Evaluation Task Three - Audience Feedback and Presentation of Production

Here is the video of our audience feedback for our trailer More Than Human. This was done by a number of participants where we got a wide range of responses in which a lot of information can be drawn from this feedback.

We felt as if we got a lot of positives from this audience feedback. Such as the success of the sound and pace combination, furthermore, we have identified what we could have done better such as include a stronger back story that would appeal to more of a female audience, use less of the glitch effect and include more establishing shots to show the location. 

Evaluation Task Two

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Here in the video below, we have a directors commentary of Dan and I, explaining our film and how we thought it would effect the audience and also what went well in the film and if we had more time, what would we do next. We also commented on how the texts combine with the main product to give it the horror film.
Enjoy!

Evaluation Task One - Special Effects

We understood that special effects was one of the main key areas about making a successful horror trailer and how it helps to increase the suspense, the effects help to increase the realism of the film. For example, we studied the film/trailer of Grave Encounters, and studied the way at how they used their special effects to enhance the realism and the impact of their film. The effects they used were very minimal but had a huge impact on the film/trailer, they used a glitch effect in the film, this is to give the impression that something was wrong with the camera and that when text came up in the trailer, it would have the same effect, glitching to enhance the effects and impact on the audience. In our production, we didn’t want to overcomplicate the trailer with various different special effects as we thought that it wouldn’t have the same effect as it would do, so we decided to use minimal effects and natural camera shots and locations to make it as effective as we can. We knew this would be the best way on how to attract an audience.

One thing we had done was a lot of research of many different types of found footage horror films and most of them used the glitch effect. We started to do more research on the glitch effect and how we can introduce this into our production, fortunately, in the editing software that I used to edit the film, there was a TV Simulation effect, this was great to use as it gave us the same effect as the glitch effect and making the audience think that there was something wrong with our camera when filming. We thought that using this effect, that it would be a simple way to make the trailer look better and giving it more quality, attracting a wide range of audiences. We also used some faded shots at the start of our trailer, but as the trailer progressed, these fades were not necessary due to the increase of intensity of our trailer, where we started to use hard cut shots or implicate the intensity and also the horror feel. 

This editing technique shown above, was used as a very snappy way to change shots, and video footage. Making it seem as if something is faulty was a very efficient way of reaching to the audience and implying this is a high budget film.

Smudging the writing, again, making it look as if there is a fault, quick and meaningful way of setting a superior image for the film.

Evaluation Task One - Characters

Throughout our whole planning phase of our trailer, we realised that the relevance of the characters needed to have as much or as little camera time as possible, to ensure that we give the right effect and impact on the audience. We wanted to maximise the amount of characters that we were going to include in our film trailer to express the broad feeling. We introduced the characters in our project at around the same time, so the audience knows who the main protagonists are and by showing the glimpse of the antagonist at the end helps the audience identify the information and that they can also gain more information by watching the entire movie and that they will gain more of an interest from the trailer.

Going back to Propp’s narrative theory, this theory was a vital aspect to our production. In the trailer, we wanted to show the protagonists (heroes) first, although, the audience doesn’t find that our in our trailer, we tried to follow the introduction of characters to the helper and villain. The audience identifies Dan and I having the same importance throughout the trailer, due to us having the same amount of prevalence in our production, but later on in the trailer, there is the disappearance of Dan and more screen prevalence of myself, to increase the question raised by the audience, where did Dan go? When do we next see him? What happened to him?

Horror is a difficult genre to try and cooperate with the character introduction, we both has a mutual decision of making our horror production a found footage horror, where we see many point of view shots of the characters, Dan and I, giving the same amount of screen prevalence but also that it was easier to produce and also having the same effect on the audience as a conventional horror film. We see from the first shot, there is an introduction where Dan is explaining the setting of our trailer and myself filming him like it’s a documentary. Where you see in the next shot, that myself are trying to have a joke with Dan but he seems quite concerned and worried about the area we were in. We both introduced with dialogue where Dan was speaking to the camera and myself was speaking to Dan. To the audience may already imply that Dan and I might become victims of something as it is shown at the introduction of the trailer.

During the last scene of the trailer, being in a car down a country road, giving the effect that we are trying to escape from somewhere/something, another character is introduced, the antagonist. From an audience prospective, this gives the feeling or the question if it is either Dan or I. With having a bright light shining of the person, this has a cliff hanger effect that is introduced on the audience, once again, raising more questions and suspicion as the trailer ends. Dan and I wanted to give the audience this influence and want them to watch the film in order to find out who or what the person is.

In this shot, we can see Dan introducing the setting and explaining to the audience where it is based, also introducing Dan's character of Denzel 

This shot at the end of the film implements the cliff hanger we wanted to have on the audience as it shows a mysterious figure and want the audience to raise questions about the person and want them to watch the whole film. 

Evaluation Task One - Narrative

I felt as if the research and planning stage was the reason why our story made a lot of sense. Thanks to the detailed storyboard that Dan had prepared, we had a clear idea and thus we believed our understanding would also give the audience a clear idea of how we wanted the trailer to look and what sort of a storyline it was trying to portray, also keeping in mind on how much of an impact we wanted to put on the audience, giving them the fear factor.

In our trailer, we wanted to convoy and conform our horror genre as much as possible, this is why we wanted to add so many different dark and scary scenes. We also followed the conventions of the horror genre as we decided to follow the Todorov’s narrative structure to a certain extent. The only bit that couldn’t be identified was the initial equilibrium and we done this on purpose to make it less conventional thus it being different, but also I felt that having an initial equilibrium will negatively affect what we are trying to tell the audience as we wanted to show that the actors, Dan and I, are on a mission from the beginning of the trailer, to the end, thus there is no equilibrium that we are happy with. Despite this, we followed the middle step of Todorov’s narrative structure, but due to it being a trailer, there is no ending as we don’t show what happens to the actors, which is the whole point of a trailer, not to give away too much information and want the audience to watch the whole film, but we are also making this conventional in some ways.

In the trailer, we aim to be as conventional as we can and try to understand these conventions, and this is what the audience is going to expect from the trailer and from the initial genre and thus we must follow them in order for our trailer to be successful and also to meet the needs of our target audience. We decided the way in which we would differentiate ourselves to any other horror genre, this is by reducing and using less conventions to surprise the target audience and not to make our film become a typical horror/drama movie where the audience can predict what going to happen next. During our research and planning into the horror genre, there was a noticeable theory, that the majority of the horror movies/trailers followed Todorov’s narrative structure and so we knew the relevance of this. It also helped us save more time when producing the trailer as it gave us both an initial idea of how we were going to set up our final product.

The Narrative of the story is very simple, two students filmmakers, wanted to find out the truth about the haunted cemetery, taking a few torches and cameras with them to capture the evidence. Later finding out the rumours about the cemetery are real, ending up losing each other and disappearing. I believe we got that across quite well, as we have titles in the trailer stating the situations.

Screenshot shows the title from the trailer where we are giving information to the audience about the narrative, this could potentially attract students and young adults as the story is involving people their age and their position (e.g. at school)

Evaluation Task One - Title fonts and Styles

Titles and text is a vital part to the success our film trailer. Not only can text act as a piece of nonverbal dialogue but it also helps dictate the pace and also helps increase intensity in the trailer. This is why we decided to spread out the text, this is to have a bigger impact on the audience and also to increase the tension in the trailer, conforming to the horror conventions. I felt like that in our trailer, we did this well, this is because we used the right stereotypical conventions of a horror genre and what we needed to associate our film with. Through our research and planning, there was a noticeable change in the pace of the text in the genre, this is why we decided to include a lot of text to help increase the pace and also the intensity/fear it would have on the audience. One disadvantage to adding a lot of text is that the audience may not identify most of the importance piece of text that we used. We managed to get over this disadvantage by adding the title of the film “More Than Human” at the end of our trailer. This is because we learnt that people recognise and identify the titles as important text and that they also remember the start and the end of the trailers, this is why we gave this more prevalence.

Here is an example of some of the text that we included and the purposes of these pieces of texts are to dictate the pace of the trailer which is also accompanied by the sound as well. These titles were used to show a change in location as well. I felt as if these titles were a vital part to the success of the trailer and made it seem much longer than it actually was. This is because the constant changes in pace in such a short period of time makes it feel much longer

Evaluation One Task - Camerawork and Editing

We understood the importance of the use of editing and camerawork in our trailer, and also how it can help make us succeed. All conventional trailers have smooth editing and also use a wide range of different editing techniques but also camera shots to enhance the intensity and enjoyment of the trailer. I believe that the different types of camera work along with the different types of editing techniques used in our trailer enabled us to allow the footage run smoothly and kept it flowing. This could be identified in our scary place build up, where Dan and I were using the same type of scary/fear combinations throughout the trailer but the different uses of fades/cuts which contrasted the length of the shots made it feel different and more effective. The use of the camera work that Dan and I used could really be identified by the use of different camera angles in which we used. These different camera angles added to the intensity feel of the trailer and the fast pace of the sound/music/dialect.

I feel like that in our trailer is to an extent conventional in regards to the editing and camerawork. We used a range of different quick nappy shots that got the audience interested and to increase the intensity of our trailer, along with the use of fades which can be conformed to other different horror genre trailers, but we also consistently changed the camera angles and made it less conventional to the genre, but also added a lot of effects as shown by the screenshot below.

Here is a screenshot to show the use of our camera work. We closed up on Dan's face and thought of this shot very carefully as there is no movement in the background. It is a POV (Point of View) shot, just in formation with the genre of the film. Furthermore, the camera is at a very low angle which shows hints of the unconventional style.

Evaluation Task One - Costumes/Props

In our trailer, we decided to limit the amount of props and costumes used, even though we understood how someone’s appearance can offer assumptions to the audience by the nature of the genre, using many costumes would question the suitability of the scenes. Also, we also knew that the costumes could also add to the realism of the trailer and contrast to the locations and settings we had used. We used small amount of different costumes to make it feel real that this is happening in or around a day or a couple days, so the audience can relate to the story line. 

This is something that was picked up in our research and planning, through the use of the found footage horror film, Grave Encounters 1 and Grave encounters 2, where the characters were in an area for a couple of days and still wore the same clothes, signifying that they were trapped/lost, in our film trailer, this is something that I believe we did well and had an impact on the audience.

In our trailer, we also used other conventional props that may or may not been as noticeable, but this can also add the realism to the trailer and also the feel of realness to the trailer. One of these props that were used was the torch that I held when I was giving the realism that I was lost in the dark.

One thing that I felt that could’ve been done better in this area would be that a more formal dress code could’ve been used to obtain a better back story but also that may not conform the conventional stereotypes of a found footage horror film, where they would normal wear non formal clothing as it is felt like their only going out for a night or a couple of hours

Here is a screenshot of the torch light being used, in the dark. The light I am using is a very important prop that is required to tell the audience the basic idea of the movie and makes the trailer much more understandable. As you can see, the light is the only prop in some shots. This gives it most prevalence and catches the audience's eye in the shot which again helps the audience identify the genre in the movie.

Here is a screenshot of Dan, again. As you can see here, as he is being filmed, he is also using a camera; this would a prop used to make it seem as if we were filming each other whilst following the narrative. Moreover, it also compliments the genre as it looks very realistic.

Evaluation Task One - Location/Setting

Though out our trailer, we had to understand that there had to be a whole range of different locations and settings for different shots, this was because Dan and I, in our trailer are split up and trying to find each other, which resulted in the use of different places to shoot out trailer. We introduced different locations throughout the trailer not really giving any prevalence to a specific location but it's rather spread out. We used a number of shots to show these locations which I believe can be seen by the choice of screenshots that I have taken below. 

There was a whole range of ideas that went well in our film trailer, one of them was the range of different shots used, this was to show the audience all of the different locations, but it also tells the audience the story line. An example of the wide range shots was when we did an establishing shot of the cemetery. Personally, the establishing shot was a unique shot in comparison to some of the other shots that were used in our trailer. Furthermore, the establishing shot was going to be one of the main shots that we were going to use in our trailer, which does not only just show the importance and in depth of our research and planning but also tells us that we have prepared and planned properly for our trailer.

Personally, I feel that the choice of locations used for our trailer were the ideal settings for the horror genre. These different types of locations that were used consisted of going to various different graveyards (Ewell/Highgate Cemetery), various woodlands/fields and a drive in the countryside at night. All of these different locations showed off our story line, plus it also showed the audience that Dan and I are from a middle class background, which would appeal to out C1, C2 and D target audiences. Also, the working class background can be seen through some of the clothes that were worn by Dan and I, but also the dialect used in our film that both of us used, can also be used by the public in everyday use by a typical teenage audience in the present era.

Here is a location with Dan being filmed in Ewell Cemetery. The camera stays onto Dan but we still continue to see the background. We see almost all of the cemetery which shows that this was a perfect position to take this shot from as it can clearly be identified as an establishing shot.

Here we have an establishing shot of the wooded area location, where we can see Dan running away. This is to give the audience the feel that Dan is running away from something or someone.

Evaluation Task One - Title of the Film

Here are a number of screenshots taken from our trailer. All of these screenshots have some important input to our trailer whether it is setting a location or introducing a new character. This part of the evaluation reinforces why we had put some shots in the trailer.

Title of our film:

Over time, it took a lot of thought for producing a film title, we both (Dan and I) decided to go for the film title 'More Than Human'. This took a lot of thinking time to try and come up with the title, this is due to us going through different situations and positions and trying to apply a number of names to try and fit the genre of our film, which is a found footage horror film. We got the idea from many different found footage films, which helped increase a more effective horror title. Below is the names of some found footage films that helped in the process of deciding a film title.

• Grave Encounters 1 + 2
• The Blair Witch Project
• The Paranormal Activity 
• As above, so below
• The Devil Inside
• Cloverfield
• A Night in the Woods
• Diary of the Dead
• The Collingswood Story
• Unaware

The title above, is one of the fonts we used to try and use to help fit our genre, but we felt like that this was a bit to much as we researched many different found footage horror films and they have a plain, computerized, font which has an effect on the audience.

The title above is on a black background and in a plain, computerized font called "Mathematics" which gave the trailer a more of a found footage horror effect. We decided on this as we both felt it would increase the tension and also due to the white writing contrasting the black background, we were going back to the traditional horror conventions.

One reason why I felt this was a good decision for our specific trailer is because we had a lot of dialect in the form of text on the screen and so we had to make this piece of text more important than the rest and thus we put it at the end as it will be the last thing the audience remembers. People tend remember the start and end of any piece of information and that was the reason why we put it right at the end.   

We also knew that we must differentiate the title from the rest of the text dialogue within the trailer. We kept the font the same as all trailers have a conventional "One Font" system to not over complicate it and we also followed this