To get an idea of what people thought worked well in our group's trailer, we asked for a positive and negative opinion on the horror and trailer conventional aspects of the product. The target audience for our product are both male and female from the ages 15-25. This made asking our peers in class an appropriate choice for finding out how well the horror conventions were adhered to or challenged and how well our product works as a piece of advertising.
The feedback we received from classmates were mainly positive including praise on our soundtrack and cinematography whilst some negative comments were based around the brightness of the shots and a scene or two where the documentary diegetic seems broken (the part where the protagonist looks round to see the hand appear through the tree).
Through our audience feedback we found that lots of people thought that the music that starts to build up halfway through the trailer worked very effectively. As the droning, screeching sound becomes higher in the mix and higher pitched, the shots become shorter and so the tension builds up to a sudden stop after several images flash up. This building up and crashing stop of tension works well and leads up to the sudden shock of the hand coming through the tree. The heartbeats in the fade-downs during the running sequence was said to be very effective by the audience. Our Blair Witch-like point-of-view camerawork was commended by most people because of its realistic, documentary aesthetic, so creates a familiar diegesis like that found in the Blair Witch Project. This received a negative comment from one person, however, who said that it was too reminiscent of its inspiration - particularly the close-up of the film's upset protagonist.
Several set pieces of our trailer were praised by classmates who said that the combination of the visual and audio created a real sense of terror and suspense. One of these was the shot of the shoe stomping down in front of the camera. The way the shot leads on from 'there will be consequences' on the intertitle prior, and the camera drops worked well as a link. The high-in-the-mix sound effect when the shoe hits the floor was commended and gave it a more shocking effect. Another shot that people said worked well was the eye-opening scene. The audience again said that the sound effect worked well with the editing done to make the eye open suddenly with the 'Bad TV' effect. They also said that the way the music that starts at the beginning suddenly stops when the eye opens was very effective.
The pacing of the trailer was another area pointed out by our audience; they said that the pace worked very well as it starts slowly and builds speed towards the end. The intertitles were set at appropriate points in the trailer and added to the feeling of suspense already being built through the trailer. The shots were also shown chronologically, so aids in building the narrative and flow of the trailer that builds towards the crashing end.
As a result of the negative feedback we received about the light levels of the shots in our trailer, we graded each shot and set a slightly blue tint to them to create the feeling that it is night time. We increased the effect of the gradient as the trailer progresses, to connote the teenagers' descent into darkness. Negative feedback about the police tape and ending shot also caused us to edit them slightly. According to the audience, these two scenes appeared staged, so broke the diegesis of the trailer, so we cut them shorter to give them more impact and reduce the 'staged' look. A final minor complaint about the narrative of the film shown through the trailer - or lack of it - was taken into consideration but dispelled due to the feeling of eeriness and mystery about the film we tried to portray. The official trailer of 'Blair Witch Project', our main inspiration for Braeden Forest revealed even less about the narrative than ours, so we decided to keep the narrative aspect of our trailer as it was.
Feedback from our target audience revealed that they were teased by the trailer and they said that they would probably watch the film after watching our trailer. Enough of the narrative was hinted at in the trailer to keep them interesting but not too much was shown to make watching the film pointless - although I think that showing too much of the narrative in a point-of-view film such as ours would be difficult to do.
The feedback we received from classmates were mainly positive including praise on our soundtrack and cinematography whilst some negative comments were based around the brightness of the shots and a scene or two where the documentary diegetic seems broken (the part where the protagonist looks round to see the hand appear through the tree).
Through our audience feedback we found that lots of people thought that the music that starts to build up halfway through the trailer worked very effectively. As the droning, screeching sound becomes higher in the mix and higher pitched, the shots become shorter and so the tension builds up to a sudden stop after several images flash up. This building up and crashing stop of tension works well and leads up to the sudden shock of the hand coming through the tree. The heartbeats in the fade-downs during the running sequence was said to be very effective by the audience. Our Blair Witch-like point-of-view camerawork was commended by most people because of its realistic, documentary aesthetic, so creates a familiar diegesis like that found in the Blair Witch Project. This received a negative comment from one person, however, who said that it was too reminiscent of its inspiration - particularly the close-up of the film's upset protagonist.
Several set pieces of our trailer were praised by classmates who said that the combination of the visual and audio created a real sense of terror and suspense. One of these was the shot of the shoe stomping down in front of the camera. The way the shot leads on from 'there will be consequences' on the intertitle prior, and the camera drops worked well as a link. The high-in-the-mix sound effect when the shoe hits the floor was commended and gave it a more shocking effect. Another shot that people said worked well was the eye-opening scene. The audience again said that the sound effect worked well with the editing done to make the eye open suddenly with the 'Bad TV' effect. They also said that the way the music that starts at the beginning suddenly stops when the eye opens was very effective.
The pacing of the trailer was another area pointed out by our audience; they said that the pace worked very well as it starts slowly and builds speed towards the end. The intertitles were set at appropriate points in the trailer and added to the feeling of suspense already being built through the trailer. The shots were also shown chronologically, so aids in building the narrative and flow of the trailer that builds towards the crashing end.
As a result of the negative feedback we received about the light levels of the shots in our trailer, we graded each shot and set a slightly blue tint to them to create the feeling that it is night time. We increased the effect of the gradient as the trailer progresses, to connote the teenagers' descent into darkness. Negative feedback about the police tape and ending shot also caused us to edit them slightly. According to the audience, these two scenes appeared staged, so broke the diegesis of the trailer, so we cut them shorter to give them more impact and reduce the 'staged' look. A final minor complaint about the narrative of the film shown through the trailer - or lack of it - was taken into consideration but dispelled due to the feeling of eeriness and mystery about the film we tried to portray. The official trailer of 'Blair Witch Project', our main inspiration for Braeden Forest revealed even less about the narrative than ours, so we decided to keep the narrative aspect of our trailer as it was.
Feedback from our target audience revealed that they were teased by the trailer and they said that they would probably watch the film after watching our trailer. Enough of the narrative was hinted at in the trailer to keep them interesting but not too much was shown to make watching the film pointless - although I think that showing too much of the narrative in a point-of-view film such as ours would be difficult to do.
Begin by explaining how your target audience is. Otherwise it may not make sense to the examiner why you showed your trailer to your class mates. Your points are good but would be better if you were able to illustrate them with some stills at appropriate moments. Also bear in mind that the audience feedback had two different focuses: the product as an example of the horror genre, and the product as a piece of advertising. It would be worth making it clear which you are talking about at each stage.
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