Our Opening Sequence - 'The Captive'

Feedback from our opening sequence 

My group and I gathered feedback from our opening sequence by asking members of our target audience what they liked and disliked about our opening sequence. We did this by forwarding our opening sequence to them on WhatsApp Messenger, as well as showing it to them in person and recording their feedback. The comments that we received can be seen below. 

From the feedback we received, we can conclude that our target audience liked the narrative of our opening sequence as well as the actors that we casted and the suspenseful music that we used. However, our audience disliked some of our camera and editing techniques that we used as they felt that we could have used different techniques in order to heighten the tension. Overall, we are pleased with the result of our opening sequence and the feedback that we received. 

Evaluation Task 7 - What have I learnt from prelim to main task?

Evaluation Task 6 - How have I used digital technologies in the development of my film?

Our Opening Sequence (with annotations)

Evaluation Task 5 - How have I attracted my target audience?

Evaluation Task 4 - Who would be the target audience for my film?

Who is our target audience?

The target audience for our film are mainly teenagers and young adults aged 15-24. This is because the victim is a teenager herself and therefore the audience would be able to relate to her character more if they were a similar age.We also decided on this age range for our target audience due to our research into the BBFC rating of our film, which we concluded would be a 15 due to there being moderate scenes of violence and threat which wouldn't be suitable for younger viewers. We are also aiming our target audience at people who enjoy watching Thriller films, as our film contains mystery and suspense which some viewers may find intriguing. 

Facebook profile for our ideal target audience member

Above is a Facebook profile that I created, showing what the Facebook profile of our ideal target audience member might look like. From the information that can be seen on her page, Amy is a 17 year old girl who has a keen interest in Media. One of her interests includes going to the cinema, suggesting that she enjoys watching films and therefore could potentially enjoy our film. Further down her profile, she lists some of her favourite films as being Scream, Taken and Gone Girl. These films all come under the Thriller genre category so therefore Amy would be interested in our film as it is classed as a Thriller, which is a genre which she enjoys watching. Another reason why Amy could be seen as being an ideal target audience member is that she is a stereotypical teenage girl who shares some of the same characteristics as the victim in our opening sequence such as her age and how she enjoys being with her friends. This means that Amy would therefore be able to relate and sympathise with our victim, therefore she is the perfect target audience member for our film. 

IMDB profiles of films similar to ours

The film 'Scream' is about a teenage girl who is tormented by a masked killer who is dressed as the grim reaper. Like our film, Scream is also a Thriller and would therefore appeal to the same target audience as our film.    Similar to Scream, the victim in our film is also a teenager and so would therefore attract many teenagers to watch our film. 

The image on the right shows the audience ratings taken from the IMDB page for Scream. The chart shows how many men and women watched the film, as well as their ages. From the chart, we can see that Scream had a larger male audience than female audience and was most watched by males aged 30-44. 


Gone Girl is about a woman who goes missing and her husband's search to find her. This film would also come under the Thriller genre and would therefore appeal to the same audience as our film. The plot of our film is also about a missing person and would therefore attract a similar audience to Gone Girl as people would be intrigued by the mystery. 


The chart on the left shows the audience ratings from the film Gone Girl. The chart shows how more men watched the film compared to women, although the difference between the amount of men and women who watched the film is not that extreme, showing how the target audience was aimed at men and women. The chart also indicates that the film was most popular with 18-29 year olds, showing the age range of the target audience. 


Taken is about a retired CIA agent who's daughter has been kidnapped. Taken is also a Thriller and would therefore appeal to a similar audience to our film. Furthermore, Taken is also based on a kidnapping and shows a father's desperate search for his daughter, which is similar to the plot in our film. As our film demonstrates similarities to Taken, our film would therefore appeal to the same target audience.


The chart on the right shows the IMDB audience ratings for Taken. From these ratings, we can see that Taken was most popular with males, significantly males aged 18-29. This therefore indicates the target audience for Taken. 

Our secondary audience

Our secondary audience would be aimed at people aged 25-34. As a group we decided that this would be an ideal age range for our secondary audience as they are mature enough to deal with some of the themes in our film as well as being able to relate to the victim as they were once teenagers themselves. As our film is a thriller, it is a genre that appeals to both men and women as it is neither too masculine nor too feminine. We also believe that the plot of our film is very mysterious and intriguing and so would appeal to both men and women. Therefore we will be aiming our film at men and women so that our film will attract a wider audience. 

Evaluation Task 3 - Who would distribute my thriller?

Evaluation Task 2 - How have I used social groups with my opening sequence?

Evaluation Task 1 - How have I used, matched or subverted conventions in my opening sequence?

Account of Editing