Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After the production process of the film trailer came to an end, and we thought we had a finished product we presented the final trailer to our class. They gave us feedback, positive and negative, and what they thought we should have done differently. Therefore, if we were to make the trailer again, we would take these into consideration.

 Here is a list of the positive points of the horror trailer;

-Good setting x3 (Abandoned graveyard)

-Good shot with mask x2

-Good head shake x4

-Effective shot when the enemy was lurking in the trees

-Good sound, the intensity draws the audience in x6

-Flows well

-Clear horror feeling to the trailer, creepy x2

-Good night shots

-Good final shot x4

-Nice use of shadows and lighting

-Good voiceover

Here is a screenshot from the headshake technique we used.
This looks very disturbing while watching the trailer
as we sped up the clip greatly and as it is only
a very short shot, the audience would be very confused
and concerned.

We were very pleased with the positive comments from the class, as the individual elements which we tried to include in the trailer were all noticed by the audience. For example, the use of shadows and lighting, the head shaking to show Louis Caseley's building insanity and to confuse the audience. This was important as we wanted to show the delusional and frightened state which the character was in, this was not easy to do however after much research we decided the best way to show his insanity would be though violent head shaking and as four of the class picked up on this suggests the shots were effective which is very pleasing for the group. 

This is an image taken from the horror trailer of the
final shot, the antagonist appears from no-where behind the
antagonists shoulders, and at this point the sound
climaxes perfectly, adding to the impact of the shot.

 The final shot which would scare the audience for a final time and in particular the use of sound. While studying other trailers, we noticed that they were much scarier when they were accompanied by sound, however if you turned the sound off, they had very little impact.  The sound draws the audience in, builds an atmosphere and creates suspense in the trailer, this would instantly suggest the film is of the horror genre from the beginning. Therefore we wanted to use a soundtrack which would really build the atmosphere, intensity and fear in the trailer, and from the feedback it would appear we have achieved this, which is very pleasing for the group. 

Another key point of the trailer which we focused on was the actual location of the filming. We wanted to make sure the horror trailer was in a location where the possibility of extremely scary and frightening things could happen, therefore we chose to film the trailer in an abandoned graveyard. This was naturally very scary and instantly suggested the film was of the horror genre, thankfully the audience picked up on this and three people commented on the effectiveness of the location. We are overall, very pleased with the positive comments received from our peers as they show that when we planned all the individual parts of the trailer, we successfully influenced the audience.

On the other hand, there were some criticisms raised by the class...

List of negative points of the horror trailer

-Could be longer x3

-Text too hard to read x5-"Wobbling too much"  

-Needs more scary scenes x2

-Camera work out of focus x2

- No storyline x4

-More locations x2

-No final shot x5

-Little pace at ending

Here is a screenshot form the horror trailer which
features the wobbly writing which 5 people criticised.
The writitng is quite difficult to read and we would
change this if we had the chance to edit the trialer.

Although we are pleased with the positive comments we received about the horror trailer, we accepted the fact that there would be elements of it that were not as popular as others. The comments made by the class were completely understood and the group payed close attention to them in order to improve our performance if we were do produce anything similar in the future. The two main criticisms of the trailer, mentioned by five members of the class, was that the text in the trailer was too hard to read and that there was no final shot. In an attempt to add to the horror atmosphere of the trailer, our group added some short title shots to describe the film. These featured red writing which was wobbling to show the horror effect, however there was a feeling amongst the class that the wobbling of the text was too intense, so therefore if we were to make the trailer again we would alter the small title sequences so the writing they involved was more visible. Secondly, five students also said that there was no final shot in the film trailer, this is an important criticism as the final shot is the last thing which the audience would remember after watching the trailer. The group intended to finish the trailer with a very impactful shot of the enemy over the protagonist's, Kieran Browne's shoulder, however this was not quite achieved  So if we had the chance to edit the trailer again, we would definitely sharpen up the ending in order to make it more impactful and scary. This links with the other constructive criticism that there was little pace at the end of the trailer, this is also disappointing as the pace of the trailer is something we tried to focus on in order to build the atmosphere and tension.

Next, four members of the class criticised the way that there was no real story line in the trailer, however this was intentional in order to confuse the audience and to show the delusional state which Louis Caseley endures throughout the trailer. The lack of continuity in the trailer would confuse the audience and would therefore make the trailer more scary and disturbing. However, the criticism has been taken into consideration and my group understand that the idea we were trying to convey may have been difficult to understand. 

The comments from the group which stated that there needed to be more scary scenes were understandable however when working out what type of horror film to produce, we decided that the trailer would not be based around gore and blood, and that it would be more based around psychology and that it would play on the audiences mind. But if we were to re-edit the trailer we would try to include some more hard-hitting, disturbing shots. 

This screenshot of the trailer shows the issue of the blur while
filming, this was not helped by the darkness of the
location and time of day which we filmed at the
graveyard, however it would be improved if we had the
chance again.

Finally two people mentioned the fact that the camera work was un-focused and blurry, however as majority of the film was filmed kinetically, this was very difficult to avoid. If we were to film the blurry shots again we would use a tripod to ensure the trailer would be clearly visible to the audience and that what was happening could be followed.  

Overall, my group have taken into consideration the constructive criticism from our classmates and have concluded that we would alter the  editing of the trailer and we would particularly make the final few shots more impactful and frightening. However we are pleased that the class noticed some of the elements which we were focusing on while planning the trailer, such as the location, use of light and darkness and particularly the sound used in the trailer to build atmosphere. We appreciate the criticism as it has allowed us to see how we can improve future work.

Kieran Browne