Task 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

When our group made the opening sequence our group members had to decide whom to cast to play the characters to, which this would appeal to our target audience. Therefore we had to take into consideration different social groups to which this opening sequence may appeal to. Our thriller would would target 22-23 year old.

Innocent University student - Gabe Jackson

When casting an male actor to act as center of attention we had to find someone who would fit into the role if being in the university (outsider/geek) social group. The reason for this is because we felt we wanted use people in university whom are seen to be invisible/quite and in our media he is the centre of attention meaning if he went missing only a not many people would notice. Therefore in the shot above our group use clothing, body expression, looks and personality to make him suit a specific social group. The cloths that he is wearing in the shot above is a nice grey jumper which makes him suit the social group (being a geek/outsider). Therefore the use of of the jumper being grey makes him seem more or an outsider as grey signifies being boring and dull, therefore our group used color (mise en scene) to illustrate to the audience what the personality of the character. The opening scene of our thriller shows Gabe Jackson in a closed body position, which immediately accentuates to the audience a sense of danger immediately. The danger element is combined with the use of facial expression as later on the scene there is a close up shot of Gabe face breathing heavily. This allows the audience to automatically sense a danger/panic without even showing any props or anything to proof he is in danger.

Hit Man - Mike Niland 

When our group was thinking about casting the role for the hit man we all strongly agreed that we would only cast and adult above the age of 25+. The reason for this is because we felt that having a teenage hit man would ruin the plot of the whole media thriller therefore we chose Mike as our hit man. We also felt that having a teenager as a hit man would seem unprofessional, which would affect the total audience/social group that we would entertain.
The reason why my group felt that Mike suited the role as a hit man is due to his physical and fierce presence he has on camera. This allowed the audience to automatically tell he was a threat to Gabe when Mike is introduced. The use of Mike himself attracts specific social groups i.e young adults and adults as the audience enjoys the movie when a character suits the role of his movies or a specific genre for example Jim Carry in a comedy movie.
 Mikes facial expression through out the plot has been dead serious this illustrates to all social groups as a universal sign that Mike is serious even before Mike speaks. This comes with the general presence Mike has on the screens as the audience can feel the tension he brings accentuated either his emotions/facial expression.The color of Mikes cloths is used to illustrate to all social groups that Mike is a Villain or a professional. The use of dark colors helps to accentuate him looking like a Villain as dark colors signifies evil. Mikes body position in the whole thriller illustrated him as being charm and peaceful. As when mike is in the car he has a wide/open body position and seems to be relaxed, which gives the idea to the audience that Mike is an experienced hit man

We also use different camera angles to adhere and subvert to the stereotype of which social group is in most control/power. As the top left picture (above) illustrates an angle of Gabe (student) being taller, which adheres to the stereotype of university student being a treat society. Nevertheless in this case Mike(hit man) should be the dominant one however in the first shot Gabe seems to be more dominant than Mike which subverts to the stereo type of the hitman being in more control than the victim. However I carefully placed a clip of Mike being leveled with Gabe after the previous shot, therefore the audience only seems to think the only difference between Mike and Gabe is the gun. The last shot is of  Gabe on the ground which adheres to the stereotype of hit man being more dominant and in control. The use of levels (form high angle to low angle) allows us show which social groups are in most control in terms of Adults>Teenager.

When our group was casting for the two actors our group chose to have 2 male actors, which both adheres and subverts to both stereotypes of gender. The use of Mike as a hit man adheres to the stereotype of male being the hit man. The reason for this is because we felt having a female actor as our hit man would change the plot of our movie and having a female hit man would go against dominant ideologies, which I feel our group couldn't challenge due to our low options of casting.

Having a male actor as our victim subverts to the stereotype of having a female actor. As dominant ideology represent female as weak and vulnerable however in our thriller our we subverted the stereotype and chose to make the male the weak and vulnerable one. However this cleverly makes Mike seem more of a professional and more dangerous as he is capable of being taking on men whom are are also seen to be more dominant and strong.

Our group used a lot of universal signs i.e expression, body position, sigmas and clothing as all social groups from around the world understand the general plot line even if they don't understand what the characters are saying.As it would allow our thriller to reach a wider audience worldwide as it wouldn't confuse the audience.