Q3: WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?
(SurveyMonkey Link)
When creating our media package, we aimed to create a product
that adhered to the apocalyptic horror sub-genre, with a modern
approach that would work as a unique selling point. This would have
to be clear in all three of our products. To discover to what
extent this was true and how successful we were in appealing to our
target demographic we created a survey on surveymonkey.com. This
allowed us to catalogue a wide response and collect data from
beyond just our target audience, making sure it was not age/gender
biased. We also used social media to get more developed answers
from our viewers making our feedback more accurate. 50 people
participated giving us a wide range of data and responses to The
Aftermath.
We were successful in our creation of a trailer that adhered to
the horror genre as evidenced by our feedback, 62% of people said
that our trailer was reflective of this genre. This is further
backed up by all of our audience agreeing our product was somewhat
or very relevant to the horror apocalypse sub-genre. Many agreed
that the inclusion of typical conventions of the horror genre such
as blood, shadows and lighting, and ambiguity of the pursuers made
the genre clear and evident from the beginning. The fact 32% of
people saw our film as a thriller, and 6% interpreted it as a drama
can also be seen in a positive light, as it shows that narrative is
layers and has features from different genres, not just horror.
Therefore our trailer appeals to a wider audience, as evidenced by
the 84% who said that based on the trailer they would want to see
the film. This is important as not all the people we surveyed would
statistically be fans of the horror genre, and therefore the use of
the hybrid genre in our product makes for a more interesting and
diverse film which doesnt totally adhere to what the genre expect,
such as the focus on human relationships in The Aftermath, and
appeals to a wider demographic.
While all viewers were aware of the apocalypse sub-genre to some
extent, 32% saw The Aftermath as a thriller, which indicates to us
that less typical conventions of horror were used in our
production. However this can also be chalked up to the reputation
of the apocalypse sub-genre which can be seen as both as a thriller
(i.e Book of Eli, The Maze Runner) or a horror (i.e 28 Days Later,
Dawn of the Dead) due to the two very different markets for adults
and teens leading to a predominance of thriller films also within
this genre. In our own production we may have also adhered to the
thriller genre due to the use of editing to build tension, and lack
of typical horror gore which we chose not to include as it didnt
fit into our parameters for a trailer, which doesnt often give away
aspects such as body horror.
This data has shown us that not only have we successfully
conformed to our chosen genre, but our more niche genre is also
highly evident in our trailer as 59.18% said it was very relevant
in our trailer for The Aftermath. When further questioned people
said that the prevalence of our genre came primarily from the music
and building of fear through the characters. Many noted that the
use of news clips and editing at the beginning was effective in
outlining the plot and indicating genre.
Our data indicated that we were overall successful in our
portrayal of genre and creation of our trailer as 84% of our
audience said from the trailer alone they would see the film. This
communicates the how our research and depth of knowledge looking at
horror films and deconstruction of trailers paid off, as a mere 8
people (16%) indicated they were not interested in The
Aftermath.
Our product was successful in appeal to its target demographic,
young people are conventionally fans of the horror genre and
thrills it provides. This was reflective in our survey by the
overwhelming 92% that said that the 15-25 age group was the
audience the trailer would appeal to the most. This question was
one that could have multiple answers, ie. people may believe The
Aftermath was best suited foteenagers as well as young adults. This
also effectively shows the size of our potential audience, and
therefore the films potential success as it reaches more people
without deviating from the genre, as shown in the previous
questions .
Our trailer was successful not only in adhering to the typical
horror demographic but varied in than 22% said that it appealed to
an older audience, and 12% said it appealed to a younger audience.
From this its clear that our trailer offered something new to the
horror genre, as it was constructed with a focus on the characters
and their interactions such as Sam and Adrian's relationship. This
is not typical to most films within the horror genre which often
discard their characters and have them picked off one by one, as
this is what works within the narrative of the film. Comparatively
, our narrative adhered to some aspect of the drama genre in that
the growing emotions of the characters were shown. When asked to
develop on how they thought this was shown our viewers claimed this
was most acutely felt through the use of narrative and voice. Our
data shows that 13 people chose more than a single age group for
this question, indicating that the use of variety within genre and
the modern aspects that appeal to the most young movie-goers led to
a wider potential demographic, as something new is being introduced
to an already popular genre.
96% of viewers said our choice of locations and setting was
effective. We predominantly used rural settings and open spaces to
encapsulate the vulnerability and isolation of the characters.
Moving from the busy streets of London and urban settings such as
the train station, to the open spaces on Farthing Downs
complemented our climactic build up and conveyed a sense of
movement in the narrative, as well as using typical tropes from the
horror apocalypse sub-genre. The rural areas in films such as 28
Weeks Later create the solitude necessary to communicate the
desperation of the characters through setting in juxtaposition to
the movement and rapid editing the trailer began with..
Clarity of narrative was a crucial aspect we kept in mind while
constructing our trailer, due to the amount of footage recorded we
wanted to convey the initial outline of the plot without meaning
being lost or the apocalypse sub-genre not being conveyed as we had
to create a separate narrative communicating how the films world
was different to our own. 87.76% said that through the trailer
narrative was made clear. We used the three act structure as a base
for our trailer, this allowed us to adhere to the typical trailer
and convey the basis of our plot without giving away the whole
story. Viewers noted that the trailers exposition and use of news
clips effectively conveyed the narrative and apocalypse sub-genre
by building up the fictious world our film is set in.In the end we
edited a lot of footage from our first act making it concise and
therefore clearer to the majority of our audience, as only 12.24%
felt we were unsuccessful in providing clarity of the films
plot.
96% of people agreed that our music was effective and
complemented our trailers growing tension and climactic build up.
We used four separate tracks to construct the trailers escalation
to montage, this worked with the narratives multiple crescendos
that are common in the horror genre, leading up to the fast track
final act wherein the soundtrack comes to a climax. We used
cinematic trailer sounds to accompany the trailers music and shots,
such as the drumming in time with the films institutional
information. This helped draw the visual and auditory aspects of of
our trailer together into one cohesive project. We succeeded in
this endeavour as evidenced by the large percentage of people who
agreed that our music was effectively used in the creation of our
product.
We decided that one of products unique selling points was the
use of modern conventions in the horror genre. 59.18% people agreed
this was evident in our trailer. We used a wide spaced white font
over footage to create a contemporary looking style as well as an
often bright vibrant shot choice and binary colours, such as the
bright sky in juxtaposition to the darker foreground. This
complemented our apocalypse sub-genre as the narrative presumably
takes place in the future therefore the use of modern conventions
helps construct this genre and construct a varied take on an
already popular genre. 34.69% of viewers believed that there was
evidence of conventions from both classic and modern horror films
as we used typical conventions of horror in our product also so the
viewer could recognize the genre and identify with the characters.
For example the typical dim lighting, enclosed setting of the
garage and close up of the rattling door knob are all to an extent
stereotypes of the horror genre. However only 6.12% of our audience
thought that our film utilized conventions only from classic horror
and its stereotypes. The balance between the repetition and
variation of genre allowed us to create something new in our
product, as a clean contemporary style helped construct genre and a
USP for our film.
Our inspiration for our title came from our apocalypse themed
mood board and the aftermath of an end of the world scenario. This
would help establish genre from the title alone and create a sense
of hopelessness as the film is set after an apocalyptic event. 94%
of people agreed that this title was relevant to our trailer and
conformed to what they expected from genre and narrative. This may
have contributed to 62% of viewers who agreed our film belonged to
the horror genre and the 100% that said our film was very or
somewhat relevant to the apocalypse sub-genre.
96% of people said that the trailer, poster and magazine cover
complement one another. From this its evident we were successful in
creating a cohesive branding image for our film which conveys the
apocalypse sub-genre. Across the main and ancillary tasks we used
monochrome colours and minimalist typography to conform to our
contemporary style of horror, subverting the often overt use of
conventions and horror iconography. Similarly the poster and
trailer utilize the naturalistic setting and typical conventions of
genre, such as the colour red and darkened shadows to evoke
feelings of foreboding and terror, making the genre immediately
recognizable to the audience.