Main Task - Evaluation Q5

Q5 How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to attract our audience, we aimed to not steer too far from the typical themes within horror; the initial scene induces fear and disgust from the offset, with a female as the victim. As well as this, the opening comes across as a separate story; however this is supposed to combine at some point. This is similar to the openings of ‘Sixth Sense’ and ‘Drag me to Hell’, as the scene’s here set up a movie but are explained mid way or at the end. This is the effect we want to achieve, to keep the audience guessing what the opening scene was about, and why it took place.

However, the eerie set up of the abandoned playground, which although is a public place is disturbingly empty, and as it is fenced in, the Mise en Scene, gives a sense of isolation and claustrophobia. We use little close-ups except for when the girl is running. Now in reflection I do think that using close-ups of the playground area would have looked better, for example the movement of the chains on the swings, rather than distance shots. This would enhance the sense of confinement and isolation, as in the distance it is inevitable that there are passers by walking into the scene, furthermore the roundabout shot should also have remained a close-up as the opening credits continue. We did however choose to edit parts of the scene to half-speed or in other terms ‘slow-mo’, so as to convey a sense of time slowing down, and the girl’s fate is inevitable regardless of when it takes place.

Another aspect that we would like to have changed for the viewer is the X-ray effect in some of the scenes, where the attacker places his hand on her shoulder; here I believe it would have been better if it remained at half-speed, but without the X-ray effect. So that the fear on her face is what the audience observes, the X-ray effect hides this, however, although Nadia is an excellent actress and put a great deal of commitment into acting for us. It was far too obvious that her look of horror was just not genuine enough, and did not create that impact with the original unedited version. Therefore the X-ray effect does induce some sense of fear and insecurity for the viewer. If we had more time to have re-filmed some of these shots, I think we could have achieved this. But we did not, so therefore made do with the editorial effect available to us.