Conventional Trailer?

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Analyzing my survey monkey questionnaire

I decided to ask this question because it is important that my trailer is conventional and that the images, themes and genre is put across correctly to the audience, this question got 100% on horror which is excellent and is what I wanted for this trailer.

For my trailer to be conventional it must have a fast pace, have creepy music that builds up suspense. The majority of the people that took part agreed that my trailer was conventional which is very good and is what I wanted. The person that said no could be referring to the lack of video footage which was due to the filming being in poor lighting and the second shooting having to change actress and wasn't as professional.

I thought it was important to ask this because my initial feedback on my first ever attempt of exporting my trailer people said that there was no narrative presented in the trailer. I then added the typography at the beginning to make it clear to the audience about what the plot and what to expect with the cliche of until now ending the titles. The results where mixed about 3/4 of the people said it didn't need one and only 1/4 said that it did which was interesting. I think the voice over could work however it would have to be the correct voice and as the majority say it doesn't need one I am not going to have one.

The typography is important because this helps portray the genre of the trailer. I downloaded the font from dafont.com under the typewriter section, I chose to do that because the idea of the trailer is that this footage has been found and is evidence that something exists and that girls have been disappearing and the typography is the style on a video camera or on a computer reflecting this hand held style film.

Linking to the question above I thought that my audience should get an idea of what to expect int he movie but only a tease that makes them want to go and watch the actual movie. 3 people said they didn't get an idea of what the movie was about which again could be down to the lack of good footage I was able to use due to the poor lighting but 16 people agreed that you did get an idea which was important and is a good aspect of my movie to tease the audience but still present the traditional conventional teen horror.

The pace of the trailer is important because if the clips are too long it becomes boring and people no longer want to watch the movie. I added an effect on final cut pro called blink which flickered in and out of the final scenes when the suspense was building up. 16 people said that the pace was quick enough and 3 said that it wasn't which could be that the title pages were too long, but the clips themselves were already massively reduced down. 

Question 7 - I asked for written feedback

"I'd improve it by maybe slowing down the writing at the end. I liked the old style of movie reel."

"You could do with a bit more information, and I liked the word font"

"I think in the last part the pace is a little too fast, where the text appears and says something along the line of, 'you wouldnt want to watch alone' i had to rewind to reread what it said. Really like the scream and other noises, heavy breathing or something could have worked well where there wasnt much sound"

"One thing I liked: the tension in the trailer- especially during the typing at the start, made me very nervous as a viewer! one improvement: actually make the film too"

"I really liked the trailer, it was fast and you didn't know what to expect so it meant it was exciting to watch. Also I don't think that it needs any improvement!"

"Effects on the scream, potentially more screams at the same time."

"The trailer made great use of building suspense and relating the horror genre. only improvement would be to get a deep voiced voice over to emphasise the feeling of horror along with the typography."

"More flashing and distorted imagery, a faster pace will build more tension. But otherwise, really good"

"I thought the trailer was extremely riveting and the horror genre intrigued me as being the audience in. One improvement could potentially be add a longer video in."

"Some music playing, probally heavy metal something like that, or a creepy piano,- you can get a load of royalty free horror music from somewhere online"

"Some shots were held for too long. I loved the suspense it built up."

"I liked the typography, but it might be a bit bigger, and I loved the trailer overall, it made me wanna see it"

"Improvement- more footage of the film. What I liked- It was very eyecatching and keeps the viewer hooked"

"Improvement - make it a tad longer i liked that the story is about something up to date"

"Loved the end titles of alone ect"

As you can see from the above quotes there was a range of feedback, I used these as I was improving my trailer, the suggestions of using more clips I decided to add in the girl being dragged backwards which was on my second shoot but because the clip was so short it didn't matter about the different actress and this also linked into the quotes about increasing the pace and giving more footage. I also added a heart beat sound and increased the volume of this because there were a lot of suggestions about the sound effects used.