Evaluation Activity 3 - Audience Feedback

Evaluation Activity 3 - Audience Feedback

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From getting feedback from our audience, we have learned different things about what we did well in our trailer, and what could be improved on.

Firstly, it was mentioned that we adhered to the conventions of a typical zombie film, using the mise en scéne - the abandoned, disused cars to show the post-apocalyptic style, and Avraj's character attacking the "do not cross" line - to effectively portray the zombie style. We chose the location as we thought that the whole place was suitable to use with the abandoned buildings and the forest cover adds to the "scary" surroundings, as we would associate forests with horror films where something bad would happen.

The fast paced, flashbacks at the end were also mentioned as well used, in these shots we aimed to show the audience that something happened during the film that made Avraj into a zombie. this means that audience members are drawn to watch the movie, as they want to know what happened to him, which we successfully created, as our audience feedback members pointed out. However, it was also mentioned that we should increase the pace of our shots throughout the rest of the trailer, although we realised that this would have made it slightly more exciting and tense, this would not have fit with the slow, spooky style of music that we used. Also, having fast paced shots at the end of the trailer, meant we were able to add the 'terror glissando' effect, which made the end of our trailer much more exciting and meant it was able to give the audience just the right amount of tense, exciting few seconds, which i think would not have had the same effect if we had faster paced shots earlier on in the trailer and faster music.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Screen Grab 9 - Titles - Names

The simple white text on the black background makes the name really stand out, as if we wanted the audience to notice who the actor is, which would mean people may want to watch the film, as it has this specific actor in it, we have made all the titles the same as this, simple and easy to identify, so that the audience has time to read the title without any distractions in the background which may lead to the title not being read. The thin text also makes the title simple, with no complications that would endanger the title of being misread or missed by the audience. The font also shows small sharp points on each letter, reinforcing the thrilling, fast paced shots and it is also appropriate to the genre of which our trailer is - horror.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Screen Grab 7 and 8 - Camerawork/Props

These two shots show the prop we used in our trailer, the gun. It is a paintball gun, rather than a fake, plastic gun, which made it look much more realistic as it is actually used as a gun. Also, the size of the gun reflects the power the protagonist has, showing him as masculine and dominant. These shots also show areas in our trailer where i believe we have used camerawork effectively. The bottom shot shows an almost first person shooter like shot, where we can see where the gun is pointing into the background, looking for the zombie, this makes it clearer for the audience to see what is going on, rather than if we had the protagonist in the shot, which may have distracted the viewers from the main point of the shot, to search for the zombie. The top shot shows a birds eye view of the gun, while he is loading it. This shows the threat to the zombie that he presents, as a loaded gun of that size can be very dangerous, and it also shows the intention of the protagonist is to kill the zombie. Both of these shots show how important the gun is in our trailer, which adds to the anticipation of what will happen as the trailer proceeds.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Screen Grab 6 - Camerawork and Editing

This screen grab shows the antagonist trying to reach up to the protagonist, who is in a high place behind the camera. Looking down on the antagonist gives the protagonist a large amount of power and it makes the audience look down on the zombie as a threat. The bottom left hand corner of the picture shows a ledge, which shows the audience where the protagonist is situated. which gives them an idea of what the area around them is like, meaning they can almost picture the situation, which they feel they are part of.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Screen Grabs 4 and 5 - Characters

The characters shown above are two typical examples of the antagonist and the protagonist. The antagonist, in this case the zombie, is looking very dull and simple. He is also dragging along a thick metal pole, which you cannot see in this picture, but shows his simple character, unable to use any effective weapons, on the other hand, the protagonist is looking very determined and confident, crouching slightly to have the upper hand on the antagonist if he sees him. The gun he is carrying shows his power and authority and the audience is starting to side with him, as it is obvious he is trying to kill the zombie. Another thing to point out is the clothing. The antagonist is wearing dark clothing, which conforms to the typical conventions of the villain in a film, whereas the protagonist is wearing bright, white clothing, which makes him seem more friendly and like he is the hero, which the audience can relate to. It is quite obvious to see which is the protagonist and which is the antagonist, meaning it is easy for the audience to identify them without confusing them.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Screen Grabs 2 and 3 - Setting/Location

These are two separate establishing shots, 1 from the beginning of our trailer, setting up the location of the first half of it. The second shot is the establishing shot of our second main setting. These are both in the paintball site that we used to film our trailer, however we decided that as it was an important location, the second establishing shot was necessary in giving the audience an idea of where abouts we were. The rusty, unused car has a post-apocalyptic look to it, which helped our trailer to conform to the zombie style in our trailer. The abandoned shed in the second shot also reinforces the post-apocalyptic style of our trailer, with the dead trees and broken glass windows. Although it wasn't planned, the weather on the day we filmed helped to make our trailer slightly darker and gloomier, if it was a sunny day, then the place would have looked too bright and cheerful looking.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Screen grab 1 - Title

The title font of the film is called 'Necrotype'. This refers to the title of our film - 'Necr0sis', which is defined as the death of most or all of the cells in an organ or tissue due to disease, injury, or failure of blood supply. This is relevant for the genre of film we chose to make as zombies usually have had a disease, or failure of blood supply, which leads to their zombification. The simple black background behind simple black/white text was used to emphasize the actual word, if we had anything else in the background, it may have over complicated the few seconds of screen time that the title has, and may have made audiences distracted from the meaning behind our title, the black and white text also means that the title is simplified. The title taking up almost the whole screen shows the strong, masculine theme of the trailer, which is also reinforced by the use of capital letters. Having a smaller title, in lower case would be seen as weak, and subverting conventions of horror films.

Evaluation Activity 1

In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e of teaser trailers/poster/magazine)