Total Film magazine cover



Sight and Sound magazine cover

Empire magazine cover

Original photos for both products

These are the original shots before manipulation of Dale. I wanted it to be a close up of his eye because I felt that this fit the storyline and mise on scene of the film nicely and would look great on the poster and magazine covers.

Photographed and sketched image of draft of poster

This is my horror advertising poster which I created myself. This draft was useful to show what I wanted from my layout and how I wanted it to look. It is shaded in but this was to show my ideas of having the background black and dark, which I finally made happen. I enjoyed drafting this up as it showed that I had a fixed set of ideas on how I wanted it to look and also showed that my final product was coming together.

In regards to my magazine draft, I didn't feel the need to do one as I was using the film review magazine 'Sight and Sound' as a layout and, predominantly, as a draft. I therefore just went straight into the final product production and the outcome was personally very pleasing as I had the ideas fresh in my memory thanks to the magazine layout I had printed.



Storyboards and Shotlist

These are my groups storyboards. We didn't completely stick to the format and these are very rough copies, but they did help in the process of producing our trailer. Our fundamental ideas were all used on the storyboards and were carried through to the final product. The storyboards were helpful as they reminded us of all the ideas we had previously came up with which eventually left us with a successful product.

Our shot list also is a very rough draft of what we planned to do in the opening scene but as you can see, many ideas such as the puddle, and using the natural settings of a wood have been carried over to the final production thanks to the use of the shot list.







What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

I asked many members of my family and friends to contribute to my audience feedback and I felt that this helped give a honest and appropriate feedback that would help improve out trailer, although the response was mixed. Our class also gave a wide variety of information back to our group after consuming our trailer which was also mixed in views and opinions. This, however, still helped us to shape our final product into a more realistic and convincing teaser trailer. It was through use of a screening of all the classes final products that we were able to take note of the feedback and initial reactions from the rest of the class and apply it to our trailer later on. This is how we gathered the feedback and where we got an idea of what was working and what was not. We felt our target audience was contained within our class, as our movie was aimed at both sexes aged 18 - 28, (hence the use of the student and the particular 'teen slasher' foundational concept which is popular and relatable amoung this age group). Feedback is obviously extremely important in any branch of the production of a film. It is even more so important to the distributor as it helps them decide what to remove or include in order to make the trailer reach its full potential and advertise the movie as best as possible.


Editing

• Mostly all of our audience feedback stated that the length of our trailer was a good length and although it is conventionally a bit longer than normal horror teaser trailers, it wasn't noticably longer and the length overall worked well. Conventionally teaser trailers are short in order to keep the audience guessing and not giving away too much, and also to make the film look expressively shot in a different way to other films due to its quick changing angles and shots and use of characters in distress etc.
• The feedback from the audience also stated that the gore was too revealing to the plot line and some even went as far to say that it was inapropriate. We shortened the clip showing the gore in order to reduce the amount of information we were giving away in the teaser trailer and to reduce the gore.
• Many said they liked the spooky house setting, saying that it was a good use of horror convention and that it added to the build up of tension during the teaser trailer; especially the use of darkness in the different settings.
• Some said they did not like the effect which was put on the inter-titles as a white shaking blur around the writing. They said that although it added the theme of disorientation it was a bit too severe of an effect and so we turned down the movement slightly. 
• Most of the audience agreed that the editing during the chase scene should be a lot faster to create the appropriate tension. All of our group agreed with this.
• The swinging light scene was said by the audience to be too long and slow, although the conventions behind the shot were good indicators of a torture scene from the point of view of the antagonist.  

Sound/Soundtrack

• Our audience suggested that we removed the scream during the short gore scene as it was "unrealistic" and "over dramatic". I agreed with this point however, some of our group members did not agree and so it was left in.
• There was also dispute about the heartbeats added in onto the end of the trailer as many said it went on for too long and became over-powering. Many others, however, disagreed and said it added suspense to the trailer. We felt that the heartbeat was a good use of sound to add to the mise en scene, although it was rather loud, so we brought down how amplified the heartbeat was and stopped it more abruptly, which was what a lot of feedback had suggested us to do.
• We recieved positive feedback from the voice-over of the antagonist. Many said this was a good plot indicator without giving away too much, and it showed the relationship between the main antagonist and protagonist clearly as a destructive one, which is typical of horror genres.
• They also commented positively on the protagonist's voice over, which was a whisper saying "please, please, please don't hurt me." They said this sounded chilling and added fear and danger to the unknown plotline.
• Many observed the heavy breathing at the beginning of the trailer and stated that they thought it was a good use of horror conventions, as it created fear and making people relate to the anxiety building up, without typically over using it and making it too long. They said this was a good tool to build up suspense in the viewer and it was eeiry.

Mise en scene

• The audience said that they liked the running scene at the very beginning with just the shot of the legs running through the puddle. They stated that it was a clever use of a point of view shot and it worked in creating suspense as a horror trailer should.
• The audience also said that they liked the use of the handheld cam shots, as this created a sense of confusion and disorientation which are good examples of the use of horror conventions in regards to shooting to make one feel in the uncomofortable position of the protagonist.  
• They said that the age of the antagonist and protagonist worked really well in regards to horror conventions and that the use of a teenager as an antagonist showed the vulnerability of her character.
• The audience all agreed that the use of the close ups of the antagonists scared facial expressions, and using her to whisper 'please, please, please don't hurt me' were very good uses of horror conventions, as it gave the theme of horror an actual meaning in regards to clearly displaying themes such as emotional distress, violence and danger.
• The use of the torch was also given praise as a good use of horror convention to portray fear and suspense, as it was a very dark setting, and conventionally torches are used to find people out in a dark setting; something that the audience are anticipating whilst watching.  
• Our audience feedback also stated that they liked the canted angles used as it makes them feel a sense of instability and mental distress. They agreed that the canted angle was a powerful tool often used in horror along with other different obscure shot angles.
• Another shot they positively commented on was the low angle, tilted upwards shot of the stairs contained within the spooky house setting. They all agreed that it gave the trailer a sense of realism and made the viewer feel contained within the trailer making it easily associable with themselves.
• They also positively commented on the close up shots of the main protagonist, stating that it gave his character a status of danger and fear without actually processing this information verbally or in writing in the trailer. The dark background and the shadows used around and within his face made the viewer aware that his character is to be feared and they all agreed that this is what that particular shot conveyed.
• One criticism however, was that the office scene was too brightly lit and lacked in realism. They agreed that the over exagerated acting in this scene came across as comic more so than serious and that it perhaps removed some of the suspense already built up previously in the trailer. As a group, we felt the scene was important in establishing the teacher/student relationship and conveying their close relationship before the violence and danger, and because of this we left the scene in. We could not change the way it had been shot or the acting contained within it, but we did however darken the background and shorten the facial close-up shots. We felt that, although still percieved as comic, it was less so than before and not so obvious, and we felt this was the best we could do with the footage we had.

Over all the feedback was very important in fixing the things which perhaps we had missed or incorrectly added. It also gave us a sense of where our trailer was in terms of sub-genre and also if we had executed the final product correctly in terms of using conventional expectations of a horror trailer, as it is the conventions which give horror its sense of fright and anxiety, which fans love. A few things which the viewers disagreed with were only ever so slightly manipulated further however, as some members of the group particularly wanted it contained within the trailer or they felt it was more important than some viewers made out. The group, as a collective, had the final say in the final product, but it was greatly influenced in our audience feedback and it was extremely useful to listen to and watch take place.