Q3: WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE

FEEDBACK?
When creating our media package, we aimed to create a product that adhered to the
apocalyptic horror sub-genre, with a modern approach that would work as a unique selling point.
This would have to be clear in all three of our products. To discover to what extent this was true
and how successful we were in appealing to our target demographic we created a survey on
surveymonkey.com. This allowed us to catalogue a wide response and collect data from beyond
just our target audience, making sure it was not age/gender biased. We also used social media
to get more developed answers from our viewers making our feedback more accurate. 50
people participated giving us a wide range of data and responses to The Aftermath.

We were successful in our creation of a trailer that adhered to the horror genre as evidenced by
our feedback, 62% of people said that our trailer was reflective of this genre. This is further
backed up by all of our audience agreeing our product was somewhat or very relevant to the
horror apocalypse sub-genre. This data has shown us that not only have we successfully
conformed to our chosen genre, but our more niche genre is also highly evident in our trailer as

59.18% said it was very relevant in our trailer for The Aftermath. When further questioned
people said that the prevalence of our genre came primarily from the music and building of fear
in the trailer as evidenced by the characters. Many agreed
that the inclusion of typical conventions of the horror genre
such as blood, shadows and lighting, and ambiguity of the
pursuers made the genre clear and evident from the
beginning. The same can be said for the evidence of the
apocalypse sub-genre. Many noted that the use of news
clips and editing at the beginning was effective in outlining
the plot and indicating genre.
While all viewers were aware of the apocalypse sub-genre
to some extent, 32% saw The Aftermath as a thriller,
which indicates to us that less typical conventions of
horror were used in our production. However this can also
be chalked up to the reputation of the apocalypse subgenre which can be seen as both as
a thriller (i.e Book of Eli, The Maze Runner) or a horror (i.e
28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead) due to the two very
different markets for adults and teens leading to a
predominance of thriller films also within this genre. In our
own production we may have also adhered to the thriller
genre due to the use of editing to build tension, and lack of
typical horror gore which we chose not to include as it
didnt fit into our parameters for a trailer, which doesnt
often give away aspects such as body horror.
The fact 32% of people saw our film as a thriller, and 6%
interpreted it as a drama can also be seen in a positive
light, as it shows that narrative is layers and has features
from different genres, not just horror. Therefore our trailer
appeals to a wider audience, as evidenced by the 84% who said that based on the trailer they
would want to see the film. This is important as not all the people we surveyed would statistically
be fans of the horror genre, and therefore the use of the hybrid genre in our product makes for a
more interesting and diverse film which doesnt totally adhere to what the genre expect, such as
the focus on human relationships in The Aftermath, and appeals to a wider demographic.

Our product was successful in appeal to its target demographic, young people are
conventionally fans of the horror genre and thrills it provides. This was reflective in our survey
by the overwhelming 92% that said that the 15-25 age group was the audience the trailer would
appeal to the most. This question was one that could have multiple answers, ie. people may
believe The Aftermath was best suited foteenagers as well as young adults. This also
effectively shows the size of our potential audience, and therefore the films potential success as
it reaches more people without deviating from the genre, as shown in the previous questions .
Our trailer was successful not only in adhering to the typical horror demographic but varied in
than 22% said that it appealed to an older audience, and 12% said it appealed to a younger
audience. From this its clear that our trailer offered something new to the horror genre, as it was
constructed with a focus on the characters and their interactions such as Sam and Adrian's
relationship. This is not typical to most films within the horror genre which often discard their
characters and have them picked off one by one, as this is what works within the narrative of the
film. Comparatively , our narrative adhered to some aspect of the drama genre in that the
growing emotions of the characters were shown. When asked to develop on how they thought
this was shown our viewers claimed this was most acutely felt through the use of narrative and
voice. Our data shows that 13 people chose more than a single age group for this question,
indicating that the use of variety within genre and the modern aspects that appeal to the most
young movie-goers led to a wider potential demographic, as something new is being introduced
to an already popular genre.

96% of viewers said our choice of locations and setting

was effective. We predominantly used rural settings and
open spaces to encapsulate the vulnerability and isolation
of the characters. Moving from the busy streets of London
and urban settings such as the train station, to the open
spaces on Farthing Downs complemented our climactic
build up and conveyed a sense of movement in the
narrative, as well as using typical tropes from the horror
apocalypse sub-genre. The rural areas in films such as 28
Weeks Later create the solitude necessary to
communicate the desperation of the characters through
setting in juxtaposition to the movement and rapid editing
the trailer began with..
Clarity of narrative was a crucial aspect we kept in mind
while constructing our trailer, due to the amount of footage
recorded we wanted to convey the initial outline of the plot
without meaning being lost or the apocalypse sub-genre
not being conveyed as we had to create a separate
narrative communicating how the films world was different
to our own. 87.76% said that through the trailer narrative
was made clear. We used the three act structure as a
base for our trailer, this allowed us to adhere to the typical
trailer and convey the basis of our plot without giving away
the whole story. Viewers noted that the trailers exposition
and use of news clips effectively conveyed the narrative
and apocalypse sub-genre by building up the fictious
world our film is set in.In the end we edited a lot of footage
from our first act making it concise and therefore clearer to
the majority of our audience, as only 12.24% felt we were
unsuccessful in providing clarity of the films plot.
96% of people agreed that our music was effective and
complemented our trailers growing tension and climactic
build up. We used four separate tracks to construct the
trailers escalation to montage, this worked with the
narratives multiple crescendos that are common in the
horror genre, leading up to the fast track final act wherein
the soundtrack comes to a climax. We used cinematic
trailer sounds to accompany the trailers music and shots,
such as the drumming in time with the films institutional information. This helped draw the visual
and auditory aspects of of our trailer together into one cohesive project. We succeeded in this

endeavour as evidenced by the large percentage of people who agreed that our music was
effectively used in the creation of our product.

We decided that one of products unique selling points was the use of modern conventions in
the horror genre. 59.18% people agreed this was evident in our trailer. We used a wide spaced
white font over footage to create a contemporary looking style as well as an often bright vibrant
shot choice and binary colours, such as the bright sky in juxtaposition to the darker foreground.
This complemented our apocalypse sub-genre as the narrative presumably takes place in the
future therefore the use of modern conventions helps construct this genre and construct a
varied take on an already popular genre. 34.69% of viewers believed that there was evidence of
conventions from both classic and modern horror films as we used typical conventions of horror
in our product also so the viewer could recognize the genre and identify with the characters. For
example the typical dim lighting, enclosed setting of the garage and close up of the rattling door
knob are all to an extent stereotypes of the horror genre. However only 6.12% of our audience
thought that our film utilized conventions only from
classic horror and its stereotypes. The balance between
the repetition and variation of genre allowed us to create
something new in our product, as a clean contemporary
style helped construct genre and a USP for our film.

Our inspiration for our title came from our apocalypse themed mood board and the aftermath of
an end of the world scenario. This would help establish genre from the title alone and create a
sense of hopelessness as the film is set after an apocalyptic event. 94% of people agreed that
this title was relevant to our trailer and conformed to what they expected from genre and
narrative. This may have contributed to 62% of viewers who agreed our film belonged to the
horror genre and the 100% that said our film was very or somewhat relevant to the apocalypse
sub-genre.

96% of people said that the trailer, poster and magazine

cover complement one another. From this its evident we
were successful in creating a cohesive branding image for
our film which conveys the apocalypse sub-genre. Across
the main and ancillary tasks we used monochrome colours
and minimalist typography to conform to our contemporary
style of horror, subverting the often overt use of
conventions and horror iconography. Similarly the poster
and trailer utilize the naturalistic setting and typical
conventions of genre, such as the colour red and darkened
shadows to evoke feelings of foreboding and terror, making
the genre immediately recognizable to the audience.