Test Screening Report by Naomi

Average Grade Scores

Media Language: B

Conventions: B/A

Creativity: B/A

Attention to Detail: B

Technical Proficiency: B

Cinematography 

Through all the comments, two very clear positives came out from the cinematography of the scenes we shot. Firstly, the use of camera angles and most close ups were used effectively which primarily the reason why the other positive came out from this was that, the emotions of the character were clear and interacting with the audience. A quote ‘strong scary emotions’, is an example of what we wanted to achieve in the trailer overall.

A common criticism that came through was being able to capture more angles within the shed. Initially we did find it quite hard to get a variety of angles as the setting was small, but trying it again, we can implement more high angle and long shots. Lastly, some shots need to be clearer as they sometimes went blurry and ensuring that the right message is put across. Need to show two legs during build up scenes of bath room shots.

Mise En Scene

Overall, everyone mentioned that the use of props and unwanted objects in the scene created good attention to detail and made the scenes more effective and intense. Our audience liked the use of candles in the bathroom and the teddy bear in shed alongside the random tools in order to create the dangerous mysterious look. Overall we will continue to think about the use of props in appropriate scenes. 

The main point that came through the feedback was that during the shed scene, the main protagonists clothing didn’t represent a real actor that supposedly meant to be psychologically disturbed. Next time when re shooting this, we need a purer colour that is dirty to represent her class and how her appearance reflects her emotions rather than joggers and a t shirt. 

Lighting

Within the shed scene, we experimented with a torch to create a contrast between dark and light to create low key lighting. From the feedback it was quite successful and created a good image which we will therefore continue to do. 

A room for improvement would be to create a way to keep the torch still as through the scenes we could acknowledge shakiness which made the scenes look unprofessional and unclean. We are hoping to reschedule to reshoot the scene in order to accomplish and correct this criticism. 

Sound

Through the scenes we showed, they were non dialogue hence no sound was being experienced by the audience however through one of them where the main protagonist was singing, it created a real psychological effect which was successfully portrayed. These scenes are going to be used during random moments of the trailer to confuse the audience what the real narrative is about.

For future shots, there will definitely be more dialogue as we have more characters to create this. After these shots are taken, hopefully our audience can experience and comment on how it they are successful or not. 

Conventions

As our genre is psychological horror, it was successfully connoted trough the various facial expressions and close ups, alongside the settings. Our audience felt that it met the horror conventions of being twisted and scary which is a big compliment to our production as we know what to continue doing.

As a whole, using the conventions of horror, our audience would like to see more shocking scenes that crate engagement and fright for example a stare in the mirror and someone entering behind with sudden music.  Also, during the bath scene, we could try to make the hand more shocking with the sign on the hand. 

Summary

Overall, as a group we achieved many successful and creative aspects through lighting and settings. We need to just ensure that we capture all the conventions of horror and use different techniques, more soundly and make sure all camera work is not shaky or blurry as it was common through some practise scenes.