Audience and genre evaluation

1. Which of the audiences uses and gratifications does your trailer appeal to? how have you constructed this?- my trailer conforms with most of Blumler and Katz's uses and gratifications theory, the main way it does this is by the audiences need to be entertained, the audience want to watch a production which conforms to the stereotypes of the genre but changes it at different aspects to make it less original, this is very effective when considering the marketing appeal of the product. Providing the trailer has certain elements conforming to the genre such as guns and fighting in an action then the audience will know that they will be entertained and surprised at the very least. My trailer shows these elements through its constant portrayal of rivalry opposition of the forces of good and evil. The constant need for answers throughout thrillers help to keep the audience entertained. Another way my trailer conforms to the uses and gratifications theory is through the need for an audience to identify with certain characters or situations. For example the protagonist looking for answers with the antagonist looking to quell his attempts. This is similar with the location as specific shots such as our use of the houses of parliament help the audience to associate themselves with the location therefore more with the situation, in the case of some thriller films the main protagonist is usually a father whom the audience can relate with especially having to juggle work and family life.This helps draw the audiences attention as it allows them to picture themselves in that specific scenario therefore helping improve their opinion of the film.The idea of the audience escaping their daily trouble and/or woes help to sell the product as people want to go to the film in order to enter a world where troubles aren't as crippling, especially in thriller films where usually there is a hero who has everything going well for him despite his normal upbringing (quite often an orphan) where he always gets the bad guy and the girl if there is one. These aspects help when people are watching,to have a character who is relatable is imperative as it gives the audience more of a sense of attachment therefore increasing the likelihood that they will enjoy the film. In my trailer our main protagonist is shown to be the gallivanting hero you'd expect who confronts the bad guy no question asked therefore helping us to conform to the genre, it is important to know however that in our trailer we made sure to show the bad guy as being more prepared and stronger to help subvert the stereotype that the good guy has it easy.

2. How have you appealed to the 'male gaze' in your trailer?- The 'male gaze' is imperative in my trailer as we set about making the trailer from the perspective of mostly male characters, the idea of the 'male gaze' is that the audience view a trailer from a heterosexual male point of view, because of this some woman may feel objectified because characters may be designed for a male audience.Our film trailer aimed to establish the main characters as the traditional roles you would expect to see in a thriller film with a protagonist, antagonist, dual identity character with a slight allusion to a female role despite it not being a leading role. As Laura Mulvey suggests we wanted our film to be watched from a heterosexual male perspective as our main target audience was young people predominantly males who would both be interested in the action elements as well as the dramatic story line which has twists and turns along the way.

3. What genre is the trailer and how have you conveyed this to your audience?- The genre we chose to purvey in our trailer was a mixture involving elements from actions films whilst being predominantly thriller. This gave us a much larger basis when considering the ideas for our film, we could take the action conventions with guns, chase scenes, fighting etc. with the dramatic tension filled atmosphere which is bought about by the thriller genre. The thriller aspect was put into our trailer through cuts when editing which makes enigma codes for the audience to follow, we also put it in when considering that the whole idea of a quest is more along thriller lines as opposed to the over the top violence you may see in an action film. We also know this through the establishment of a protagonist as well as an antagonist as it sets the scene.