Audience feedback

Overall we agree with the feedback that we received from our target audience and it was a very useful process in allowing us to analyse our trailer in more detail. By showing it to our target audience we were able to see questions that they were left asking themselves about the rest of the trailer. This process is very useful if we wanted to create another trailer or even expand this trailer into making the whole film. When listening to our audience feedback we were able to reflect on the whole trailer and use this process to help us evaluate. One particular comment that we found useful was in regards to our non-diegetic sound, although we thought this was a good idea to start with when watching the trailer back we could have done with a backing track to be played along with this to make it feel more like a trailer. Also the comments we received allowed us to see the positives of our production as well as after working on it for so long we began to become very nit picky about small details that we would have liked to change. The whole process was very useful with constructive criticism so we can see where we need to improve with our future editing process. For example on our titles we could have put more effects on them to create a more eerie atmosphere rather than just a basic fade. Also we could have used different effects between scenes to fasten the pace of editing and help build tension. We agree with all the comments that we received and bare it all in mind when making future productions.

Presentation

Script for our presentation

Caitlin:

Initial ideas:

The idea of doing an action trailer stood out to us as we have seen previous years and they worked really well. Although this was the case we decided that doing a horror trailer would work better, this is because we have had experience doing a horror opening 2 minutes and our coursework in year 12 was based on the horror genre.

Lydia:

What is your film about?

Our film is about an innocent teen who gets ‘snatched’ she is walking through the woods alone and gets taken by an unknown character. The teen who gets taken then comes back at the end to haunt a close friend. This adds mystery to our trailer because the audience are going to wonder why she is back to haunt her friend and was it her friend who was the unknown character who took her?

Caitlin:

Where we filmed:

We filmed in Norbury woods because it was well known to our group this is because Hannah walks her dog there and she suggested filming there. The reason we decided to film there was because it is very eerie and dark which conforms to the stereotypes of a horror film. Also the area we chose is very quiet which meant we weren’t going to be disturbed by the public and we also knew we weren’t going to scare people either.

Lydia:

Obstacles you had to overcome:

On the first day of filming Hannah wore a blue coat and when we went back to film on another day she wore a grey coat, meaning she wore different outfits which didn’t work, we only realised this once we had filmed and got back into class to edit so we had to re film it again on another day, this set us back quite a bit because it was quite difficult to get all the group together because of different jobs and lessons.

Caitlin:

Strengths of your production:

We believe that the most successful part of our trailer is the music, we recorded this ourselves and it adds a very eerie effect. The voice sounds like a child which also makes the trailer really scary and works very well. 

Film poster

Trailer

Shot list

In our trailer we are mainly focusing on the use of close up and extreme close ups to focus the audiences attention on small details throughout the trailer, this is very common in horror films. However we will use a variety of different shots to help build tension, making it more difficult for the audience to guess what's coming next.Some of the key camera shots we will use are:

• Close ups- We will use multiple close up's during our trailer, this will emphasis key moments in the opening. We will also use it to highlight facial expressions and create more tension with the audience.
• Establishing shot- This will be used to introduce the viewer to the location, in this case the woods. As the woods is a commonly used location in a horror films it immediately indicates to the viewer the genre.
• Long shot/Medium shot- This shot will be used to portray body language of the characters, this will represent how even the character feels fear therefore so will the audience.
• Tracking shot- Although this shot will be hard to film we are going to try and track feet walking highlighting that the victim is alone and vulnerable.
• Extreme close up- An extreme close up is very similar to a close up but normally it focus on one key part of a frame, this helps to show exact details and portray emotions.
• Over the shoulder shot- shot of someone/something that is shot over somebody else's shoulder, can be used to track conversation or to show somebody else is present during a particular shot.

Consideration of stereotyping

We decided to work on the idea of the 'damsel in distress' in order to make the audience feel sorry and pity for Hannah. Also as just under half of the people interested in the film are female they could relate to the situation. They may relate to feeling unsafe when walking home and the feeling of helplessness if anything was to happen. Also as Hannah is of a young age it appeals more to our target audience as they will also be in the young adults category. This is very stereotypical of a female in a horror film as we tend to think of them as the ones getting into danger and needing help.
Typically the antagonist is a large strong man but we wanted to subvert to this and use an ordinary person who could be anyone. We wanted to illustrate that anyone could be the antagonist because there is a dark side to everyone. Although we didn't use a man as the antagonist we still used someone taller and stronger than Hannah so the opening stayed realistic.

In the majority of horror films, especially older ones, it will always be a female who gets into a situation where they shouldn't be and inevitably ends up getting themselves killed, so we wanted to stick to this idea.

Questionnaire feedback

What is your favourite genre of film? 


Are you male or female?


How old are you?


Do you watch horror films?


What rating do you usually expect a horror film to be?


What would make you want to go watch a horror film?

Questionnaire

How old are you?

 

       0 – 11 years

 

        12 – 14 years

 

        15 – 17 years

 

        18 – 29 years

 

        30 – 39 years

 

        40 – 49 years

 

        50 – 59 years

 

       60+ years

 

 

Are you male or female?

 

Male

 

ÿ        Female

 

 

 

What is your favourite genre of a film?

 

 

 

ÿ        Romance

 

ÿ        Action

 

ÿ        Adventure

 

ÿ        Comedy

 

ÿ        Crime& gangster

 

ÿ        Drama

 

ÿ        Historical

 

ÿ        Horror

 

ÿ        Musical

 

ÿ        Science fiction

 

ÿ        War

 

ÿ        Chick flicks

 

ÿ        Fantasy

 

ÿ        Sports

 

ÿ        Thriller

 

 

 

Why is this your favourite genre of film?

 

 

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

 

 

Do you watch horror films?

 

 

 

ÿ        Yes

 

ÿ        No

 

 

If (Yes) Why do you watch horror films?

 

 

 

………………..……………………………………………………………………………………

 

 

If (No) what would make you watch a horror film?

 

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

 

 

Which of these three titles do you think would suit a horror film?

 

 

ÿ        Gone missing

 

ÿ        Taken

 

ÿ        Snatched

 

  

Why does that sound like a good title for a horror film?

 

 

 

……………………...………………………………………………………………………………

 

 

What age rating would you normally expect a horror film to be?

 

 

 

ÿ        U

 

ÿ        PG

 

ÿ        12

 

ÿ        15

 

ÿ        18

 

        What do you stereotypically expect to see within a horror film?

1. The power is shut off

2    2. Someone investigates a strange noise

.      3.The phone line is cut off

.     4. The victim falls in front of the antagonist

.     5. Vehicle won't start

.     6. Someone is killed in the first 5 minutes

.     7. A stormy night

 

 

 

Relevant Online Tutorials

Tutorial 1:

The reason I looked at this tutorial was because it used very basic make up skills that we feel we could easily replicate. Also because we wanted Hannah to look as if she had been beaten up we thought make up was a necessary part of our costume, we felt that by Hannah having bruises it would make the audience feel more sympathy for her. As we took the inspiration for Hannah's character from the main character from the missing we wanted to include make up so that we could have a similar effect created as they did in the missing. Due to this video having step by step instructions it made it much easier for us to follow and therefore make it easier to replicate in the future.



Tutorial 2:

 

I also looked at this tutorial of how to do small cuts so we could learn how to do this if we wanted to include this as well. We thought cuts were effective because it makes the whole thing more realistic. As our film is a horror/thriller we thought it would be most effective to have some sort of make up done as not only does this help to build tension but it also helps it to feel like a higher budget film.

Film ideas brainstorm

Soundtrack research

 When experimenting with different soundtracks for our trailer we all agreed it would be a good idea to have a nursery rhyme sung over the top, not only would this help build tension but it would also help it to stick into peoples head. To begin with we researched different nursery rhymes but we had to be careful that they did not alter the genre and make our trailer childish and laughable. We also decided to get one of our group members to sing the nursery rhyme which we finally decided would be 'teddy bears picnic' the reason we chose this nursery rhyme is because it links to the forest/woods and is  a well known nursery rhyme. 

We also recorded 'Hannah' singing, whispering and humming the nursery rhyme to see which one would be most successful and link to a horror trail to make it as scary as possible. We decided to go with Hannah whispering the song  because it sounded the most eerie and it is hard to tell the age of Hannah meaning a child could be singing it, this allowed it to increase the tension because it subverts to the usual stereotype of children's innocence.