Evaluation part 4 what you have learnt from your audience feedback.

WHAT HAVE YOUR LEARNT FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

Part 4

When we showed our trailer for its focus group screening we had both positive and negative feedback within our trailer. We expected this kind of feedback as the focus group helps us to refine our ideas. The positive comments that we agreed with most strongly

were: “I loved the fact you told a story and as an audience we could understand and follow it”. We agreed with this because the narrative within the trailer was a very important element, and we had tried to carefully create and iconic yet enigmatic villain (“The Hanged Woman”).

Another piece of affirming feedback was “Really liked soundtrack”. I agreed with this because I feel that the music that we chose for our trailer is a really unique selling point as the song is a slight “earworm”, meaning that people would keep remembering the trailer, it also helps to solidify the

narrative in the eyes of the audience. “Good set and costume” was another encouraging piece of feedback, because we put a lot of time and effort into developing through our planning stages and really thought about whilst making our trailer.

The negative responses that we got were often just as useful as the positive ones. They showed us flaws within our trailer that we had not noticed but that

we were then able to change. “More stuff needs to happen later in the trailer”. This was a valid point because our rough cut had no real pace and the whole thing was rather samey. In response to this, we added the final quick montage of shots to create drama.

Another comment was that an audience member

wanted to “See Nicole at the end so we kind of know what’s happened”. We had originally thought that the enigma would drive the narrative but we later decided that because she was such a key character she should star more within the trailer to build the relationship with the audience.

The final key piece of criticism was that our rough cut

“Needs a visual jump scare”. This was a very valid point because we only had an audio scare at the end with the scream, something visual would have made this more memorable and in keeping with generic conventions. To tackle this issue we added the final montage, and also the final moment of the killer’s face in the hope it’ll remain in the audience’s mind and lead to good word of mouth.

Overall our focus group trailer viewing went well. We

got an average score of 8 out of 10 which I feel for a first screening focus group

was quite good. It was valuable in that it made clear what aspects of our rough cut needed to be improved, and I have no doubt it led to an improved final trailer.

After the focus group we decided to make some last minute changes to our trailer following the constructive

criticisms we got for our trailer. We re-shot a lot of footage plus shooting some new footage that fit the narrative. This new footage contained

scenes such as Nicole falling into the lake and

stumbling whilst covered in blood. This we felt would make the trailer more exciting with a more diverse set of shots.

We also went back onto Premiere Pro and shortened lots of

the shots to bring the pace of the trailer quicker when it nears the end. We also added a jump scare to the end of the trailer as one of the most dominant criticisms was that there was no visual jump scare. The re-shoots and the re-

editing of our trailer helped it dramatically I feel that it

has make it a more dynamic and interesting trailer that will now appeal to a wider audience.

Please see the rough cut and the final cut for comparison.

Rough Final

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR_yJ2BRR_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pveiq-aW

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To end the audience feedback stage, we finally did an

evaluation screening to re-show our peers our trailer with all of the adaptations that we had made after the focus group screening. We were very happy with the comments

from the screenings, and averaged over 8/10, confirming that our trailer was both improved and successful in appealing to our target audience.

To watch evaluation screening please follow link belowhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_LJTTK3wKs

After the evaluation screening we got responses such as:

“It looks really professional, good storyline contextually” and “Good cinematography and editing techniques”. Our target audience is a mainstream fan base who particularly likes psychological horror as their preferred sub-genre. Our class of approximately 50/50 male and female students aged 18-19 perfectly fit this demographic.

I now feel the final trailer for The Hanging Tree will

appeal to this target audience because it is

more suspenseful than gory. The narrative that drives the trailer rather than any horrific body horror effects, we have also put a great enthusiasm into the

design and the stylisation of the film which will attract a more mainstream audience as this is what they would expect from a large blockbuster style film.

My personal favourite aspect of

this trailer is the fast montage at the end of The Hanging Tree because I feel that this

technique raises the heart rate of the viewer and puts them in a state of

disorientated panic because of the fast changing images.

This fast montage contains shots which have

body horror, expressionist angles,

with a mixture of long shots and close ups,

low key and high key lighting, this creates a type of

collision cutting between shots. This technique has also been used in trailers for Saw 2 and 30 Days of Night where the pacing increases as the trailer

goes on finishing with a fast montage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxC0Um9zSqY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43vIxz2SRVo