Evaluation question 3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Here are some of my thoughts on the audience feedback about my trailer:
Does my trailer work as a trailer? Does it make the audience want to see it?
From this question I found that the pace of my trailer works well using music and images, holding the audiences attention and making them want to see the film. However, the beginning of the trailer was identified as quite pleasant with specific reference to the music. This is not what I was aiming for, as I wanted the beginning to be very mysterious and menacing. This mysterious mise-en-scene I wanted to achieve in the starting clips of my trailer was confirmed later in the question which I am pleased about.
Is the genre of the film clearly established by the trailer?
From my feedback, it was identified that I had aspects of the action genre in my trailer. This isn’t necessarily what I had set out to do but my peers seemed to think that it works well to pick up the pace and create a more dramatic trailer. The camera shots were confirmed to be conventional for this genre which was my aim, using low angle shots of the killer to make him look powerful and high angle shots of the victims to make them look vulnerable. The teaser trailer does not start with the conventional establishing shots, but my peers agreed that this works as the trailer kicks in the viewers interest immediately.
What aspects/features/shots are most effective?
The tension built by the pace of the trailer seems to be the most effective aspect. The break in equilibrium was also mentioned as the killer swings the axe and the music changes dramatically into a much faster beat. After this feedback I am quite glad I did not use any dialogue as I believe this would have ruined the atmosphere I had created with the non-diagetic music. Again, the low and high angle shots were deemed to be effective. The establishing shot of the church seemed to work as the location was said to represent the mood well.
What impression of the film lingers in the mind of the audience members?
My peers identified that the trailer was attractive to them and this is a promising sign as my target audience was within this age range, people 15-24 years old.
What narrative sense did audience make of the trailer?
The narrative was perceived to be played by the music of the trailer, with this displaying the emotion of the characters. However, the music was mainly used to display the breaking of equilibrium (Todorov’s theory). The victims and villain were easily identified and I am pleased with this as I tried to make each characters role very obvious using costumes and cinematography.
Was the trailer too long/short?
The length of my trailer was good according to my audience opinion. It seems to be right for a teaser trailer not to give too much content about the film away, which I think I have achieved.
Did the trailer sustain the interest of the audience?
My audience said the definately felt engaged throughout the tailer with the varied pace, camera angles etc. However, it seems that my audience would have been able to relate better to the victim characters if there were some sort of dialogue.
How did the audience respond to my choices in relation to actors/mise-en-scene/lighting?
The costume of the killer using the black ‘hoodie’, the mask and props such as the axe were deemed to render the killer to have a fearful presence. This was definately what I was looking for in my trailer as that is a key aspect to any horror trailer. It appears I have also represented the stereotypical teenager well using the correct clothing and my peers identified the beer can as representing typical adolescent behaviour, which is what I was aiming for with the use of that prop.
