What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

on our horror trailer
we have had a mixture f positive and negative feedback about our
trailer. The feedback was on the conventions of a trailer as well as
the conventions of the horror movie genre. To get feed back on our
horror trailer we had a class viewing of the trailer, in which every
one had a piece of paper to write down their views on the trailer.
To make sure people wrote down what they really thought of the
trailer these pieces of paper didnt have their name on it so they
would feel able to write the true negative and positive views about
the trailer.
Some positives we got out of
this feedback session include the inter-titles throughout the
trailer. The inter-titles were put in to show the history and back
ground of the story in a small amount of time. We included a effects
on the inter-titles which made selected words turn red and go fuzzy
before vanishing. The words we chose in each sentence include the
main words for the title. In the different inter-titles there are
different effects to try and keep them slightly different. Such as in
one the title disepaers apart from the the section we wanted to stand
out which goes red and then fuzzy before leaving the screen. Six
different students from our class liked these effects in the trailer
and committed on different sections of the titles from isolating
different words to the effects upon the words. This positive feedback
shows us that our intentions worked well, however there was also a
small amount of negatives also on this section. One person said they
found the inter-titles were over used and became tedious.
Another section of the
trailer we got positive feedback on was the use of the music and
music that we selected. In our trailer we chose to select the music
from early on. We noted that the music was something that we would
have trouble changing to fit the pace and sections of video. So we
chose the music we wanted then fitted the trailer to the music, such
as where the music violently stops so does the footage. This is to
add more effect to the trailer. The positive feedback in this section
included, “the music works well and in time” “the music really
worked with each shot” and “liked how the music picked up when
the scenes became more horrific”. We got six positive feedbacks in
the class on the music but we still had a negative on the music as
well, “music was fitting but could have differed at some point”.
The main titles such as
“crash site” and the production studios were another area of the
trailer that we got positive feedback from. The positive feedback was
all on how they looked on the screen. Some of these include “the
final title was very good and fitting” “liked the smoke effects”
and “the titles were very good”. The titles were all created in
premier pro and edited using after effects. We got one negative on
the titles which was that the earlier titles for the production
companies were not long enough and could have been expanded upon to
be made longer.
We got positives also on the
narrative of the trailer. The trailer used sections of text to tell
the back ground story and the narrative behind the movie. The trailer
also jumps between third person footage of whats happening at the
crash site and hand held camera views of them before getting ready.
These we hoped to help to set a feel of reality and make the movie
seem more realistic. We used a idea of the killer wearing a gas mask
and the site being a possible war time crash site of a plane. This is
called the return of the repress. We all agreed that something
returning from the past was a good scary theme to link the site with
a possible horrific narrative. Return of the repress is used in a lot
of narratives for the horror genre. We thought this would help to
keep to the horror conventions. We got five positives on the
narrative of the trailer which included “good use of something from
the past” “told the story well” and “jumpy”. We also had a
positive which says “very clear narrative (chronological)”. I
found this positive slightly odd as the trailer wasn't in
chronological order. However they were able to view it and understand
it while thinking it was in chronological order. We also got five
negatives on the narrative. Two were based on the narrative not being
jumpy enough, however we did get a positive on this as well so I feel
that this is down to opinions and how easily people are able to be
made scared or what they fear. Other negatives “too much running”
“narrative lost with all the different build up shots”. I think
that we could have added some more shots which were not just running
in at the end and that would have made the final fast paced shots
flow better. I also think some of the build up shots were not needed
now I look back on the trailer after reading the feedback. Such as
when they were packing the car. This shot could have been removed and
it would not have effected the trailer at all apart from maybe stop
it feeling like it was being dragged out a little bit.
Our groups camera angles and
shots got three points of positive feedback. One was the range of
camera angles and shots we used and the other two were on specific
uses of the camera. One of them liked how the effect on some of the
point of view shots were fuzzy or black and white to distort the
picture at times. We also did a small camera shot where the camera is
viewed as if it is the hand held one and gets dropped as they run
away from the camera. We did get a negative which was that we didn't
use enough close ups in the trailer. I agree with this negative as
the fast pace sections would have worked well if there was a couple
of close ups within it to show the characters involved and to break
up the sections of continuous running. One person also thought that
sections of the “home footage” areas are unclear. I think our
group was attempting to make these areas be unclear as to what was
happening on camera as if to represent the camera was having
problems. This was to help establish the difference between the third
person shots and the view from the hand held camera. Another negative
was the over use of the pov shots. I think this could have been
avoided by making some of the pov shots shorter to create a quicker
pace in the trailer.
The effects also got five
positives. We used effects ranging from fuzzy sections where the
footage goes static to night vision when its really dark. Two people
commented on the static action on the different points through out
the trailer saying “i liked the fizzy bits and the sounds” and
“when it fuzzes out when on the map”. Another person liked the
night vision effect, one commented saying “had good effects on
shots” and another said the effects had a sense of
“professionalism” to them. These effects where from different
setting on the camera and effects added on after in after effects.
We got one positive comment
on the setting that we used for the trailer. We used a small area of
swamp like land to shoot the trailer on. The deserted feel of the
swamp gives a good horror feel and fits in with horror conventions
under settings as a place where no one can help you similar to the
movies “alien” (sett in space) and Friday the 13th
(set in the woods).
Overall I find our feedback
positive as we got more positive reactions than negative. If I could
go back and change a few things in my trailer I would maybe cut down
on the amount of build up shots or make them shorter to give the
trailer more pace from earlier on. I would also include some close
ups with in the fast paced section to help people acquire a
connection with the characters in the movie and maybe show a little
more of the villain to help the narrative and help people understand
what they are attempting to escape. I feel that the narrative we had
in mind worked well to the conventions of the horror genre and I
think the setting props and camera shots used in the trailer worked
well. I think the trailer could have worked better under the
conventions of a trailer as the footage we shown in our order did
make it harder to understand if you didn't know the back ground plot
before hand. The trailer was also slow for a little to long which led
to a feel that the trailer could have been made with shorter edits to
keep the audience watching the trailer.