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

Question 5:

      Once having a story line and establishing an audience that we wanted to aim our product towards ;15-25 year old 'zombie' enthusiasts (complying with our age certificate),we decided in order to create a successful film we have to listen to the people we are catering for;the audience.

As a result we asked our audience a series of questions in the form of a questionnaire,so we could work upon the feedback.One of the questions asked was ; Are you a fan of the 'Zombie horror Genre?'.Despite seeming like a simple question it helped us establish that they already liked the generic conventions of the genre.This meant we knew what to add to our film to be more appealing for example;

Blood and gore; 

In zombie films there tends to be an excess of blood,gore and violence.This is due to the nature of zombies and there cannibal instincts.Also as a result of them being un-dead, people/characters attempts to kill zombie's just results in limbs coming off etc.

This addition to the film based on the principle that we had an established audience of zombie horror fanatics and therefore all the generic conventions that came with it can be seen in the make up choice of the 'zombie' character; it features blood,a well known piece of iconography for the 'zombie horror' genre.

Another factor that came back from feed back on our story line was that ;the audience  wanted it to feel very realistic as many  felt that films with in this genre can seem too far fetched,one respondent

saying ''it can all seem too fake,then I cant enjoy the film properly because I know its not real''.

With this in mind our group made conscious efforts when planning to include certain elements that would add to the verisimilitude of the film,for example the use of a green screen in the news reporting scene.This reflected reality because in a situation similar to the  story line,the news of the virus would be first reported on TV.

Once the final film was ready to be shown we did a small screening of  'Zebola' and asked the audience to answer another series of questions based on what they had just watched.From this we learnt multiple things about our film both good and bad; one of the main points that was drawn to my attention is that the audience enjoyed the suspense of the black screen and the sirens at  the end of 2 minutes, as they felt it built more suspense and and left them intrigued,one of the audience members to say this was Liam (16yrs):''I didn't want it to end,defiantly want to see the rest''.Another aspect of the film that the audience enjoyed was the fight scene because it was a subtle introduction to the action side of the film.

However feedback also brought to our attention some negative points for example; people found the close up shot of the mouth when the zombie is biting Danny(the male protaginist) chaotic and felt it did not link in with the rest of the footage.Tanya (17yrs) said ''it was all a bit weird,it just didn't make sense''.

Overall i feel that we met the expectations of our audience because we presented

 them with a new,innovative perspective on the zombie theme but keeping all the blood and gore the genre is known and loved for.Despite this I personally believe there is always room for improvement and in regards to our product we could do this by  incorporating a wider range of camera angles and shots in order to ensure we hold the audiences attention throughout the full film.