What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

We held a small screening and asked a number of people from our target audience to watch the trailer and give us comments on what they thought worked well and what didn't. We collected our feedback in the form of a verbal discussion in which we took notes on what people said. This is similar to how a real distribution company would collect audience feedback as they often hold pre-release test screenings after which they ask the audience members to fill in questionnaires on what they thought. This enables distribution companies to predict how successful the film will be once it is released and whether it appeals to their target audience as well as more widespread audience. We asked our audience to make comments on both the product as a horror text and as a teaser trailer.We decided to give our film a 15 certificate so that we could encorporate interesting scary scenes and a good amount of gore but also so memebers of our target audience could watch it. Our target audience were males and females (however, mainly males) in their middle teens to early twenties.

- One of the main good points of the trailer was said to be the music. It created atmosphere well as it was eerie to begin with and then built up well and was tense throughout. The children singing in Happy Birthday in the background worked well as this was creepy and disturbing. People also liked the sound effects such as the bangs and sound of lighting as they said this also added to the atmosphere and put emphasis on some of the visuals. It was felt that the music and the visuals were editied very well together and worked successfully together in the trailer.

- The mise-en-scene was also commented on. Our viewers felt that we had put a lot of effort into our costumes, lighting and gore. The wounds we created on the actors were said to look effective and realistic and fitted the horror genre well. Our low lighting worked well as it created darkness and shadows and our use of motivated lighting from the candles in the birthday scene was sucessful. Someone also thought that the black and white effect we put on some of the shots was good and they particularly liked the shot of the little girl right at the start because they felt that her candle was symbolic of her power because it was the only thing that lit the scene.

- We used iconography of innocence with our villian. She is a little girl with pigtails who carries a teddy bear round with her. She wears a white dress which connotes innocence and fragiliy. We used the idea of binary oppositions with this character as she looks sweet and harmless but is in fact a demonic child. People said they liked this character because her innocent look made them feel uncomfortable and nervous with the fact that she is actually evil.

- It was felt that the narrative was set up well. The audience were given enough to feel teased but not too much was given away. They liked the use of the idea of 'the return of the repressed' as this fits in with the horror genre. Also the use of a specific date (the birthday) is typical of horror films.The inter-titles helped to establish the story and someone commented that the broken sentence and repitition of a grammatical structure worked well and kept them hooked because they wanted to know what would be said next. They also liked the irony of the word 'celebrate' as they knew that it wasn't really going to be a happy celebration. Instead it would be a horrific sequence of events.

- A small point that someone made was that they liked the website that we put on screen right at the end of the trailer as this made it look more professional.

- The structure of the trailer got mixed opinions. It was felt that it was really good because it started slowly and then built up and got faster. This change of pace kept it interesting and people wanted to see more. However, many people did not like the ending as it slowed down again and they said that this took away the tension and emphasis that we had previously built up. They said that the shot of the dripping blood ruined it abit aswell because it looked too fake compared to how good our other scenes of gore looked.

- One person felt that we had put too much gore in the trailer and that because of this they wouldn't expect there to be much more in the actual film because they will have already seen it all.

- One of the main criticisms of our trailer was that there was no dialogue and as a result the audience felt no connection to any of the characters involved. They felt that they would feel more sympathy with the victims if they could hear some dialogue from them.

From this feedback I have learnt that music and sound are very important factors in a trailer as many of the audience said that it complimented the visuals really well and established a strong scary atmosphere right from the start of the trailer which of course is something that you would want in a teaser trailer because it creates interest. It is definetely worth putting lots of time into making the trailer as the final product will come out looking much more professional. Our wounds took a long time to create but it paid off in the end because many people complimeted them and said they looked realistic and fitted well with the horror genre.

If i made the trailer again I would put dialogue in the trailer as this would make my auidence feel more connected to the characters and so would feel more involved in the trailer. As a result they would be more likely to go and watch the film because they would be more curious and concerned to find out what happens to the characters. I would also make sure that the ending was much more dramatic so that it sticks in peoples minds and makes them excited about seeing the film rather than leaving them with a negative view of it. The end of the trailer is seen last and so would be remembered the easiest by viewers and so we should have created something that would leave a strong and lasting impact on our audience. Perhaps a scene that would really have shocked the auidience or made them jump would have worked well.