What have you learnt from audience feedback?
After receiving our audience feedback I found that our trailer was successful and the class seemed to enjoy it, however there were a few parts we could have improved including the speed at the end, to make it faster, the smooth editing effects to make the trailer flow and some occasional scenes where more gore could be added. I strongly agreed with the change that could be made to the amount of gore used, I felt that as our aim was to produce a horror trailer, gore had to be a frequent feature throughout the trailer. After the focus group screening of our trailer we had a final score of 5.5/10. The audience liked the body horror effects and slashes to the face and neck as they believed this looked very realistic. Another part of our trailer that the audience liked was the fading mirror effect as it made the trailer look interesting and professional as this was a tough effect to pull off. We also found out that the choice of music and speed appealed to our audience as they liked the way it built up and created suspense and tension. Some other comments included the satisfaction of the angles and close ups used as the felt they worked well in our trailer. However there were a few areas that needed improving or changing, including the suggestion that as our trailer is a thriller there should be more aspects to horror and include some ‘jumpy bits’ to improve the trailer and the effect on the audience. Another point we received was to make the ending a lot faster and dramatic to make the narrative a lot clearer.
After receiving this audience feedback we did make a few last minute changes to our trailer, we created a scene that was showing Nicole slashing the scissors across Toms face to explain the reason for the gash on his face. The audience responded positively to this change as they were looking for more gore in the trailer. This scene included Tom spitting blood from his mouth as an effect of the cut on his face, we shot this scene as a close up so you couldn’t see Nicole’s hand to keep the story secretive and still leaving the audience questioned as to who done the murder.
After our evaluation screening I am happy with our audience response and think that our trailer appeals to our target audience of 15-35 year old as the audience who was giving us the feedback was from within that age range. They seemed happier with our changes and our final product therefore I feel confident that the target audience shall feel the same. My overall favourite aspect of the film has to be the montage mirror effect when my reflection disappears, this will slightly freak the audience out as it isn’t something they see every day and it leaves them with the question on whether it is their eyes deluding or whether the character is mentally unstable, which will confuse them even more as they would hope for the wife, Sue, to be the innocent character.
I have made both of my images on my magazine cover and poster centre of the page to draw the audience’s main attention towards the image and read about my film. I couldn't really advertise on a magazine in real life except by cleverly using a picture that helped the audience understand the story of my film. Nicole and me were very careful to take lots of pictures of the same idea to get across the plot of ‘Behind the Shadows’ then we used slightly different ones on each of our ancillary products. The main images on both the magazine and poster include something covering the mouth of either “Sue” or Sue’s work colleague as they are the main suspects of the film, this suggests to the readers that there is a secret or a revelation within the film which intrigues them to find out what it is.
When taking the pictures I chose to have a blank background so the image didn’t look to busy and the main focus was drawn to the hand covering the mouth so the audience are automatically curious as to what the film is about. Nearly all images on a poster or magazine cover have direct eye contact to its reader, I have also used close ups for both image as this creates a sense of emotional attachment between the audience and the image. 
