Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The target audience for our 'film' was teenagers and young adults, around 15 - 24 years old, because they not only visit the cinema most often but they are also the age group most attracted to horror films. So when we felt our trailer was finished we played it to the rest of our class as they had an age range of 17 - 20 and were therefore within the range of our target audience. We did this for a few reasons, but mainly to see what the reactions of people outside the project, but within the target audience, would be. This included anything good, bad or even anything they felt was missing.

The feedback from the audience which, as teenagers, were in the target demographic for horror films was very helpful to me and my group as we were able to change appropriate things to change in the trailer. This screening helped us finalise the trailer to make it as good as it can be without any major re-filming.

The first critical point we were met with was in regard to the scene towards the end where Jake is walking into the camera. Some members of the class felt this could be seen as funny, which would be a problem for the trailer of a horror film. However after talking to the rest of the class and watching it again it seems the humour derived from this shot was a product of knowing Jake, and not to do with the shot itself. This theory was supported further when I played the trailer to people who didn't know Jake as they didn't find it funny at all.

The second point was to do with lighting. Originally, and at the time of showing, our trailer was quite light because it was shot during the day. However the class felt that it would possibly look scarier if it was dark, especially as a prominent convention of horror is that bad things happen in the dark. Once again we reviewed this as a group and decided it was a valid point. So in response to this we added a gradual grading across the trailer. This made it seem as if it was getting darker whilst still looking natural.

The third point was in regard to the ‘house of wax’. It was felt by members of the class that our 'film', and therefore our trailer, was quite similar to ‘house of wax’ because it used similar characters and settings such as a forest, and therefore they felt it didn't have anything unique to advertise. However this point was discussed by the whole class and the majority of people felt that this was not the case because our trailer has elements that made it different.

The fourth point was that there was a possible lack of historic knowledge of the film. One member of the class felt that the shot of the old documents began to establish a link between the forest and previous past history but then didn't build on it, which they felt may have been a good thing to do as one conventional horror setting is a place with a 'past'. However we felt this was the effect we wanted because we wanted to hint at previous activity without it becoming too obvious and giving away too much of what had happened in the forest.

The fifth point suggested was adding more glitches, to both the inter-titles and footage, as they helped to give the impression of strange interference and hint at what was happening in the forest. However our group felt that if we added many more then the point would become overstated and annoying and therefore we decided to leave it as it was.

The sixth point from someone in the class was questioning whether there should be a narrative to keep the audience interested as well as subheadings. However we asked the rest of the group and they said they understood enough for this to be a good teaser trailer. Therefore we decided that nothing needed to be done because, if anything, the lack of narrative helped to keep the audience guessing about what would happen in the film, and this was the effect we were trying to create.

In addition to the points above the class also gave us feedback on what they liked. The first thing they pointed out was the camera panning around the forest establishing the main location. They said this was especially effective with the impact sound because it implied danger and helped to maintain that this trailer was for a horror film. The second was the soundtrack, especially towards the end when it speeds up and becomes more intense. They liked this because they said it built tension and put them on edge which made them want to see the film. the third thing that the class said they liked was the begining shots of the young boy swinging as it creates an eary mood with the distored image effects we added as well as setting a back story to understand are trailer. The fourth point was the inter-titles. They liked the clear, consistent font followed by the glitches and static, especially at the start as this was the first impression they had of the film and it helped to establish the genre and premise.

In conclusion I learnt several things from the audience feedback. I learnt that whilst the opinion of a group does matter, the information has to be considered carefully. It would have been impractical and unnecessary to change everything that every member of the group suggested, and in some instances impossible as there were opinions that contradicted each other. However I did gain some invaluable information from the opinions of the class and I think our trailer was changed for the better because of them.