This document provides an evaluation of Georgina Whiteley's production process for a horror trailer project. Strengths included adjusting plans when the project changed from a short film to a trailer due to COVID-19, fully planning the trailer with a storyboard, and contingency planning that proved useful. Weaknesses included a lack of detailed planning for the trailer and posters, minimal contingency planning for health and safety, and poor time management that led to procrastination and last-minute work. The trailer was compared favorably to horror franchises like Saw for its use of tension-building techniques, though it had lower video quality. The intro sequence and flashback scenes were strengths, while some shots were too dark. The character poster was praised as

1. Evaluation
Georgina Whiteley

2. Production Process Evaluation

3. Research
Strengths:
• I covered different horror filmography that includes other genres. For example, Shane
Dawson’s documentary was very funny, wheras grave encounters is pure horror, in a reality
show like style. This meant I had a wide variety of research to go off while it still being
relevent, and could use this information to inspire different genres I wanted to include in my
short film. In the end I chose a mix of sad and horror, as I believe that works best with the
overall tone I’m going for and the theme of ‘seperation’.
• I went into detail for each product and discussed the key themes at length, using imagery to
back up my points and show off examples that I spoke about, like fonts. I also assessed the
audience impact for each research project, meaning I was able to decipher which style and
product would work best in terms of audience enjoyment.
• I explored products with a colour scheme similar to my intial deas moodboard which helped
me expand on the overall colouration of the trailer, while also mixing other potential colours.
This was shown by the contrast from the bright lighting in the Shane Dawson video compared
to ‘Outlast’ and ‘Saw’, which both have very dark and industrial style colours.
• Looking further into colours, I was able to come to the conslusion that I wanted to use blue
overall for my project, as the green felt too industrial with no natural light. As my location is a
house with windows, the blue mixed with the blakc would make a more realistic though still
creepy vibe. In terms of lighting, ‘Grave Encounters’ used torches to shift focus, which I will
be using in my trailer.

4. Research
Weaknesses:
• The survey research was not enough, and lacked in a variety of responses. A lot of the
responses I got from it were unusable, due to them being used merely as a joke, or my
recipients not knowing enough about horror films. For future reference, I would only send to
people I know have an interest in horror/film, and would clarify that it needs to be taken
seriously to avoid ‘joke answers’.
• Furthermore, the responses I could use got very repetitive, meaning I didn’t ask a wide
enough demographic as I only asked peers to complete my survey. This meant there wasn’t
enough to talk about, and I could only do 3 before I found myself just repeating points, which
wasn’t useful. This did show me that the answers I had received were quite popular opinions,
but it meant I didn’t have a wide variety to discuss in more detail. I also could of asked better
questions, which could have led to more various answers.
• In terms of researching existing products, though I went into detail I feel as though I did not
do enough. I could of looked at different styles of media, such as posters and trailers, not just
full products, as this would of helped me further imrpove my poster designs and potentially
given me more ideas than just two posters.
• In addition, I should of looked at sound design more, as I only referenced it a few times and
sound is a key part in horror. It helps build suspense, and if done correctly can make a not so
scary film terrifying. Hence, it should have been more of a priority and could mean my end
product isn’t as scary in terms of sound as I would of liked.

5. Planning
Strengths:
• I feel like I adjusted my plans last minute as well as I could, due to coronavirus restricting my
previous initially stated idea for a short film. I kept the initial main concept of my film idea,
but changed it to also include the theme of seperation, which was very topical due to current
affairs. Though it wasn’t what I originally wanted, I felt like it was a good substitute. I also
changed the media form from short film to trailer, as I felt that would be easier to coordinate
filming seperately, and telling a full story would make things too complicated and wouldn’t be
possible due to lockdown restrictions.
• I fully planned my trailer using a storyboard, which gave me guidelines to go off though I
didn’t stick to it exactly. This meant that when it came to filming, I at least had an idea in my
head of what kind of shots I wanted, even if it wasn’t true to exactly what I’d planned. This
also helped me picture my characters and different scenes more clearly, so I knew what
angles I wanted and how I was going to get them.
• The contingency planning came in very helpful as a lot of things didn’t go to plan. In the end I
couldn’t get clips from my peers to use, as they were too busy and we ran out of time. This
meant I did have to rely on my contingency planning in the end and imrpovise. For example, I
used old videos I had with them instead, which ended up working really well in the trailer.
• I also planned one of my posters. Though I didn’t fully stick to this plan, I stayed with the
main idea of two people seperated, but together in a sense. Instead of two hands on a wall, it
was two people looking down.

6. Planning
Weaknesses:
• I feel like in terms of planning my actual trailer, I should have explored more options instead
of only doing one storyboard. I ended up going off it quite a lot, to the point where even
though it did give me a guideline and help in that sense, the actual story aspect of it was
pointless. Furthermore, I didn’t plan what type of shots I’d want apart from in those sketches,
which meant when it came to filming and I couldn’t get the original shots I wanted, I had
nothing to go off of in terms of angles and had to improvise.
• I only planned one of my posters in terms of layout, and even then I didn’t really go into
enough detail. I sketched up a simple concept, which I changed in the end anyway. Plus, I
didn’t really go into colour or font planning for either poster, I simply stated a colour I was
going to use without giving myself much options or providing much variety in terms of
options, unlike the detail of planning for the actual trailer.
• In terms of contingency planning and health and safety, again I didn’t cover a lot and should
have gone into more detail. This could have been potentially dangerous in terms of health
and safety, as I didn’t cover enough. Furthermore, the solutions I gave in terms of
contingency weren’t really that helpful enough. They did provide some okay solutions, but I
still had to improvise while filming instead of looking back at my plans.
• Overall, I definitely should of included more detail in all aspects of my planning, and this
could have impacted my trailer and posters in the fact I had to improvise a lot, so it come
across as rushed and not as good as it could have been.

7. Time Management
Strengths:
• Initially, I had quite good time management as I completed the initial plans powerpoint with a
lot of detail and time to spare, but as lockdown continued and I experienced some personal
issues, my motivation decreased a lot. However, I did still get it done as I got my act together
in the end and did the work.
• In the end I put together a good work schedule to work in, which though required a lot of
work, it meant I got the work done. I arranged it so I did everything I could, when I could. For
example, I couldn’t film until night, which means I could do any post production work until
the day after. Therefore, I did everything I could in terms of production log for found footage
and poster work the day before, and the evluations for research and planning.

8. Time Management
Weaknesses:
• My time management wasn’t very good overall. I put off quite a lot and due to being at home
rather than at college, I was never really in the right mindset to work. Overall I had very little
to no motivation, due to cirumstances and other life affairs, which meant my FMP was put on
the backbone for a lot of the time I should have been working.
• I procrastinated a lot, and only did work when I felt I really had to because I was running out
of time. This meant a lot of my work ended up feeling rushed and not finished, as I didn’t put
a lot of time into it. My mindset was ‘get it done’, not ‘do it to a good standard’. I feel as
though a lot of this was due to my own mental health, and the fact the environment had
changed so drastically. I was not in the right environment to work and hence couldn’t bring
myself to do it have the time, so everything was really last minute.
• When I did do work, it wasn’t in little pieces with plenty of breaks, it was hours at a time. This
isn’t healthy, but I did it as I felt like if I stopped, I wouldn’t of gone back to it. In a future
project I would balance my work more, making time to let myself rest during periodic breaks,
and stick to a good time table like the one when I’m in college.
• My production time was not used well at all. I spent most of it planning, saying ‘I’ll do it next
week’, and then never actually filming until the last minute, forcing myself to film and edit in
the same day. Furthermore, my actors sent the clips I needed last minute too, due to their
own busy schedules. In hindsight, I should maybe of asked people who weren’t also working
on their own projects, and should of just bitten the bullet and filmed, not procrastinated.

9. Technical Qualities
Poster Comparison:
• The colours used are quite similar, especially the
lighter colours. Both mine and the poster for ‘The
Conjuring 2’ have mixed black and white, however
‘The Conjuring 2’ has used a more vibrant contrast,
using a bright blue against the black and white. My
poster seems a lot more sublte in comparison and
doesn’t really stand out as much, which is
something I would change if I were to redo it.
• ‘The Conjuring 2’ does not have a tagline, wheras
mine does. This allows me to incorporate more
colours into my poster. My main theme of colours
are red, white/grey and black, wheras the other
poster used blue, white and black.
• The main subjects of both the posters themselves
are very different. ‘The Conjuring 2’ portrays
someone standing very close to the camera, with
the silhoette of a person in front of them. Neither
of the people can be seen clearly, which contrasts
my poster where the two main characterts can be
identified, and both share the same angle. This
inspires to me to use angles and different
perspectives in future poster designs.

10. Technical Qualities
Trailer Comparison:
• Despite being an old franchise, the film quality for
‘Saw’ is still very good, wheras my product has
quite a low video quality due to the noise and lack
of professional cameras used. However, as my
trailer is found footage, it can be excused,
especially when using a video camera overlay.
• In terms of colour, the Saw franchise is quite
grunge, using orange and blue to create an almost
industrial vibe to it, wheras mine uses a more
subtle blue/grey mixed with green which hints at a
more lonely, paranormal kind of atmosphere.
• One similarity between my trailer and the saw
franchise is the use of ‘glitchy’ quick paced
sequenses to build up tension and suspense. In my
trailer, this technique is used during the dequence
where she is writing, and in Saw, it is used during
the traps to create a sense of time running out.
• Both pieces of media use fonts that have an eerie
vibe, but they are quite contrasting in other ways.
For example, my font is a plain white in all lower
cases, with a typewriter style font. Saw differs in
the fact it’s bold, in all caps and again fits the
grungy vibe of the films in terms of colour.

11. Aesthetic Qualities
Strengths:
• I really like the intro sequence of my trailer, I feel the lighting in the first clip
really sets the tone for the rest of the trailer, as well as looks good itself. The
torch on my phone worked well to make my charatcer the focus of the clip,
and also made my eyes glow. At first, I thought that could be an issue, but
upon watching the clip I felt it was actually the opposite, and helped portray
the horror even more as it generated a really unsettling image. Furthermore,
the film damage overlay really sells the idea of it being found footage, and
overall works well with the clip, even with the noise.
• I was also proud of the way the flashback sequences turned out. They really
do look like home videos, and the desaturated tones alongside the date a film
damage alludes to the fact that it’s in the past and still keeps with the creepy
vibe, while also adding a contrast to the darker, scarier scenes.
• The blue colour correction done in post production works really well with
some shots, especially with the ‘vlog’ style shots. It overall looks good and is
quite pleasing to the eye, as well as making the footage creepier and really
gives the feel that the character is in danger. Blue often provides connotations
of feeling cold and alone, which is accurate to how to character is meant to be
feeling in these shots. Hence, it also helps with the side genre of sadness.
• My favourite sequence throughout the trailer would be the glitchy writing
scene. I think using film damaged text as transitions while jumpcutting
through the footage worked really well and looked good as well as being
creative, while also building up tension and suspense.

12. Aesthetic Qualities
Weaknesses:
• The main weakness with my trailer is some of the shots came out too dark, to
the point where you can’t even see what’s meant to be scary. Here, I had to
brighten them in PowerPoint because otherwise it would of just been a black
screen. These shots could have potentially worked well, especially the one
with the ‘demon’, but it’s just too dark to see anything.
• The occurs again during the credits sequence. The clip behind ‘Georgina
Whiteley’ is meant to be my character sat on the bed, but because it’s so dark,
the audience wouldn’t be able to see it so it just looks like a black screen.
• If I were to redo this project, I would definitely use more light when filming,
like use a brighter torch, or two instead of just one. This would help with
making sure my scenes can actually be watched, without having to damage
the quality by using brightness/contrast adjustments in post production.
• Furthermore, the darkness also created a lot of issues in terms of noise. This
was worked around by using film damage overlays to make it look intended,
but it would have been nice to have some high quality shots of ambient
settings, like the curtain moving, or when filming in third person. This would
have been difficult to acomplish however due to circumstances surrounding
COVID-19, as I couldn’t use quipment from college and had to use my phone
to film, which admittedly is not very high quality.
• Finally, some of the text clips do nothave any film damage overlays, meaning
it’s just plain white text, which looks quite boring and does not really fit the
desired ‘creepy’ atomosphere of the trailer.

13. Aesthetic Qualities
Strengths:
• My favourite poster out of the two is the one featuring the characters. I feel
like it’s quite creative, and used the seperation due to COVID-19 for to it’s
advantage. Furthermore, it’s quite eye catching in the fact there is a lot to look
at, put not too much so it’s overwhelming. I also love the colour combination
of black, grey/white and red, as I think they work well together.
• I love the tone of the poster at the top, especially the colours in the
background image. I also like the fact it has a video camera bordering, as this
links very well the the actual trailer and really sells the idea of found footage.
Furthmore, I like the fonts for both posters as they were drawn rather than
using a font, meaning they are completely unique and fit the overall vibe.
Weaknesses:
• Out of the two, my least favourite is the top poster. Though I do like the
colours and the video camera style, I think it’s overall quite basic in terms of
design and not very creative, unlike the other. It just feels a little rushed, and
doesn’t really catch your eye at all.
• Furthermore, I feel like the font is hard to read in the top poster and doesn’t
really stand out enough, especially the tagline, which means if it was being
used to advertise at a cinema, people would have to get close to actually see
what it’s advertising, which isn’t very ideal.
• Finally, though I do like the colour scheme of the two posters, I think the
colours could be a bit more vibrant and saturated, like the previously
mentioned ‘The Conjuring 2’ poster. The subtle colours make them look quite
bleak, which while that fits with the poster’s tone, it isn’t very eye catching.

14. Audience Appeal
Strengths:
• My audience said that they didn’t apprieciate false jumpscares. My trailer doesn’t include any except one,
which is more of a ‘half’ jumpscare as it isn’t in your face, it’s just a character appearing into the scene. This
means that in this aspect, my trailer does appeal to my audience.
• They also said they didn’t like uninteresting characters. I think I did a good job at setting up my lead character
to have a very interesting arc, especially in terms of how she thinks and responds to the situation she’s in. I also
set up a backstory for her in the fact she’s shown to be missing someone she cares about, which lets the
audience expand on the character and try and firgure her out, instead of her just being 2D and stereotypical.
• Going off of this, my trailer also appeals to my audience in the fact that they believe horror films should be left
ambiguous. The trailer asks a lot of questions, but answers none of them, meaning it provides a lot of mystery
for the viewer. Not only will this make them interested in trying to figute out the story and spark discussion, it
also means people are more likely to want to watch the actual film to try and get some answers.
• Another thing my audience seemed to really like was psychological horror over things such as violence and
jumpscares. Again, I believe my trailer supports this interest as it has no violence and no real jumpscares,
relying purely on the atmosphere and build up of tension to scare the viewers, alongside some scary imagery,
like the glwoing eyes, to provide a good balance between both physical and psychological horror.
• Finally, my audience seems to actually like certain clichés like ‘saved at the last minute’. In the trailer, it aludes
to one of the main characters wishing the other would come back, so that could mean that in the end he does
save her. Therefore, they might be inclined to watch the film in order to find out the ending.

15. Audience Appeal
Weaknesses:
• Though I tried to make my product appeal to what the majority wanted, there are some cases where my
product could have improved for a particular audience. Something a few people in my survey answered was
that they think cinematography is the most important part of a horror film. Though I tried to achieve good
cinematography in my trailer, it was difficult with limited equipment and bad video quality. Due to this, I more
prioritised the plot and psychological side of my trailer rather than what it looked like. Though I think afew
shots would appeal to the dueince, there are definitely some that need to be improved and if that’s the most
important aspect to a certain audience, they might not be that interested in my product.
• Another aspect of my trailer that some people may not enjoy is that it does partially play into the ‘final girls’
trope. Though some like this because they see it as funny, my trailer does not include humour so it could just
be seen as just another annoying trope to them. This might cause an issue and mean people don’t really have
an appeal to my trailer. However, I tried to make the trailer ambiguous so that people who don’t like these
tropes may not pick up on it, or be able to look past it.
• Going off of this, it seems quite a few people do prefer to have humour mixed with horror. Due to my trailer’s
dark, psychological horror esq theme and lonely/sad undertones, there isn’t any humour which means it may
not appeal to this certain audience.
• Furthermore, my trailer doesn’t really have a ‘villain’, it’s more focused on the theme of seperation. The villain
isn’t physical, it’s all psychological, meaning that people who enjoy kilelrs or paranormal villains in horror films
may not be too interested in my trailer. In addition, some people like villain monologuing which obviously
wouldn’t occur in a trailer without a villain, so my product may not apeal to them.

16. Peer
Feedback

17. Feedback 1
What did you like about the product?
• The overall tone is really creepy, it is very clearly in the horror genre
• I liked the scene with the writing, it was really good with building suspense
• The colours worked well, like the blue and green. Very typical of horror
• The pov shots made me feel kind of panicked, which I guess works well
with what you were going for
• The text almost telling a story was really cool
What improvements could have been made to the product?
• Some of the scenes were too dark, I couldn’t see much
• The noise was a bit much in some places
• The glitches were quite loud

18. Feedback 2
What did you like about the product?
• The cinematography was really good in some scenes, like the flashbacks
and the one where you were writing
• The film damage stuff worked well, it really set a horror atmosphere and it
was clear it was meant to be found footage
• I liked the flasbacks the most, they looked good with the film overlay and
they really contrasted the darker scenes
What improvements could have been made to the product?
• The text could have been a bit more interesting, like the font
• Some scenes were genuinely just black, I couldn’t see anything
• The overall film quality could be a lot better

19. Feedback 3
What did you like about the product?
• I liked the pauses with the audio, like how it stopped very quickly before
text came up or something
• I think you built up tension really well, especially with the sound
• The overlays made it seem more realistic, like actual found footage
• Some scenes actually scared me, like the intro scene with the eyes
What improvements could have been made to the product?
• It was way too dark in a lot of scenes, you should brighten it a bit
• The video quality wasn’t that great, but I guess it worked with the style
• The end credits seemed a bit fast to me, maybe slow it down a bit
• The glitch noises were too loud in places, they should be more equal

20. Peer Feedback Summary
What do you agree with from your peer feedback?
• I agree that I felt my trailer built up tension quite well, especially using pauses with the audio
to create tension.
• I also like the flasback scenes, I agree that they do provide a good contrast to the darker
scenes in the trailer, and I also like the way they look in general.
• I also agree with the feedback that a lot of the scenes were too dark. I would change this by
making some scenes brighter, in order for the audience to actually be able to see what’s
happening on screen.
• I also agree that the glitch noises were too loud and because they were so frequent, I think it
just made it worse. To improve, I would definitely lower the volume of them throughout.
What do you disagree with from your peer feedback?
• Though I do agree that the quality wasn’t great, I believe it does work well with the style of
my trailer and given the fact I didn’t have many other options that to use my phone camera
due to COVID-19, I think I did well with what I was given.
• I also disagree with the fact the text’s font could be more interesting. I chose it purposefully
because it had a typewriter style vibe, and I thought it fit well with the overall tone of my
trailer. I would maybe change the colours in some parts though, like using red, not white.