Q3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Our feedback also indicated that all we learned in the pre-production stages came to good use. All that we learned about lighting we attempted to incorporate some of the comments recieved made reference lighting was used to our advantage. Our biggest fear was over-complecting the entire trailer. We didn't want to use over-the-top costume designs or locations; something that has been mentioned in the feedback. One person reffered to the costume design as "subtle (but effective)", the exact affect we attempted to capture when designing the costume. We kept many aspects rather simple as i feel there is a severe oversaturation in big-budget horror films with extravagant costumes and locations.
Our feedback indicates a certain disdain for the premise, although i feel this is simply down to the fact they do not know what a "Ping" is. This concern was expressed while drafting ideas for the film, as we were aware that by placing such a heavy focus on Blackberries we were essentially neglecting those who have no interest in Blackberries. No action was taken after some market research indicated that over 2 in 3 teenagers in the U.K own a Blackberry [data collected from Belvenews 2012 statistics]. Seeing as our key demographic was teenagers we decided to stick with the central idea of a Blackberry. Those who do own a Blackberry or have an interest in the brand loved the concept as indicated in the Youtube comment "Lol loved how you related it to something that's like trending atm" (atm being an initialism for "at the moment"). Unfortunately not many of my friends have the slightest bit of interest in Blackberries, however when we asked those who did own Blackberries they all showed a genuine interest in the concept. |
The general census from the comments received over Facebook is that we have a constructed quite a good trailer. As always when asking for opinions over Facebook, the feedback will be hindered by the fact you know everyone who will be commenting. It varies the results in one of two ways: they are either overly positive with what they say as they are your friend and feel they should support you, or they will be intentionally cheeky (as the case is with some of my friends).
With regards to the technical side to the trailer the feedback was almost unanimously positive. Virtually everyone said that they liked the editing, in particularly the cuts. I feel we succeeded in acomplishing the mood and feel we were aiming for right since the start of this project. From the start the desired affect we wanted to convey to our audience was that this is a very dark and mysterious film and they picked up on that. I felt we were able to achieve this through great editing and a variety of cuts and camera angles. The cuts we used retained a sense of mystery while adhiring to appropriate reaction shots in order to see the fear in our victim. We predominatly used quick cuts as we want our audience simply staring at an actor in a chair for too long. Furthermore we didn't allow our cuts to reveal too much of the storyline, adhiring to the principle of a "teaser trailer". Most of these conventions are synonymous with horror and helped our audience understand the trailer, there was no confusion as to what genre it is. We attempted to challenge the convention of filling a horror trailer with large amounts of action and blood. Furthermore we didn't want to include any "cheap scares", such as an arbitrary scream at the end; something we found to be far too common in horror trailers. Sadly, our audience didn't appreciate the lack of action and blood - in fact it was the primary complaint. I feel our audience liked our choice in camera shots as they were simple but not boring, they also played on the new age of horror angles. I am reffering to the CCTV angle, which has massively grown in popularity in the past few decades with the rise of films such as "Paranormal Activity". We were heavily influenced by Paranormal Activity-eque films as they appear to be realistic and allow the audience to see the action through the eyes of a CCTV camera. Given such an odd premise as a Blackberry message murder it is vital to make our shots look as realistic as possible - and i feel the audience identified with this. Based on the feedback received we realised there were numerous ways we could have made a more effective product. The inclusion of a Blackberry was not a mistake as it attracted the attention of those who do have Blackberries, but making it the central premise was. If done again, we would certain retain the idea of using a Blackberry as it is a great marketing tool, but we wouldn't place such a heavy focus on it. Renaming the title to something a larger demographic could relate to would be the first change made - those who didn't know what a "Ping" was had no chance of grasping the concept. The majority of comments made showed appreciation for the conventions we followed (such as the CCTV camera angle for a supernatural horror), but didn't like the fact there was no action. In retrospect we would have added at least one action scene and possibly some blood. Although it was recognised that our trailer was a horror, it appears to lack the "fear factor" as not a single comment stated it scared them whatsoever. While Supernatural horror titles aren't usually very scary, a singular scene that evoked fear would have this a much more effective product. The final issue we would rectify is the music. A piano would still be utilized but we would attempt to not make it sound so generic, such as adding an affect, perhaps something more electronic to go with the technological theme of the trailer.
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