Audience Feedback

After having watched our trailer, we asked our audience some questions about our product.. We intend to use this information to make refining touches so we can have an official final trailer that we know for a fact caters to our audience. 

Audience Reactions

We got some people to watch our trailer and give their feedback throughout the viewing. This gives us an idea of how effective our trailer is in getting a reaction from our audience.

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1 (Part B)

Blooper Reel

This is some of the bloopers and out-takes we had whilst filming for our trailer. It shows that you don't always get the shot you want the first...or second....or third time, but at least you can enjoy yourself at the same time. 

PENANCE - THE OFFICIAL TRAILER

This is the final, completed version of our trailer.

Social Media Feedback

This is the audience feedback from 3 social media networks found to be most popular these days. We have recieved great feedback about the official trailer. There were so many comments on the great editing and it's partnership with the music which is constant throughout the feedback we've been getting. This comes to show a great result to what we have produced as a trailer.

Evaluation Question 1 (Part A)

Audience Feedback for Trailer Final Draft

This is a page full of screenshots from whatsapp feedback on our trailer's first draft. So far there were strong complimentary comments and a few flaws like not viewing the suspects in detail e.g. the pictures on the map, or a clip of an actor looking like they were about to laugh. Although these are flaws we unfortunately cannot improve on majorly as that would need additional filming. However as an overall result, we have gained great results on out final draft so far which means there would not be much changes done. There were great reactions of the music, the scenes, the plot and performances of the actors which we are grateful to hear about. This feedback very helpful to learn any improvements we may need and what we have done well in. So far, with this feedback we have done well

Sound Editing

When listening to the dialogue in our draft trailer, we noticed a significant amount of white noise/hiss that affected the quality of the speech heard. This not only made it harder for the person watching to understand what was being said, but it negatively impacted the professionalism of our trailer, so in order to solve this issue we used Adobe Audition to reduce the white noise.

To begin with, we had to import the file that we wanted to edit the audio of. This was an easy process.

After selecting "Import > File", we just had to find the file. We did this by searching the name of it so we didn't have to spend unnecessary time looking through folders. When we found it, we just selected it and clicked "Open".

When the file has been imported, the sound-wave of the audio is shown, as can be seen above. The height of the sound-waves indicate the volume of the audio at that point. If you look closely at the image shown here, you can see that even at points that are meant to be silent, you can still see a small amount of amplitude - this is the white noise we wanted to reduce.

After importing the audio, the whole track had to be selected, so that both the dialogue and all the "silence" that we were trying to clean up would be included when the changes were made.

The next step clicking "Effects > Noise Reduction / Restoration > "Hiss Reduction (process)". This is effect we used to refine the audio.

This is the window that opens after selecting the Hiss Reduction effect. By adjusting the levels of the noise floor and how much you want to reduce the hiss by, you can work out where the optimum balance between quality of audio and reduction of white noise. We listened back to the audio repeatedly during this process to find the point of hiss reduction we were happy with.

These are the levels we decided on. As you can see from the sound-wave, the parts of the audio that are meant to be silent have less amplitude than they initially did, showing that the white noise has been reduced.

The final step was simply saving the file. Then we put the edited audio back into the trailer, and we used it as our final audio.

Final Draft Trailer

This is the final draft version of the trailer that we will make. Any changes that happen after this will be small but may just add final details/refinements to our product, for example after making this trailer we as a group noticed that the Universal logo was outdated. 

Whatsapp Group Chat

As part of being able to communicate with each other at home, we used whatsapp as a group chat. It was a very useful app, since we could send images, videos and voice notes. In these cases of the screenshots we are asking cedric to upload some after-effects video file on the google drive in order to view it or to have it saved and ready to use for use on the main desktop mac. The second screenshot is of us checking where we are for a meet-up for filming later in the day. The last screenshot is of us communicating to an absent member, Amber, showing her an update of the recent trailer. 

Google Drive

As part of keeping all our files and accessible to both school and home laptops or desktops we used google drive as our portable hard drive, any day and anywhere. We had to use two accounts, hydeproductions15 and hydeproductions1502 since the first account's memory ended up being full due to the amount of film footage we had. The second account helped keep hold of extra footage, music, after-effects inter-titles and introduction. All members of the film crew had full access to both accounts.

Thankfully enough this also provided us a gmail account and a youtube account in addition when signing up to google overall. 

Penance Trailer - Draft Scenes

As we're now working through the post-production stage of the film trailer 'Penance', we decided to post the film trailer so far. There are scenes that may be cut out from the trailer later on but nonetheless, this is how the trailer is looking at this point in time.

We are only really at the beginning stages of editing the trailer so there may be some parts with no sound and/or no visual, because we're still deciding on what footage could be used to connect the scenes featured here.

Distortion Effects on Intertitles

This is a step by step account of how we made the distortion effect in Adobe After Effects. The main things you need for this is the font of your text (If it's not already downloaded) and a Screen Glitch loop, (which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEFcfZvz8yY).

Once we downloaded the necessary font and screen glitch, we went on to After effects to prepare to import our downloads.

We typed the text ("PENANCE") and then added the screen glitch layer on top of the text. When this has been done you then make the screen glitch layer invisible so then we are left with just the title.

After this you then create a new adjustment layer copy of the screen glitch layer.

After this you then select the effect you want, since we wanted distortion you go to distort and select 'Displacement Map'.

Once selected, you go to the setting on the right and change the 1st setting from adjustment layer to the glitch screen.




This is the difference, it changes the image from this (above) to this (below)

After this, on the settings on the left hand side, you can select how much you want the image/text to distort by. The higher the number the more violent the distortion is.

And finally, on the adjustment layer, you can shorten or extend the length of the distortion. Also by duplicating the layer (ctrl +c OR cmd +d) you can make the image/text distort several times and stop at certain sections too.

That is how we distorted our intertitles.

Vlog 11 - Office Interaction

This is the scene where Detective Lewis presents Detective Carter with the case files on the murders, and Carter then notices blood on Lewis' hand.

Vlog 10 - Suspect Chase/Harassment Scene

We filmed this scene on top of Queen's Market in Upton Park. This vlog shows part of the scene where the two Detectives capture the person they were in pursuit of, and also a confrontation they have after leaving a location they were investigating.

Vlog 9 - Victim Chase Scene

This is the vlog from when we filmed the victim chase scene. The murderer is chasing the victim down an alleyway while carrying a machete as the weapon of choice.

Vlog 8 - Det. Carter's Office

In this scene, we see Detective Carter get frustrated at her work, and then have an epiphany about something in the case.

Vlog 7 - Basement Victim Scene

This scene is the main victim scene that will be used in the climax of our trailer. We applied make up and some fake blood to the face, arms and neck of the actress in order to establish the idea that she had been a victim of abuse at the hands of the murderer. This also helped immensely with showing mise-en-scene appropriate to our genre.

Vlog 6 - Staircase Confrontation

This was the scene that we filmed on the staircase in our 6th form centre. Here, Detective Jo Carter is giving Detective Kerry Lewis the opportunity to confess anything she has done wrong whilst involved in the murder case the plot follows. 

Vlog 5 - The Report Scene

This was the day we spent in the chapel of our 6th form centre filming the report scene that will later be used in the exposition of our trailer for it's audio.

Character List

Beneath are the list of characters that will be in our trailer. Some are main characters see throughout, others just passing characters that we see very briefly.

Detective Carter - Dorthea Darby
Detective Lewis - Daljit Kaur
Fr. Anthony - Eisen Eugenio
Main Victim - Ciara Gay
Potential Suspect - Cedric Onchuru
News Reporter - Alicia Jordan
Victim 2 - Patrick Manginsay
Confessor - Chantelle Anonuevo

Vlog 4 - St. Anthony's with The Priest

Filming inside the church to get some shots of the actor playing the priest in a religious environment.

Vlog 3 - Inside St. Anthony's Church

This day was used to get some establishing shots of the inside of the church, enabling us to continue to establish religious iconography.

Music Research

When finding music for our trailer, we want to find a number of royalty free tracks that create both suspense and a sense of accelerating drama as the trailer progresses. We need to have multiple tracks so that the music does not become boring for the audience, and also to show the change in pace from the beginning to the end. Some options for music are:




Straight away this piece opens with an eery sound to set an ominous tone. The lack of time signature, as well as creative use of silence and diminuendo on the sound effects in the first 5 seconds is quite disorientating for the listener. This is then punctuated by the entrance of the drums, which follows a driving rhythm that continuously builds throughout the piece, until we eventually reach the climax point when the cymbals enter. This progressive development increases the tension and excitement felt by the audience as the piece goes on, which may make it useful to use towards the climax of our own trailer.



The melodic motif heard at the beginning of the piece is based loosely on a minor triad, which sets quite a dark tone to the piece. The introduction of the drums could be used in our trailer to represent the violence in our plot.



The use of fast quaver rhythms almost immediately, coupled with the crescendo and addition of more instruments heard for the first 50 seconds of the music makes this section of the piece appear to be where the drama builds. We could use this part of the music after the exposition of our trailer, where the pace of the plot will begin to quicken.


The piece uses a lot of supernatural noises which create a sense of foreboding. It is also atonal, so there is no sense of the music settling or being defined by key which is both disorientating and disconcerting for the listener. Although it is unclear where, having this somewhere in our trailer would help to establish the horror genre.



The vocal part of this piece sounds quite hymn-like, which is an aural representation of the religious aspects of our plot. The use of semitones in the melody helps to establish the minor key, and the build from a solo to choral vocal part also helps to build the tension created by dissonance via suspensions in the accompanying choir part.


The lyrics "Darkness is coming" represent the genre of horror well because darkness is often used to show the presence of evil. The choir arrangement of this piece adds to the religious representations that we need to put in our trailer.

Film Plan Sheet

This is what our group has planned for the film days ahead for our upcoming film trailer 'Penance'.

Vlog 2 - London Establishing Shots

These shots were taken around Westminster to really establish that our media product is set in London. We got a mixture of pan, tilt and still shots so we would have a lot to choose from. We will edit this footage later on in order to portray the dystopian side of the trailer.

Storyboard

 

This was the initial storyboard we planned on sticking to for the trailer, however it has been changed in order to help introduce the characters earlier in the plot and to make a more organised structure like traditional film trailers have. Here we still bring in the establishing shot of London to present the main location as well as violence and religious iconography. We plan on keeping some of this initial planning but want to change the order or add and remove a few bits, in order to make a more thrilling trailer.

Victim Scene Preparation

We filmed a scene exhibiting the more stalker/slasher elements of our trailer by using the basement underneath the school to shoot a victim scene. We wanted the mise-en-scene to play a significant part in this scene so we used make up on our actress to make her appear dirty and bruised, as though she had been trapped in the basement for a while. We also put rips into her shirt to heighten the idea of her being abused by her captor.

Vlog 1 - Filming Outside St. Anthony's Church

This was our first day of filming as "Hyde Productions". 

This footage was taken as a way of showing the religious iconography in our trailer.

The Purge Trailer Analysis

Beginning (0:04 - 0:25)

The beginning of the trailer portrays how the American world was perfect. The use of the sunset with the idealistic happy family silhouettes demonstrates this. A romantic scene was also displayed among one of the cuts which displayed heterosexual love and this could commute to the audience that it's a time where people are happy in their relationships.The scenes of the adults wearing casual clothes shows how relaxed and content they are with life which is accompanied by facial expressions such as laughter and smiles to show that they're happy. An establishing shot of the neighbourhood with the sunset shows that it's a peaceful time and it's a perfect world in their sight of the audience as well. The editing uses quite a few inter-titles to give facts about the perfect world that's being portrayed which is accompanied by the calm sound of the piano playing a few keys with a small interval each time it changes onto a different scene. The piano usually comes under the music genre for classical since classic music can be quite soothing and calm; making the audience feel that it really is a perfect world.

(0:31 - 1:10)

The start for this section shows the watershed. This is where there is a turning point in the plot. How everything that was once perfect; comes at a price (meaning there needs to be some sort of sacrifice). This is demonstrated through CCTV footage of clips with people getting killed; arson and gun shooting (linking the past event with what's going to happen to the present-day). The follow up scenes after the footage clips; links with the father's explanation to his son as to why the event happens (which is also letting the audience know as well). The son questions his parents as to why don't they kill anyone and his question becomes a voiceover for the next scene of (supposedly) his parents gearing up with weapons which creates a sense of irony since his parents respond with the answer that they don't feel the need to kill anyone.

The voiceover of the "annual report" for the purge occurs which then shows various side-view and front close-up shots for each of the family members gathered in the living room. Each face expressing a similar motion to the next. And in-between each shot of the faces is a establishing shot of different parts of the city, demonstrating how empty it is. It could've been seen as peaceful but the eerie sound from the report makes it creepy; making each scene a taunting-gesture to the audience that something is about to happen (making everything worse). There is loads of dip-to-black being used when the scene goes from a family member's close-up to an establishing shot of the empty city.

(1:52 - To End)

At the beginning of this section, it's the start of the build-up to the montage. The bass-sound creates a sort of heart-beat sound as it starts to build up. The bass sound is accompanied with choir-singing at a high-pitch. It starts off a bit quiet at first then as the inter-title comes up (sort of the marker for the start of the montage) the singing becomes louder throughout the whole montage. There's barely any words said but there's loads of sound effects such as a 'shhling' when seeing someone un-sheath a knife and gunshots.

At the end of the montage, the man says "everything is gonna be okay" and the woman responds that "nothing is ever going to be okay again" which is then followed up by a glitch noise for the inter-title then the title for the film comes up with the credits and social media.

There's a sense of polar opposite being demonstrated since at the beginning it was a perfect world and at the end everything goes wrong; with the families' ideal perfect world destroyed within one night.

Trailer Shot List

Establishing shots: 

·      We went Central London to get shots of London (Parliament building and bridges).

·      The Church to get the religious element of the film we needed to take shots outside and within the church.

Mid Shots:

·      The news report scene as this is typically used.

·      Also inside the church with the priest and or statues to connote the religious iconography.

Two Shots:

·      The news report interview with the priest to introduce him. 

·      The detectives at the crime scene in three different scenes to represent two parts of their relationship, their partnership and the difficulty the have.

Long Shot:

·      The chase scene with the apparent suspect. Also, we see the church and the priest to make him appear innocent and mundane.

Tracking Shot:

·      The priest walking in the church to give more detail into his character.

Shot-reverse-shots:

·      This will be used to portray the difficult relationship between the detectives only and portray one of them as a ‘fake’ suspect.

Over-the-shoulder shot:

·      This will be used to show the real suspect and their lair where they plan things.

Eye line match:

·      This will be used to show the apparent suspect loitering about before being caught.

Cutaway:

This will be use to show how society has crumbled in the dystopian society.

Target Audience Questionnaire Results

These are the results from the target audience questionnaire we began towards the end of last year.  

Trailer/Scene Ideas

This is the structure for our trailer so far. Since creating this we have come up with other ideas so this will need to be amended.

These are just general scene ideas that we are considering fitting into the trailer. We are unsure if we will use all, if any, of these but the logic was to get everything down in the event that we do.

PENANCE FILM POSTER

After getting feedback on my final draft, I have added some social media icons on the bottom of the poster because these are becoming increasingly common in modern film posters, as they allow a wider market to be reached.

PENANCE FRONT COVER

After receiving feedback from multiple people, I added the text at the bottom to fill the empty space an make the poster look more whole.

This is the final version.

Se7en Trailer Analysis

The Se7en trailer demonstrates through mise-en-scene and a range of iconography that it’s a police-thriller. For example, Morgan Freeman is in the costume of a detective and his apprentice (Brad Pitt) is the person who will take over his role when he retires. There are also location scenes of them at the police station and having access to the crime scene which only police authorities are allowed. This trailer can also come underneath the genre of mystery since there are shots of dead bodies and a wardrobe of weapons that signify that they’re on a case to find a murderer who is clearly hidden and there are no signs as to who the murderer could be. The audience will be following the unveiling of who the murderer is with detectives so it gives them the sense that they’re also part of the team. The use of religious iconography gives a hint for the audience that the murderer is killing in relation to religion hence, why two of the victims in the trailer are already dead due to two of the seven deadly sins; greed and gluttony.

The sound at the beginning starts off with bass drums that introduce the production logo and the characters in the first couple of shots (which change at each beat). The pace of the drum beats picks up a bit as a ticking sound from a pacer is brought in to signify the increase of the speed for the rhythm. There is a voiceover that narrates during the trailer and mentions the main actors featured in the film at the end. The music at one point softens to the sound of violins and sounds of distortion by having screeching sounds. The music continues with drum beats that continue to escalate and become faster, thus creating a crescendo as it goes through the montage and ends with a drum beat which silences as they say; “Have you seen anything like this?” “No.” The trailer ends with a ‘shh-ing’ sound (like a sword/knife slicing the air fast).

The cinematography used at the beginning were mainly solo shots of each of the main male characters with different cutaways involved (suggesting to the audience that it’s a crime scene they’re looking at). As the voiceover introduces the main character, it’s linked with front-shots, American shots, and low-angle close-up shots of the guy. There’s also a two-shot for the couple and the detectives. Other shots used throughout the trailer; shot-reverse-shot, tracking back-shot, establishing shots and a quick pan.

The editing at the beginning of the trailer is shots matching up with the rhythm of the drums (so the shot changes at each beat). The trailer overall includes; flashes of white, shot-reverse-shot, dip to black and inter-titling. For the inter-titles, it was changing at quite a fast pace with the wording of the seven deadly sins and as it got closer to the end of the montage; it kept speeding up until it was cut off.

This trailer can be applied to our trailer through the genre. Since our trailer’s plot includes the use of detectives (police authorities), this trailer shows the crime-thriller side for our own work. The detectives are working together to solve a case as well as it being a unique case that they have to solve. It applies to our trailer since the detectives are also working together to solve a mass-murder case but ours involves the use of trust being toyed with while in the ‘Se7en’ trailer; they’re working together and seem to be cooperating.

Alternative Film Poster

This is an alternative to the final film poster I uploaded. The idea of having this alternative is that there is more tension shown in this poster. 

Film Poster Final Draft

My task was to design and construct the main poster for our film. In order to show this, I have included the three main characters on the poster, as well as the exact release date in addition to standard information such as actors' names and title/strapline. 

Research - Trailer Inspiration

Inspiration No. 1: The Lazarus Effect

The inspiration we plan to gain from this trailer is the use of the inter titles. The effects used are very dramatic and help bring the trailer to the climax with the flutter cutting that was in sync with the sound used. It helps bring the horrific ambiance to the trailer especially for a climax, which will draw in the audience more.

Inspiration No. 2: The Devil Inside

This trailer involves religious iconography, so can we take inspiration from this trailer to gain ideas on how to portray the religious elements of our own trailer. The basement scene at the end has inspired the thought that such a scene should be included in our trailer, bringing a dark end to the trailer to reinforce the stalker/slasher genre in our work.

Production Logo

This is our group's production logo. The idea behind calling it "Hyde Productions" was that in the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, we are shown that someone can be both a man and a monster, that there is good and bad within everything. This is something that is portayed in our plot quite strongly. This idea of good and bad is also reflected in the font of the production logo itself- "HY" is in clean, modern looking font whereas the "DE" is in a rougher, almost more carnal font. 

Sketches

This is the sketch I did of the film magazine front cover. The masthead, "SCRIPT" is at the top, accompanied by the issue number vertically along the side of the "s", with the barcode and price in the bottom corners. There is a cross in the background, covering the entire page in the background to represent the religious aspect of the film, The main characters of the film are shown behind the title "Penance" to establish a link between the title and the people. There are also sell lines to add more appeal to readers. 

This is the initial sketch of the film poster. Three key aspects of the plot are shown here. Firstly the characters- seen in the foreground and in the doorway of the church. Secondly, the church itself is important, in that it is in the middle of the poster too symbolise it being central in the dystopian future the trailer is set in. Finally, the skyline seen towards the top of the poster shows the dystopian genre of the trailer.

Title Font Analysis