What have you learned from your Audience
Feedback?
Prior to the production process of our coursework task, we conducted Audience research to assist us in the development and production of our final products. Using the internet, specifically the use of Facebook, we created the survey on “Survey Master” to gather a response from Facebook users.
This research helped us structure our target audience and ultimately progress with the
development of our final products.
‘Facebook’ helped us again in seeking Post production/Audience Feedback from our target audience. We distributed our final products mainly on Facebook in order to receive feedback for our ancillary texts and also receive views and comments for our teaser trailer, via the ‘YouTube’ link which was also distributed on Facebook.
Besides using the Internet, we also gathered audience feedback via video. We conducted a screening for our teaser trailer, and filmed the response of the participants to get immediate feedback from them, asking them specific questions to receive detailed feedback. We also filmed short responses for our magazine front cover from college students and lastly we travelled to Odeon Cinema in Greenwich to get extra post production feedback on our ancillary texts from an employee of the cinema, and a visitor of the cinema.
Facebook:
Magazine Front Cover
Magazine Front Cover
Horror Film Poster
What did we learn from this feedback?
When studying all the feedback we recieved for our ancillary texts, we found that, overall, many people preferred the horror film poster compared to our film magazine front cover. After looking at all the feedback, mainly the "Facebook" responses, the main criticisms of the magazine front cover were that there were too many cover lines, making the cover look too crowded, and the main image could have manipulated more to make it stand out and we could have positioned the actress in the main image differently in a more interesting state. However, we noticed that other members of the audience liked the appearance of the cover being crowded, suggesting the 'busy' look of the front cover made it look like professional magazines as they are always "jammed packed with things".
Another member of the audience stated that she loved the film reel at the bottom, saying it gave the magazine a unique look. Many loved the colour scheme and found the manipulation of the main image very creepy and mysterious. These adjectives are very relevant to the horror genre which suggests to us that we did a good job in making the genre evident through the magazine front cover. The magazine was rated an average of 7.5/10 which tells us that it was a good first attempt, but as the feedback shows, there is definitely room for improvement.
The horror film poster received a great deal of positive feedback. The Odeon Cinema employee loved our film poster, and found it hard to criticise it. This was a surprising reaction which we enjoyed witnessing. Bianca, the Media undergraduate student we interview outside Odeon, described the poster as "horrifying" and really liked it, with her and her friend both agreeing that it would definitely make them want to see the film. This reaction was really enlightening. From the Odeon visit we learned that our poster had a strong appeal to people who had been involved with Media, and to someone who has worked with film for some time. The feedback gave us more confidence in our ancillary texts, something we lacked during post production. The "Facebook" responses were mostly positive. The audience told us there was a great use of mise-en-scene. People loved the costume and the props, and felt the asymmetrical balance of photo was very strong. The manipulation of the photo was highly commended and many people were forming ideas and trying to think of the story behind the picture based on the connotations of the image. Overall our poster was rated highly. The main criticisms were that the credits weren't visible enough and the font of the film title could be toned down.
A key thing we noticed is that there was a clear divide amongst the feedback, which we expected. Some aspects of our ancillary texts were positively commented on, whilst others felt the same aspects were what weakened our final products. We have learned that it is a very difficult task trying to please such a diverse audience, but based on this being a first attempt, we gathered that the audience were generally pleased with our products.
The horror film poster received a great deal of positive feedback. The Odeon Cinema employee loved our film poster, and found it hard to criticise it. This was a surprising reaction which we enjoyed witnessing. Bianca, the Media undergraduate student we interview outside Odeon, described the poster as "horrifying" and really liked it, with her and her friend both agreeing that it would definitely make them want to see the film. This reaction was really enlightening. From the Odeon visit we learned that our poster had a strong appeal to people who had been involved with Media, and to someone who has worked with film for some time. The feedback gave us more confidence in our ancillary texts, something we lacked during post production. The "Facebook" responses were mostly positive. The audience told us there was a great use of mise-en-scene. People loved the costume and the props, and felt the asymmetrical balance of photo was very strong. The manipulation of the photo was highly commended and many people were forming ideas and trying to think of the story behind the picture based on the connotations of the image. Overall our poster was rated highly. The main criticisms were that the credits weren't visible enough and the font of the film title could be toned down.
A key thing we noticed is that there was a clear divide amongst the feedback, which we expected. Some aspects of our ancillary texts were positively commented on, whilst others felt the same aspects were what weakened our final products. We have learned that it is a very difficult task trying to please such a diverse audience, but based on this being a first attempt, we gathered that the audience were generally pleased with our products.
Below is a collection of feedback for our Teaser trailer
"Institution" Screening & Post Production Feedback
Before any filming 'Hanging out' had to be done this invovled research into the best in creating a screening of a teaser trailer and feedback session we found out that since that screening would take place in our college becuase it was ideal since our target audience is in the masses however since classes would be in session and students would be moving in and out noise would therefore be a problem and decided that all the subjects invovled in the research would wear headphones inorder to maintain the quality of the footage.
However if we could improve the screening the of the trailer then the lighting with be dark similiar to cinemas, we say this because having dark ligthing while watching a horror would have given a scary ambience and as a result make the teaser trailer a more effective theme of fear on the viewer.
We then had to figure out how we would devise the feedback section and decided on the queit area in our college would be a useful area to do our Q &A however on the day of filming our ideal area of interviewing was constantly interrupted by students and members of staff we had over come the noises and letting people through while filming and this made our feedback segment lasty longer then neeeds be, and becuase of this during post production on Final Cut Pro, subtitles where added to one of our interviewiees due to background noise.
We now had to decided who we would actauly ask to be part of our research as a group we decided that by asking a wide range of different audiences it would enable our research to have fair and reliable results by doing so we set out to ask three males three females, and their ethnicities being Male/Female Black,Male/Female Asian,Male/Female Caucasian.
Be that as it may there were still difficulities when asking people to take most were either on their way to class or 'camera shy' this then prolonged the process of fimling in spite this hurdle we still found people who were willing but we were unable to find a Caucasian female who wasn't 'camera shy' even though we assured all who we asked that the footage would be used on a professional level for education purposes.
Now that we had our participants we could now be 'Messing around' meaning actualy going out and filming. Part of filming meant that we filmed the participants reactions to the teaser trailer and as in seen in the footage we were pleased to see that most of our participant were genuinely scarred of what they saw which connotes fear, this then supported one our aims of creating an authentic Horrror teaser trailer that instilled a sense of build up to the penultimate of fear.
"Institution" Screening & Post Production Feedback
Having done our teaser trailer 'Institution' we the Shock Media knew that different mediums of audience feeback had to be devised one being the screening and audience feedback of our teaser this then enables us to interract with our audince by actually getting their opinions about the different components that create a horror themed teaser trailer.
Before any filming 'Hanging out' had to be done this invovled research into the best in creating a screening of a teaser trailer and feedback session we found out that since that screening would take place in our college becuase it was ideal since our target audience is in the masses however since classes would be in session and students would be moving in and out noise would therefore be a problem and decided that all the subjects invovled in the research would wear headphones inorder to maintain the quality of the footage.
However if we could improve the screening the of the trailer then the lighting with be dark similiar to cinemas, we say this because having dark ligthing while watching a horror would have given a scary ambience and as a result make the teaser trailer a more effective theme of fear on the viewer.
We then had to figure out how we would devise the feedback section and decided on the queit area in our college would be a useful area to do our Q &A however on the day of filming our ideal area of interviewing was constantly interrupted by students and members of staff we had over come the noises and letting people through while filming and this made our feedback segment lasty longer then neeeds be, and becuase of this during post production on Final Cut Pro, subtitles where added to one of our interviewiees due to background noise.
We now had to decided who we would actauly ask to be part of our research as a group we decided that by asking a wide range of different audiences it would enable our research to have fair and reliable results by doing so we set out to ask three males three females, and their ethnicities being Male/Female Black,Male/Female Asian,Male/Female Caucasian.
Be that as it may there were still difficulities when asking people to take most were either on their way to class or 'camera shy' this then prolonged the process of fimling in spite this hurdle we still found people who were willing but we were unable to find a Caucasian female who wasn't 'camera shy' even though we assured all who we asked that the footage would be used on a professional level for education purposes.
Now that we had our participants we could now be 'Messing around' meaning actualy going out and filming. Part of filming meant that we filmed the participants reactions to the teaser trailer and as in seen in the footage we were pleased to see that most of our participant were genuinely scarred of what they saw which connotes fear, this then supported one our aims of creating an authentic Horrror teaser trailer that instilled a sense of build up to the penultimate of fear.
Youtube:
What did we learn from this feedback?
Based on the screening feedback we learned that a majority would go and see our film in the cinema. We asked a ethnically diverse group to gather a wider variety of feedback, as different races can often react differently to characters and actions in a film. From watching the video we found that the audience were affected by the content of the trailer, as we noticed frightful jumps and engaged facial expressions. This gives us the impression that our teaser engaged the audience, which is a key requirement for a successful teaser trailer. They commended the editing of the trailer and felt the use of make-up, costume and props were effective. One of our interviewees, amongst other people who watched our trailer, stated that they didn't really understand the teaser trailer which would deter them from watching the full-length film. This is something we have to consider if we were to re-make the trailer. As much as we wanted to give away as little as possible and "tease" the audience, we could give away a little bit more information to attract more of the audience.
We didn't generate a large amount of comments from "Youtube", however we did manage to receive over 200 views in a short space of time, and our number of views is still growing. Our "Youtube" comments commended the editing, and as a first attempt our trailer was good. The music was described as "disturbing" which is positive, but it could have been louder. One response praised the "visible concept of madness" the "darkness of it" and liked that the trailer teases the audience.
Audiences were split in regards to the style of editing. Some liked the "jumpy" effect of the editing, but others said this effect could have been reduced.
We didn't generate a large amount of comments from "Youtube", however we did manage to receive over 200 views in a short space of time, and our number of views is still growing. Our "Youtube" comments commended the editing, and as a first attempt our trailer was good. The music was described as "disturbing" which is positive, but it could have been louder. One response praised the "visible concept of madness" the "darkness of it" and liked that the trailer teases the audience.
Audiences were split in regards to the style of editing. Some liked the "jumpy" effect of the editing, but others said this effect could have been reduced.
Our trailer was watched in the UK, Canada, North America, South America,France and Spain. We also learned from our "Youtube" feedback that our teaser was most popular/most watched in the UK. This tells us that perhaps the full-length film would be more appealing to a British audience.
We also learned that the age group that our teaser was most popular with fitted with our target audience. Young people up to the age of 24 watched our trailer most which suggests to us that our film would appeal to our target age group. We found that our trailer is more popular amongst female audiences, we feel the reason for this is because our lead character is a female, so women our likely to be more interested due to this.
Did audiences recognise your products genre?
Were they familiar with the conventions/ change to conventions? Did they enjoy the change?
Due to being fans of horror films, our audiences were familiar with the conventions of the horror genre. They felt we complied to the conventions effectively but many did notice the changes. Many noticed that we cast a Black female as the main character. Many were more interested in going to see the film because of this change, finding it unique and unusual. In the screening, the Black female we interview was pleasantly surprised by this change, which suggests to us that she enjoyed this change, stating she is used to seeing a "white male" as the lead character and it was "interesting and shocking" to see a black female in the main role of a horror.
Did we enjoy changing them?
Overall we also enjoyed challenging typical horror conventions. Our main challenge to conventions was having a black female as our main character and having this female as the killer in the film also. Typically, killers in a majority of horror films are male, or they are monsters/creatures/"undead". In response to our audience research results and individual preferences we felt having a female killer would be an enjoyable and interesting change to tradition (below), and we were also pleased that members of our audience noted that the female was also black.
Positive reactions to our decision to challenge typical conventions has given us more confidence in our final products, and also given us the confidence to keep this factor of our work the same if we were to do this again.
Based on the feedback, how do you feel you could have made a more effective product?
Ancillary texts
Teaser Trailer
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