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

I attracted/addressed the audience, in many different ways. These included, using a narrative enigma on the mechanic, since it draws the audience into the story because they want to find out the identity of the man and it denotes that he is the killer of the story, when it actually isn’t and the twist is that the girl is the killer. This unexpected twist was another method that was used to attract the audience, since it creates an original dis-equilibrium that leads the audience into new territory, which makes my media product memorable, due to this.

Another way I attracted/addressed my audience was by, using a song by a band with permission, in this case, The Feedback. The song plays in a non-diagetic way, made to look diagetic by playing on the radio  when the mechanic is working in the garage at the beginning of the product. By using this song, it attracts the audience if it’s popular with them. For example, Linkin Park’s music is usually used in the Michael Bay Transformers trilogy and because of this; some people might only go watch the new Transformers film, Dark of the Moon (2011, Michael Bay), only to listen to the Linkin Park song. Besides for being an advantage to the company, me and my group in this case, it is also an advantage for the band, since it promotes them and it would persuade the audience to buy their CDs and listen to more of their songs, leading to a massive increase in profit for both the band and the production company/distributor of the film.

Here's an example of the song chosen for Dark of the Moon:

Intertexuality is also used to attract the audience, since it is used quite a bit. For example, the boiler suit is a reference to Michael Myers, the antagonist of the Halloween film franchise and it makes it easy for a fan of horror films to follow the preferred reading of my media product. Another example of Intertexuality being used in my media product is the mid-shot of the girl’s phone ringing, since the person calling her is called Freddy. This is a reference to the main antagonist of the Nightmare on Elm Street films, Freddy. Besides from being intertexual, it also signifies who the masked killer might be and people might understand this signifier, if they have seen any of the Nightmare on Elm Street films, and might gain knowledge of the product’s upcoming events, if it were a full product.

Elements of humour can also be seen within my media product, in order to move slightly away from the serious mood of it and give the audience a good laugh or two. These elements include, the false scare which is used when the girl is making tea for the mechanic and the mechanic taps her on the shoulder, this is used to add tension showing that something horrifying is about to appear, when it actually isn’t, in order to grab the audience’s attention and give them a feeling of fear, then a good laugh, once they learn that the scare is false. Another element is seen when the mechanic is sniffing the girl’s underwear, this used to add some black humour and mix it with the light humour, the false scare in this case, by doing this it will attract the fans of black humour within the audience and get them engaged in the media product’s plot.