Evaluation Activity 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We showed our trailer to our class who then gave us feedback, both positive and constructive criticism. We recieved a variety of comments which helped us change the trailer and what worked.

A strength to the trailer is the music, which was called very stereotypical because of it's creepy sound. The simple, repetative piano sound gives a chilling feel to back up the montage, whilst not distracting from the images on screen. The high pitch of the music is repetitive of a horror film because it is often very unsettling. The repetetive also adds suspense to the audience because they feel something scary could happen any moment, but it doesnt, which challeges the audiences expectations.
Another strength noted was the location. We chose to film at the grounds of Polesden Lacey because there were a lot of different areas within the grounds which added diversity to the film. The over-the-shoulder shot of the ghost uses these locations to her advantage as this gives her the upperhand compared to the friends.
The shot of the bathtub with the hands coming out was also seen as a very effective shot which was reminiscent of a horror film. The group felt this gave the audience the creeps because they didn't see the whole person, which makes people ask questions which, in terms of marketing, people will see the film to get answers.

However, constructive criticism focused on the length of the trailer. When we first uploaded it to show to the class, it was about 2 and a half minutes yet we were aiming to produce a teaser trailer, which we analysed and found that the length of a teaser trailer ranged from 1.30 minutes to 1.40 minutes. Following the feedback, we cut out some repetitive shots and refined some footage so it began and stopped quicker and didn't waste time. The feedback allowed us to change this to make more identifiable as a teaser trailer. Another was to add in more variety of camera angles, such as high and low. However, we were unable to find anytime to refilm and add some more shots in. If we were to redo this advanced portfolio, adding a more diverse range of shots would be sometime we would improve on.