2. Introduction
I asked for feedback during the research, planning, production and
post-production stages. It was important to find out what the audience
liked and disliked during the making of my product so I could adjust my
products accordingly, and post-production so that I can see what I
should have done better.
4. General Data
I learnt a lot from my research review feedback. I sent out a
questionnaire to 10 people and got 10 answers back. I questioned 6
girls and 4 boys aged between 17 and 18. These were important as I
felt that I had to know these information about the participants I was
researching, as there could be a correlation between their age and
gender with other responses.
5. Film Genre
I asked what their favourite genre of film was. 3 had horror, 3 said
fantasy, 2 said romance, 1 said action and 1 was science fiction. I asked
why and for fantasy the answer was "I like films set in different worlds"
twice, and "fantasy is just my favourite genre". For horror the answers
were "I liked being freaked out," "I like being spooked," and "it scares
me." For romance, the response was "I enjoy watching cute romance
films," and "I like watching relationships develop". For action it was "I
enjoy watching fighting" and for science fiction it was "I like stories set
in space."
6. Watching Films
I then asked how often they watched films and answers varied from
about once a week to twice a month. I asked how often they watched
horror films specifically and the responses were "once a week" to "it
depends".
7. Watching Horror Films
I asked how often they watched horror films. I learnt that most people
watched once every five years (2/20). The others answered varied. This
could be because people do not always have a particular time to watch
horror films so I could have worded the question better.
8. Film trailers
I then asked what was the thing that made them most want to see the
film based on the trailer, in general. The answer could be any response
but I felt like I should have done multiple choice. The answers were
"actors/acting" 6 times, "plot," three times, and "editing" once. This
gave me an idea of what was important to the audience for a general
film trailer. I could not do anything about famous actors as I could not
hire famous actors for my film trailer, however I would try and have
good acting and focus on the other important aspects such as the plot
and editing.
9. Where they saw film trailers
I asked where they saw trailers the most and 60% (6/10) said on video
sharing sites such as YouTube, 20% (2) said on social media such as
Facebook or Twitter and another 20% (2) said at the cinema. I have
learnt that uploading the trailer to Youtube is the most important, and
social media such as Facebook or Twitter also helps. I will be able to do
these thing unlike showing it at the cinema before a trailer.
10. Horror Film trailers
I then asked what the thing was made the participant most want to see
a horror film based on its trailer. Mostly the answers were the
directors, the actors and the fear factor including if it has a good villain.
I have learnt that most people want a good director for the horror film
trailer. However I will not be able to use a famous director. I will
therefore have to focus on the plot such as whether the movie is scary
enough or not and if the villain is any good. These are the main
purpose of my horror movie trailer anyway.
11. Sub-genre
I asked what their scariest sub-genre of horror was. 7/10 said
"supernatural" and 3/10 said "slasher." I learnt that supernatural was
the most scariest. I asked why. For supernatural, it was mostly the fear
of the supernatural. For slasher, it was because the genre was too
realistic. I have learnt from this that it is important to include or put
emphasis on supernatural elements in supernatural horror as that is
what makes it the most scary.
12. Villain
I then asked what the scariest type of villain was. 6 said supernatural
villains and 3 said human villains. By mistake I only got nine answers
from this question. I asked the participant after and they replied
"supernatural villains". This correlates which what their scariest sub-
genre was because the same people who said "supernatural" thought
supernatural villains were scarier and those who said "slasher" was
scarier thought human villain were scarier. I asked why and answers
were again similar to the response for the sub-genre. For supernatural
villains included answers like "they are unstoppable" and for human
villains it was like "it could actually happen".
13. Supernatural villain
I asked what their favourite supernatural villain was, 5/10 said "doll",
3/10 said "ghost" 1/10 said "clown" and 1/10 said "demon". I learnt
from this that these people found doll the scariest and so I decided to
make the doll the villain of my trailer based of this important
information.
14. Supernatural elements
I then asked what elements should a supernatural horror film have and
the answers were mostly supernatural creatures such as ghosts and
supernatural occurrences such as hauntings. The main villain for my
horror film will be a doll who will also count as a supernatural creature,
and the doll will be creating supernatural occurrences such as
hauntings.
15. Production Companies
I then asked if they could name any film production companies. 5 said
no, 2 said Disney, 1 said Marvel, 1 said Warners Bros, Paramout
Pictures, LucasFilms, and another said Warners Bros, Paramount
Pictures, Sony Pictures, Hammer Film Productions. This shows that film
production companies are not always the most memorable or people
are not sure what the are.
16. Posters
I asked where they saw posters the most 7/10 said "on buses", 2/10
said "at the cinema," 1/10 said "at the bus stop". I asked if they went to
see the film based on the poster alone. 5/10 said "maybe," 3/10 said
"no", 1/10 said "yes," and 1/10 said "not on it's own." I asked why, and
the answers were along the lines of "I need more information" "they
aren't detailed enough" and "I don't look at posters carefully. One
answer was "If I had already heard a lot about the movie and the
poster reminded me to go." Overall, I have learnt that the posters are
not the most important product in getting someone to see the movie
of a film.
17. General Posters
I then asked what stood out most about posters. 6 said the actors, 1
said it was the director, 1 said the name, 1 said what gender the target
audience is, and 1 said the plot. I will see how this information is similar
to what stands out about horror posters specifically. I cannot get
famous actors in for my movie or famous directors. I will try and make
the name stand out and make the gender for the target audience clear.
I will also try to convey the plot on my poster.
18. Horror posters
I then asked what stood out most about horror posters. 4 said the
directors, 3 said the villain, 2 said the plot, and 1 said the sub-genre. I
learnt from this that directors was the most important thing about a
poster, however as I am directing my own film I cannot use a famous
director's name to pull the audience in. So I must focus on the next
most attractive thing about posters which was the villain. I put the
villain of the movie on my poster based of this information. I would
also try and convey the plot of the movie (the doll is the antagonist and
the protagonists are running away from it). I will then convey the sub-
genre by trying to emphasis that it is a supernatural sub-genre (the
presence of the creepy haunted doll should do that).
19. General Magazines
I asked if they read film magazines. 7 was "no" 1 said "maybe" and 2
said "yes." I asked why and the answers included responses such as "I
am not that interested in them" for no, "If I saw a good one I would
read it," for maybe. I asked if they could name any film magazines.
Answers included "Empire" 3 times, "Empire, Entertain and British Film
Magazine," "Entertainment Weekly and Empire," and "no" 5 times.
20. Horror Magazines
I asked if they read any horror magazines, 8 said "no" and said
"maybe". I asked why and the answers were similar to the general
magazines. I asked what in particular would make them want to buy
horror magazines. The most common answer (4) was along the lines of
"if it mentioned a film I liked" which was not possible for me as I did
not want to use any real examples of films. However I did use "our top
10 horror films" which could draw them in. Anther answer include "if it
looked scary enough" which is the aim of the magazine. Other people
said I don't know/nothing/not relevant to horror magazines.
21. Horror Magazines
I asked them to name any horror magazines and the answers were
"Fangoria", "Fangoria, SFX, Cinefantastique and HorrorHound". 8 were
"no". This show that not many people know the names of many horror
magazines and the ones who do are fans of horror magazines. I learnt
to make my title stand out so that it is familiar even with fans of non-
horror magazines.
22. Overview
For my audience feedback I feel like I could have asked more than 10
people. 10 people seemed like a lot but it is probably not a lot to
generalise their answers. I asked as many people as I could at the time,
however.
I probably should have asked a wider range of ages to get a different
perspective than the target audience. However these were the most
accessible to me. I could have asked more males however they were
not as easily accessible to me to ask as females.
24. Trailer
I asked what could be improved for my trailer. I got told that to improve
my trailer should have more camera angles. I added a low angle shot as
those are common in horror trailers. There was also a suggestion of
adding another character, who is a victim of the story. I also added a
scene of the character running through the woods.
25. Posters – Rough Draft
I asked the same 10 people as I asked the first questionnaire on my
research for this next questionnaire. I asked them to choose between
two of my plans of what they thought which was better, and why.
These were only rough drafts but I still wanted to have an idea of what
the viewers wanted.
27. I have learnt from this that
most people preferred ‘A’. The
reasoning behind this was
mostly along the lines was ‘it is
more detailed’ and ‘it is more
busy’. However two people
went for B because ‘it looks
simpler yet effective’ and ‘it
looks less crowded.’ The fact
that I put descriptions of the
images in more detail in plan A
instead of B could have
contributed to this as well.
29. Magazine
Most people (7/10) said they preferred option A. Their reasoning were
mostly because they liked the way it looked, they liked the shapes, it
looked nicer, and they liked the doll. It also had more text and more
information. I went with this plan for my product.
31. Trailer
At stages throughout making my trailer I asked from response from
participant by means of a questionnaire. I asked for things to improve.
One participant said that I should “put the text closer together”. I learnt
that this would look more effective and they would be able to read well
together. Another participant said I should “adjust the lighting and
make it better”. I was also told to “put the green screen card at the
beginning so that it looks professional”. I agreed with all of these
comments and did as they were suggesting. From these comments I
learnt to adjust the lighting as lighting is very important particularly in a
horror movie trailer, and to make sure the lighting from scenes went
well together. I moved the text together so the viewers would be sure
that they were linked.
32. Magazine
At stages through making my magazine I learnt that the doll did not
look clear enough as I was told to make the image of the doll in the
middle look clearer. I acted on this by going around the doll with the
eraser tool getting rid of any image left over from the original image,
making sure that it was cut out properly. I was also told to add images
at the bottom as I had not done so at that particular stage yet. This is
what I learnt from participants of what could have been improved by
my magazine. I was also told to move the barcode down as that is
where it is normally placed on the magazine and I did so. I also learnt
that I had forgotten to add the issue number and data and so corrected
this issue.
33. Poster
I was told to make the doll image on my poster look different to the
one on the magazine. I learnt that they were too similar and so I
changed it. I still wanted to keep the image of my doll so I added a
shadow around the background to make it stand out and look realistic.
I did the same with the other two images of my characters so they
would look more realistic as well. I was also told to add a strapline as I
had forgotten to add the strapline at that stage and the ‘coming soon’
as I had forgotten that as well. This information was important because
my product would not look finished without them.
35. Post production feedback
I learnt that the most successful things about
my trailer were the plot, transition effects,
genre, the villain, the music, the voiceovers and
the text.
36. Post production feedback
However I also learn that there could
have been more music, there could
have been better lighting, more
characters and more angles.
