What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Early footage screening
I had a two-staged approach to audience feedback. Firstly I screened some early footage of our trailer to the class. The students in my class gave me some feedback on different aspects of my trailer. The majority of the class thought that my early footage clips weren't suitable for the horror genre as they were filmed in the light. However they thought that my setting in a field with windy, slightly rainy weather was good. Most students thought that the Mise en Scene was over-all good. My main character at this point was a girl, with pale make-up on and a white dress. From the audience's feedback I gathered that they thought this was a good start and that my character could develop immensely if the right setting was put together accordingly, although they did think that a male character would fit better for being the "evil" character in a horror. I took this idea into account and started to develop my ideas. The class thought my storyline was ok and could be developed to become much more horror genre-like, but as this was early days I took this as constructive criticism. On the whole, the class thought my starting plan was a good one but wasn't great. This didn't come as a shock to me as I was a complete beginner in film making and took all of their feedback into consideration and decided to change my plan completely and to change the story into one I thought would fit the horror genre and please the audience much more than my original idea. My main "evil" character changed to a man around the age of 35 and I introduced another character which would be the "victim", a young girl. The setting changed to a dark, eerie alleyway and then the trailer would continue on into the house of the victim. This first screening really helped me to see what the audience wanted from a horror trailer and facilitated the development of my narrative and characterization. Even though my feedback wasn't postive, short-term wise, the impact was positive long-term as it gave me a chance to re-think my ideas and come up with better ones.

Completed trailer screening  
When I felt I had completed the trailer, I showed it to another audience. 4 people to be exact, 2 of which were in the age slot of our target audience, and 2 of which weren't. I expected their reactions to be very different to one anothers as the age difference has an impact on how you take in certain media texts, especially a horror film trailer as it depends very much on what the audience finds scary. I gave them each a questionnaire to fill out when they had watched the screening. (Questionnaire is on the blog) This questionnaire wasn't only to find out if my trailer was a success, it was to find out if my target audience in particular, decoded a preffered reading to my main media text and I had suceeded at my job as an encoder too. This feedback also helped me to find correlations between social stratification and reaction to the trailer. 
The results were fantastic, my target audience feedback came out mostly preferred with my non target audience feedback coming back mostly aberrant. This was expected and helped me to see that I had succeeded in creating a trailer for a particular audience.

People react to media texts in different and sometimes unpredictable ways. I made sure my final trailer screening was done in a darkened room so that my trailer could be watched with full effect. However, if the trailer was watched in a different condition it may change the typical gratification a person might get from watching the video. Sometimes, giving your audience a questionnaire to do before a screening can cause them to feel differently about it and cause their original thoughts of the trailer to change without them noticing. I took this into account and gave my audience the questionnaire after they had watched the trailer. This ensured their original readings of my media texts weren't interferred with and the feedback I gained was completely accurate.

Overall, audience feedback, particularly the early screening, helped me to form my ideas and helped me to develop my trailer so it was of a standard which was accepted and thought of as good by my target audience. In a way, audience feedback helped me to create my trailer as it initiated the change of plan.


Final trailer screening 1 - non target audience

I devised a small questionnaire and showed my final film trailer to two people, one male and one female, both of which are over the age of 40. Now since this age is not one of our target audience I hope to see a slight difference in the answers given when compared to the answers given by the people I give it to who are in our target audience age slot.

Questionnaire:

Do you think the effects we have applied to the clips are effective?
Very effective 1                  2                   3                  4  Not effective     
 
Do you think the music fits in well with the scenes?
Fits very well 1                  2                   3                  4  Doesn't fit

Do you think the ending of the trailer is effective?
Very effective 1                  2                   3                  4  Not effective

Would you go and see this film?
 Absolutely 1                  2                   3                  4  No, it's not my thing

What age certificate do you think this film has?

U(universal)          PG(parental guidance)          12A(12 with adult)          15(over 15)          18(over 18)



These were the outcomes, remembering this showing was to an audience which was way out of our target audience area:

Final trailer screening 2- target audience

I devised a small questionnaire and showed my final film trailer to two people, one male and one female, both of which are aged 18. Now since this age is one of our target audience I hope to see a slight difference in the answers given when compared to the answers given by the people I give it to who are not in our target audience age slot.

Questionnaire:

Do you think the effects we have applied to the clips are effective?
Very effective 1                  2                   3                  4  Not effective    
 
Do you think the music fits in well with the scenes?
Fits very well 1                  2                   3                  4  Doesn't fit

Do you think the ending of the trailer is effective?
Very effective 1                  2                   3                  4  Not effective
Would you go and see this film?
 Absolutely 1                  2                   3                  4  No, it's not my thing

What age certificate do you think this film has?

U(universal)          PG(parental guidance)          12A(12 with adult)          15(over 15)          18(over 18)



These were the outcomes:

Early screening questionnaire

When we had filmed our clips for the trailer, we screened them to 10 people and handed out a questionnaire for them to fill out in order for us to gain feedback.

Questionnaire:

1.     Age: Please circle appropriate age range

14-17      18-22      23-28      29+

2.     Gender/Sex: Please circle M F

3.     How often do you go to the cinema?

Twice a week            Once a week            Once a fortnight            Once a month            Rarely            Never

Trailer:

4.     How effectively did you feel the trailer communicated the type of film being promoted?

Circle appropriate number

Very effectively                        1            2            3            4            Not very effectively

5.     How easy was it to understand what film genre the trailer was promoting?

Circle appropriate number

Very easy                        1            2            3            4            Not very easy

6.     How easy was it to understand the basic storyline of the film the trailer was promoting?

Circle appropriate number

Very easy                        1            2            3            4            Not very easy

7.     How effective were the various settings?

Circle appropriate number

Very effective                        1            2            3            4            Not very effective

8.     How effective was the use of music

Circle appropriate number

Very effective                        1            2            3            4            Not very effective

Clips:

9.     How effective was clip 1?

Circle appropriate number

Very effective                        1            2            3            4            Not very effective

10.  How effective was that clip sequence?

Circle appropriate number

Very effective                        1            2            3            4            Not very effective

Using the feedback I created some graphs to make it clear how the answers came out:

Question 1:

Question 2:



Question 3: 

Question 4: 

Question 5:

Question 6:

Question 7:

Question 8: 

Question 9: 

This was expected as the clips are very simple at this time!

Question 10:

Most of the answers that we got were of preferred readings and we were very happy with this. Question 9 didn't come as a shock to us as we understood how simple our clips were at this stage. Hopefully when our trailer is fully finished we will get better feedback for this question.

Target Audience

Using the guidelines of the BBFC rating, we decided to rate our film a 15. We thought that rating it a 15 was an appropriate decision as our film includes things that younger people wouldn't be allowed to watch.

• Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse.
• Horror - Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised
• Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.
• There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest  terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.
• Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.
• Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely  to be acceptable unless justified by context.
• Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable.

Our film cast doesn't include any ethnic minority characters but we hope the narrative of a horror is enough to attract an ethnic minority audience.
Horror films are supposedly created to aim at a male audience, but we wanted our trailer to appeal to a female audience too. In order to do this we created the female victim character as strong and independent (her walking alone) and therefore a female audience could relate and empathise with the victim. However, to still appeal to the male audience, we used the mise-en-scene to make the female character attractive. We dressed her in a strappy top and tight jeans, she looks casual yet appealing. This uses the 'male gaze' theory by Laura Mulvey, who is a feminist. She suggests that most of the film industry's focus is on the bodies of women rather than their drama and acting skill. This is purely for male pleasure and to help appeal to a male audience, most of the time it works and the actress becomes a sexual icon.

In the case of class, we have decided that our film would best suit the socio-economic groups of C2,D and E. This is because it is mainly these groups that would be attracted to seeing a 15 rated, horror movie which involves violence and gore. From my point of view, being a student myself, I believe that mainly students would want to see this film and so the social group 'E' would be the main part of our audience.


The trailer is being aimed at people aged 15- 25. I did a questionnaire on people aged 16-18 and asked them what they would expect to see in a horror/thriller trailer and this will help to achieve the aim and also to help the trailer become more appealing to the target audience. As I am 18 years of age, I know how the target audience think and I can use my own opinion to help make the trailer scarier and more chilling. This genre is popular with 15-25 year olds.Our trailer is aimed at both genders and aimed at people who speak english. Some films that I think would have a similar audience to the coursework trailer are...

Paranormal activity 2

Wrong turn





Film trailer analysis
I analysed 2 trailers and looked at various points to get an idea of what different genres of trailers include.

I looked at:

Genre Narrative
Location
Characters

Voice Over
Theme
Pacing
On-screen graphics Editing & post production
Music and other sound effects

Research

I created a questionnaire and asked 12 people aged from 16-20 to find out what this target audience expected from a horror trailer.

What scares you the most in horror movies?


Paranormal (Ghost activity)    7        Alien activity   1     People (Zombies, Psychotic behaviour) 4 


What adds tension for you the most?


Fast tempo music   0        Slow, quiet music (Slow cellos, violins)    4      Loud, sudden noises   8


In a horror trailer, what types of shots and images would you expect?


Sudden close ups    4     Fast, action related, cut shots    4      Long, eery, dark, shots    4


What is your favourite horror movie?


Paranormal activity (2), signs, house of wax, the crazies, Saw2, the descent, texas chainsaw massacre, vacancy, poltergeist


Have any recent horror trailers caught your eye and why so?


Paranormal activity 2 (3) because it has eery and quiet shots and includes the common fear of the unknown
Devil because of its real life potential happenings (chlostrephobia)
Buried because it looks different
Saw7 because its gruesome and has much suspense


Which do you find more scary?


A little girl  9               An old man  3             A teenage boy  0




What shots would you find more effective in a horror trailer?


Black and white  5     Red and dark  3    Change from blur to focus 4


                                                                                                                                       




From this questionnaire, I found that a majority of people find the paranormal and the unknown far more scary than alien activity or people. We will include slow, quiet music and loud sudden sounds as people voted these two as the most tension building. All 3 types of shots gained an equal amount of votes meaning we should try to include a variety of close ups, fast action cut shots and long dark shots as the target audience expect these images. We will also use all 3 shots to add tension, black and white shots, red and dark shots and the change from blurry to focus shots. From the list of their favourite horror movies, we will take ideas from by watching the trailers and will do the same with their favourite most recent trailers. The target audience seem to think that using a little girl character in a horror movie is the most scary so we will go ahead with our plan and do this.

The Brief

A promotion package for a new film, to include a trailer with two of the following options:

• a website homepage for the film;
• a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;
• a poster for the film

For the trailer we have the option to work in groups but for the other two sets of coursework we have to work individually. I chose to work with Alex and Amy for my trailer.