What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

After showing our trailer to an audience of both male and females aged between 17 and 20, we got some interesting feedback on both the good and bad points about the trailer as both a teaser and a horror text.

Good Points.
A lot of people found the intertitles effective and thought that they fitted well with the horror theme. The opening scenes in the toilets were said to be a good introduction to the film because the use of a normal everyday environment and then moving onto the enigma of the troubled events later fits with the horror conventions. As it is set in a school it also gives a sense of innocence and naivety. The close up shots used were said to be used very effectively because they were sinister and frightening and the sound effects of the 'booms' when zooming into the taps and sink worked well. The constant slow zoom throughout our trailer worked well because it kept movement all the way through. The strange angles and camera movements such as the tilt up the monsters body to her head and the shot of the running taps were said to be creative and again, fitted in with the horror conventions of the view point being unusual. The shot of the silohuette monster at the top of the stairs, with the light shining from behind was compared, by a horror film fan, to a scene from the well known horror film 'Texas Chainshaw Massacre' which shows that our camera shots are fitting with the horror conventions well.
 However, one person did say that they liked the hanging feet shot as it created a sense of mystery because you were unable to see the face of the victim.
The sound track we used was generally seen as a good choice,  The hiss was a great success and did infact make a few viewers literally jump in their seats.
Another shot that was enjoyed by the audience was the slow sway of the light revealing the monster and then the monster suddenly disappearing because it was ghostly, mysterious and unsual and fitted well with both our story line and expected horror forms and conventions.

Bad Points.
It was pointed out that the film title was very similar to the intertitles throughout the trailer and it was suggested that this should be changed to make the film title stand out more as it is a very important feature to the trailer because it has to be remembered. The audio in the opening toilet scenes part of the track however ("See, I told you nothing would happen."), was said to be unclear and confused the viewer as to what was happening. The slight echo on the voice could be the problem in this shot. One problem that was brought up by the majority of our audience was that the outside shots (eg. the running and hanging feet) were too random as it flicked between being indoors to being outside and they were confused as to why we had ventured outside when it had began set inside the school. As we shot in the daytime this was also a problem of lighting and the audience felt that flicking between lighter shots and darker shots didn't work so well. Admittedly, we did have some problems when editing the outside scenes to make them darker and they did not turn out as well as we hoped. It was mentioned by a few people that the soundtrack could've fitted better with the pace of the trailer. A big problem was that it faded out too soon at the end of the trailer before the mosnters 'hiss'.


Overall I have learnt that generally our trailer was a success, however there were a few pieces which may need tweaking to make it that little bit better such as the fading music at the end. I was a little dissappointed by the lack of enthusiam towards the outdoor shots, however I can see how they don't work as well as we expected.