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

We attracted an easily curious audience by using suspenseful music with quick cut shots where the character’s face and situation is not entirely clear but only implied. The steady beat that drags and has a sequenced bass drum at the beginning, equipped with black and white shots where the victim is not revealed evokes curiosity and the want to know more. Implied information makes the audience what to know more about the film, whether they like it or not. The way the shots are cut reflects how the film is a variety and that you can always expect a surprise.

Working with the black and white colour scheme portrays the serious attitude and nature of the assassins and they’re job, in affect attracting a sophisticated and work-orientated audience. The title screen has a black background with white titles, which then fades into black and into the next scene. This fade is gradual, prolonging the wait and starting the film in a slick way – mirroring the professional theme of a sophisticated audience. The black and white victim scenes compliments with the assassin’s costume, wherein a link between the three characters could be inferred. The serious beginning part of the prelim, although showing different characters in different situations, is brought together by this colour scheme. The genre changes to something more light-hearted as bright colour is brought in with the Pikachu mask as red and yellow are very primary colours, therefore bringing in the primary school children audience into the target market range.

To attract the prelim’s specific target audience, (teenagers from 13-16) the casting ensured that the actors were teenagers too (also due to the fact that we could only find people of our age). As the main characters were assassins and a notorious Boss, casting teenagers for the role would create a sense of escapism and hope that teens could also have surreal adventures such as working as an assassin. It creates an idealistic fantasy world and allows teenage viewers to imagine themselves in action-packed missions such as those portrayed in the prelim, or to aspire to have the cool, independent characteristics that the assassins have. On the other hand, this fantasy-like theme could also come as a humour to teens and attract this audience because of the atrocity of the idea it could be a joke therefore enjoyable to watch.

The credits music is very happy and up-beat, reflecting to the possible laid back and highly-humorous audience. Those who want to try something different with an interesting twist may be lured to the film.

The name itself of “Catch Them All” will be an obvious Pokemon reference to anime fans, and the general teenagers of our generation as the slogan is legendary and widely known. However the link between the title and the Boss will not be patent till the very end. Therefore the title itself can arose curiosity. At the scene where the boss is revealed, the editing is quick paced and un-even, reflecting the surprised reaction the audience will have.

Current audiences of the film are people who enjoy watching films in general, and that is fellow Media Students. Family and friends have also seen the prelim and most feedback has been positive. However there have been comments indicating the problem with continuity as it is not completely clear who the victim was and it was not confirmed that the two agents are assassins as it does not directly say so. Therefore for future reference, to make the film more understandable the target audience, a non-diegetic sound or sound effect such as a gun shot could be synchronised over to give more implication that the victim was the agent’s target. An alternative way of expressing this would be a close up shot of the victim being shot down, but with complete silence rather than diegetic sound for suspense.