Evaluation Part 4.

What have you learnt from the Audience feedback?

During the course of the feedback, various points of our trailer were highlighted for both criticism and praise. Some main points that arose for critism was the ending, which the majority of the audience felt was lacking something to make them jump e.g. a sudden zombie appearence or something of that nature. I agreed with this, as up to this point nothing gave the right jumpy effect, and the ending was the perfect place for this to happen.

Another point in which we recieved criticism was the editing speed, some audience members felt that it needed to be sped up, in order to make the trailer flow better and make the action seem "more realistic", which to an extent, we agreed with - as the action was slow to progress during the intial feedback screening. We knew we had to resolve the issue in the final cut and our new end sequence helped to achieve this.

Among the criticisms, however, there were also many points in which we were praised, for example; our use of angles. I was really proud of our close-ups in the film; such as Tom's eyes when he looks surprised, as they helped present the audience with the correct atmosphere and look of a real life and dramatic horror trailer. Another aspect we were praised on was our choice of "Quick" monsters, instead of the Romero style of "slow monsters". As can be seen in my reviews, we were heavily influenced by the quick zombies in modern horrors like "Dawn of the Dead" (2004) that shock a "contemporary" audience. Lots of the audience said they helped add suspense and tension to the situation in the trailer, and these made the trailer much more shocking and shuddering (and horror, after all, is based of the French word "to shudder" which is "horrere").

After the Feedback screening, we made various changes to the trailer, one of them being the ending. We re-filmed and edited it in response to the audience feedback during the focus group, we extended it as well as added a "jumpy" scene when a new zombie attacks. We also changed and re-edited the action sequences before this point in the trailer, so they flowed better and sped up the action using a quick montage of shots of Tom running cut back to the zombies chasing. This again showed we responded to audience feedback and that the feedback was helpful in making our trailer better.

After the final screening, the audience response was even more positive. They responded well to the changes we made, based on their suggestions, and overall they enjoyed the trailer a lot more. I personally think the trailer appealed to the section of horror fans we wanted to attract, with the body horror, music and action all helping to construct a rich horror trailer that would draw in fans of zombie horrors.

Both the audience and ourselves found parts of the trailer that we favoured. This included the music, which helped add suspense to the trailer as well as a sense of panic - it also fitted perfectly with the action scene within the trailer and helped it flow a lot better. I personally liked the pause in the music before "Will You Survive?" as this was like a collision cut that slowed the trailer down before the final exciting scenes.

The audience also found the body horror a favourite aspect, even second time round, it was just enough to make some grimace at the image, especially as it helped with the connotation that the "Zombie Virus" was an infection, as the vomit was black and oozing - this aspect was also a personal favourite.