WHAT HAVE YOU
LEARNED FROM AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?
Gathering audience feedback has been vital in the process of making my trailer. To begin with , I established my audience was and I then researched them. Once I have gathered the information, I tired to incorporate as many of the elements as possible to ensure that my trailer is most effective at looking professional, good at portraying the horror genre ,and suitable for my target audience. This is some of the information I learnt from carrying out surveys:
- The Key elements of a trailer - I learnt that not much is revealed, because it is only a teaser trailer. I also learnt that cliff-hangers are popular, because it intrigues the audience because they want to know what happens next. An introduction to the story and characters is also another key element.
- Trailer length - From my survey I found that 18 out of 30 people questioned said that the length of a trailer should be between 31 seconds and 1 minute 30. I therefore tried to create my trailer to a time within this length range (although my final product was slightly over this).
- What people enjoy most about horror - POV shots, jumps and scares, fear factor
- Ideal release date - October/Halloween, Friday 13th
- Types of horror - psychological, slasher
Once I have created my trailer I also gathered feedback.
Again this was so that my trailer could be the most effective it could be.
After gathering the feedback , I created a final trailer with the alterations
stated below:
- more explanation needed (different to questionnaire answers though)
- more clips in montage
- some clips too long
- release date - not 'coming soon'
In conclusion, gathering audience feedback has been very
important and useful to understand audiences preferences. By understanding
them, I was able to create a trailer that was to my target audiences tastes,
and could create a professional trailer that was most effective and that
conformed to other trailer and horror genre conventions. It also helped me to
understand what worked and what didn't. Although I thought that some things
worked in my trailer, my target audience didn't agree with me on some things,
so understanding their point of view and changing it to suit their tastes was
therefore important.
HOW DID YOU USE
MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION
STAGES?
RESEARCH:
Survey Monkey - Before I could carry out any tasks I needed to gather information about my target audience and about horror trailer/film conventions. I decided to use a questionnaire to collect this data, and to create the questionnaire I used the website www.SurveyMonkey.com. This is a website that allows you to create your own online questionnaire, with many different question types you can ask. This website allowed me to ask both open and closed questions, with comment boxes for open questions and poll type answering options for the closed questions. Once I had created the questionnaire I was able to link people the URL it so that they could answer the questionnaire. Using this technology was also extremely beneficial because the website collects all of the data and displays it neatly in either small graphs or lists of the answers to the open ended questions. This saved me time as I therefore didn't have to count all of the answers myself and type out all of the answers to the open ended questions.
Email - Once my questionnaire was created I decided to email people the URL to it, and I kindly asked them in the email if they would fill out the questionnaire. Using email technology was beneficial because I could easily control who I was sending my questionnaire to, and it also meant that I could easily and quickly communicate with the people who I sent the email to (which was a good idea because a couple of people had a few questions to ask me about it).
YouTube and IMDB - To carry out research of horror teaser trailers, I first had to find the trailers to analyse them. To do this I used both YouTube (the world's biggest internet video sharing website), and IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base, which has information, reviews, clips and trailers of films). Using these websites allowed me to watch the trailers online very easily, and I was able to pause the videos at certain points to take notes/analyse what happened in the trailer.
PLANNING:
Google images - For the planning of my media I didn't really use any media technology, but I did use Google images. I used this image search engine to find a template for my storyboard. Using this search engine meant that many results were found and I eventually found one like I liked and used. Although, using a template annoyed me after a while because I couldn't add in shots/ideas once I had drawn in the boxes. I therefore used post it notes instead to do my storyboard so I could re-arrange the shots once I had drawn them all.
Post It notes - This is the least technologically advanced thing to use for planning, yet I found them so useful!! I used them when creating my storyboard and used them all the time when I needed to jot down memo's/ideas and to do lists. I also used a lot of pens and paper when drawing brain storms and jotting down different ideas for my media products.
CONSTRUCTION:
iPhone 4s - To film my footage I used an iPhone 4s. This is because this phone has a DSLR chip in the camera, meaning that the quality is very high quality. This worked very well and I was able to manually focus the camera, shoot the clips and edit them well because the quality of them was very good. The cameras has auto brightness, contrast and exposure, meaning also that the image quality is brilliant.
iMovie - Once I had filmed, I used a programme called iMovie to construct my trailer. This software is installed on Apple Mac computers and is for video editing. Using this programme had many benefits for me. It let me easily import my media files, and let me cut them and let me place them in any order I wanted. I then could add transitions between each clip (although a limitation was that there were not many transitions available to use on this software, and I would have had to use another programme to create more if I needed them). iMovie also let me add in titles in my trailer, so I created some (such as the title saying 'THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE ALONE'), which was very easy to do. iMovie was also useful for adding in audio, as I could easily drag in some preset sound effects into my trailer, and could also import other audio to the programme too. Adding some basic colour effects and audio effects was also possible on this programme, and I feel that they worked well for my trailer.
Although, there were some problems/limitations of using iMovie. This software comes free with all Apple Mac computers, so I did not expect it to be amazing anyway. After saving my project a few times and coming back to it, iMovie had craeted a few changes, such as changing audio volumes and title lengths. I therefore had to go through all of these issues and correct them again, which took some time. iMovie was also not a professional enough programme for me to create my film title sequence on (although it is only a free programme), because it does not have the technology to let me do this.
This is a print screen to show what iMovie looks like
After Effects - Because iMovie wasn't professional enough for me to create my title sequence on, I used After Effects instead. After Effects is another piece of editing software for videos, but allows you to edit videos at a more advanced level than iMovie does. After Effects lets you add custom effects on top of videos, and lets you create your own title sequences etc. I therefore used this programme to create my title sequence. But, I was new to After Effects, so I used a tutorial on YouTube to help me create my title (a video to show how to create a static video effect on After Effects). I am very very happy with the end result of title sequence (the one that reveals the film name 'Slender' at the end of the trailer). I then used After Effects again after constructing my trailer on iMovie. This was so that I could add a vignette filter to my whole trailer. This is a filter that was not available on iMovie, which in my opinion makes the trailer look more professional and more suited to the horror genre because it makes the trailer darker on the outside edges. Using After Effects was therefore very important and useful in the construction of my trailer.
This is a print screen to show what After Effects looks like
Downloading fonts - I already had an idea of what I wanted my font to look like, and the programs I was using did not have a font similar (to look like someone had handwritten the writing and gone over it many times). So, I used Google and found a website that you can download fonts for free from. Www.dafont.com is the website where I found my font from, and I followed the easy steps on the website and downloaded the font for free. This advancement in technology meant that I was able to get the font I wanted (and that was suitable) for my film trailer, and for free.
EVALUATION:
YouTube - I used YouTube again for my evaluation. I used YouTube because it is the world's largest internet video sharing website, which allows individuals to comment, like/dislike and share videos on. I therefore posted my trailer drafts on it, which then meant that I could link people my trailer and could collect feedback from people across the world. This is an example of Web 2.0 because people can interact with my media, and it helped me with the evaluation of my trailer because I could gain other peoples opinions and incorporate them into my final trailer. YouTube today is a big advertising platform that film company's use to advertise their films (in the form of trailers), so using this website means that my trailer is more professional and public (because anyone online can see it). YouTube was also very useful because it links to other social networking sites. From posting my video on YouTube, I was able to link it to my Twitter and Facebook page, so that more people are likely to see my trailer and therefore I had more chance of receiving feedback on my trailer. Although, a drawback of using YouTube for evaluation is that individuals are required to have a Google or YouTube account in order to be able to comment on or like/dislike my video. This is a drawback because not everyone will have one of these accounts, so the chances of getting feedback are limited in this way.
Showing class mates - As well as using YouTube to show people my trailer to get feedback, I also just showed my classmates. Because my phone is able to play videos on, I therefore used this to show my fellow class mates my trailer. This was beneficial because it meant that they could watch the trailer where they were, as it didn't require them to have internet access or have to log onto a computer to view my trailer. Showing my classmates was useful because they are also making similar media products, so can leave me constructive feedback on how to improve my trailer. Although, a drawback of using this method of evaluation is that the screen of my phone (an iPhone 4s) is not very big, so showing them my trailer on this was not as good as showing them on a computer, because they can't pay as much attention to detail because screen is so small.
RESEARCH:
Survey Monkey - Before I could carry out any tasks I needed to gather information about my target audience and about horror trailer/film conventions. I decided to use a questionnaire to collect this data, and to create the questionnaire I used the website www.SurveyMonkey.com. This is a website that allows you to create your own online questionnaire, with many different question types you can ask. This website allowed me to ask both open and closed questions, with comment boxes for open questions and poll type answering options for the closed questions. Once I had created the questionnaire I was able to link people the URL it so that they could answer the questionnaire. Using this technology was also extremely beneficial because the website collects all of the data and displays it neatly in either small graphs or lists of the answers to the open ended questions. This saved me time as I therefore didn't have to count all of the answers myself and type out all of the answers to the open ended questions.
Email - Once my questionnaire was created I decided to email people the URL to it, and I kindly asked them in the email if they would fill out the questionnaire. Using email technology was beneficial because I could easily control who I was sending my questionnaire to, and it also meant that I could easily and quickly communicate with the people who I sent the email to (which was a good idea because a couple of people had a few questions to ask me about it).
YouTube and IMDB - To carry out research of horror teaser trailers, I first had to find the trailers to analyse them. To do this I used both YouTube (the world's biggest internet video sharing website), and IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base, which has information, reviews, clips and trailers of films). Using these websites allowed me to watch the trailers online very easily, and I was able to pause the videos at certain points to take notes/analyse what happened in the trailer.
PLANNING:
Google images - For the planning of my media I didn't really use any media technology, but I did use Google images. I used this image search engine to find a template for my storyboard. Using this search engine meant that many results were found and I eventually found one like I liked and used. Although, using a template annoyed me after a while because I couldn't add in shots/ideas once I had drawn in the boxes. I therefore used post it notes instead to do my storyboard so I could re-arrange the shots once I had drawn them all.
Post It notes - This is the least technologically advanced thing to use for planning, yet I found them so useful!! I used them when creating my storyboard and used them all the time when I needed to jot down memo's/ideas and to do lists. I also used a lot of pens and paper when drawing brain storms and jotting down different ideas for my media products.
CONSTRUCTION:
iPhone 4s - To film my footage I used an iPhone 4s. This is because this phone has a DSLR chip in the camera, meaning that the quality is very high quality. This worked very well and I was able to manually focus the camera, shoot the clips and edit them well because the quality of them was very good. The cameras has auto brightness, contrast and exposure, meaning also that the image quality is brilliant.
iMovie - Once I had filmed, I used a programme called iMovie to construct my trailer. This software is installed on Apple Mac computers and is for video editing. Using this programme had many benefits for me. It let me easily import my media files, and let me cut them and let me place them in any order I wanted. I then could add transitions between each clip (although a limitation was that there were not many transitions available to use on this software, and I would have had to use another programme to create more if I needed them). iMovie also let me add in titles in my trailer, so I created some (such as the title saying 'THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE ALONE'), which was very easy to do. iMovie was also useful for adding in audio, as I could easily drag in some preset sound effects into my trailer, and could also import other audio to the programme too. Adding some basic colour effects and audio effects was also possible on this programme, and I feel that they worked well for my trailer.
Although, there were some problems/limitations of using iMovie. This software comes free with all Apple Mac computers, so I did not expect it to be amazing anyway. After saving my project a few times and coming back to it, iMovie had craeted a few changes, such as changing audio volumes and title lengths. I therefore had to go through all of these issues and correct them again, which took some time. iMovie was also not a professional enough programme for me to create my film title sequence on (although it is only a free programme), because it does not have the technology to let me do this.
This is a print screen to show what iMovie looks like
After Effects - Because iMovie wasn't professional enough for me to create my title sequence on, I used After Effects instead. After Effects is another piece of editing software for videos, but allows you to edit videos at a more advanced level than iMovie does. After Effects lets you add custom effects on top of videos, and lets you create your own title sequences etc. I therefore used this programme to create my title sequence. But, I was new to After Effects, so I used a tutorial on YouTube to help me create my title (a video to show how to create a static video effect on After Effects). I am very very happy with the end result of title sequence (the one that reveals the film name 'Slender' at the end of the trailer). I then used After Effects again after constructing my trailer on iMovie. This was so that I could add a vignette filter to my whole trailer. This is a filter that was not available on iMovie, which in my opinion makes the trailer look more professional and more suited to the horror genre because it makes the trailer darker on the outside edges. Using After Effects was therefore very important and useful in the construction of my trailer.
This is a print screen to show what After Effects looks likeDownloading fonts - I already had an idea of what I wanted my font to look like, and the programs I was using did not have a font similar (to look like someone had handwritten the writing and gone over it many times). So, I used Google and found a website that you can download fonts for free from. Www.dafont.com is the website where I found my font from, and I followed the easy steps on the website and downloaded the font for free. This advancement in technology meant that I was able to get the font I wanted (and that was suitable) for my film trailer, and for free.
YouTube - I used YouTube again for my evaluation. I used YouTube because it is the world's largest internet video sharing website, which allows individuals to comment, like/dislike and share videos on. I therefore posted my trailer drafts on it, which then meant that I could link people my trailer and could collect feedback from people across the world. This is an example of Web 2.0 because people can interact with my media, and it helped me with the evaluation of my trailer because I could gain other peoples opinions and incorporate them into my final trailer. YouTube today is a big advertising platform that film company's use to advertise their films (in the form of trailers), so using this website means that my trailer is more professional and public (because anyone online can see it). YouTube was also very useful because it links to other social networking sites. From posting my video on YouTube, I was able to link it to my Twitter and Facebook page, so that more people are likely to see my trailer and therefore I had more chance of receiving feedback on my trailer. Although, a drawback of using YouTube for evaluation is that individuals are required to have a Google or YouTube account in order to be able to comment on or like/dislike my video. This is a drawback because not everyone will have one of these accounts, so the chances of getting feedback are limited in this way.
Showing class mates - As well as using YouTube to show people my trailer to get feedback, I also just showed my classmates. Because my phone is able to play videos on, I therefore used this to show my fellow class mates my trailer. This was beneficial because it meant that they could watch the trailer where they were, as it didn't require them to have internet access or have to log onto a computer to view my trailer. Showing my classmates was useful because they are also making similar media products, so can leave me constructive feedback on how to improve my trailer. Although, a drawback of using this method of evaluation is that the screen of my phone (an iPhone 4s) is not very big, so showing them my trailer on this was not as good as showing them on a computer, because they can't pay as much attention to detail because screen is so small.
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