5 ATTRACTING & ADDRESSING AUDIENCES

HOW DID YOU ATTRACT AND ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

To attract and address an audience of the film, as a group we had to come up with ways it could reach the target audience. The audience of our film would be consisting of both older teenagers (15+) and young adults (20-29), as well as both genders since the film is gender neutral. The genres of the film would be a psychological thriller which go into dark issues, like stalking and obsession.

Since our film is targeted towards a young generation, therefore social media was important, and that we thought developing each of the platforms was extremely necessary to our film being properly attracted and addressed by our target audience.

The advent of Web 2.0 offers distributors the opportunity of exploiting the interactivity of social media platforms in order to reach large audiences and spread the word through viral marketing. The various social media platforms, such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Therefore, we decided that we would each create an account on all these social media platforms, so that we could efficiently attract and address our audience.

We also discussed on how we can attract an audience with more traditional methods, such as developing a poster and making a layout for how a website would look.

I took the responsibility for updating the Twitter account for Focus, with various photos and videos from the shoots which I took myself. All the visual media (e.g. photos, videos, gifs, etc.) on any of the social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) were taken by me.

The film I decided to use when looking at the way it attracts audiences is the low-budget film Room, which has garnered major award recognition, including several Academy Award nominations and a win for Brie Larson, which is the same sort of film that we would want to produce in the long run if our film opening was produced into a feature length film.

TWITTER

I looked at what type of tweets the Room twitter account posted, so that I could then be inspired by these sort of tweets. To the left, you can see a sneak peek from both Room's Twitter account and Focus' Twitter Account. I thought that this was an effective way of attracting the audience since it will get them more interested on the film and what they can expect from the film. Such as, in my sneak peek, it consists of the camera angles we used and photos of the psychiatry interview with the main antagonist of the film Sam Eager.

I am currently the Twitter handle for the film's Twitter account (@thefollowmedia), I regularly post tweets about the film's progress, sneak peeks and filming locations. I feel by posting these tweets, it will make the audience feel more engaged with the film's process and will attract their attention to key details.  I know that other film distributors use twitter to create buzz for the film in a similar way. Such as the picture of the tweet, which shows the critical acclaim of Room. As you can see I have adapted this technique by using a positive quote from a critic on a poster to attract an audience. By doing this it will let the audience know that the film is well-received and is quality.

YOUTUBE / VIDEO





YouTube isn't a social media platform, however it is an important tool, film-makers use to attract their audience. Such as by posting videos, like teasers, trailers and clips for the film. This will get the audience interested in the film.

Another way, in which the film Room has attracted an audience, is by making a promotional teaser. By making a promotional teaser, this will intrigue the audience into watching the film. It is different from a trailer since it is shorter and doesn't give away the whole story of the film. Room's teaser has a duration of 1:30 and contains short clips and a soothing lullaby in the background,  it does imply the main basis of the story, which is that a mother and son are trapped in a room and they escape, however besides any detailed storylines are not displayed, since the teaser would only be used to encourage the audience to see the film, rather than a trailer which would inform the viewer on what the film is about.

This is similar with our film teaser, which is only has a duration of 0:30, but explains the main storyline, which consists of something happening to Jasmine who is the main protagonist of the story. As you can see from these two teasers above, I have adapted this marketing technique to attract my audience into watching the film since they will be wondering the question stated in the teaser which is "What Happened To Jasmine?".

HERE is a LINK to the MY TEASER in case it doesn't load

I decided to make two other teasers, the links are down below:

TEASER #2 - Critical Acclaim

TEASER #3 - Models

FACEBOOK
Facebook is the most popular social media platform of them all, since it is extremely common for people to have a profile representing themselves. Therefore, it also contains fan pages for films which is a key factor of attracting and addressing their audience. A Facebook page usually consists of ongoing posts about the movie, whether it's about action going on behind the scenes, development of the film or official information about the film's release. In addition per post you can either like, comment or share, which further shows how Facebook allows the audience to interact with the information posted, which attracts the audience even more.

As you can see to the right, there are two Facebook fan pages, the one above is the page for Room and the one below is for our film Focus. I decided to adapt three techniques from Room's Facebook page to mine, so that these posts can attract and address the audience of Focus. These three techniques are a post containing a quote, a post referring to award acclaim and a post containing a link to an interview of one of the cast members. All these three techniques will intrigue the audience even more about the film.


The first technique is using a photo from the film and adding a quote onto it. This increases the interest in the film and makes the audience want to know more. The quote chosen should be memorable, such as in Room's example, it's important to the story. This is why I decided to chose a quote about Sam's agenda in the film, which is one of the complex and interesting plots of the film. The quote I used was "I need to get my revenge", which grips the audience as it is the 'hook' of the film. The 'hook' means how our film is different from others such as his obsession of Jasmine and hatred towards women.

The second technique is using a photo from the film and adding critical acclaim, referring to awards it has been nominated for. In Room's example, it mentions its nominations for the Academy Awards, however since our film is an independent British film, I decided to say that our film had garnered 6 British Independent Film Award nominations, since these awards are specifically targeted towards independent films made in Britain. By mentioning to the audience about the recognition of the film's several award organizations will attract audiences which like prestige films. Film which are classified as 'prestige' usually get nominated and win awards during Award season, like Room, which earned multiple awards from famous organisations, such as the Academy Awards, BAFTAs and the Golden Globes. By Room winning these awards, this will attract people to watch this film, which is the same effect we would accomplish if our film was made into a full-length feature film.

The third technique is adding a link to an interview, since this will get the audience an inside look into the film's development and what are the cast member's thoughts on the film, which will attract the devoted audiences of the film. The example from Room is an interview of Jacob Tremblay on the Ellen Show. In the description of link it uses words like "Most adorable guest ever" and "watching him take over award season so far", which attracts the audience to click on the link to see the video. Therefore, I decided to add the words "manic year" and a reference to her acting nomination, which I feel will attract an audience to watch the interview, thus attracting and addressing an audience.


INSTAGRAM
Instagram is a social media platform which consists in posting photos. By making a film account on Instagram, this will attract audiences with an Instagram account and it will be addressed by either them following the account or liking and commenting on a photo. I looked at the Instagram account for Room and saw the types of photos it was posting and what were the description of the photos, so that when making the Instagram account we could take away the layout. As well, the majority of the posts were on the critical acclaim of the film and the awards it was nominated for and won. We did include these sort of posts, since we feel that our film will be classified as prestige. However, we also added other posts, such as behind the scenes sneak peeks. When deciding who would manage the Instagram account, Bea wanted to be the Instagram handle and post on the account.


In addition, I also noticed how there was a similar color palette among the images, such as all the images with writing were either in yellow or white texts and the actual image has hints of blue, brown and peach. The main objective of the Instagram account was to promote the images of the film in an artistic way. In our group, Bea had decided that it would be a good idea, if all the photos on the account were black and white, which incorporates a theme of the film with a marketing strategy. This will make the instagram account visually appealing to the audience viewing it and hence will attract and address the audience using Instagram.


POSTER
The poster is a form of advertising. Despite, this form of advertising, not being a social media platform, it is still essential in attracting and addressing an audience. Bea and I were the editors of the poster and made sure that it looked intriguing and thrilling. Since it was a psychological thriller we wanted there to be a close up of his face.

Comparing the Room poster to mine, there are some similarities, such as the background of both of the images being one colour, the tagline is near the centre of the poster and the main character(s) are positioned centre of the poster. Obviously, both of the film posters contain the essentials of any film poster, such as title, billing block, release date etc. A aspect of the film posters, which Room doesn't have is the social media accounts on the poster, Bea and I thought this was key to put on since it would lead to attracting and addressing an audience.

On the link down below on the construction of the poster, I talk about the development and the decision making much more in-depth.

Click HERE for the CONSTRUCTION of my POSTER

WEBSITE
The website is essential when attracting and addressing audiences since it provides the user with information about the film, such as the plot, about the cast and crew and much more info.