Evaluation Activity 4: Equipment Overview

This is the camera we used to film our trailer, a GoPro Hero 3+. We were very happy with this cameras quality as it shot in 1080p and also had several other functions we used to our advantage, such as the wide angle lens that caught everything in the background of each shot. It also did an excellent job at picking up sound, resulting in a very professional looking trailer.

This is the jacket that our antagonist used as a costume in our trailer. We chose this jacket as it was entirely black and had a hood. Black was important to make our character seem threatening and to tie symbolic codes of darkness to our villain. The hood was important to raise enigma codes surrounding the characters identity.

This was one of the most important props of our trailer; our killers kitchen knife. We drew focus to it near the beginning of our trailer when our killer is cleaning the knife of his victims blood and toward the end of the trailer when he is walking around our protagonists house. It was important to make sure the audience were aware of this prop as without it the threat and fear factor of our villain significantly decreases.

This is the TV we use in our trailer. In the first scene set in our protagonists house it is the TV that shows our news report on the escaped killer to our lead actresses. To show our filmed news report on the TV we had to upload the footage on to youtube and then access youtube through the TV. We were lucky that the TV was a new one that had such technology on it. It was relatively simple to set up and proved to be very effective in our final trailer.

Evaluation Activity 3: Audience Feedback

This is our audience response.

Strengths that were pointed out to us in the response were the various different camera angles we used throughout the trailer, especially the CCTV camera we used were effective in showing various different perspectives. We were also told that all the small diegetic sounds that we used were effective in making the trailer seem realistic which drew the audience in. The tense music we used was also believed to be a strength because it kept the audience on edge throughout the trailer, the static we also used was able to effectively break up the shots in-between the CCTV shots. Another strength was the fact that the antagonist was wearing all black, which helps him conform to what an audience would expect him to wear. The setting was also another strength as the house setting allowed the audience to relate to the events in the film, which makes it appear more scary to the audience, our titles were also used effectively as it links into the increasing strength of the storm. The faded transitions we used between most shots helped create tension, and the link between the scenes and the music was effective.

The weaknesses from our trailer were also pointed out to us, such as the fact that the camera was at times wobbling gently in the trailer this degraded the quality of the trailer. When it came to sound we were told the static transition was way too loud and there was some interference from the background in our news report.

Evaluation Task 2: Directors Commentary

Actors Interviews

Screenshot Evaluation 9: Special Effects

This shot shows our antagonist just after killing his first victim. It is a high-angled long shot which shows the character walking down a path, away from the scene of the crime. We put a black and white filter on the footage as a special effect to give the effect of the events being captured by a CCTV camera. This shows the audience how their lack of information on the characters identity and motivation is evident in the world of the film as well, with the CCTV footage obtained also unable to offer any new clues to anyone reviewing it.

The lack of colour in this shot matches the dark nature of the story at this stage, with a random innocent person having just been murdered by our killer. The overgrown bushes, dirty river and grime on the bridge also fits with the tone of the scene. We subvert a convention of most horror films with this shot by showing our antagonist in a high-angled shot. This could suggest a vulnerability in our villain but could also serve to create more tension among the audience by placing them in a position of power after our killer has claimed his first victim.

Screenshot Evaluation 8: How Characters are Introduced

This shot is from the part of our trailer where our villain stalks and kills his first victim. This is the clearest shot of the antagonist that the audience gets in the trailer, without giving too much away about his identity. We set this shot up carefully so that the lighting meant the characters face was not visible and that he still came across as more of a silhouette  to the audience. We show him cleaning blood off of his knife nonchalantly, giving the audience a good idea of the cold hearted nature of the character as well as his murderous intent.

The location of the shot, with the overgrown bushes and dark pathways under bridges is meant to give an idea of the characters hiding away from normal civilisation and lurking in the untouched corners. The character is also surrounded by stinging nettles, carrying the symbolic code of pain and suffering which the audience should associate with the character.

Screenshot Evaluation 7: Genre and how trailer suggests it

This shot is from the final act of our trailer, showing our 2 main protagonists watching our news broadcast at home before the killer turns up and switches the lights off. We set this shot up so the focal point of both the audience and our characters (the TV) was in the centre of the shot. This makes it more significant when the TV suddenly switches off, signalling the arrival of the antagonist.

This is the shot in our trailer that is most suggestive of the trailers genre by including several conventions. One of these conventions would be the 2 female characters who act as 'damsel in distress,' in the film purely as victims for our villain to hunt. Having female protagonists has become a convention of horror films as it attracts both female audience members and male audience members according to Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' theory. The second convention would be the diegetic sound of a knife being sharpened off-screen. The third convention is the power cut/ all lights being turned off by the antagonist to create fear. The final convention that ends our trailer would be the scream from one of our female characters. From all of these the audience cannot mistake our trailer as being anything other than a horror film.

Screenshot Evaluation 6: Story and how the trailer sets it up

This shot is from the introductory news broadcast that sets up the story of our film. We filmed this on a road between Leatherhead and Fetcham that was relatively quiet, which aided filming. We set the shot up in the same manner that we saw real news stories set up, with the reporter on the right-hand side of the screen and a location relative to the story taking up the background on the left-hand side. We made sure our reporter was dressed appropriately too add to the realism. We chose this location as it looked like an abandoned structure, covered in moss and with litter strewn across the floor. We thought this would look good as the asylum in our story that our antagonist escapes from as it looks generally creepy and would not be somewhere you would want to explore further.

We use the news broadcast to relay several key points of our narrative to the audience in a quick manner without it seeming forced, which would take away from the realism of our trailer as a whole. Here, the audience finds out that there is a dangerous killer who has escaped from a mental asylum and is now on the run, with no one knowing where he is. This is also how our protagonists find out about the antagonist in the film as he enters their house, meaning the method also progresses the plot rather than just informing the audience of the story.

Screenshot Evaluation 5: Title Font & Style

We conformed to one of the main conventions of a horror film in our trailer, the use of the "based on a true story" marketing tool. This encourages audience members to see the film to find out what happened, meaning the audience views seeing the film as informing themselves as well as being entertained. This also engages the audience more as it makes the events depicted onscreen more shocking and frightening if you believe they are based in reality and not limited to the confines of cinema. 

We decided to use a basic white on black colour scheme for our title cards, making it plain and easy to read. Black also fits with the genre as it connotes darkness and unknown, having a green background would not have fit with the tone and atmosphere we were trying to create. The font we chose is Orator, an old-style typewriter font that ties in nicely with the proposition of the story being true.

Screenshot Evaluation 4: Camerawork & Editing

This screenshot comes from the 2nd act in our trailer that involves our antagonist stalking and killing his first victim. We opted to use a low-angled mid-shot to show our killers movements as this empowered the character, making him seem more powerful and threatening as he is above the audience. This also helped to show less of the character, as was our intention throughout our trailer in order to create enigma codes surrounding our antagonists identity. In other shots involving our killer we could use lighting to help mask his face but as the location we used to film the above shot was well-lit we thought we would only focus on the bottom half of the character so as not to give too much away. 

Having the bottom half of the shot show the mud and the top half the sky and the trees offers a nice juxtaposition to the shot. Having a shot composed like this with contrasting features should have a slight unsettling effect on our audience, which is why we set up many of the shots involving this character in the same fashion.