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AUDIENCE RESPONSE

 

Once again, we made use of SurveyMonkey to collect responses to a questionnaire we created to explore peoples' opinions of our opening. This survey had 30 responses, 80% of which were female and 25 out of 30 were between the ages of 15 and 25 (our target market).

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE OPENING SCENE:

 

Responses included -

  • "Mysterious, kind of creepy, made me curious about what is happening"

  • "Not bad but needs more action"

  • "Interesting concept, though a tad confused"

  • "Clearly shows the atmosphere and clearly shows it is a horror themed piece"

  • "Loved the music choice. Plot took me a bit to get. The first shot (of Nathan on the ground) seemed almost cheesy, but everything after was pretty sweet"

  • "My first impression of the opening scene was that it was filmed very well. The shots/angles chosen were all very interesting and made me curious as to why he was trapped in this building. Very, very nice camera work. It has a lot of potential to become something scary/interesting!"

  • "Confusing but eerie"

 

A number of responses described our opening as confusing. Although this may seem to be a negative description, we aimed to create confusion in order to intrigue the audience and create curiosity in order for them to watch on; it is a psychological horror. It appears as though we have been successful in this, as 9 responses deemed the opening 'interesting', 'intriguing' or creating 'curiosity'. However, we understand that not understanding the plot entirely could deter viewers from watching on; it may have been useful to have a longer opening in which we could make stronger links between the scenes. For example, we could have more effectively portrayed the counsellors scene as from the future and a place of safety, because one respondant believed Nathan was "trapped in two places at once."

This graph shows the majority of respondants wanted to continue watching in order to find out 'what happens next'. Again, this supports the concept that we have created curiosity through our confusing atmosphere. However, we could be more effective in our methods as 7 respondants replied with 'unsure', showing they had not yet been hooked. It is important to grab the attention of the audience within the first 2 minutes or short opening, as there are many rival horror films which could be watched instead. Also, the opening gives the first impression - if this impression is negative, then reviews would follow this and discourage potential consumers from viewing the film.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT 'HEL' BEING A FEMALE ANTAGONIST?

 

Responses included -

  • "It doesn't really matter to me what gender the antagonist is. I think it would be intriguing though because most are male."

  • "It's good, especially since it's following the original mythology. It also would depend on how she's portrayed in the rest of the film."

  • "It gives the piece an alternative atmosphere as it is against stereotype and makes the story seem more interesting"

  • "I really like this as I feel that too many horror films have a male as the antagonist."

  • "It could certainly prove to be interesting, though apart from the description at the start of the clip it seems to have little impact on the story thusfar"

 

Although some respondants had little preference on the gender of the antagonist, there were no negative responses to this question. Therefore, I feel using a female antagonist was a good choice because it did intrigue some viewers and differentiate the film from other horrors, without isolating or putting off any potential consumers. Also, our target audience is females and we feel that using a strong female character would help attract this target market. 

 

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT NATHAN BEING THE PROTAGONIST?

 

These responses are very varied. 

 

More negative responses included -

  • "Rather unimpressed, but curious as to who he is. Perhaps more development is needed"

  • "I didn't really feel a connection to him and he seemed a little flat"

  • "His character seems a little flat but I think it'll get better if the movie were to progress."

 

2 people described Nathan as 'flat' - which could be improved by perhaps a more interesting script or stronger directions in terms of facial expressions to show emotions. Also, if we had a greater budget we could pay someone to act Nathan's character, and this actor may have better skills than our current actor. As well as this, it has been suggested that 'more development is needed'. I agree with this comment. For example, I feel we could have lengthened the counsellor's scene to show a greater change in his personality as a result of the events whilst trapped by Hel. This would help the audience to build a relationship with the character as they become better informed on his personality. It is possible that we could have introduced Nathan's back story in the opening, however whith such a limited amount of time we wanted to focus on putting across the film as a horror and suggesting the plot. 

 

Positive responses included - 

  • "It is good that he is introduced first and that the beginning gives you an initial idea of what he is like- helps to set the scene in the beginning helping viewers understanding"

  • "I feel that this is also a good idea as the main character appears to have no idea as to what is going on and so it, in a way, adds to the suspense of the opening"

  • "Again, I like this as the conventional roles have been reversed."

  • "I'm curious about Nathan but while I'm familiar with Hel the opening scene doesn't quite give a lot about Nathan which in this case is good because it gets the watchers curiosity. I wanted to know more about Nathan, why he was there"

  • "It makes a change having the roles of gender reversed (because the man is usually the bad character) so I think it's good."

  • "Pretty good as it seems he's just a normal person with no reason as to why he was chosen but people would assume the purpose would become clear if the film were to continue"

 

These comments suggest that the little information we revealed about Nathan helped to intrigue the audience -  the audience wanted to "know what was wrong with him". Perhaps we needed to find a medium between introducing more information, without revealing too much of the upcoming plot line. 

 

 

 

 

Although the majority of respondants believe we have created an eerie atmosphere, which is a positive reaction, the fact that 33% of respondants answered 'partly' shows we could have improved this feature of the opening. If we were to re film, this would become an important element to look at as an eerie atmosphere is a defining feature of horror films, and needed to create fear and suspense. Therefore, we may create eeriness by improving our location through presenting it as more isolated, improving the acting to show the character's fear and anxiety or by including greater action, perhaps by strengthening the supernatural presence of Hel.

Clearly, the majority of respondants answered 'location'. This shows our use of setting is effective in showing Nathan's isolation and creating suspense as a result of his entrapment. Whilst we thought our original concept for the location of the Verne High Angle Battery would have been more effective, the response shows we found a suitable alternative. Also, responses to a later question of 'What would you change' show that some respondants thought it was too dark, linking to how lighting is lowly rated for this question. This suggests to me that our original location would have in fact been worse due to having no natural lighting - the location used did have natural lighting, but still needed to be improved through artificial lighting.

 

The music was another appreciated aspect, showing that the subtlety was effective in creating tension without distracting from the audience. On the other hand, the characters were least appreciated. This may be because the audience does not find out a great deal about the characters, and our actor had limited use of facial expressions and body language to put across his emotions, meaning that the audience does not build a connection with Nathan. It would be easier to build his character if we had longer for the opening. Also, we could have chosen an older, more experienced actor to play Nathan's character.

Although response is generally positive, we would have room to improve if re-filming. Despite this, we are happy with the result because no respondants answered with '1 star', and the most popular result was '4 stars' - a strong score for our first opening.

WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE ABOUT THIS OPENING IF YOU COULD?

 

As this question is very open-ended, a variety of answers were collected. 

 

Mise-en-scene related improvements:

  • Some respondants wanted to change the lighting. For example, one indivual stated they "can't see everything that well" whilst another wanted lighting to be more "dramatic". Combining these two points, I believe it would have been effective to use artificial lighting to create a chiaroscuro effect. This would have been striking and successful in creating tension and drama. 

  • One respondant said "Maybe change the character clothes", whilst another said they "disliked the colour of Nathan's laces".  We thought that allowing our actor to wear normal clothes with grey shoes would portray how Nathan has been randomly abducted from his home, however we now understand that we needed to pay closer attention to wardrobe and make sure no items of clothing were distracting from the action on screen.

 

Plot related improvements:

  • A few people answered to reduce the confusion - "Maybe resolve a little bit of the confusion", "clearer story" and "maybe make it a little easier to understand." This shows that perhaps not enough was explained, for example that the counsellors scene was from later in the film, leaving the audience feeling uneasy and not as interested in the film. We did aim for confusion, but this is only a desirable trait if it creates the effect of peaking curiosity - it has been described as a "turn off" when taken too far. We possibly could have included links, perhaps symbolic ones, to show the relevance of each scene. 

  • A respondant thought "showing the photographs' purpose" would be an improvement. These photos were meant to represent Hel's previous victims, deceased. However, as we used no make up or effects we seemingly did not clearly show that the people in the photographs were dead. If we had used make up to make their faces look sunken with hollow cheeks and of paler skin, we may have achieved this. Showing that the photos were of dead victims would create fear in the audience as they anticipate that this will be the result of Nathan. 

 

Shot related improvements:

  • One answer was "When Nathan gets up he immediately goes towards the door without considering the room around him, it feels slightly artificial." We did consider this, as on our shot list we used a POV shot of Nathan looking around at the room. However, in post production we realised that this did not flow well with the previous and following shots, so cut out the take. To rectify this problem, we could have considered filming a different shot, perhaps a long shot or mid shot to show Nathan's actions of taking in his surroundings, rather than a POV. 

  • "The initial shot could be taken from a wider angle to establish the location and let the viewer discover Nathan on the ground." This answer shows that our establishing shot should have given more information about the setting. The establishing shot is very important as it gives the first impression of the film, and needs to be striking in order to grab the audience's attention.


Editing related improvements:

  • The response "less time for each clip, more jumping around" along with "The pacing could have done with some variety" show that our takes were too long. This slower pace decreased the excitement and tension of the scene, reducing the audience's interest in the film. Therefore, we needed more shots so that we could have faster takes, increase the pace and keep the audience on edge. 

  • A respondant answered with "A tiny bit longer to read the writing at the beginning". We did time how long it took ourselves to read this information, and extended the time slightly from this length, however this comment shows that not all people were able to fully read the text. This needs to be rectified, as this is one of the few sources of context in our opening needed to make greater sense of the film. 

 

FINAL THOUGHTS:

 

These responses have been incredibly value in helping us to understand the opinions of the audience in terms of what worked successfully and where we went wrong. If we were to carry out this process again, we could use these comments to make small changes that may have a great impact on the final product. If further in the film we developed our characters, explained the plot and added more intense action, I believe we could have a place in the market. Although it is similar to other horrors in a number of ways, we have points of differentiation from the competition in terms of our use of a female antagonist and combination of modern settings with medieval elements.

 

 

 

 

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