For my audience feedback, I put together a questionnaire which featured questions about my film trailer, film magazine cover and film poster. I then presented my trailer and ancillary tasks to a number of people and asked them to fill in the questionnaire as honestly as possible. The feedback I got was very varied and has made me think a lot more about what I could have made clearer, done better and what I did well. Below is a video created by Kasia Miller, an 18 year old female from Wiltshire who watched my film trailer and answered the questions regarding the film trailer:
Here is an overall summery of the feedback I received for each question:
1) WHAT GENRE OF FILM DO YOU THINK THIS FILM TRAILER IS REPRESENTING AND WHY?
I was quite surprised reading the feedback to this question. Most people either said that the trailer was a thriller or a horror or both but there were a few other genres that people were thinking my trailer was. One of these genres that appeared a lot in my feedback was action. For example, one of the answers to this question was "Action/ Thriller because it was very fast paced and had your heart on edge all the time throughout". Another answer was "Action because of the use of weaponry and tension/mystery". Looking back at the trailer, I can definitely see that my trailer has a lot of the conventions of an action film, included the fast paced cuts, weaponry, the whole plot of the Devil having a mission that needs to be completed, death etc.
Two people also said that the film could possibly be a sci-fi/horror film due to the "robot voice and tense music". This answer surprised me a lot as I never had thought that my film trailer could possibly be perceived as a science fiction film. This is something I should have definitely taken into consideration when editing my voice-over; the original intention was to make my voice-over very low pitched but I ended up making it sound quite metallic due to my voice actor's already very low voice making it inaudible when I lowered the pitch on GarageBand. I am beginning to think I should have left the voice-over unedited to stop the confusion of people thinking that the trailer is a science-fiction film, however considering as only two people out of the thirty people who answered the questionnaire thought it was a sci-fi horror, maybe it wasn't a bad decision to edit the voice.
For the people who thought the trailer was for a thriller, their comments were very representative of the conventions of a thriller I was looking to meet and satisfy. Examples of this would be the fact that "the trailer represents a thriller genre as it is not too revealing". This was something I was adamant I was going to achieve. The worst thing about watching a film trailer is watching it, being able to guess the end of the film because it's too predictable and showing all of the main action, leaving hardly anything for the audience to look forward to. So, i've learnt my trailer definitely satisfied the convention (in a thriller) of not giving too much away in the trailer which I'm very happy about. Another comment made by somebody who thought my trailer was a thriller was that it "built up suspense and tension throughout". I mentioned in a previous post how I wanted my trailer to start off slow and pick up pace though out, which is what I went for. I think this along with my choice of music helped meet the "suspense" and "tension" conventions of the thriller genre.
In reference to the people who thought my trailer was for a horror film, the conventions of thriller films and horror films are very similar. Their comments followed along the lines of "it was full of suspense", "kept you on the edge of your seat", "left your heart racing" and "it had a lot of atmosphere". The general conventions of a horror films are things such as the use of dark colours, weaponry, isolated locations, alienation, vulnerability etc. These are all features I have used in my trailer, such as using a massive isolated field for my main female character to walk through, the idea that everyone is fighting to keep themselves alive so they may feel very alienated from everyone as they don't know who they can trust, everyone is vulnerable as you could die at any given moment and I have used weaponry with the gun. Thriller films use the same kind of ideas with their films also, which is why a horror/thriller cross-over happen very frequently!
From this question, I've learnt that I managed to present my two film genres across quite successfully. If I was to recreate this trailer, I would probably use darker colours and maybe create gory scenes to push the horror conventions across to the audience a bit more but overall, I think this has been quite successful in terms of making sure the audience knows what genre the film is.
2) DO YOU THINK THAT THE VOICE-OVER WAS EFFECTIVE? WHY/WHY NOT?
I am so happy with the feedback I received for this specific question. Not one person gave negative feedback about the voice-over. A lot of the comments referenced how it added to the tense atmosphere of the trailer and added a lot of suspense which is one of the reasons I chose to have a first-person voice over in the first place. Additional comments such as "the voice over was really creative and gripping, the fact he had a box on his head made you want to know who was wearing it". This comment, again is one of the reasons I chose to use a voice-over to explain the plot along with the "box man". Instead of using titles to explain my trailer, which I find only ever gives a very broad explanation of the plot, I chose the first-person voice over as its quite different for a horror/thriller film to use a first-person voice-over and I wanted it to feel as personal as possible, as well as making the audience want to know who this 'box man' is and why he specifically has been chosen to handle this situation.
Another comment received was that "I thought the voice over was extremely effective as without it, there could have been danger of getting lost/confused - it sets the plot!" This is a very interested comment as whilst I was creating my trailer, I was very worried that the plot would be too confusing and I had made it very difficult for myself. I wrote out many versions of the voice-over, trying to make sure I had put in enough information for the audiences to be able to understand the plot of the film but tried to make it very simple and make sure there wasn't too much information in there. To know that it helped the audience get a good idea of what was going on, even with it being such a complicated and intricate plot has taught me that taking the risk of using a first-person voice over for a horror/thriller trailer without making it sound corny or cheesy has paid off.
Other comments received were things such as "the fact the voice-over wasn't a normal voice added a lot of mystery to who he actually is" which again as I've said before, was one of the aims of using the box-man in the trailer; to add suspense and mystery. It was also described as "the key element to the success of the trailer" which is very positive.
From this, I have learnt that my voice-over was a great success! I do believe voice-overs should be used more often to create high levels of tension, suspense and mystery to trailers, providing they are used in the correct way and have a very well written monologue.
3) DO YOU THINK THAT THE BACKING TRACK WAS EFFECTIVE? WHY/WHY NOT?
The feedback from this question was extremely positive! I had many comments such as;
"Yes, because the strings and the dynamics built tension"
"It was because it created suspense"
"Yes - it was quiet when there the voice-over was talking and louder when there was no voice over"
"It made the shots more intense and intriguing to watch"
"I think it was effective because it built up throughout the trailer, making it tense"
All of these comments are representative of the exact reasons I chose the soundtrack that I used. The very faint choral singing in the background provides the track with a lot of mystery and tension. The choir is what I think the first comment is relating to because if you weren't listening hard enough (which most people aren't going to be because they are watching what is on the screen and concentrating on the voice-over, the backing track is simply to add tension without the audience realising it) you could mistake it as a violin or a viola. There are synthetic strings used in the piece but they are very low pitched notes.
The drums in the background definitely helped create suspense in my trailer as one of the conventions of thriller films and certainly action films is that the soundtracks often are fast paced with heavy percussion. The harshness and the sudden crashes of the drums often replicate the action that is happening on screen.
4) WAS THE PLOT OF THE FILM CLEARLY POINTED OUT/ DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THE FILM IS ABOUT?
This question was a yes/no answer question and every single person who answered my questionnaire answered yes. I think this is mainly down to my voice-over explaining the plot of the film very well, but overall this shows that I've been very successful in creating a complex trailer where the audience can still understand the plot!
6) IF YOU COULD SUGGEST ONE IMPROVEMENT FOR THE FILM TRAILER, WHAT WOULD YOU SUGGEST?
One improvement that was suggested several times was that my main female actress who holds the gun in the field should "hold the gun properly". This actually was something that I told my actress to do. Her whole role synopsis is that she is one of the unfortunate 'non-believers' that have been left on the Earth, she is not a sinner and under the commands of the Devil, as it says in the voice-over, everyone must "kill each other or I will kill you". This character is a young, naïve female who simply did not believe in God, she had not sinned. Out of fear and in an attempt to stay alive, she has been almost forced into this world where she has to kill to stay alive, she is not a trained sniper who has been using guns all her life, she is just a young girl who has picked up any weapon she can find. It would be unrealistic if I had a young female character who had never used a gun before just pick up a gun and hold it correctly. Her holding the gun incorrectly shows how naïve, young and untrained she is and how the Rapture is making people who wouldn't normally kill, kill to defend themselves and 'impress' the Devil.
Another improvement suggested was that the trailer did not feature the 'Box Man' at all. The justification behind this suggestion was that it would "add more mystery to the trailer". This is something I did take into consideration whilst planning my trailer, I wasn't sure at all whether I wanted to a) have the 'box man' in the trailer at all, b) have the 'box man' in the trailer but cover his heads he looses his identity or c) have the 'box man' in the trailer without having his identity covered and the audience would know who he is straight off. I think both having the 'box man's' identity covered up AND not having the 'box man' in the trailer definitely add to the mystery and suspense in my trailer but I think having the 'box man' in the trailer was my best option. I think this because the audience are immediately trying to work out who this person is and the answer is staring them right in the face; except he has a box on his head so they still don't really know who he is so it would make the audience want to go watch the film to find out who he is and why he has the box on his head.
It was also suggested that I change the title font in my trailer as people "weren't sure the font fitted with the tone of the film". However, the people who had said this were the people who thought that my film was a science fiction film so this is just suggesting to me that maybe I should have made my conventions of the thriller and horror genre more obvious and apparent to the audience. I feel like my font was appropriate with the dripping of the blood and the colour red as blood and gore are associated with horror films and I personally wouldn't have used a different font.
7) WHAT ARE THE MOST SUCCESSFUL FEATURES OF THE FILM MAGAZINE COVER?
One of the most successful film magazine cover features was the photo, according to quite a few of my questionnaire respondents. People used the words "professional" and "interesting" to describe it and a lot of people liked the fact that Hannah wasn't in costume as it "showed how well respected the film is". By this, I think they mean that my film magazine cover is implying that Hannah is a very famous actress already and just by using her face, I am promoting my film. This is what I was going for. A lot of people liked how "simplistic" my magazine cover looked, saying it looked "sophisticated and classy" as well as having "a well respected reputation".
However, a lot of people said that it was too simplistic and that Hannah should have been in costume to create an even more direct link between the film and the magazine cover. I do agree with this and see how this could be the case but my personal opinion is that my film magazine cover works. I have never been a fan of overly bright and packed magazine covers as to me, they come across as tacky and unprofessional.
One comment which I can see where the confusion has arisen was; "The use of red (colour) - doesn't fit the genre". Here, the colour red I chose simply as a colour which looked good over the black and white photo. It was not meant to have any connotations on it but I think this person has taken the red as having connotations of love and passion which wasn't what I was going for at all. This means I should have taken more consideration when choosing the colours of my titles, maybe choosing a purple colour or a deep blue colour as both of those colours have connotations of royalty and importance.
8) WHAT ARE THE MOST SUCCESSFUL FEATURES OF THE FILM POSTER?
The feedback I received for this question was overall quite positive. There are however some improvements that ave been suggested in order to make my film poster even more successful than it already is. One of my main successes with the film poster was the tag line. People have commented saying that it was "moving", "chilling", "deep" and "personal". This was exactly what I was going for. I wanted the audience to feel that the poster was specifically speaking to them and make the audience think "am I actually a sinner?". I think this has worked, making it as personal as possible makes the audience feel special and it makes the poster relatable.
A lot of people also liked how the poster was a shot from the film. I think this is successful because it helps link the poster to the trailer. Also, using Hannah as the star of my film poster was a crucial part of the film poster as it makes the audience realise that she is a key character in the film. I was going to use the 'Box Man' but I wanted to make sure he had as much mystery as possible surrounding him.
The font was a hit and miss for the people who gave me feedback. Some people liked it because of the "blood-like font" and some people liked it because "it represents the horror genre really well". These are the exact reasons I chose the font which is very positive to see that my thoughts behind the connotations of blood and gore and pushing them into the font of the film title are showing through. However some people thought that this font "did not suit the genre" and recommend that I use a different font. When looking back at these peoples previous answers, these people were the ones who thought my film genre was an action film or a science fiction film so somewhere along the line, the connotations of my film genre have been misconstrued and misunderstood. This suggests to me that I should use more connotations of horror films and thriller films in my film poster, film trailer and my film magazine cover to ensure that this confusion doesn't happen again.
9) AFTER WATCHING THE FILM TRAILER, IF IT WERE TO BE MADE INTO A FEATURE-LENGTH FILM, WOULD YOU BE CONVINCED TO GO AND WATCH IT? WHY/WHY NOT?
To this question, every answer was yes and there were varying reasons as to why people would watch it. Some people said they would because "horror/thriller genres are my favourite", some people said that "the plot seemed different and interesting" and other people wanted to "find out who the box-man was". One of the reasons I created the character 'Box Man' was to draw the audience in and make them want to watch the film to work out who he is and what his role in the film was so this shows how successful the 'Box Man' actually was.
I am glad there weren't any 'no' answers to this question because now I feel like I was very successful in my product and it has done everything it set out to do; GET AN AUDIENCE.
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