Once we had produced our first version of our trailer, we had a screening in which we played the trailer to the rest of our class, and see what they thought of it, and how we could improve the trailer to make it better and more suitable, and what worked well and that we should keep in our trailer. We used our class as our target audience as they were their ages represented the average age for our target audience, so we would gain valid responses on how to improve our work by their opinions. We also produced some audience research. This enabled us to find out that the target audience age was between 17 and 24. This was essential so we could base our trailer around something that would attract this age group. We also found out that the audiences favourite sections of horror trailers were the ‘jumpy bits’ and they particularly liked the suggestion of a horror setting being underwater. The idea of underwater being a horror setting meant to us that the underwater feature would be a key part of our trailer in which we would film to gain the audiences attention and interest. We also found out that the target audience liked psychological horror’s containing a fear of the unknown. We combined all these ideas together to produce our trailer to supply the needs of our target audience.
From screening our trailer to our class, we found that the audience seemed to be very pleased with the way in which our trailer was produced, however they did make many suggestions on how we could improve the trailer, we which took on and replaced with things that worked better. The main concern about the trailer was our use of inter-titles. We tried to create a water effect background behind the text, however this did not link in as a horror convention, and in fact seemed almost quite the opposite. We decided to completely change the idea of our inter-titles, and we kept it very plain and simple which was very similar to trailers in the industry now. Our screening audience also said that they felt we could improve the second half of our trailer which was the ‘2011’ section. This was due to the audience having a lack of understanding on how the two sections related. They also suggested that we needed to establish a main protagonist that they could identify with throughout the trailer. We decided to film some more footage and make it a lot clearer in what was happening by using our music box as an almost flash back to the past for our main protagonist. These were the two main key features that needed to be changed within our trailer. The target audience also suggested that we applied some more filters to our work as it seemed a little too bright in places for a horror trailer, and that it needed a more grainy effect. Gaining the feedback from the audience enabled us to discover what didn’t work so well and helped us to improve our product. Film distributors gain feedback in a very similar way to my screening tests as they show the target audience for the film similar posters to gain feedback for their own films.
The audience also explained the things they particularly liked about the trailer that conveyed typical horror conventions. Most of the audience really liked our choice of music for the trailer as they thought it linked in well with our initial idea, and worked well within the horror genre. Many people also commented on how they really liked the first 1943 section, as it was a very unique idea, and all seemed to flow continuously.
You need to explain that your class represents your target audience, by telling us how your target audience is! What you mean by setting being underwater? I think you need to explain why your second section was not working so well before the test screening and then be more specific about what you did to improve it. It was basically about establishing a main protagonists that the audience could identify with. Otherwise this is good, but could be longer - i.e. you should probably discuss more elements of what the audience liked and disliked, perhaps dividing into what they liked about it as horror and what they liked about it as a trailer i.e. an advertising vehicle.
ReplyDelete