Evaluation piece 4 for my A2 Media Coursework

1. By Jack Trueman
Evaluation part 4: What have you learnt from your
audience feedback?

2. What praise and criticism was highlighted in your focus
group screening?
Several points were made about the rough cut of our trailer through the focus group screening,
most of which acted as constructive criticism. I agreed with all the improvements that the focus
group made such as the need for a jump scare to build tension for the audience. The intertitles
also needed to be redesigned so they could be read easier and the shots being too bright and not
low key lit to have connotations of horror. Other changes such as the mixing of music levels and
editing techniques like quick paced montages were added and changed to reflect the points
made by the focus group.

3. What praise and criticism was highlighted in your focus
group screening?
I also agreed with the majority of praise given to the rough cut such as the quality of acting,
especially from Sam who portrayed the Priest, the wide use of cinematic shots and expressionist
angles, the variety of locations and use of mise-en-scene in props, costumes and restricted
narration. However I’d disagree with the point that the lighting was dynamic and added to the
atmosphere as it needed a lot more work to have horror connotations.
Our trailer got an average of 7.5/10 from the focus group and for the rough cut. I agree with it as
there was considerable changes that could’ve been made to improve the trailer that were also
implemented in the final cut of the trailer.

4. What changes did you make to your trailer after the
focus group screening?
• The changes we made to our focus group screening after the feedback was received were to
improve the horror genre conventions we put in the trailer. We started by making the lighting
more low key to add to the mise-en-scene of the trailer and mixing the audio levels so the
dialogue could be heard over the parallel music when needed. We then preceded to add
diegetic sound effects in order to give the violent impacts, supernatural whispering and mise-
en-scene more realistic connotations.
• I also worked on the pacing of the edit and sped the ending up to a quick paced montage in
order to build tension and connote fear so the audience would be more on the edge and
unsettled by the sudden change, through a collision cut of pace from the slow paced
montage to a quick paced montage showing extreme body horror.

5. How did your evaluation screening go?
• The evaluation screening went very well with the average score going up to 8/10, however there are still a
certain few things that need to be changed, as highlighted by the focus group, in order to improve the trailer
further.
• The main point of improvement, which 11 people picked up on, was that our trailer still needed a jump scare
at the end in order to shock the audience and make it really memorable. The jump scare will be added to the
final cut.
• The other major points were that the lighting was too dark in some shots and too light in others meaning it
was inconsistent. The shots that were too light looked over exposed and didn’t fit with the low key horror
genre convention, and the shots that were too dark stopped the audience from seeing the full frame of the
shot completely. This was fixed in the edit where a low key lighting effect was created using the
brightness/contrast filter on Adobe Premiere in order to make the trailer consistent and keep the light levels
balanced. Similarly, some found the audio levels to not be mixed well and found some dialogue hard to hear
so this again needs fixing in the edit.

6. How did your evaluation screening go?
• Overall, I am happy with the score that the final trailer got from the evaluation screening and
realise that there are still some changes that need to be made in order to push it into the 9-
10/10 area but hopefully with the added changes it can be improved further.
• Priest (Final Cut): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60RP6lK-WR4
• Priest (Focus Group): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IARAYdyRr6E
• Priest: (Evaluation Screening): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FX_IMqdXKI

7. How did your evaluation screening go?
• Overall, I am happy with the score that the final trailer got from the evaluation screening and
realise that there are still some changes that need to be made in order to push it into the 9-
10/10 area but hopefully with the added changes it can be improved further.
• Priest (Final Cut): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60RP6lK-WR4
• Priest (Focus Group): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IARAYdyRr6E
• Priest: (Evaluation Screening): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FX_IMqdXKI