Secondary research into an institutional example- 'The Visit'

Hi everyone, Here I have done some secondary research into an institutional example...
I decided to analyse the film 'The Visit' (2015) and see how I thought they targeted their audience.
I then compared this to my own ideas and gave my thoughts on it, hope you enjoy :)

Secondary research into an institutional example from LauraKN

uWhen doing secondary research into identifying audience, it also gave me a few more ideas on what we could include in our thriller. For example, changing peoples expectations…

uThis was used in ‘The Visit’ at multiple times where as an audience member I expected the Grandma to kill the girl (especially when she asked her to go inside the oven), however she didn’t. I think that we did the same thing in our thriller opening when the girl is outside in the dark. I think this as because it is a thriller, some people might expect danger to come at this point and for the character to be harmed or even killed. I think that because we were able to do this, it created a more dramatic setting for the audience while watching as their expectations didn't happen.

Primary research into identifying audience

For primary research into identifying our target audience for our thriller we did a short survey with 
10 people that we knew. The youngest person in this survey was 13 and the oldest was 82, so obviously there was a big difference. We did this to see is a large range of people would like the idea that we had for our thriller so far, because the larger the target audience the better.

We first asked them: "Do you like thriller films?"
We then asked them: "Would a thriller about the past and war, which is about murder appeal to you?"
We then asked the simple question: "Why" to see if the type of thriller changd their mind.

As you can see, some of these results stand out as some of the people changed their mind a bit when hearing about the genre. One that stands out the most I think is the person who said they didn't like thriller films but would probably watch it because they were intrested war. 

Primary audience research from LauraKN

This short task showed us that not everybody will like our thriller obviously but there is also not really an age limit. However, as this is going to be a thriller there has to be a age that you have to be to watch it. We have come up with the idea to make it either a 12 or a 15 but are not sure yet, keep checking for updates :)

Thriller Opening- Initial Ideas

For my Opening Thriller task I will be working with Tammy Baldwin.
Tammy is going to be in charge of the camera while i will be playing the 16 year old girl in the film.
We will also be using friends and family members in our film to make up the remainder of the characters. 

Scene 1: (Girls house)

• Scene one will be set at dusk. 
• A girl, aged 16, is having an argument with her parents
• she storms out, slams the door and starts to pack her bag while angry music will be  playing over the top of the scene, and this stops when she slams the door.
• The camera pans across some pictures on a shelf, the first one is of her parents, she smashes it on the floor.
• the next one shows the girls 'war hero' grandfather and the music changes to an emotional piece.
• she looks at the photo and then packs it carefully. She takes a deep breath then leaves her house (diegetic sound used).

Scene 2: (Grandmas house)

• The next scene is a dark rainy night.  
• The 16 year old girl knocks on the door and her grandma lets her in and proceeds to give her a drink. 
• (A montage with the same emotional music is used).
• Her Grandma and herself  sit on the sofa looking at an old photo album, by the fireplace.
• The girl yawns and they set up a bed on the sofa because the spare room in the attic is full of her granddad's old belongings.

Scene 3: (Grandmas attic)

• Scene 3 is set as a bright sunny day (morning).
• The girls grandma is downstairs and the girl is looking through the boxes of her granddads old belongings.
• she comes across a box filled with war medals etc., and a strange ripped document.
•  Finally she puts the two pieces together and finds something surprising. Dramatic music plays and the title sequence starts.

We will be using different types of natural lighting such as the dark and the light and probably some artificial lights to create a more dramatic setting however this means that we will have to be careful with our continuity. We will also use different camera shots and angles to make the overall video feel more real and more dramatic as it should do.

Audience expectations

plot elements and production values

The Distribution Process In Film

This is my presitation about the what the distribution process is about in film, what it does, and some examples that I have included.

The Production Process

Here is my slide show about the production process in tv and film. It includes when the three different stages happen, It explains what the different stages are and what happens within them.

Production process from LauraKN

Audience Theories

My thoughts: 

Active V Passive-
I in some ways agree with the active and passive theory, for example if someone sees a film that inspires them then they might want to go out and do something, by this I mean that it could change the way they think about something. However, If there was a film about murder it doesn't mean that it will put the idea in someones head to kill somebody, this is a way in which I disagree with the passive side.
I also both agree and disagree with the active side sort of in the same way. For example, if the film is trying to promote something such as stopping animal testing then it's the audience members choice in how they react to that.

Hypodermic needle theory-
I think of this theory in the same way as i do with the passive side of the active v passive theory... I also think that it depends on the induvidual in terms of how the media makes them think.

The reception theory-
This happens I think in quite a lot of films...

Uses and gratifications theory-
I mainly agree with this theory and as i have already said, it depends on the induvidual. Therefore I think that if there is a film with such a strong message then it will deffinetly effect the audience members to act upon something, however they may just choose to do what they want anyway.

In my coraline textual analysis, I think that the film is deffinetly trying to set a scene in the audiences head and make them understand what type of film it is, however I don' think the film particually chages peoples thoughts as there isn't really a very clear messge that it gives out. 
However, I think that this again depends on the induvidual and how they may interpret the message that the film may be giving out to people.