Evaluation Continued (4)

How did you attract/address your audience?

Hooded Figure barges into
our main character

In any opening sequence to a film, especially in a thriller, the audience need to be hooked from the beginning, and to keep the audience guessing from the moment a film begins, that's why at the very beginning of my film, I decided to open with a hooded figure barging into our main character, so immediately the audience is asking themselves many questions like who and why?

I also decided to use a shot which I felt would keep the audience guessing about whether it was a point of view shot or not, by having a shot right above the characters head after a shadowy figure sprints past the door which is ajar. By having the shot follow him and go over his head, the audience are forced to ask themselves, is this someone watching him, or is it just the shot following the character? and I felt I achieved this.


But then he walks past, but the
camera follows as if he's being
watched.

character seems to be walking
towards someone

To further induce the audiences' need to be thrilled, I also made the audience question firstly, the amount of intruders in the house, and also the location of the intruders, and it's the audience not knowing that evokes their curiosity and their attention, and that's how mainly I've tried to keep the audience interested until the climax of the sequence.

What would attract the audience, is how easy it is to (initially) relate to the character because of how 'normal' I constructed this character to be, with his demeanour and appearance, and that's what bring the fear, as well as allows the audience to become induced into investing their time into the film.

The DVD and monologue

The results of my questionnaire showed me that people have fear evoked from not knowing, and this also includes plot twists, things that the audience don't expect that happen, and that's why I decided to introduce a DVD in order to make contact with our main character, and when the 'villain' his performing his monologue, he opens many unanswered questions which leads the way to many plot twists that can be explored, but the one I would have definitely explored is how they have the same identity and the introduction of the multi-verse theory, and I would want the audience to think about how they perceive reality.




A key theme in most of Hitchcock's more successful films was mistaken identity, and that was a theme I was keen to integrate within my film as it acts as a effective twist that will surprise the audience, as well as a way to keep the audience intrigued, and this was the way I wanted to go with my opening sequence, as I made a concious effort to give as little away in terms of the characters identities as possible. I also found influence in more contemporary psychological thriller 'Exam' where not a single character's name is given away throughout the entire feature, and I that as a viewer, i was more intrigued as all the character's were shrouded in ambiguity, and I found myself feeling more tense and attentive whilst watching, so by integrating this theme, I made an attempt to make the opening sequence feel more tense.