Question 5:

How did you attract/address your audience?
To make our opening appeal to our target audience we complied with the conventions that we had learnt about spy-thrillers through research.

In this screenshot a handgun can be seen protruding out of the corner of the shot, we felt as though we did not need to include the full image of the gun on the screen as it is obvious as to what object it is and we thought it could be more mysterious by leaving out details and using close-ups. The gun symbolises violence and death and is a commonly expected prop in spy-thrillers held by both antagonists and protagonists. A red wash can be seen covering the screen as it connotes danger, a must-have theme in a thriller.

The victim can be seen and identified as male, this is because a spy-thriller's cast is majorly composed of men who are seen as tougher, stronger and more brave than females. This shows that we are following the conventions of a spy-thriller by keeping to a male cast. His identity is not yet revealed, keeping it enigmatic. The mise-en-scene shows a file on a supposedly deceased character creating a suspicious feeling about him but he is also in quite homely, innocent surroundings making the audience question the hero's motives towards killing this man.

The killer is shown in this screenshot holding an air rifle in a woodland area, far from civilisation; this keeps with the all-male cast and the feeling of isolation and no help commonly found in thrillers. He is holding a gun which, again connotes violence and death and is a common prop found in this genre. The composition was formed so that the camera is positioned just so that his identity is kept out the frame and is therefore unclear but certain features are still distinguishable except facial features, this is to keep the audience in the dark about who this man is.

A document is held of a profile of a man claimed to be dead, but from the features that can be seen in the profile the connection could be made to the killer the audience saw previously. Documents like this are often expected in genres like these as they are a form of identification of enemies or allies. The word 'DEAD' stenciled across the profile is indicating that the spy is deceased and is quite unnerving, the red symbolises danger and blood.

This screenshot is a close-up of the tools and props found on the killers desk, included in these props are a screwdriver which can be used as a weapon in some cases and is also symbolic of manual labour that the job entitles, an aeroplane ticket which connotes a job that is well-travelled, ammunition can be seen in the corner as it suggests that a gun is nearby which represents danger, the end of a scalpel can also be seen which is a sharp small object which can be used as a weapon in close-combat. There is a red wash over this shot as it connotes danger.
Our audience responded positively to our opening thriller saying that the pace of editing kept it exciting and how the individual shots worked together to create an interesting plot. One viewer said they found the shot of the killer setting up the gun in the middle of the woods and then taking a shot was very disturbing, which was positive in our eyes, setting up the gun in the middle of the woods and then taking a shot was very disturbing, which was positive in our eyes.
We used the typical conventions of a spy-thriller such as fast-paced music and editing to create suspense and an element of tension. We stuck to the stereotypical all-male cast to connote strength, action and violence as they are the most common roles seen in projects such as this. As a group we manipulated a sound file we found on iMovies of a hockey stick hitting the puck, this made a loud piercing which we edited slightly to create the sound of the gunshot. The props we used had sinister connotations often being seen as lethal weapons such as the child's gun we spray painted black to make it seem more genuine, a scalpel from a tool set and some bullets.