2. FILM POSTER
SurveyMonkey was the first thing that sprung into my
groups minds when we were given the task of creating a
questionnaire for our audience. This website was free
and allowed us to do many things like viewing the
results of the conducted survey. Most of the audience
that replied were largely males which then meant I had
to strive to please a male audience. But then this was
not the only problem that I encountered because later
along the survey I found out that this largely male
audience opted for the feeling of excitement when
they‟re watching something of the police, crime/thriller
genre. This now meant that I had to create something
that not only males would like, but something that was
also exciting and grabbed their feeling‟s attention. I
believe I managed to achieve this through the styles that
my poster includes (the motion blurs) which give a
sense of fast-paced reality and link onto their feelings
and emotions of being excited.
Figure 1
Figure 2
3. MAGAZINE COVER
Continuing with the theme of excitement, for the
creation of my magazine cover I had to this time find a
different way of exciting this male audience. In
Question 6 of my survey where my group asked “What
aspect of this genre do you think made it unique?”, there
were two very interesting answers that read: “The
comedy mixed in with the plot” and a similar one saying
“The humour”. This lit up many light bulbs for me
because it then allowed me to do something that I would
never had imagined on planning to do – using
discarded/blooper pictures. I used this because it then
allowed me to bring out the humour out from the
seriousness of the poster and also keep the excitement
flowing smoothly. Furthermore, I continued pulling
strings to further bring out the humour and comedy. I
done this through my strapline at the top of the
masthead. It was hard coming up with the strapline, but
I eventually chose the words „Not so serious cops
behind the scenes‟
4. TARGET AUDIENCE
We used SurveyMonkey to identify our target audience.
This was an essential part of our research and planning
as it gave us a specific demographic to market towards.
Through this, we discovered that our audiences had
mixed views of the themes of police/crime thriller films
(see fig.1), however, it is evident from the feedback we
got that the audience expect to see an action-based film
with a lot of excitement and an element of shock (see
fig.2). We had these ideas in mind already, but it was
good to learn that we were basing our ideas on true
findings and not outdated assumptions. To keep our
target audiences pleased and keep their opinions in the
open, we planned lots of fast-paced running shots and a
thick plot. This, hopefully, created an interesting and
enjoyable trailer for our target audience of young males.
Figure 1
Figure 2
5. As well as using SurveyMonkey, we also got lots of one-on-one
feedback from our classmates and friends. We thought this was
a good idea because the other as media students, we‟re
expected to watch lots of trailers and know what conventions
are expected to be included for each genre, for example, what
is effective in keeping their attention, as well as what makes an
interesting storyline for them. After our first filming stage, we put
together a collection of our best footage, in the vague order of
how it was planned to be in the trailer, and presented it in the
form of a „showcase‟ to our classmates and our teacher. We got
lots of constructive criticism from them, including advice about
changes we needed to make for both technical and visual
aspects of our final trailer (to be), things such as lighting and
props. We took this advice very seriously and tried to
incorporate all of it as we continued our work, but we were
unwilling to add the suggestion of a police badge to our mise-
en-scene, as we thought this could make the production look
more American instead of British.
“You had a good
variety of shots from
different angles.”
“Your cutaways are a
nice addition.”
“The bed scene was a
bit too dark. It was
hard to establish what
was going on because
we couldn’t see.”
“I like the way you
had the same shot
from different angles.”
SHOWCASE FEEDBACK
6. Once we made all the footage into the actual trailer, we the
showed this to our classmates, friends, teachers and relatives in
the form of YouTube links and direct showcases. We got lots of
positive feedback, mainly aimed towards at the shots we had
and the huge variety that was included in them. Some also
praised us at the way it looked very professional and well-styled
and the way motion control of the walking shots really helped
the trailer come together in the end with Daniel walking on the
bridge and the change of tint as he got closer. I would say
myself that the music also helped the trailer in the way it was
synced with the footage. I also believe that the music helped set
the mood of the trailer and built up really well throughout until
the very end. Not only were the audience impressed on the time
and thought spent on the trailer, but my group and I came to
also realise that it all paid off in the end no matter how silly
some of the ideas may have seemed to some of us at the start.
“Wow, those aerial shots
though… that’s really cool
and fits well with your
genre”
“The aerial shots make it
look very very professional”
“Using the tagline as one
of your titles during the
trailer is a really smart
thing to do, makes the
audience look back at
the poster”
“I really like the colour
changes, it brings out the
seriousness of the trailer”
FINAL FEEDBACK
“Spoilers at the start,
kind of”
“You can see the
difference that it makes
when you removed the
bounce at the end, it
looks much better now”
