Claire Muir - AS Level Media: November 2012

Wednesday, 14 November 2012

Survey Questions Analysed and Response

Gender

We asked an equal number of female and male teenagers to get an unbiased opinion from our target audience, which is not exclusive to gender. This allows for our results to be reflective of the whole audience, and not more suited to a particular gender.

Do you prefer to see male dominant characters or female?

We found that our audience preferred to see male dominant characters than female, which is important for the representation of gender throughout our trailer. With this information we can make sure our trailer appeals to our target audience by making the dominant character(s) in the group, male.

Do you prefer characters to conform or oppose stereotypes?

Our results showed that conforming to stereotypes was most popular, while the other forty per cent of our audience respondents chose either a variety of conforming and opposing, or just opposing stereotypes. Using this information we have decided that for the majority our characters should conform to the stereotypes of gender, social group etc, but that we should include aspects of characters that do not conform to the stereotypes. We feel this will both appeal to the audience preference but make the trailer more intriguing to watch.

Which title do you prefer?

From the two suggested titles our results showed that 'Ready or Not' was most popular with our target audience respondents. We have decided to use this as we believe it will be more effective in appealing to our audience and making our trailer more successful.

Which method of conveying information is most successful?

The results of our survey show that titles are the proffered method. Using this information we can make sure our trailer appeals to our target audience by using titles to convey any extra information as this seems to be more dramatic.

How much withheld information is most appealing?

Our survey showed that ambiguity, not revealing much information, is most popular in a thriller trailer. A revealing trailer was voted to be unpopular so we have decided to only give our audience the necessary information in our own thriller trailer, using the sense of the unknown to convince the audience to want to watch the film.

Which type of camera footage is more appealing?

Our audience respondents said that they preferred hand-held camera footage equally with professional 3^rd

Ideas of Shots to use in Trailer

Tuesday, 13 November 2012

Potential Fonts To Use

We chose these fonts as ideas we would perhaps like to pursue in our projects as we though they were well fitting to our genre and most could be quite challenging to use.

Wednesday, 7 November 2012

Survey Results

Audience Survey Response

Gender:
Male	17
Female	12

Age:
Under 10	1
11 to 14	4
15 to 18	15
19 to 25	5
26 to 30	1
30 to 40	0
41 +	1

Are you a fan of thriller genre?
Yes	21
No	8
Further	0

Gender Sterotypes
Men in Power	12
Women Power	2
Both	15
N/A	0

Type Oof thriller most appealing
end-of-world	2
Sci-fi	1
Action	8
Horror	9
Investigation	6

Protagonists
One	13
Group	16

Favourite Thrillers
Orphan	2
James Bond	3
Pulp Fiction	2
Shutter Island	3
Cabin Woods	4
Paranormal	5

Conventions
Sci-Fi	1
Horror	3
Suspense	17
Mystery	8

Trailers
Mise-en-scene	5
Characters	10
Sound	6
Editing	8

Appealing location
Woodland	6
industrial	7
open fields	5
town	1
village	1
lake	9

Appealing camera footage
handheld	5
3rd person	10
both	14

Does gore appeal?
Yes	8
No	12
in moderation	9

Character dynamics
V-P	14
P-V	7
remain V	3
remain P	5

Plot progression
complex	10
simple	3
both	16

Light-hearted elements:
Momentary	10
none	5
lighthearted	14

Ideal Characters - Character Profiles

Character Profiles – Ideal Set Of Characters

This can be altered depending on availability of actors.

Antagonist:

- (Poppy) Presented as being not very talkative, a little shy in comparison to the other group members. Dressed in the darkest clothes throughout trailer so at first glance she comes across as being possibly a little vulnerable, conforming to female stereotype but later in the trailer it is established that this may not be true.

Protagonists:

(Reece) portrayed as being the dominant character of the group, who makes the decisions and generally leads the group. Presents the light-heartedness with his confidence, instigating banter with the other characters. When problems arise he is the one to take control of the situation and the other characters follow.

( -(Sean) does not conform to male stereotypes, lacks the masculine attitude and presence. Outwardly shows signs of fear and is the first to express vulnerability. Has the hand-held camera throughout. Camp style of dress.

- (Bexx) conveyed as a stereotypical girly girl, confident and comfortable within group but in an event of danger lacks bravery and react typically dramatically (squeals/scream) – dressed feminine but practical, not striking clothes.

- (Marko/-) the character who is experienced/intelligent when it comes to technology; dresses well – of the group he is dressed the smartest – not very talkative.

Eden Lake Trailer And Plan For Response

We asked a group of people mainly from our target audience to give us feedback and comments on the 'Eden Lake' Trailer (below) so we could decipher which techniques we could apply to our own trailer.

We made sure that the person we were about to interview/question on the trailer watched it right before we asked them questions or before they shared their viewpoints on it, this made sure that their thought and opinions were fresh in their minds and they were able to share their true opinions.

We used this voice-recorder to record the interview/opinions of the audience, this helps us make sure we know their exact thoughts and opinions without anything getting lost or cut. It also allows us to refer back to it easily at any point if we ever need to consider out target audiences responses.