Karl Shepherd evaluated his production process for creating a horror film trailer and poster. For research, he analyzed existing horror products, conducted audience surveys, and practiced editing skills in Photoshop. His planning included storyboards, shot lists, flat plans, and schedules. For the poster, he focused on font size and color to draw attention. Feedback noted he could have asked more detailed questions and researched more examples. During production, filming was delayed due to scheduling but editing was completed on time. Overall, the research informed his technical skills but he could have benefited from more planning contingencies and practical experiments.

1. Evaluation
Karl Shepherd

2. Production Process Evaluation

3. Research (existing products)
I started off my research with existing products. I chose four different products to
analyse, two of which were posters and the other two were trailers which were the
two types of products I was creating for my project. For the trailers I took screenshots
of parts of the trailer that I felt were quite effective and created that spooky
atmosphere a horror trailer should have which inspired me as it showed me how a
creepy atmosphere can be created which was seen in my work as I incorporated a few
features from the IT trailer into my own trailer. The posters also helped me create my
own massively as when I looked online, most of the posters followed a certain theme
of having a darkish background with the main evil character in the centre staring right
at you to give you the creeps. This made getting the picture for the poster very simple
as all we had to do was put on the costume and take a picture of the villain stood still
at the filming location at dark. Researching the posters also helped as it showed me
what needs to be in the small text at the bottom so I could include it in mine. I feel like
I could have maybe got a few more examples of products to compare to, to see what
else makes these promotional products effective. I also wish I included my existing
products in my planning as I feel I forgot about some of the features which potentially
could have taken my project to the next level. Research was also conducted over a
lockdown period so we didn't have access to the classroom like we usually would have
done.

4. Research (existing products)
Here I have put together my poster and one of the posters I used for
my existing products. As you can see, they both have a similar them of
the main character front and center, on mine my character is set a
little further back to allow for a larger title and more readable block
credits. The main difference here is the text, I have gone for a much
larger text and a standout font and texture as I believe the title is
extremely important as that’s what you want people to know and
what you want people to be searching to boost sales and popularity of
the product, so I thought having a standout title was important. The
title in the existing product is still a standout title as its all in bold and
making it white makes is stand out against the dark background
behind it. One feature I have noticed in the existing product that I wish
I included in my poster is a catchphrase. I feel like catchphrases that
are questions are effective as it makes the audience think and keep
them interested, also by making the catchphrase a hashtag it also
helps promote it on social media as people will start using that
hashtag on apps such as Twitter and Instagram to answer the
question, further creating traction towards the film which was a
feature I should have used but forgot about when It came to
production.

5. Research (existing products)
Here I have put side by side a screenshot from my trailer (which is kind of hard to see) and a
screenshot from the IT trailer. As you can see, I took heavy inspiration from this scene as they
both have a similar presence. Both scenes show the villain distanced from the camera with
their bodies barely visible but they both have that one stand out feature about them which is
the light up mask on mine and the lit-up eyes in the IT trailer. They both create a creepy
atmosphere which is what they were both intended to do. The one thing I like about the IT
trailer that I didn't include myself is the fact that Pennywise is behind an obstruction and if he
didn’t have his light up eyes then you wouldn't be able to make him out whereas its more the
awkward camera angle on my trailer that makes the killer harder to see. The darkness
surrounding both characters also shows you the type of character they are.

6. Research (audience)
I then moved onto primary audience research which I feel was one of my weaker
points in my research. I created a form for my friends to complete and most of them
answered it properly. I know most of them enjoyed the horror genre so I knew they
would be a good group of people to answer it as well as a couple of them who weren't
huge fans of the genre to get their opinion as well. These results were good as it
showed me what kind of things, they wanted but I feel like I didn't ask enough detailed
questions, I mainly asked general questions which was useful, but I would have been
helpful to ask for more detail, so I know exactly what the primary audience like to see.
For secondary audience research I did some interviews on family members who don’t
really watch horror films but may watch them if they are recommended or watching it
with someone else. The information I got from them wasn’t entirely useful as none of
them frequently watch horror films, so they don’t really know what to look for in a
horror film. Once again, I didn't ask detailed enough questions to the interviewees so I
didn’t get any detailed answers so for my next project I know I need to ask more
detailed questions, so I have better answers to work from and make my work better.

7. Research (audience)
Here you can see some of my primary and secondary audience research. It gave me some
guidance for example I learnt that they all preferred shorter trailers so most of the film is still
new and a mystery, so I made sure I didn't make the trailer too long so not too much is spoiled.
As you can see the secondary audience research wasn’t entirely useful as all I really learnt was
that they wouldn't optionally watch a horror film but if someone else was watching one they
wouldn't mind watching it with them. A couple of the interviewees did however tell me that
music is an important factor to a trailer to make it more intense and less boring, so I made sure
to find suitable music to fit along with the trailer and the genre.

8. Research (practical)
For my practical research I edited a picture of Pennywise from the film IT, I chose this
image as it fit a similar theme to the poster I wanted to create. I also tried to edit
together a few royalty free horror clips into a similar style as my trailer but at the time
premiere pro wasn’t working on my computer, so I just edited the one image. This was
very helpful as I learnt how to do quite a few different skills such as how to extend
images using the duplicate tool. I also learnt stuff like how to cut out images freehand
and with the magnetic lasso. Doing the practical research got me used to Photoshop
and impacted my project in a big way as if I didn't do it then it would have taken me a
lot longer to complete my project as I would have spent a lot of time trying to find
things and see what certain tools did, so doing this sped up the process as it meant I
didn't have to waste production time trying to find tools. One area I maybe could have
improved on is the fact that I just edited an image rather than attempting to make an
actual poster which would have been much more beneficial as it would have given me
more of an idea of the kind of text I need and the layout of it as well.

9. Research (practical)
Here I have put together what I did as my practical research to
experiment and the actual poster I made, you can see the difference
between the two images and the improvements I made from my
research. The point of my practical research was so I could discover
new tools and find out what they do and the basics of them, I then
advanced on the basics I learnt and incorporated them into my poster.
By doing the practical research, it made my actual production a lot
quicker as I didn't have to look around for all the different tools and I
knew what a lot of the tools did, so I had more time to make
improvements. One thing I wished I experimented a bit more with
was colour correction as all I did on my research was make the picture
black and white rather than changing the hue and other similar things
so when I got to production, I had to play around with the colour
correction a bit to find the perfect look which took quite a while.

10. Planning (storyboard/shot list)
When it came to planning the scenes of my trailer I made a storyboard to show what
happens in each scene, my sketching skills aren’t very good so I just made some stick
drawings to represent the characters. When it came to actually filming the trailer, I
basically changed all the shots as I realised some of the shots were too difficult to
actually film with the space we had. I feel like I could have been more specific with my
storyboard as I just made a general overview of what I wanted to create and put it
onto a storyboard, the shot list also wasn’t incredibly detailed either as all I included
was the names and the type of shot so I could have also included what was happening
in that shot as well.

11. Planning (poster)
I did multiple things planning for my poster like flat plans, colour scheme and a style
sheet. For my flat plan I took an image from google that was like the image I was going
to take myself and put on some of the text that I was also going to include. I could
have gone into more detail on the image as I maybe could have gone into Photoshop
and edited the image a little more to get a more accurate representation of what I
wanted it to look like. To get the colour scheme strip and the gradient strip I used the
Adobe colour website, the image I used was a poster from the film IT which had a very
similar design and theme as to what I wanted to go for. It showed me that most of the
colours are typically dark as that is usually what horror films are. The IT poster I chose
was a little different as it had a yellowish red theme whereas mine has a purplish-blue
theme so it would have been more helpful choosing a poster with a similar colour
theme. For my style sheet I found two posters for other horror films that were like the
style I wanted to create. I also decided to find some fonts that would fit the horror
theme and my poster, I feel like I could have had a look for a few more fonts on places
like Photoshop itself or look at some downloadable ones online rather than just
looking at the ones PowerPoint have to offer.

12. Planning (poster)
THE WOODS
Shepherd Films Production, Starring
Will French

13. Planning (trailer)
My trailer was the main part of my project so its what most of my planning was about.
My risk assessment combined with my contingency plan was fairly extreme as there
isn't much that could have gone wrong during our filming. I maybe could have gone
into more detail about how serious some of the risks were and how bad the
consequences could have been and same with the contingency plan, it was very brief
and could have been expanded on. My production schedule has been mostly accurate
as I have been doing the same tasks each week as my schedule says also I said about
having a small budget for props which ended up being around £30 for all of them but it
was worth at as they added a lot to the atmosphere. Some of the cast originally put in
the list weren't able to film on the days I needed so we had to make do with a couple
less people, due to this a few scenes were cut from the trailer and the other location,
being my house, was never used. One thing I wish I did was make a contingency plan
for clips, so the clips that I felt might have been a little harder to shoot or edit had a
backup so instead of cutting clips I was replacing clips.

14. Planning (trailer)

15. Time Management (pre-production)
I feel like my time management for my pre-production was fine mostly as I managed to
get all of it finished before the half term holiday when we started production after. The
first part of pre-production was done at home as we were in lockdown so I feel like I
could have maybe done more work at home as the atmosphere is a lot more relaxed
so I probably didn’t do as much work as I should have but enough so that I didn’t fall
behind. One part of pre-production I wish I could have had more time on was the
practical research as I feel I didn’t do as much as I would have liked to. I would have
also liked to do some practical research for my trailer but at the time premiere pro
wasn’t working on my mac so I wasn’t able to do any. When it came to working on my
feedback for my pre-production, I left it until after I finished my production and just
before I started evaluation as I didn’t want to mix doing two activities at once as it
would have got confusing. I feel like I balanced my work well between research,
planning and the other documents so I had enough time to complete each one with
what I felt was good work.

16. Time Management (production)
When it came to my time management on production, I feel like it was very messy,
especially on the filming side. For filming I struggled to find a day in the half term
holiday where all of the people I needed were able to come out, so I had to wait until
the weekend after before I could start filming. When we actually managed to all get
out to film we didn’t have loads of time as we were filming at night so we didn’t want
to stay out too late and we weren’t able to get all the clips I needed in the first night so
I had to organise another day the next weekend to get some more clips. The second
time filming was a lot more successful than the first and I got the rest of the clips I
needed. Apart from the filming I feel like the rest of the production time schedule has
been consistent as I have managed to get my trailer where I want it in the time that I
have been given, and the same with the poster. I finished my poster production in the
first week of production as I didn’t have any trailer clips to edit but I managed to get
all my trailer clips edited together in the last week of production so I was able to
complete feedback.

17. Technical and Aesthetic
Qualities (poster)
I have included quite a few good technical qualities in my poster that
make it effective and appealing to the audience. For example the text
is a big stand out feature on my poster, I've done this by making the
text fairly large and making it red, red is a stand out colour because its
quite a bright colour and it also gives out connotations of danger which
is what horror films are all about and also blood. I also added the
billing block with the typical tall but squished font at the bottom of the
poster like most posters have so you can see if a director you like
directed the film and if they did that might make you want to watch
and it’s the same if you see an actor you like. I added texture to my
text as I feel like it gives the poster depth and it wasn’t that difficult to
add, I did have a look online on Adobe Fonts to see if I could find a font
that had a dark, gritty feel to it but when I tried to import it onto
Photoshop, I wasn’t able to. A technical feature I would have liked to
have added would have been to make the branches behind the word
”Lost” come over the word but because the branches were so thin and
small it was more effort than it was worth. I changed the colour on my
image a lot as before it was this really light grey and the image did not
look good at all but after changing the colour around I got this purple
stormy kind of effect and made the image look a lot darker.

18. Technical and Aesthetic Qualities (trailer)
For the technical qualities of my trailer I included quite a few interesting features such as
changing the colouring of the night time clips, it makes it look like the camera is more of an older
style camera as it has the strange colour edges and the weird colouring. As you can see in the
trailer from YouTube you get the sense of danger as there is a man stood with blood on his shirt
and hands which creates a creepy feel and makes you question what's happened, I have
incorporated my own creepy clips but in a different way, for example in the clip from my trailer
you can see the murderer looming over one of the teenagers. I also put a background on the
text where clips were played in between which had backgrounds on to make them stand out a
little more than just a boring black background. The music is a huge factor for my trailer as it
makes it a lot more tense and puts you on the edge of your seat when it spikes then you calm
down when the music calms down. A couple of the clips at night are quite hard to see what's
going on so it would have been a good idea to re-film them to make them look better.

19. Audience Appeal (poster)
I feel like my poster was tailored very well towards the primary audience as it was similar to
other posters I have seen for similar products. The theme of the poster is typical of the horror
genre as it seems to be very simple with a creepy character in the centre usually surrounded by
a dark eerie background. This has obviously proven to work for other films otherwise they
wouldn’t still be doing it. After a couple of reviews from the primary target audience they have
said the poster is quite effective and would definitely make them interested to watch the trailer
and find out more. Its always good to have a stand out title as that is the most important part as
that’s what you want people to remember and with my primary audience being younger people
then it means that they use social media a lot so you want them to being talking about your film
online to spread word about it to further promote. A lot of the inspiration for the poster from
my existing product research so that definitely showed how important that section. One feature
I wish I did include that could have made the poster more appealing to the audience was a
slogan or more importantly a question as that’s what excites a lot of people and especially if it’s
a question accompanied with a hashtag then it gets a lot of people talking on social media,
asking each other the question and makes a great marketing campaign.

20. Audience Appeal (trailer)
My trailer also appeals greatly to my primary audience because it has most elements
that excite people for a film, a calm start, lead to a mystery, followed by action then
ended with more mystery. This gets people excited for the film as when trailers show
too much then people already know the entire storyline of the film so they feel there
is no point watching it whereas if you show them a shorter trailer then it leaves them
asking questions, “Who was that?”, “Why did he do that?” so then they choose to go
watch it to get the answers. The trailer gives off more of a creepy vibe which the
primary audience says makes a good horror film, they have also said jump scares is
what scares them the most and that is the entire purpose of a horror film so one area
where I could have improved is too include a few more jump scares as I only really had
one at the end. It is important to have people questioning your trailer so in one scene I
have the murderer putting on his mask so the audience knows its an actual person so
it makes the question on places like social media and coming up with theories on who
they think the murderer is so it then gets the film more traction and other people
more excited as they want to find out if their theories are correct or not.

21. Peer
Feedback

22. Feedback 1 (Toby Jackson- Media
student at York)
• What did you like about the trailer? I liked how the
trailer built up tension with the intense music and
the constant cutting to black keeping you on the
edge.
• What improvements could have been made to the
trailer? The text was effective and got across what
he wanted to say but it could have been more
interesting by maybe animating the text in certain
parts.

23. Feedback 2 (Jack Clark- Media student
at Norton)
• What did you like about the trailer? I liked the
creepy atmosphere the trailer created along with
the TV static feature at the end which was effective
• What improvements could have been made to the
trailer? At times the music overpowered the speech
so it was a little bit hard to hear what people were
saying so that could be tweaked slightly.

24. Feedback 3 (Rowan Towse- Media
student at Norton)
• What did you like about the poster? I liked how the
text stood out on the creepy background, and the
light up mask subtly makes the murderer scarier.
• What improvements could have been made to the
poster? The poster seemed like it was missing a
slogan or a phrase that can be linked with the title
to make the title more memorable.

25. Peer Feedback Summary
• What do you agree with from your peer feedback? I
agree with the fact that the poster needed a slogan
as I feel they tend to be effective at getting people
to talk about the film.
• What do you disagree with from your peer
feedback? I disagree with the animation of the text
as I wanted to keep the trailer simple as if it is too
complex, people might get lost and horror films
aren't supposed to be too complex.

26. Peer Feedback Summary
Overall I'm happy with the response I got from other media students about my work, their
criticisms and recommendations I mostly agree with. I'm glad that the trailer produced that
creepy atmosphere and put them on the edge of their seats as that was the intent of the trailer.
I'm also happy with the response of the poster as although I kept it quite simple it seemed to be
very effective at creeping out the audience. I agree with what was said about adding a slogan as
that is something I have said myself that I could have added to take the poster to the next level.
With the comment about adjusting the audio on certain clips, I have already done that to an
extent but maybe I should have turned the clip audio up louder than I already had. I agree with
what was said about the music being a big factor and a lot of the reason why the trailer is so
creepy and tense. The criticism about the text being still rather than animating in on or off the
screen is one I disagree with as I didn’t want the text to be the overpowering part of the trailer
and it can sometimes be a little bit too much but overall the response is really good and
especially considering the people who I got feedback from are the people in my primary target
audience.