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

In this question I will show how our media product has been made to target and appeal to our audience through the use of enigma codes, action codes and conventions of the Action/thriller genre.  I will also show how the marketing of our product is affective at targeting our audience.


There is a great sense of enigma in our opening sequence.  Because the beginning of our sequence is rather slow paced, filled with close up and fairly abstract, stylised shots, the audience have to ask themselves questions about the characters traits.  The use of rather conventional iconography such as the cigars, the knives and the whisky foreshadows the style and genre of the film, thereby even what the audience should expect of the genre.

With the audience constantly questioning aspects of the film, it keeps them constantly engaged into the film.  Further into the sequence, there are more enigmas for the film.  Our female assassin is introduced in a suspenseful shadow through the glass of the door, enhancing the mystery of her character for the audience, and then the act of assassinating the man, who is the focus of the start of the opening sequence, emphasises her dominance in the film to the audience and leaves more questions of why she has done this and who she actually is.

The audience inevitably fears the role of the female assassin and as the killing is rather unexpected for the audience, who have seen a man in his quiet, homely surroundings, it keeps them engaged within the film, not least because of the rather convincing makeup by Natasha and blood effect, which make is more believable.  The binary opposition between the murder and the quiet setting of the man’s peaceful home emphasises the impact that the assassination brings to the audience, further allowing them to engage into the film and create a sense of escapism into this desired, mysterious situation of the sequence.

Our core audience of the 16-24 market would be attracted by the action within the sequence, and the tension that builds prior to it, allowing them to fully escape and submerse themselves within the film, leaving reality for a period of time.

Our female assassin plays a vital role in attracting our audience.  She acts as an inspiration for our female audience, not to turn into ruthless assassins, but to feel empowered and dominant.  She is also the key attraction for our male audience, as she is the attraction of the film.

In order to attract our audience to our first showing of the film, we made a poster which we put across the school, however because our target audience are 16-24, we thought it would be even more effective to create a Facebook event for our screening.

Our screening took place on Monday 26th March in the media block, and we had a good turnout of over 40 people.  We firlsty allowed the audience to watch the whole sequence through so that they could engage with it completely, then we replayed the sequence this time asking them to fill out a feedback sheet.