Evaluation: Part 4

In our focus group screening, many positives were highlighted along with a lot of constructive criticism. A part of the trailer that many people enjoyed was the end shot, as it wasn’t a typical jump at the end, but still created suspense due to the slow long scene, accompanied with the suspense of not knowing who was behind the mask that Keith took off the person’s face. The blood dripping onto the snow was also frequently praised, as people said the contrast between the deep red blood and bright white snow worked well and was something that would make the trailer rememberable. Many people also enjoyed the music, as the gradual build up of pace in it increased the suspense of the trailer gradually throughout the trailer. The black and white effects on the flashbacks were also something that people enjoyed, as they said it created a clear division between the main scene and the flashback. The Intertitles were also mentioned as being a good feature by many people as it helped build the narrative of the film. A common criticism of our trailer was that the narrative wasn’t clear enough throughout; the role of the man having a heart attack was highlighted as being too unclear. Another criticism that was mentioned was the lack of gore in the trailer even though it is a ‘Red-Band’. The choice of ending to the trailer was also criticised by some people, commenting that it would’ve been more fitting to have a jump scare rather than a tense slow shot. Overall I agree with these comments, especially the comment about the lack of gore. I realised that more gore would have defined the intended horror genre of the film better, and with the snow being available, I could have utilised this and done more shots with blood on the snow. Another criticism that I agree with is the lack of narrative in the trailer. More Intertitles would have been beneficial, just to give more of a background to Keith and establish his role in the film more. Our trailer got on average a score of 6.5/10 from the rest of the class, which I am not entirely happy with, although I can see the reasoning behind the scores.

We made a few last minute changes to our trailer after the feedback we received. We originally had the scene with the man spitting out blood as the ending scene of our trailer, but we decided that the mask reveal scene would be more effective. Another change that we made was adding a production screen to the end of the trailer, which advertised links to social media websites relating to the film. We originally didn’t have this due to an oversight. We made the changes in Adobe Premiere Pro, and went back to the original project file to make adjustments. I do believe that they helped, because before the adjustments our trailer has less of a trailer like feel, and with the adjustments our trailer gained more generic features of a film trailer.

Overall, I am very pleased with the overall outcome of our film trailer. Due to research and previously known knowledge of the horror genre, we were able to pinpoint key things to put into our trailer to make it appeal to the target audience. We done this by making the main character be outside of the CDI, yet the overall theme of the film was something that people could relate to as it is in a realistic scenario. We made the character like this as it is typical of the characteristic of character’s in horror films, and we wanted to go with generic conventions instead of challenging them, as we knew that this would attract audiences. My favourite aspects of the trailer are Keith’s motives for killing his victims, and the setting of the main scene of the trailer. I like Keith’s motives as they are something that I can relate to and convey my emotions in to, I have a strong hatred of domestic abuse towards women, so creating a character who gives justice to people who abuse women is something I found I could construct easily. I disagree strongly with misogyny, so by being having the opportunity to make a character who shares emotions with me makes the character easy to relate to. I like the setting of the main scene of the trailer because it is in an ordinary, setting (a garden), yet with the snow and the low key lighting shots, the setting is transformed into a realistic, yet sinister setting. The realistic setting is something that I enjoy in a horror film, as it brings the film, a lot closer to home, and gives the audience the idea that the events of the film actually could occur in day to day life.