Focus Group Screening

Good Points:
- Nice montage of shots when Sam drinks the whiskey x6
- Very clear narrative x10 - the way we merge our shots together resulted in a clear understanding of the plot for the audience
- Creepy music while the inter titles were presented x5 - we were told our music choice matched the general 'weird' atmosphere for our trailer
- Good acting x6
- Varied use of cinematography x4 - good angles
- Fair use of close ups to fit the general horror convention of camera shots x5
- Pace x3 - audience members said they liked the 'fight/argument scene' as it added tension
- Good establishing shots - audience members felt we introduced each character fairly
- Mise-en-scene x4 - the tarot cards worked well
- Duration of shots x6 - we were told the length of some of our shots created a nice sense of suspense.


Improvements:
- Spelling mistakes x8 - many people picked up on our accidental spelling mistake in one of our inter titles
- Duration of inter titles x2 - this was tricky as one class mate suggested that we sped up the duration, and another said the opposite.
- Music in general needed more pace
- Audio levels on certain parts were fairly muffled x2
- Jump scare needed
- More interesting font for our inter titles x3
- Duration of some of the shots x2 - some people suggested that we needed to speed up some of the shots to create an element of panic

Marks out of 10 by 18 viewers;

8, 7, 8, 7, 7, 7, 6, 7, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 6, 8, 7, 7

Average Mark: 7

Side-by-side Film Poster Analysis

Colour - As you can see from the example of another horror films poster and my version of a similar kind of film the colours on my poster are much brighter. I feel as though this is because my aim while making the film was to sell to a more mainstream, modern audience and so I felt that brighter colours would catch a 'younger' persons eye - within our generation - better than a more 'old-fashioned' type of horror fan.  The colours on my poster also, also very similar to the example poster, add a sense of 'money' and a 'high quality feel' to it, whereas I feel as though due to the fact that the example poster is much duller it conveys the idea that its more 'inexpert' and 'unprofessional'.
Structure - The structure of our horror film posters are extremely alike. We have both placed our title - TAROT/JILTED - within the bottom third of the poster and situation our key elements of our main image - the tarot cards - in the middle third highlighting its importance and simplicity. We have also similarly placed our actor's names just slightly about the title to advertise their presence and attract audience members that are a fan of the actors/actresses previous work. The only major difference between our two pieces is that I have placed a  tag line in the top third of my film poster to add dramatic effect. The idea behind a tag line is to create an intense phrase that will strengthen the audience's memory of the product and also to slightly sum up the narrative or tone within the film itself and therefore I felt it was highly important to include one to capture and hold the audience's attention and make them want to see my film.

Side-by-side Magazine Analysis

Structure - As you can see the 'Total Film' magazine cover is structurally very similar to my 'Silver Screen' magazine cover. They are both fairly classy and convey conventions much closer to psychological horrors, compared to magazines such as 'Scream' that focus majorly on body gore and therefore take on a much more 'frantic' and packed structure. Both of these magazine covers above stick to the 'rule of thirds'. Both of the main images are situated in the middle third to emphasis its importance and highlights the main feature within the magazine itself. The top third included the title as well as a short 'tag line' for the magazine - "THE MIND-BLOWING ISSUE"/"THE WORLD'S MOST UPMARKET HORROR ENTERTAINMENT MAGAZINE". The top third of a magazine is usually what the consumer will see first due to how they are placed on selling stools and therefore it is very important that the viewer will see the title first to help advertise the product. The bottom third for both of the magazines is filled with further information on our main image and again highlighting what the main feature of the magazine is. 

Colour - Both magazines use dark, 'moody' colours which are conventional for horrors. Deep blues (used on 'Total Films' cover) share the same colour connotations as blacks (used in my version of a horror magazine). They both connote power and dominance as well as hinting towards a gloomy, mysterious atmosphere. They also symbolise the idea that these magazine articles are focused mainly on 'psychological horrors' - if my horror film was known for its gore content I would have used colours like red and yellows to connote blood, pus and danger/gore. I kept the colours of my horror magazine fairly simple too add to the 'classy-ness' of the cover due to the colours themselves not being too overwhelming, confident and messy.

Cover Lines - The cover lines are strategically places around the outside of the magazine on both covers. This is to not draw too much attention from the main image/main article however they need to be advertised on the cover so that the consumer knows what they are buying and can look forward to reading ahead. Most 'important words' such as producer’s names, film titles and 'juicy' topics are bigger than other 'connecting' words to create emphasis on them and capture the viewers’ attention.

Main Differences - One particular thing that I noticed differed a lot from many other horror magazines compared to mine was they tended to have some form of circular shape on it used as an exciting well to sell another of the magazines features. 

Above are two more examples of horror magazines that have used the circle shape on their front cover - the first is from Empire and the second is from Scream.

The reason in which I didn't use this idea was because I felt it added a childish, playful touch to my product and I didn't want my target audience to be younger than at least 18 and therefore I tried to keep my cover classier and simple to appeal to a mature audience. 

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