After screening the final edited version of our theatrical trailer to Osiris Unbound - complete with narration and a number of structural alterations - before a jury of our peers, the same audience that had previously offered feedback, we conducted another feedback session, listening to comments and answering questions posed to us.
The first point that was made was that film definitely had the look of a large budget Hollywood blockbuster, one of our key aims while we were in production - therefore this was a great success for us. The "clean-cut" and "to the point" nature of our trailer's editing meant that we both revealed elements of the film without compromising the storyline and the film's ending. The creation of enigmas and therefore a sense of mystery was especially achieved with the opening narration, when Lucas Thorne recites a passage from Prometheus Unbound, where our film's title is derived, which hints at some of the themes and character journeys in the film's plot without out-right stating it. The line"We're not the only ones left with a stake in this world", doesn't explicitly explain what "stake" it is referring to, but the nature of the word gives the sense of something large-scale and important, therefore elevating the character's journey to one of earth-shattering consequences.
The end scene was another created with the intention of crafting and shaping enigma's in the audience's mind, though this dominant reading was clearly not perceived by one audience member. His conflicting reading was that this scene, with Thorne's sudden lift of his firearm, was one of pure triumph, rather than of equal notions of hopelessness and potential, and so the music should have reflected this. James Richardson's score in this scene was written to convey a sense of foreboding and despair, something observed by the other members of the audience who approved of its subtlety and juxtaposition of music and the final seconds of the shot.
Again, our variety and frequency of different locations featured in the trailer received particular praise, with comparisons to films such as Skyfall, and the idea that this gave the film a sense of 'space' as well as ensuring the pace of the trailer was in constant movement and provided enough visual stimulation.
The first point that was made was that film definitely had the look of a large budget Hollywood blockbuster, one of our key aims while we were in production - therefore this was a great success for us. The "clean-cut" and "to the point" nature of our trailer's editing meant that we both revealed elements of the film without compromising the storyline and the film's ending. The creation of enigmas and therefore a sense of mystery was especially achieved with the opening narration, when Lucas Thorne recites a passage from Prometheus Unbound, where our film's title is derived, which hints at some of the themes and character journeys in the film's plot without out-right stating it. The line"We're not the only ones left with a stake in this world", doesn't explicitly explain what "stake" it is referring to, but the nature of the word gives the sense of something large-scale and important, therefore elevating the character's journey to one of earth-shattering consequences.
The end scene was another created with the intention of crafting and shaping enigma's in the audience's mind, though this dominant reading was clearly not perceived by one audience member. His conflicting reading was that this scene, with Thorne's sudden lift of his firearm, was one of pure triumph, rather than of equal notions of hopelessness and potential, and so the music should have reflected this. James Richardson's score in this scene was written to convey a sense of foreboding and despair, something observed by the other members of the audience who approved of its subtlety and juxtaposition of music and the final seconds of the shot.
Again, our variety and frequency of different locations featured in the trailer received particular praise, with comparisons to films such as Skyfall, and the idea that this gave the film a sense of 'space' as well as ensuring the pace of the trailer was in constant movement and provided enough visual stimulation.
The major criticism that we encountered, albeit slight in the overall scheme of things, was something that we ourselves agreed with to an extent. This was that the voice overs were sometimes difficult to distinguish between, in the case of Richard Young and James Richardson's characters, largely due to the fact that they were voiced by myself rather than their respective original actors. This was a conscious decision made both due to lack of availability but also due to the merits of using my voice over theirs: whereas they both have rather high pitched voices that are not befitting of either their characters or the film itself, I am capable of creating several different voices that better reflect the film's tone and suit the trailer. While I did think I offered two distinctive voices, with differing vocal patterns, the audience were somewhat drawn out of the trailer by their prior knowledge of the actor's real voices - something furthered by the lack of shots that include them speaking (though we made sure that the narration is accompanied by several shots of the respective characters.We also offered the artistic reason as an alternative that the similarity in voices was done to further blur the lines between the binary oppositions of good and evil.
The role of the sole female character in the film was also picked up on, with audience members questioning her ostensible lack of non-stereotypical involvement in the storyline, seen as 'always running', a statement invalidated by the fact that she appears in two shots, and only running in one of them. We responded by stating we were adhering to the Male Gaze Theory in order to address male audiences, and fulfilling Propp's character type of the princess. I also emphasized that the male actors in the film were visualized in this partly exploitative way to a greater extent through depiction of their manly feats, through fighting and agile activity.
We were asked about how we gave prevalence to the various characters in the trailer. Several of the film's leads are given their own section in which their narration and shots largely featuring them are used, while several different shots are included so audiences may distinguish between the positions of characters, while we offer a hint at their roles and the character traits. Lucas Thorne is principally shown in closeups, contrastingly the villain in shown only wide shots until the mid-point of the trailer, and Zubasu only appears for split seconds at a time. The purely silhouetted opening, with some brief close up views of bodily appendages, as well as the aforementioned differences in shots of characters, further the creation of an enigma code, and as one audience member explained, create more incentive for them to find out more about the film's characters and their involvement in the story.
As feedback on the final version, it was interesting to see what improvements we had made and which creative and technical choices were the most successful. The numerous questions on seemingly inconsequential elements of the trailer also enabled us to think more openly about our choices, sometimes helping us realise things that perhaps weren't superficially there before.
As feedback on the final version, it was interesting to see what improvements we had made and which creative and technical choices were the most successful. The numerous questions on seemingly inconsequential elements of the trailer also enabled us to think more openly about our choices, sometimes helping us realise things that perhaps weren't superficially there before.