After the entire process of research and planning, once i new what my target audience was like, and what it's expectations would be towards my product, i had an idea of how to come about satisfying it's wants. Audiences have a set of expectations as to what a genre text will contain in terms of transportation, costume, characters, setting, mise-en-sene, score etc. They expect to see genre-specific elements withing the media text. So in order to attract your audience, you provide them with these elements along with an interesting enough plot which would have them involved in the text as it goes on. I tried doing the same. Once my research was done and i was about to go for shoot, by that time, i knew the type of target audience i had and the expectations they acquired. Genre texts get very boring if they follow the very predictable conventions while having an unimpressive story line. Since i was making a product at this stage where i had my barriers, I obviously did not afford to break any conventions. So instead i used them all while having a plot that enabled the tension and involvement throughout the product to increase. Luckily art genres involve 'realism' so even the same conventions seem to look different every time, example location and culture. Showing cultural scenes and traditions might be a convention, but not all cultures are the same. So every new time, it has a new charm. As i made a Bollywood art film, it occured to me continuously that my target audience belongs to the elite educated class, from an age group from teens to adults, who would like to watch and understand such a plot since their intelect level, understanding and interest towards the 'real' world issues, i had to compile everything in way to address to them. I did this firstly, through my story line. Just so my audience wouldn't get bored, i made sure my product goes on having the right kind of thrill and suspense in order to create the required 'enigma'. Enigma really attracts an interest. I did this by the continuity of scenes by the help of editing and audio working in accordance to the camera shots. Every time suspense grew, for example, in my start credit, my actor slowly and gradually faints as he see's things within the market that disgust him. I made the scene stronger by intense close ups of all the things he sees while showing his reactions in a fast pace, having the back ground score and and his expressions to change as things got worse, and then i showed him fainting, taking the start credit to an end there. This kind of act leaves the audience curious as to what would happen, which is another way to attract it towards the product. Obviously, going completely with the codes and conventions keeps the audience involved. You wouldn't want to cheat your audience. This idea is to be taken into account while shooting. As an example, If i would have tried to show a weak boy fainting in market while having him dressed in an outfit of an underground gangster with a gun in his hand, it wouldn't give the right feel at all. Instead it would create a disequilibrium due to balancing out. This is why, i made sure all the things within the frame and without the frame were just according to my genre, be it, costume, location, script, plot, audio or the mise-en-sene. Mise-en-sene is very important. This is anything within the frame. In order to give the right feel and make everything look real, i went shooting in a real congested and filthy market, just so my result would come out as my audience would expect it to. If i'd set up a few fakes stalls on a road and tell a few actors to act as shop keepers and buyers it wouldn't really look like a market now would it? I also made a digital ethnic music after listening to a lot of ethnic songs played in Hindi Art films. This is because i happened to come across them in almost every reference film i watched, and so i assumed this is something the audience likes within the media text. I started my opening title with a voice over of my lead character as he tells his entire story within a short phrase. This was done so that the opening title conveyed the correct message of the story easily so that the audience would not have to put in extra effort to try and understand what all goes on through the entire scene. Also, the location i chose was mainly because since my target audience belongs to the educated class, people would enjoy watching scenes shot in such a market because what a person does not experience a lot in life, is something he or she enjoys to understand. So if i represent such a location to someone who hasn't experienced it, it would appeal more to that person compared to someone who visit's such places very often and there's no thrill factor left. So yes, it i the thrill factor represented in my film that to me, would attract my audience towards it. I kept it simple and less glamorous throughout for two reasons, firstly so that it give's the right feel. and secondly in order to have the easiest media language possible so that the audience would watch it with comfort and interest. Lastly, i left the story close to social realism so that my audience could relate to it. I also took use of a character (the lead's mother) who i showed, belonged to the elite 'posh' class and i showed how people can become inconsiderate towards problems once they get everything their way and while coming up with this character, i thought of how my audience might belong from this class and how it might relate to the problems shown in my product.
No comments:
Post a Comment