The trailer is effective at building tension and mystery through its use of music, sound effects, and visuals. It establishes a basic storyline of friends going out and something spooky happening, without giving too much away. This leaves viewers curious to find out more. Specifically, the trailer hints that the girl may be either the victim or the villain through ambiguous scenes of her screaming and a unsettling voiceover. The genre is identified as a modern horror based on its spooky tone, forest setting, and portrayal of teenagers partaking in risky behavior.

1. Question one: How effective is the trailer to you? & Why? From my feedback, I have found that the main elements that have made our trailer most effective to my target market is the music and sound effects, as a number of them mentioned how they all ‘Fit well together’ and ‘builds up the tension, making people want to go watch the movie’. We used the music that we did particularly for this reason, as by using calm shots and music in the first part of the trailer, it begins to build the trailer up as the audience can see something has happened/ is going to happen. Then the music picks up and so do the shots used, therefore increasing the tension and atmosphere, which keeps the audience interested in the film’s storyline. Another point which was that the music we used, was a typically style of music found in a horror film. And ‘Sociologically it can trigger your emotions and make you feel scared’ and as a result of constructing the trailer so that it showing most of ‘the scary parts of the movie, it help you get into the story and makes you feel the same as them in the film’. This was the effect which we wanted to create for the audience, as by manipulating their emotions it keeps the audience interested and draws them into watching the full movie to find out what happens and who survives, which I found worked very well on my target audience.

2. A comment was made about the use of the using a review about the trailer ‘A review from a newspaper would encourage people to go see it’ we decided to use a review as it gives the audience more evidence that the film is good and that they should go watch it. Also as a result of showing the name of the movie a number of times, it ensures that the audience knows the films name for later purposes such as watching the whole film. Also by adding a shot of ‘The phone with the screen saying ‘The knowing’ it creates questions for the audience, as it makes them think is the knowing a name for someone or something that is in the film, which is after the teenagers? Therefore keeping the audience curious and interested, which I found the audience though it was ‘Spooky and unusual as they did not know what it meant, as a result of it being the name of the film, rather than a person/thing. From our first draft feedback we found that the text we had was to quick and needed to be longer and also there was not enough text in the trailer for the audience to get more information about the trailer. Therefore for a final trailer we added in some more text for instance and made each shot stay on screen for a longer period of time for the audience to read. Things we could change next time: One of our feedbacks said that the trailer ‘Does not give too much away and that makes the viewer curious as to what the film is about, but perhaps the audience needs to know a bit more about what the film is about’. Therefore if we were to re-do the trailer again, the voice over could give some more information about what is happening, or other shots could be added to make the film more clearer, but not in a way which would give the storyline away and the twist of the victim/ villain. Another point would be that we would make the voice over's louder and lower the background sound so that they would be more clearer for the viewer to hear, as the voice over ‘they get more than they bargained for’ the ‘sound effects were slightly to loud to her what he was saying’. Which therefore could break the tension of the trailer for the viewer, which could cause them to lose interest in the trailer.

3. Question two: What storyline would you identify the trailer to have? & Why? From my feedback I found that most people understood the general storyline of the film for in stance, ‘A group of friends going out and being spooked by something, splitting up and the girl could have possibly killed her friend’ and ‘A group of teenagers going out looking for fun and doing things they shouldn’t; leading to horrible and terrific consequences’. Therefore we have made the trailer have a clear basic storyline for the audience to get a basic feel of what is happening, but we have made the rest of the more detailed storyline more complex. so that it creates questions for the audience about what is/ going to happen, therefore keeping them interested in finding out what happens. From our first draft feedback of the trailer when the voice over had not been added, we found that although the use silence and not much sound other than the music, people found it difficult to understand what was happening at all. Therefore that when we decided that a voice over was necessary, to set the scene of the film, which turned out t make a big different to not only giving the audience more information but adding more of an spooky effect to the trailer.

4. As a result it creates questions for the audience about what is/ going to happen, therefore keeping them interested in finding out what happens. For instance ‘From what the trailer shows the audience can make an educated guess that the girl becomes possessed and maybe goes after her own friends?’ this could be as a result of the walking out from the behind the tree in the dark. Therefore as a result of using a range of cuts of different scenes, it creates different storylines, therefore the storyline could be portrayed differently depending on the viewer and how they see the trailer. Things we could change next time: I think next time if we were to re-do the trailer, I would make the storyline slightly more clear not in a way that gives away the storyline too much or reveals the twist of the victim/ villain. But in an way which allows anyone who watches the trailer to get a more general idea of what the storyline, is so that everyone has the same ideas of what is happening. As, if the trailer gives off too may ways it which it could go and the audience has many different thoughts. When the audience goes to watch the whole film, they could become disappointed in the film, as it could be a entirely different storyline. Therefore the film would be a disappointing as a result of the misleading build up of the trailer.

5. Question three: What is the selling point that makes you want to watch the movie from the trailer itself? & Why? From my feedback I have found that the main selling point of the trailer is the ‘Mystery of the trailer; you do not know what is happening therefore you’re curious and want to watch the film’. And ‘If the girl has plotted to kill her friends or has killed them’ this therefore keeps the audience makes the audience interested in finding out what is happening and what will happen as a result. We have used the technique to keep the audience guessing and to not give to much of the storyline away, We have used this technique to keep the audience guessing and not too give to much of the storyline away, but enough for the audience to have a basic idea of what is happening which gives the audience the ability to work out a storyline for themselves from the different shots and voice over’s given within the trailer. One of my feedback’s said that the trailer included ‘Lots of cliff hangers, as lots of things happening, like the phone with the screen saying ‘The knowing’ and the girl screaming in front of the car’. We did this to create an arrange of different events/ plots within the whole trailer, to keep the trailer exciting and interesting. As ‘It makes you want to find out what it is and what is happening, which makes you want to keep watching it to find out what is happening as it interests you’.

6. Question four: Would you think the girl is the victim or the villain? & Why? From the feedback I found that there were a mixture of responses to this question, as some people though she was the villain and that she maybe ‘plotted to killed her friends’, but other people though she may have been ‘possessed and maybe goes after her own friends’. This as a result was what we wanted to trailer to portray to the audience, as this twist of not being sure who this victim’s are? Or the villain(s) is? Keeps the audience interested in finding out not only what happens but who people in the trailer are revealed to be. The main reason why some of my feedback came back that the girl was the victim was the factor that she is screaming a number of times throughout the trailer. As one of my feedbacks said, ‘she is the victim...if not she would not be screaming because she is so scared’. By making the girl seem frightened and like she is being followed by someone/something, it creates the allusion that she is innocent which we wanted to her to represent to the audience, but also a we wanted her to have a dark spooky side to her as well, therefore keeping the audience guessing. ‘She may have mistaken her friends for something else, because she was scared of the car when it pulled and being followed by something’.

7. On the opposite hand though parts of the trailer gives the audience some clues if she is the villain or not, as for instance a point was made about a voice ‘Would you every expect one of your own’ pointed out that it suggested that she was the mystery villain. As when this voice over is shown ‘At that point the shot focuses on the girl, suggesting that she is the villain and all the other are victims. But as a result of having the girl screaming it makes the audience question whether or not she is the villain or the victim. As one of my other feedback’s shows how this effect used throughout the trailer can cause the audience to question her role within the film. ‘I think the girl is the victim because she is tied up and she’s the only one who screams, but the trailer might purposely be misleading due to the fact it is a trailer’. This quote is one of the main reasons why we chosen to give one character two sides/roles too her. To keep the audience guessing. This therefore encourages the audience to keep watching the trailer and to watch the film itself to get the answers they need to understand what is happening and why. Things we could change next time: Maybe if we were to re-do the trailer we could add another character who has an evil side to them, or even if you do not actually see the character they are just a figure in the background. This will therefore drawing some of the attention and suspicion away from the girl , which will made the twist in the film much bolder and not so predictable who the villain actually is, as a result of some elements in the trailer giving the audience clues to the only person who seems to have a dark side to them.

8. Question five: What genre do you think the trailer is? & Why? From all my feedback I everyone said that the trailer was a horror, which the trailer is and most of the feedback came back the same about why the trailer fitted this genre. The most common term used was ‘Spooky’ which I think suits are trailer well, as some horror trailers are tense/jumpy, where as our horror trailer is more unknown and spooky, as it seems like ‘The girl becoming possessed’ the phone ringing with ‘The Knowing’ calling. Also from all the feedback from this question, it shows that our trailer meets all the conventions of a horror trailer, as they are typical things that you would find and the easiest way people can identify the horror genre ‘Spooky sound effects, scary music, screaming it all adds up to look like a horror’. ‘Music and at night/forest settings’, which is a typical horror setting and time of day for a horror film to be based on. As a result this is why we chose to set our trailer in the woods; in the day to set the scene of the film and at night for when the problems begin to start for the teenagers. I also had another point made about the trailer being a modern type of horror, rather than a more classic one. As you have ‘A group of teenagers looking for fun and doing things they should do like smoking’ and doing illegal substances such as ‘Smoking cannabises’. Which is a modern and typical thing for teenagers to do now rather than in the earlier days of horror films.