What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Facebook Questionaire for Trailer:
1. Does my trailer work? Would you go to see it in a Cinema?
2. What aspects/features/shots/messages did you find most effective?
3. Could you tell what Genre the trailer was?
4. Did you understand the storyline/narrative?
5. Was the trailer too long/too short?
6. Did the trailer hold your interest or was it boring?
7. How did you respond to the look of the mise en scene (this can be sets, props, costumes, actors and lighting).
8. Did the music work? Did work well alongside the text and images? Did it help establish the genre of the trailer?
9. What do you think about how people are represented in my trailer? Do you think they look like stereotypical Romantic-Comedy characters?
10. Did you find the trailer amusing or humorous? Is there anyway I could have improved this?
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Audience Feedback for Magazine cover:
Audience Feedback for Film poster:
Results of Audience Feedback:
From my audience feedback I found that everyone seemed to think my trailer was good. One positive point I received was that the music worked well with the footage, it sequenced well and the songs themselves related closely to the storyline of the trailer.
Another positive constructive point was that the pacing was in proportion overall, however some of the feedback stated that the introduction sequence could have been shorter and have more variation of length and location.
From the audience feedback it was also stated that the use of sound effects helped to break up a sequence of shots and using a record scratch sound effect emphasised the concept of a “Cliff-hanger”.
One of the most important points that I have taken from my audience feedback was how clear it was to define what genre was. It was also mentioned that the storyline was easy to understand and the text tiles worked well to help the scenes tell the story.
Another main point that was stated was that the trailer was about the right length but most of the audience would have liked to see more evidence of what they were going to actually see and more clips of actual scenes and chemistry between the main characters. This would have been improved by using longer clips of actual scenes.
The feedback I received about the filming of the trailer revolved mostly around the locations, which most people said were dull and could have been more interesting. It was also said that the lighting of the shots could have also been improved
A part of feedback that I felt was most helpful was about the branding of the advertisement campaign. I was told that it could do with more development on the Logo because not everyone understood the maths graphic used in the title of the film.
One point which I am very pleased is the fact that the audience thought that the characters do conform to stereotypes, but to improve this, the audience would have liked to see more detail and contrast into the personas of the characters.
After viewing my trailer a few times I thought that it would be more effective and have a bigger impact on the audience if it was slightly longer. So I did some more filming to create some more comedy scenes to add to the concluding montage of my trailer. For this I used a meduim shot of the female character being pranked by the male character. This is followed by a close up of her reaction. I also decided to add more titles as a descriptive tool to help the audience gather what the content will be like. The trailer is then concluded bya medium shot of the two characters head to head on their laptops,which concludes the trailer on a humourous note. This scene is ended by a title of the release time and name of the film.
After receiving some constructive feedback from teachers and fellow pupils about my first movie magazine cover, I decided to design a second version . I thought that this would show variety in the style of my work. However, I did decide to keep the layout of the text and the photograph the same because I felt they worked well together.
I first began to design my new magazine cover by creating a new title. I decided to use the same name as my frist version, but changing the colour scheme and house style. I also wanted to relate the style of the title to the chosen name of the magazine and I eventually came up with the idea of a target in the space of the “O” letter.
To do this I copied an illustration of a target from Google images to a Photoshop file and then cut out the white rings of the target leaving only rings of red. I then filled these ring shapes with the same colour as my title to be in keeping with the new house style. I then moved the target to fit the inside the letter “O” by using the free transform tool. I then added a drop shadow in a light grey colour to create more impact on the title.
I then went on to add other text to promote the features of the magazine, for this I decided to maintain the orange/red colour that I had used for title, though unfortunately the colour of the text was quite hard to read. So to improve this I added dark grey rectangles underneath the text to make the text more distinguishable. I also played around with the angles of the text and rectangles that promoted the features of the magazine and found that the cover looked mor effective when the text was angled to create a circular shape; we can see this in slide three.
However, by doing this, it disrupted the photograph in the background and crowded the bottom half of the magazine, so I could not add any more text about features in that area. Instead I decided to remove over half of the text and rectangles and leave remaining two statements that gives the audience the basic idea of the feature, leaving a lot more space for subtitles I would be adding later on.Though I still felt that the cover still looked very basic so I decided to add an illustration of a film reel to build up the layers on the cover. I thought a film reel would be appropriate for a movie magazine because it could help the audience to understand the content of the magazine from a glance.
I first filled the image of the film reel in the same colour as the feature and title text, in order to co-ordinate with the developing house style of the magazine. I then positioned it vertically to the left hand side, which worked well with the left justified features text.However once I had moved onto creating subtitle text for the main feature of the magazine, an interview with Sabrina Ellsworth, the film reel image was taking up too much room and made the layout too crowed,aswell as being the same colour as the text. So to improve the layout I changed the colour of the illustration and then moved it using the free transform tool.
I first positioned it so that it crossed the top of the magazine cover,but when I layered the main title over it, it didn’t look as good as I hoped. I think this was because the photograph featured on the cover has some elements of symmetry in it and would benefit from a more symmetrical layout of text. So after experimenting with the angles of the illustration, the idea came to me, that it would look better if there were two images of the film reel crossing over each other,which also compliments the name of the magazine.
For the subtitle at the bottom of the page, I made the text much larger in order to gain more attention from viewers. I decided to maintain using the same red colour for this text, so that the whole magazine would be linked with a grey/red colour scheme. For finishing touches I added smaller text to explain some of the less important features, like Oscar Nominees etc. aswell as a date and tagline.I also added a drop shadow to all of the text on the magazine to help make the bright colour of the lettering stand out.
To open my trailer I thought it would be effective to introduce the characters by using full or medium shots of both characters on their way to work. I hoped that by doing this it would help the audience identify that my trailer is about the relationship between a man and a woman, in the form of a romantic comedy. I decided to use the song “What I like about you” by the Romantics, because it’s lyrics relate to the relationship that is building between the characters.
I then decided to introduce a medium shot of the two character meeting, in this shot I hoped to show the audience the friendly relationship between work colleagues and how it begins to grow into something more than friendship. The trailer then cuts to a close up shot of the male character making faces and laughing whilst driving, I included this shot in order to show the audience that the two characters are enjoying their time together outside of the office.
After the close up, I decided to add another full shot of both characters holding hands on the way to work because I wanted to emphasize the progress of the characters relationship, from work colleagues to lovers.
I then introduced a record scratch sound effect in order to disrupt the flow of the trailer, I wanted it to appear to the audience that in the next scene of the trailer there will be bad news of some kind .I used a tilt shot to establish where the bad news was coming from, this being the characters work place.
The trailer then moves onto a medium close up of the two characters being told the bad news that they both will be competing for their dream jobs.I decided to use dialouge in this scene to emphasise the sense of awkwardness that the characters would feel when finding out this type of news.I also thought that it would be better not to include the manager character from my footage,by only using his voice it meant that all attention was focused on the reaction of the two lead roles.
I then cut to a new soundtrack; “Hall and Oates- You make my dreams come true” which is a playful and energetic song that synchronizes with the titles and also compliments the scenes in the montage which concludes the trailer.
The concluding montage starts of with a point of view, close up of the female character laughing and smiling on a train, which implies that the two characters are still going to enjoy themselves and avoid getting completive with each other.
The next shot is of the same scene as before only through the female’s point of view. I used a close up of the male character to show that he is trying to make a joke out of the situation in order to assure the female character.
The trailer moves on to a medium close up of the male character admiring his beard and general looks in his bathroom mirror. The scene then cuts to a point of view shot from the female character’s perspective of the male character sleeping. We then see a close up from the male character’s point of view of the female character, who is about to shave the male character’s beard off and write on his face whilst he’s asleep.
I then used a medium shot in order to catch the male character’s reaction to his appearance in the mirror as he walks past it. This scene then quickly cuts to his reaction in close up, so the audience can see what the female character has done to him and his expression of rage.
When adding more material to my trailer,I felt that it needed a another song used in the background that reflected the upbeat mood of the scenes that begin to conclude the trailer. I have previously planned to use the song,”I want you to want me” by Letters to Cleo,however I found this didn’t really work well with the character types and storyline, so I researched some of my favourite romantic comedy trailers and came across a clip from the film “500 Days of Summer” which uses a song called “You make my dreams come true” by Hall and Oates.
Here is the clip that uses this song to emphasise the great mood that the character is feeling in “500 Days of Summer”.
I decided to remove the lift scene from the end of my trailer for now as I’m not sure where it would flow best until I add more scenes. I have also added titles to my trailer which are timed so that they synchronise with the new music. I decided to tailor the trailer titles to look similar to the advertisement campaign( poster and magazine), to be in keeping with the house style.
In this clip you will be able to see the titles with the music.
