audience are watching seemingly relatable characters explore their dark urges. People who are around the age of 40, who have spent many years at work and may be disenchanted with everyday life, may enjoy this kind of escapism.  Viewers have a sense of what it would be like if they were able to have complete freedom over their actions, with no consequences. However my film may also attract people who enjoy analyzing ambiguous imagery, and enjoy more complex films rather than generic narrative structures. 

Due to the sense of catharsis my film may evoke, it can explore the subject of whether there is evil in all of us. On top of this, the representation of the couple can also be linked to a theme of rich vs poor, due to their sophisticated manner and the suggestion of them being predators that ‘hunt’ for enjoyment. Once again, this may appeal to the educated, analytical personality type as they would enjoy linking the film to reality and todays societal issues.

My film takes place in an  realistic world, which is slightly romanticized. This is appealing to a younger audience as it is relatable, while still offering a world to escape to. My characters are dressed in a sophisticated manner (especially the woman), romanticizing the idea of killing. This would prevent the audience from empathizing with the couple, also prevent them from hating them entirely. 

The tone of my film is quite ominous, as the beginning is silent apart from diegetic sounds. When the song starts playing, ‘Run Rabbit Run’, it changes the tone of the film entirely as it makes the couple seems predatory, and also makes the scene unsettling. This is engaging as the song becomes the point of interest, and contrasts the romantic setting of the picnic.

My film lacks any action, but has a number of enigma codes which engage the audience. Like ‘The Silence of The Lambs’, my film carries an ominous tone rather than showing an frightening actions. Despite being described as a monster, Hannibal Lector is still shown to be very educated and polite. This can be seen in my film as the two killers are carrying out the very generic act of going for a picnic. The lady can be seen putting on a nice pearl necklace, which suggest she has money and cares about her appearance, rather than being a murderess.

Distribution Strategy

As my film is a small scale individual film, it is unlikely to be able to compete with popular movies being displayed in the cinema. It will also be unlikely to appeal to mainstream viewers. The most likely form of distribution would be to display my film in a film festival such as the Sundance film festival, and picking up a distributor there. This would most likely attract individual distributors, or larger companies such as Amazon which may be willing to add the film to their streaming service. Streaming services would also bring a wider audience to my film, as frequent users of these services are often willing to try unique films as it is easy to turn on/off so they have more control over the viewing. I would release the film around January, as people are likely to still be on their Christmas holiday, but also have more time to spare once the major celebrations are over. The Sundance film festival is also often held in January, so the event would help bring more attention to my film as it will have been originally shown there. Our target audience is aficionados, who are likely to make time for individual films, but would also be interested in watching film festivals (or films that were successful in popular festivals).

Marketing

The most effective method of marketing would be through social media, especially popular platforms such as Instagram or TikTok. These platforms allow you to make accounts for free, and it also increases the likelihood of making brand deals that increase visibility of your posts. There are also accounts dedicated to finding and recommending upcoming films, so if they reposted our marketing or promoted our film it would be an effective way of reaching our target audience. These applications also use algorithms to show particular posts to people who like receiving that content, which would also help us reach our target audience. Using social media is a cheap way of reaching a lot of people.