Audience Profile

From the results of our questionnaire we have managed to build up an audience profile. Taking into consideration the fact that we asked 20 males and 20 females we have a mixed audience, gender wise, so we do not just appeal to men or just to women. The profile is as follows: Students, male or female, aged in-between 16 and 20, so either attending sixth form, college or university. Due to either student finance or lack of interest in films they only watch films once a week, the majority of the time and they prefer to watch their films in a cinema atmosphere. When it comes to film interests they prefer modern style thrillers, like Kill Bill or Layer Cake, but with a psychological twist. They also prefer Female actors playing the leading part and for a thriller to have a cliff hanger opening, rather than an explanatory one, as they draw you into wanting to watch the rest of the film.

Soundtrack Evaluation

We originally did not want to use any music in our thriller or have a soundtrack at all, duw to the nature of our film we could not find any music which could effectively emphasise the mood. We also saw this use of absolute diegetic sound in 'No Country for Old Men' which we thought was very powerful and really made the film seem real. However after some tests and trials with different types of music we finally decided on a song that sounded good with the film. The song we chose was Firebird by Stravinsky, however I cut it and arranged it into a manner which is more dramatic and fitting to the action in the film. This has evidentially been noticed by the audiences who have watched our film as the majority have commented on how powerful the music is and how it helps set the mood. The film is also relevant to the film as the story behind the song is that the Firebird is captured and forced to beg for it's life, the same as the girl in the freezer.

Costume Evaluation

After conducting our audience research and discovering that our target audience prefer modern thrillers we decided to try and choose an actress similar to those in modern thrillers, so we recruted an actress who looks similar to Uma Thruman. In the end we decided on the costume, worn by our actress, for a number of reasons. As our actress has blonde hair we decided to dress her completely in black to cause a strong contrast, making her hair look even lighter next to the dark clothing. The light hair gives her an innocent look which gives her a certain irony. If closely insepected the black jacket has a faint grey criss cross pattern which gives a cage like appearance. Making it almost as is she is encaptured within the black of the coat and with black being a colour associated with evil, it gives her a dark look. This connotes that she is a good person but she is trapped inside an evil world, causing her do evil things, such as stealing this suitcase.

Character Stereotype

Character Stereotype: The ‘Party Animal’

Examples: Chris from Skins Series 1 and 2
Cook from Skins Series 3

Storylines
Characters within this stereotype are usually associated with storylines that involve the leisure and socialising side of teen life. Therefore the storylines these characters are featured in normally involve all the usual aspects of teenager’s social lives such as: Drugs, alcohol, sex, parties and music. These characters normally get the fun side of the programme however they are sometimes involved in the really hard hitting storylines too, involving addiction, abandonment and other dark scenarios that can occur in teenage lives.

Appearance
There does not appear to be a set appearance for this type of character as they can be found in numerous types of costume, all completely different. For example, there is cook from the third series of skins who tends to be very well dressed in expensive brands such as lyle and scott, which is currently popular with teens. On the other hand there are ‘party animal’ characters like Chris from the first two series of skins normally appears to be tired and dishevelled with messy hair and unbranded, brightly coloured clothes. He seems more fittingly dressed for a student as the clothing he is wearing is cheap and suited to a rave or house party rather than anything formal.

I think a key feature of the ‘party animal’ character is that they can come in all shapes and sizes. There is no set routine of how they look or act, this simply adds to their wild way of living and their lifestyle.

Chris from Skins Series 1 and 2
Chris fits in perfectly with the stereotype of the ‘free spirit’ character, more commonly known to youths nowadays as the ‘party animal.’ They way he acts, speaks, dresses and shows his feelings all fit in with the way characteristics of this stereotype.
He is normally dressed in scruffy(ish) clothes, as if he is always ready to get messy, wearing clothes that are old and he doesn’t mind being ruined. He also wears lots of bright colours which was very fitting to the ‘new rave’ fashion that was very popular around the time of the first series being released.
He is not the type of person to where his heart on his sleeve when it comes to emotions, he tends to look on the bright side of life and not let anything get to him.
His storylines all seem to feature drugs, sex, alcohol and parties, other than the hard hitting one featured in the first series where his mum abandons him and he loses his house.
He is pretty much the opposite of Tony, who is seen to be the intellect, who is very much in control of his life, well dressed and well spoken.


Cook from Skins Series 3
Cook is the opposite of Chris, however he still fits into the Party Animal stereotype as he has that one distinctive feature that sets party animals apart, none of them look or appear to be alike. Their only common feature is how they act alike, which is where Cook is recognisably inspired by the character of Chris.
His appearance is different to that of Chris’ as he dresses in brands and expensive clothing lines. He also takes care with styling his hair too.
He too does not show any emotion and does not appear to be able to become attached to any of the girls he has flings with.
His storylines are similar to Chris’ as they all involve sex, drugs, girls and alcohol. However he too has had to deal with abandonment but from friends not family.
He is the opposite of Freddy, as Freddy has a deeper personality and seems to believe in doing the right thing. He is also more dependant on other people and forms emotional bonds with them, rather than having flings with them.

Media Mock Exam

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I have failed very badly on this essay, however from it i can see my mistakes and know for future how not to write in the exam.