Question 5

Q5: How did you attract/address your audience?

Gender:

In order to appeal to both genders we included a female lead as well as a male lead within our film. Our female protagonist attracted the female members of our target audience through her portrayal as a different woman to stereotypical characters in sports/drama films. Particularly within boxing films as stereotypical lead female characters in these types of films are often the lovers of the male lead, portraying them as objects of love and desire rather than strength and power which is what our character Maya represents, showing the female members of our audience that they are capable of becoming professionals in sport/boxing careers just like men. As well as this, we attracted the male gender to our film by having a male lead who although does have his stereotypical traits, comes across as a cheeky and charming character. This appeals to the male gender because these traits are quite typically masculine, enabling this gender to connect with our male lead character Drew. However, not all of his personality is revealed to the audience, demonstrating how we used the enigma code to catch our audience's attention and to intrigue them. Another affect that this code has on the audience is that it leaves them wanting more as they want to know more about Drew's character.

Storyline:



We also attracted our target audience to our film by making our storyline entirely about a specific sport. As our audience will be fans of sport and may actually enjoy playing some sports themselves, by having this as the main topic       throughout the film the audience is able to connect to the storyline as well as the characters, who are also clearly fans of sport and participate in it themselves. This makes it a more personal   experience for the viewer and keeps their level   of interest for our film high.


Voiceover:
One way in which we addressed our audience is through the use of the voiceover throughout our film. The use of a voiceover in our film demonstrates how we used Roland Barthes connotative/semic code which is described as being the voice of a person- it is a code which relates to the traits of a character and their setting. During Maya's voiceover she says how she is determined to be "the best boxer", showing some of her personality traits but she also describes her home life as being "ruined", giving the audience a sense of the setting/background that she comes from. As well as this, the overall affect that the use of a voiceover has on the audience is that it makes it seem as though they are being directly spoken to by one of the characters, enabling them to connect with Maya's character on a more personal level.

Music:
Another way in which we attracted our audience is through the choice of music in our soundtrack. The music that we used is quite calming and relaxing but it is also slightly upbeat, making the audience feel at ease but also interested in our film at the same time. Also, it has a strong urban element to it, representing the setting of our film but attracting members of our audience at the same time because the music is quite conventional to youth culture, appealing to our teenage and young adult audience.

Camera shots:
Through the use of varied camera shots and types we were successful in attracting our audience to our film. For example, one of our first shots of our opening sequence is a close-up shot of Maya practising her boxing technique:

The use of a close-up here allows the audience to connect more with Maya's character as they gain an insight into her personality and hobbies.

Additionally, the use of a tracking shot when Maya is at the punch bag makes our film more interesting as it is different to the other shots that we used:

This particular shot appeals to our audience as it allows them to not only see the dedication of Maya to boxing and the just how determined she is as a character, but they can also see what the actions of the other characters of our film. This makes it more interesting for our audience and keeps their attention on our film.

Our Audience's Response:

Below you can watch a video of how different members of our audience responded to our film:

From this one of the things we learnt is that our film has a clear storyline which successfully demonstrates to the audience that Maya is the protagonist of our film, allowing them to identify with her as the main character. For example, one way in which the audience learns this is through the voiceover in which Maya talks about her life and particuarly about her passion for boxing. From this our audience were able to gather information about Maya's character and were able to tell that Maya was aspiring to be a professional boxer. 

On the other hand, we also received feedback from our audience which told us how we could improve our film. For example, one audience member said that right at the beginning of our opening sequence it would have been better to have a tracking shot of Maya walking down the corridor with the camera following behind her as she enters the boxing gym in order to make our film flow more, which would then match the flowing pace of the music we used for our soundtrack.