Evaluation - Question 5

How did you attract/address you audience?

The most important thing in a film narrative is the opening – if you do not engage the audience with the first few minutes of a film you might lose them so an opening that poses a question or invites further investigation is essential. Using no dialogue but just following a young man on a chase through the streets of London instantly asks a question (why is the young man being chased?) and invites further investigation (I want to know what happens to him). Our opening sequence was partly inspired by, as previously mentioned, Quantum of Solace. This gripping chase sequence instantly throws you into the plot whether you like it or not. Clearly we did not have the budget or expertise to recreate this or even the necessary permissions to film a car chase of any kind but we wanted to set the chase up as the opening. This also references the foot chase scene in the Bourne Ultimatum where Julia Stiles is running from the assassin and Jason Bourne is chasing after the assassin as the cops are on his heels except in our film Ed is accidentally watching rather than following. We also have the age of the protagonists on our side. Ed is a young man as is Laurence and so our audience will be able to relate to them as contemporaries and identify with the injustices they suffer at the hands of corrupt authority something many young people understand. The film is scene through the eyes of an unseen witness, which comes into focus at the end when we see the two characters in wide shot. Other themes may instantly raise themselves in the mind of the audience as they watch the chase – is this film about obsessive stalking? Is it about knife crime – is it about the injustice of the police against teenagers and young adults? Or is it about someone literally getting away with murder? As the film narrative unfolds however we are presented with the unpleasant reality of police corruption and collusion. This is a very real modern concern. As recently as April 14th The Independent ran an article about police corruption “Evidence of police corruption relating to Britain’s most notorious unsolved murder mysteriously “disappeared” from Scotland Yard during the initial investigation, according to a leaked file.” (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/ exclusive-more-evidence-of-police-corruption-relating-to-britains-most-notorious-unsolved- murder-mysteriously-missing-9239662.html) and this is what our film addresses.

The Feedback of the film has generally been positive although there has been the suggestion that we might have made more use of close ups at the end. In terms of weaknesses – I think we felt that we would have liked to have a proper budget and time to really explore this chase sequence in greater depth.

We believe that our opening sequence fulfils its obligation to ask questions and that as the scene fades we want to know more about what is going on and so in terms of leaving an open question the film has engaged the audience well. Several respondents to the questionnaire were interested to know what happens next and had various interpretations of what would happen. Consequently we feel this opening has fulfilled its objectives.