Q1. What do you feel are the 3 most important ingredients in a film trailer?
Suspense, atmosphere, excitement, music, show genre, action sequences, actors, aesthetics, cinematography, clues to narrative, director, colour, star appeal, doesn't give away too much, emotion, exciting, fast paced editing, generic convention, attention grabbing, gripping, impact, interest, language & dialogue, lots of images, narrative enigma, showing a good story line, special effects, sublime scenes, voiceover.
We can try to include all of these things into our trailer, particularly as our audience feel these are key elements of a trailer!
Q2. What age group are you in?
The majority of people who answered this question were between the age of 36 - 45.
81% of people that answered the questionnaire were between the ages of 26 - 45. We should therefore aim to make a trailer more targeted at a more mature age group. We could perhaps do this by incorporating older characters to make it more relatable.
Q3. What is your preferred sub-genre of crime films?
43.75% Psychological
43.75% Thriller
12.5% True Crime
0% Horror
We will therefore try keep to the two most popular sub-genres (thriller & psychological) when creating our trailer to further appeal to our target audience.
Q4. Out of the films listed below, which would you rate as the best 3?
The top three answers were - Se7en (75%) , The Silence of the Lambs (50%) and The Usual Suspects/Pulp fiction (25% each)
As "Seven" was the most popular choice of film, it would benefit us to take more ideas and inspiration from this film so ours is equally as great!
The choices of film were: Se7en, The Usual Suspects, Psycho (1960), Momemnto, Mystic River, Cape Fear, Fatal Attraction, Mullholland Drive, Taxi Driver, Sleeping With The Enemy, The Shining, A History of Violence, The Silence of the Lambs, No Country for Old Men, Straw Dogs, The Departed, Leon and American Psycho.
Q5.Out of the 3 films you just picked, choose one and say why you liked it.
Common reasons were:
because the narrative twists, strong characters, intriguing plot, tension, excellent soundtrack, original plot, interesting crimes & clues that get you thinking.
Although this question is more specific to an entire film, we can consider these responses when creating our narrative. This will then allow us to choose intriguing and exciting parts of our story to use in our trailer.
Q6.Choose a memorable scene in any thriller and explain why you think it was so effective
| Bath bit in fatal attraction as made everyone on cinema jump | 1 |
| Child on tricycle in the shining. v creepy, gave me nightmares | 1 |
| Final scene in the usual suspects when the narrator walks away and sheds his disability and becomes the 'suspect'. beautifully timed and filmed so that he is walking slowly away from you. | 1 |
| In se7en when they go in to the room with the air freshners and the man takes a breath. good setting of the scene, made you jump out of your skin because it's so unexpected. | 1 |
| Se7en - the final scene in which brad pitt's character find his wife's head in the box. so shocking and unusual. witnesses the fact that he has been totally manipulated into being the final sin was extremely clever and stays with you for years after watching the film. | 1 |
| 'shoots em,skins em, dumps em' silence of the lambs. | 1 |
| Silence- sound of scissors snipping in white van. really gets imagination going which is really effective- moreso than showing gruesome images- imagining them far worse | 1 |
| 'sucking of teeth' in silence of the lambs because evil portrayed with palpable effect | 1 |
| The 'cutting off the ear' scene in reservoir dogs is so horrific because of the suspense, the contrast between upbeat music and the cold heartedness of the perpetrator. the room is brightly lit and the horror is shown in complete clarity; it is truly one of the most horrific scenes on film. | 1 |
| The final scene in fatal attraction when she appears in the wife's bathroom. it was good because you thought she was dead and then she comes up again from the bath water. | 1 |
| The penultimate scene in seven - shocking ,brutal and visceral. a reminder that evil can prevail and humanity destroyed | 1 |
| The scene in silence of the lambs when the guy is wearing night vision goggles and he can see the woman but she cant see him and i thought it was effective because the audience feels really sorry for her but kinda creeped out at the same time because they are made to feel like the man wearing the goggles. | 1 |
| The scene in usual suspects where the susspects were all in the line up, and benito del tores swore and everyone else started to crack up laughing! it was not in the script, and it was genuine laughter. it was left in, and it was one of the scenes that really made the film for me. | 1 |
| There is a great scene in the usual suspects when the police chief has just finished interviewing verbal kint and turns to read his noticeboard and realises everything he had been told is a lie. the way he drops his cup in slow motion, reads the names of the board and suddenly the whole lie is unravelled. | 1 |
| Unforgettables, scene in the lift. viewer realised what was likely to happen so it created suspense and still shock when a lead character killed | 1 |
| What lies beneath - the scene in the bathroom because there is a build of tension through the use of sound. |
It would benefit us to try and think of a "memorable scene" for our story so that we can show this (or parts of it) in our teaser trailer. It could also be used to create iconic imagery for our poster and/or our web page.
Q7.Who is your most memorable character (hero,heroine or villain) in a psychological thriller, and why?
Hannibal Lector (Silence of Lambs), Anthony Perkins (psycho), Norman Spencer (what lies beneath), Kaiser Soze (the usual suspects), John Doe (seven), Norman Bates (psycho), Michelle Pfeiffer (What lies beneath)
Why?
The fact that Hannibal was so controlled & controlling
Acted well
The character's ordinary nature
the twist of the narrative
drawn to, yet repulsed by his character (lector)
disturbing innocence.
These are all features we could consider when creating characters and casting.
Q8. What do you think makes a good film trailer?
| A compelling precis of the film showing the leading actors | 1 |
| Don`t give away the twists, good overview of the plot. having said that some querky irrelevant trailers are great aswell. best example would be the trailer to trainspotting. nothing really to do with the film, but you wanted to know more. | 1 |
| Fantastic editing to bring the film to life without giving too much away to the viewer. you need to draw the viewer in through the use of visuals and music to excite them, highlighting the emotive nature of the genre. | 1 |
| Fast pace, humour, suspense (not giving too much away), not too much focus on big letters, film star names etc...great music | 1 |
| Fast paced editing, use of sound, enough infomration about the narrative to create interest and also the usual conventions of a trailer e.g. release date etc | 1 |
| Gives a good idea if it's the sort of film you like and tells you a bit but not too much so that you really want to see it. | 1 |
| Good pace grabs attention | 1 |
| Immediately able to draw you in, telling the summary of the story line - enough to get you intrigued. a good voiceover always gets you interested. | 1 |
| It must be really gripping and it must make you want to know what happens. i also like them to be quite exciting. | 1 |
| Music, suspense and animation. | 1 |
| One that can sell a film | 1 |
| One that gives me an idea of what the plot is about in the film, as well as giving me just enough of an introduction that it makes me want to find out more. i like trailers that look good, but not at the expense of introducing me to the main point of the film. | 1 |
| One that isnt too long | 1 |
| Pace- grab attention with some original scenes that make you sit up and take notice! | 1 |
These responses will be vital when we start shooting and editing our trailer. We can try to include as many of these elements as possible so that it further appeals to our audience.
Q9. How do you think a film trailer can be ruined?
| Bad music, too much action and no storyline. | 1 |
| By giving too much of the story away or portraying the film in a totally different way to what it actually is. being too abstract doesn't work for me. i want to know what i'm getting in yet still feel inspired to watch. | 1 |
| Give away the ending/ twists. | 1 |
| Giving away plot | 1 |
| Giving away too much | 1 |
| Giving too much of the plot away. | 1 |
| If it ends and you still don't know what the film is about. | 1 |
| If they give away the ending. | 1 |
| Music too loud and a sequence of excessively flashing images | 1 |
| Repeating scenes, not explaining basic plot | 1 |
| The trailer goes into too much detail and reveals too much of the plot. | 1 |
| Too linear and too revealing | 1 |
| Too long or not enough images no good characters introduced where all the plot is given away or if hardly any of the plot is given away | 1 |
| Using all the best bits in the trailer. you feel disappointed after seeing the movie if all the best bits used. also anything that has the phrase "starring vinny jones" puts me off straight away. | 1 |
| When it gives too much information or too little. the balance is important. the trailer can put me off if it is too fast, too slow, too mysterious or not mysterious enough.... | 1 |
| When the plot/ending is given away. | 1 |
Things to avoid....
Q10. Name a film trailer that was so good that it made you go and watch the film
| 2012 but then actual film was rubbish- they showed all best bits in trailer! | 1 |
| Batman | 1 |
| Batman forever - the perfect balance of trailer conventions | 1 |
| Broadcast news in early 1980s- loved the use of a typewriter to punctuate the story telling. also liked the sound of the story. | 1 |
| Can't think of one. | 1 |
| Casino royale | 1 |
| Dancing with wolves trailer for the powerful portrayal of the location scenery and the emotion of the film | 1 |
| I often can't remember the trailers once i watch the film, but the ones i do remember were the blair witch project because it looked terrifying and intriguing. cloverfield was very similar, but the film itself did not deliver. | 1 |
| Inception | 1 |
| Inception - fast paced, showed all of the big name cast which is one of the main reasons people go to see films. it told enough of the story to draw you in without really telling you what to expect. | 1 |
| One of the best trailers was mission impossible. showed clips of the film but just had the mission impossible music playing over it. | 1 |
| Paranormal activity because i like the fact that you could see peoples reactions and i wanted to see if i would react in the same way | 1 |
| Recently, date night, not normally a rom com person, but had just enough laughs in it to make me watch it. | 1 |
| Robin hood (the kevin costner version and the russell crow version.) the bow and arrow scenes got me, plus the men on horses! fantastic! | 1 |
| The dark knight | 1 |
Q11. What sort of text do you feel should be featured in a film trailer?
The audience feel that: the film title, reviews & ratings, Actor's and director's names, additional film infor (such as the web address & release date) and text that hints towards the narrative should be featured in a film trailer.
Q12. What is your opinion of voiceovers in film trailers?
Q13. What sound do you prefer in film trailers?
Most people chose parallel sound. Therefore it would be useful to use this type of sound (non-diegetic) in our teaser.
Q14. From the following list, which elements would you expect from a psychological thriller?
The most popular answers are: A race against time, tensoin, an unusual crime, clues left by the villain and plausible crimes.
Q15. Which of the following do you feel would be the best killer for a psychological thriller?
The most popular killer among our audience is a serial killer, so we should perhaps try to portray the qualities of a serial killer (villain) in our trailer.
Q16. Which of the following locations would you find the most frightening for a kidnapped victim to be held?
Although we will have to use many locations in our teaser trailer, a dark underground location (as inspired by Tinie Tempah's "Frisky" video) could be key in creating intrigue and tension for our audience.
