Questionnaire

Me and my project partner created a questionnaire for some people and friends to fill in after watching our trailer. We made sure they were all 18 and over so we could get a genuine reaction from our target audience. We managed to get a group of around 10 friends and then a few class mates for this, in the end we got about 20 questionnaires completed. By getting them to fill out the questionnaire we hoped to get some positive feedback but also some ways in which they think we can improve the trailer. This way we can make some improvements and then show it to them a second time so we can get the best possible.

Some of the feedback that we received was really good. They liked the music and said it really suited the tone of the trailer and that some of the sounds and effects made it quite a lot scarier than without music. They said it was easy to work out the plot and though it had a good storyline. However they did point out a few areas for improvement. They said that there were to many title screens and to try and reduce the amount, also change what some of them said. They thought there should be a change at the end after the telephone tone  and we should add a short snappy clip that will make the audience jump.

So to conclude we though this was a worth while piece of research. We were able to make some good improvements to our final edit and got a good response from our target audience. Pretty much everyone said they would go and see the film after seeing the trailer except for a few exceptions, but that was only because they aren't horror fans. The picture to the left is some of the answered questionnaires.

Storyboard

Representation

Characters 
The characters in our trailer are like any other stereotypical middle class teenagers. This is shown by what kind of cloths they are wearing and for the most part its jeans, hoodies and trainers which is what you would associate with teenagers. By dressing characters in everyday casual clothing it makes the audience feel as if this could happen to anyone maybe even themselves and putting themselves in that situation which adds realism to the trailer. Throughout the trailer bad language is used by the characters and they use language that may represent the younger generation which is why our trailer would be much more appealing to the 18-25 age bracket rather than older people. In the trailer there (excluding Ashes Spirt) 2 guys and 1 girl (Guy, Sam and Erin.) You will notice in the trailer that its Guy who goes to see what the problem is, he takes on the role of the brave macho man which is character that most teenage films contain. The other boy Sam (Myself) stays with the girls to make sure she remains safe. This then leaves the girl who is stereotypically the scared and vulnerable female character that constantly screams and panics.

Mise en scene
We filmed the trailer a middle class house as thats how we represented the characters, a big posh house wasn't the look we wanted. And we also used a middle class first car in the car crash scene which was suitable for new driver. Once again a posh car wouldn't have represented the characters in the right way. We used the night vision affect for all of the the video camera sections which we felt gave the film a creepy and spooky feel to it.  this builds up the suspense and anything could happen at any given moment.

Sound
We used a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sound throughout the trailer. The diegetic sound came from things like doors slamming shut, load thuds and bangs and the sound of the television static. These are all sounds you represent with horror films. We used some non diegetic sounds like the sound of a telephone beeping was added in and we used different sounds effects when cutting into a title screen. We made our own music on garage band and the music runs all the way through the trailer. We added a lot of sound effects and lots of different sounds so that it gave the trailer a good pace and also builds up the tension as suspense because we used a variety of different sounds with different contrasts. most sounds you would hear in a house hold

Props 
The main prop obviously being the hand held video camera which is used throughout the whole trailer. In the living room scene with the the flashing lights we put a lot of alcohol out on the table which represents a typical group of teenagers. We used a pet cat for one of the clips which will make the audience think that something may happen to it at some point.

Film classification four our trailer

After looking at some of the content of our media trailer we accessed what certificate our trailer could be given. Due to frequent  bad language throughout and some quite violent scenes we decided to rate our trailer an 18. Some of these scene's can be a little frightening for anyone under the age of 18. We went for the 18 over the 15 because there is a lot of bad language but it also allows us to push the boundaries to the limit.

Poster Analysis

In this post I am going to analyse some exciting poster for horror films so that it will give us some inspiration for our own film poster. The poster helps advertise your film to your target audience so need to make eye catching in order to get the audiences attention. The poster I am analysing are the Paranormal Activity 1 & 2 film posters.


This poster uses a still image of one of the scenes from the film to put on its poster. It uses black and white as its main colour scheme do fit in with the central image and the colours suit the horror genre. It put and interesting image in the centre of the 2 main characters looking scare and reacting to something but I doesn't show what. This leaves the audience wanting to know more. The title is made to stand out using a dark red which contrasts with the black and white background and making it more eye catching. Other whiting is in white on the black background making that stand out as well. Like a lot of film posters at the top it has a tag line "Steady you nerves, your sleepless nights are about to return" and "What happens when you sleep" helps indicate the gene of the film. The "Most anticipated" shows that its something to look out for and something for the audience to look forward to.





This poster is another that caught my eye. the darkness of the background is from a lanterund gives a scene of unknown and it could be leave the audience questioning what it could be. the light shining on her face is from a lantern which tells the the time period in which the film was set. Nicole Kidman has a very fearful look in her eyes leaving the audience unsure as to why and it gives the poster more of a horror genre look to it. "A Wicked Twist Of A n Ending" is one of the comments made at the side, this also will draw the audience in and make then wont to see the film so they can find out what the twist is. Most of the the writing like Paranormal Activity in on the dark background so that it stands out. The title of the film has a unique font that makes very noticeable to the eye. The yellow effect makes the poster seem slightly more creepy and highlights the darkness of the rest of the poster. "sooner or later they will find you" is the catchphrase the film poster. This lets the audience aware of the genre of the film and is a convention to every horror poster.

Trailer Research