5. How did you attract/address your target audience?

From our target audience research we already knew who our target audience was going  to be (females between the ages of 12-22) so it was a lot easier to figure out how we would attract and address them.

Westfield Shopping Centre

To attract them to actually watch the film we would have advertisements for the film in places where they would most likely see it. We would have posters for the film in main shopping centres such as Westfields, we would have adverts for the film in magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Teen Vogue, and we would have the trailer for our film before other romantic comedies playing in the cinema.

Todorov's Theory

There were many aspects of the opening sequence itself which would attract our target audience, one of which was the narrative structure. Since most romantic comedies go through Todorov's theory of equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium, we made our opening sequence very much a positive and happy one. There is no sense of anything going wrong yet and the action in the opening is all quite light hearted. We hoped that our target audience would instantly recognise this narrative structure since they will have seen it many times before in other films of the same or similar genre.

The music in our film was another thing which we had used to attract our target audience. In most if not all romantic comedies audiences are used to hearing quite fast pop songs which are upbeat and sound fun; this is what we have in our film as well. Audiences will hear this music and even without seeing the footage they will probably be able to guess what the genre of the film is and will be more attracted to it and want to watch it.



Another thing that would attract our target audience and also address them is the main female protagonist. The audience is able to see her from pretty much the first shot and, since she is a character based upon different character from different films, audiences are able to relate to her and we will be able to address them through her. Also the props in her room and the things that she uses, such as the make up will also help to attract audience since they are all quite feminine props which girls like.

We also used the enigma code in our opening by not giving much away but instead giving certain hints about the personality of the character. This meant that our audience was constantly left asking questions and wanting to know more which we hoped would keep them engaged and wanting to watch the rest of the film almost submerging themselves in the film and feeling like part of the digesis.

Another thing which we thought would attract audiences is that the film has quite a suburban feel which audiences usually tend to feel more comfortable watching as it is something which they find safe and relatable; unlike urban films which tend to be more "gritty" and definitely are not the conventional style for films. Romantic comedies such as Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging are very obviously suburban, whereas films such as Notting Hill, Bridget Jones' Diary, and Four Weddings and a Funeral, that seem to be quite urban in how they look and the plot of the story, actually tend to have quite a suburban feel to them.

To find out whether the audience was attract to our opening sequence in the which we thought they would, we got some people from both our target audience and outside our target audience to watch it and give us their feedback. We asked them quite broad questions because we did not want them to be limited in what they could say and also because since they weren't media students we didn't want to ask them questions that were too in depth.

When asked what aspects of our opening sequence they found appealing, the girls responded by saying the they liked the resemblances that it had to other films within the same genre, for example the dog like in Legally Blonde. They also said that they liked the subtle innuendos in the film with the "Glow Job" because it added a different element to the film and hinted at different aspects of her personality. They were also intrigued by the film and they would want to keep watching the film to find out more things such as who Aiden is. They also liked the shots such as the make up shots and the shot from inside the wardrobe, and watching Naomi getting dressed up to go out because they felt as thought they could really relate to it. They also felt they could identify with Naomi in many ways; she seems to be quite a social person and friendship seems quite important to her in the same way it is to them, and they obviously also like make up and fashion.

When we asked the boys we really didn't have very high hopes for a detailed response but they completely shocked us! We happened to have found two boys who actually watch click flicks who gave us a really detailed response, we were kind of left speechless. They said what appealed to them most was the transition that the audience goes through as they discover more about the character through the props, for example she starts as a seemingly average teenage girl when she gets out of the shower however as we see things such as the 50 Shades Of Grey collection and the "Glow Job" which suggests a different side of her personality and and her being more grown up and "mature" for her age, adding to this they liked that we concentrated a lot of our shots on Naomi trying to make herself look nice because it added to her personality. They also thought that the female protagonist is a representation of modern girls. They also felt attracted to the film because they were constantly asking questions and they wanted to keep watching the rest of the film because they got quite sucked into the film.

Lastly we also asked a female media studies student what she thought our our opening in case she was able to give us different answers to what the other said. She said that the upbeat music was what appealed to her and attracted her to the film because it gave a really good vibe and prepared the audience for the rest of the film and put them into a mood where they were excited for it and thought it was going to be really good. Also, just as the other interviewees had said, she wanted to know what Naomi was getting ready for and why she is dressing up which would also make her want to watch the rest of the film.