EVALUATION - Question 3 (continued)

I also collected some audience feedback through a survey: Create your own user feedback survey Results:

EVALUATION - Question 4 - How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages>

Did I successfully follow my audience feedback?

Before I started filming my trailer I created a survey for my target demographic and from their feedback I made a list of things that the audience wanted to see in my trailer (also shown on a previous post) The list is as follows:

Question 1 -  The audience want to see strong characterisation with a variation of everyday locations and modern humour.
Question 2 - My demographic expect to see 'natural' settings such as a house, a school, a park etc, no location should be outside of the normal.
Question 3 - I need to create a connection between the protagonist and the audience whether this be a personal trait, a personal experience or even just simple characteristics in which my demographic can relate to.
Question 4 - The majority of my trailer should be natural lighting and mainly high-key, although lowkey lighting will be suitable for when the 'drama' element is being portrayed.
Question 5 - I need to create a section of sadness for my protagonist in order to create the 'drama' genre, this could be done by a sudden realisation, something going wrong or even a simple argument.
Question 6 - I should make sure I have plenty of close-up shots, as reaction shots are very important to my demographic for this genre. However two-shots to show relationships and long shots to show body language are also important.
Question 7 - My protagonist should be loveable and relatable and just an all round ordinary person - not rich, not poor, not popular just in the middle. The character should also have good humour and be quite upbeat.
Question 8 - I should start my trailer with a funny build up with a quick description of what the films about. In the middle of my trailer everything should change - something goes wrong, something unexpected happens. At the end of my trailer everything should be restored and the ending should be humorous.
Question 9 - I should use upbeat music in my trailer. A good genre to use would be indie-pop as it is positive and light-hearted which relates to the theme of comedy.
Question 10 - The majority of my demographic said that I should have a voice-over as it would help them to engage more with the protagonist and understand the trailer more.

Did I follow my audiences feedback?

1. I had a strong female protagonist and three 'nerds' who all had very big, but likeable personalities. I used strong characterisation in terms of their mise-en-scene, which reflected their personalities. I used a variety of every day locations including a park, a school and a house. I used modern humour, portrayed through the characters of the 'nerds'.
2.  All my locations were 'normal' - I used a school, a park, a house, a hospital and a river.
3. I started the trailer with a voice-over in order for my audience and protagonist to immediately be able to connect.
4. I used natural lighting in my trailer, I used used high-key lighting for happy and comedic scenes and lowkey lighting for scenes of sadness or fear.
5. I created slight argument between my protagonists and the 'nerds' to create the 'drama' element - my protagonist is seen feeling upset because she feels vulnerable and unsupported.
6. I used many close-up shots to portray reactions of my characters. For example I used a close up shot after my protagonists waters broke so the audience could see her fear of the situations. This allowed my audience to clearly see characters facial expressions and therefore understand their emotions.
7. I made sure my protagonist was a likeable person. I gave her a very 'chilled' style and made sure she was relatable to my demographic. Therefore I made sure she wasn't rich, poor, popular - she was just a ordinary girl - in the middle.
8. I followed this by using Todorov's 5 Step Theory of Equilibrium (as explained in previous posts)
9. I chose mainly acoustic, indie-pop songs to use in my trailer as this genre of music matched my protagonists personality. I used songs that were energetic but 'chill' to suit my comedy-drama genre. When the first credit scene comes down, 'kill the director' starts playing. This is a loud, in-your-face, upbeat song which allows my audience to understand that they're being thrown straight into the climax of the trailer.
10. I used a voice-over in order for my audience to be able to engage more with my protagonist but also so the audience can learn what the situation is from the view of my protagonist.

Did I successfully follow my list of trailer conventions?

Before I created my trailer I created a list of conventions (posted on an early blog post) that I should follow in order to create a high quality, professional-standard comedy-drama trailer. I came up with this list of conventions after analysing three comedy-drama trailers, Juno, School of Rock and Forres Gump. The list is as follows:

1. The narrative should follow Todorov's 5 Step Theory of Equilibrium, however it should not show the final stage as this will leave my audience intrigued enough to watch the whole film.
2. The comedy element should come from a character (mise-en-scene is very important in portraying this.)
3. Use sound-bridges in order to create more layers to the trailer.
4. Use shot-reverse-shots in order to portray how characters react to each other and to explore relationships.
5. Use day-to-day locations in order to make the film seem more 'realistic' and therefore be relatable to the demographic.
6. Use montage editing in order to give the audience a brief overview of the whole film.
7. Use natural lighting, again to make the scenes seem more believable and realistic.
8. Use a soundtrack that matches the tone of the scenes - and therefore emphasises the mood you are trying to portray.

Did I follow this list?

1. I followed Todorov's 5 step theory of equilibrium - which is followed in many real media trailers. I briefly showed the first step of 'the state of equilibrium' when I show the protagonist walking down a hallway and there is a close up shot of her stomach with no bump. However this is only very quick as straight after the 'disruption stage' starts as she picks up the pregnancy test. Here I challenged convention by making the first stage so quick, it almost wasn't there, however I did this in order to throw my audience straight into the climax  of the trailer and allow them to engage with my protagonist straight away. The third stage of 'recognition' begins when the audience see my protagonist talk to her parents about her pregnancy - as she is seen facing her consequences. The fourth stage of 'repairing the damage' is hinted when the 'nerds' ask her to prom and when they help her as she goes into labour - because this starts portraying to audiences that she is going to be alright. The fifth and final stage of 'a new equilibrium' is not shown in my trailer. This is conventional of trailers as it means not too much information about the film is given away and leaves the audience intrigued enough to watch the full movie.
2.  I portrayed the elements of comedy through certain characters and their mise-en-scenes. I created three stereo-typical 'nerd' characters to use as my comedy elements. I dressed them in three different over-exaggerated, stereotypical nerds styles, to maximize the humour of their scenes.
3. I used multiple sound bridges throughout my trailer. I carried through from scenes over to different scenes which related to what the character in the previous scene is talking about. For example the line of dialogue by the dad which reads "you've got to find people, who love you for exactly who you are" carries on from the scene with the protagonist and her day and the speech goes on top a montage of shots of the 'nerds' making Nessa smile. 
4. I used many shot-reverse-shots in my trailer. A specific example of a shot-reverse shot that I used is when my protagonist is having a conversation with her parents about what to do in her situation. I used a shot-reverse-shot here as it allows the audience to see how my characters react with one-another and explore their relationship. 
5. The locations of my trailer are conventions of comedy-drama films as they are normal, day to day locations, such as a school, a park and a house.
6. At the end of the trailer there is montage editing. The shorter shots allow the audience to have a brief overall picture of the film itself and sums up a lot of the trailer. I personally used the montage editing to portray all my protagonists positive moments throughout the film as my montage followed shots of my protagonist feeling down, so I used it as a contrast.
7. I used natural lighting in all of my scenes to create more realistic situations - I varied the time of day in which I filmed when I wanted to change the lighting type to portray different tones.
8. I change the music in the trailer to match the tone of the scenes. For example, when the first credit scene comes down, 'kill the director' starts playing. This loud, in-your-face, upbeat songs allows the audience to understand that they're being thrown straight into the climax of the trailer.

Tools Used When Creating My Poster

Tools Used When Creating My Front Cover

Poster Layers

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