Evaluation Question 3: What have you learnt from your

audience feedback?

IntroTo answer the question, I feel I have learnt a lot from the various feedback I have received from other media producers (fellow Media students) as well as from my target audience of individuals between the ages of 15 and 24 years old. This feedback then allowed me to develop my ideas and products over various stages of planning, development, production and evaluation and enabled me to produce my final magazine cover, film poster and film trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6FYaM1V2EU&feature=player_embedded

Primary Research - trailer

For my primary research, I made an online survey and sent the link to various individuals both from my own Media class as well as to people from my target audience via social networking sites like Twitter and Tumblr. It was via this survey that I asked multiple questions varying from what would they expect to see in each of the products I was going to create (i.e. magazine, film poster and trailer) to what narrative (storyline) ideas would they prefer to see in a Psychological Horror film which is the genre I had decided on continuing with. Answers I received were suggesting that for my trailer, I should include unique cinematography and a soundtrack that would reflect upon the genre of film I was pursuing. After receiving this feedback, I decided to make sure I implementing this advice into my trailer during the Production stage of my work, as this feedback came from individuals from my target audience and so therefore, my work should be what they would want to see and enjoy. For my trailer, I sourced from royalty-free websites, multiple non-diegetic soundtracks that I felt were suitable for the unusual and dark genre of film of Psychological Horror that held similar vibes to what my target audience was asking for.

Another question also asked my target audience who participated in the survey what they felt was the most interesting aspect of Psychological Horror films, to which the majority answered that the storylines or narrative in more Media-related terms, were.This therefore kick-started my development of my narrative for not just my trailer, but for my overall film although it wasn’t created. A blog post of mine developed in-depth an idea that I was considering for my film’s narrative about the lead protagonist being unknowingly mentally unstable (which would suit the conventions of a Psychological Horror film) and that the antagonist seen in the final trailer was simply a projection of her deeply disturbed imagination although this obviously was not explained fully in the trailer.An example in my trailer also of how I tried to implement a subtle connection between the antagonist and protagonist, Chloe, is the montage effect I created using Final Cut Express where both Chloe’s face and the masked antagonist were in the same position and the trailer flickered between the two.

“Canted angles…”

“…use weird

camera angles…”

“…scary music to match scary moments…”

“…music that’s really eerie.”

Primary Research – magazine cover

In terms of primary research within my target audience for my magazine cover, I asked multiple questions about what theirs opinions are. For the majority verdict, I have implemented them into my final pieces of work.

I asked my target audience about their expectations of a magazine and a film magazine moreover. Results showed that for a general magazine, from individuals who were less aware about the typical codes and conventions of a print-based product, still knew to expect barcodes, magazine names, sell-lines, a main image etc. The results also showed that my target audience would expect a film magazine to reflect the particular film being featured in that episode. So therefore, as mine film is of a darker/sinister genre, I made sure that the colour scheme I used was darker and reflected this (as seen in the image shown in both my first drafts and final product).

Another question I asked about whether my target audience, or the sample that answered my survey, is whether they find any value for film magazines where the majority answered yes, so to use a film magazine to advertise my film is a good idea and also what real films that are released do use for their marketing campaign.

“Images, barcode, magazine name…”

“…sell lines…”

“Image of main

character/actor in film…”

“…logo, slogan…”

Primary Research – film poster

As for my film poster, the primary research was collected in the same way as the feedback collected from my target audience for my magazine cover and trailer.As with the magazine, I questioned as to what the individuals would expect to see on a common film poster seen in a cinema etc. The majority results then showed that many sought after a film name, a main image from the film itself or of the actors within the film and that these are all common conventions of a typical/general film poster that it released during film promotion.

Two other similar questions asked about whether film magazines/posters were found to be interesting by the person answering the survey (as the survey was anonymous after being posted on various social networking sites) also found results of agreeing that these ancillary products do come of interest and so this therefore enforces my idea in making my own as well as how by adding other products in the marketing/promotion of a film, it increases the audience and successfulness.

How this then influenced my own film poster is I included all of the aspects requested in the survey responses as well as other features included after feedback received from the production stage so as to increase the professionalism of my products more and to look as similar to other official film posters as possible. Seen here in the images of my work in the various stages of production, it can be seen featuring the aspects I included from this feedback.

“Film name, image,

release date…”

“…film credits…”

“Slogan.”

Film name development feedback

Further on from the planning stage where I requested feedback via an online survey, I included a blog post on Blogger about the creation of my film’s name and created an online poll to receive opinions from my target audience of 15-24 year olds on which name they felt suited a Psychological Horror film more. I obviously wanted to receive creative input from the audience I was creating my products for as these are the individuals who are supposed to seeing this “film” and being exposed to the film poster and seeing the film magazine too.After I collected the responses, I found that the majority had chosen the name ‘Psyche’ for my project. Included in with blog post, I explained why I felt that each of the names I had condensed down to, which was ‘Psyche’ and ‘Imagination’, however I now feel that if I had more time to create a more detailed poll or even a survey instead, I should have asked multiple questions challenging exactly why the individual felt that the film name they chosen was better and why for my project.

The feedback I received then made the decision for me on which name to use for my project and I maintained this audience choice throughout the entirety of my production stages of work. See in the images of my work as it has progressed.

Magazine name ideas feedback

Another aspect of feedback I required during the construction phase of my project was, similar to asking my audience for their opinion of the film name, I created a paper tally chart and asked multiple of fellow Media producers in my Media class to answer which name for the magazine they felt was better. I decided to ask other Media producers this time due to their knowledge of media conventions and their knowledge of which name would suit a more professional magazine.

Before I received the feedback however, I created an wordle of names/words that were appropriate to the idea that I was developing for my own project and then condensed the words I liked to ‘Cinematic’ and ‘Silver Screen’ and then let my fellow classmates choose for themselves which they felt was more appropriate for a successful film magazine.

Then I included this name of the magazine front cover that I created even though it significantly changed after receiving further feedback, the name remained the same. This can be seen the images of my work.

Rough cut audience feedback

As my work developed into the production stage and I had begun creating draft versions of my film poster, film magazine cover and film trailer, I was constantly aiming to gather as much opinion and feedback from my target audience and after I had finished my first drafts of everything, I asked for feedback on each one.For my film poster, the feedback from 10 people showed that to overall add more colour, different fonts, change the already existing features to look more like other professional film posters (i.e. altering the poster credits to be on two-levels – see images) etc. Obviously, as I wished to create a product that looked as real as possible, I implemented all of the feedback and with my own personal improvements, therefore created my second draft and final products.Here you can see where I have taken the improvements suggested and added them to my products.For my magazine cover, the overall comments given were to add more colour, change background and add more fonts to the text on the cover. Then, as can be seen in the image of the draft cover and second draft cover, I dramatically changed and altered my product to satisfy all of these comments.As for my trailer, I received more comments and suggestions via post-it notes and my trailer was originally a minute and 45 seconds long and so therefore there was more opportunity for improvement and criticisms. Just a few that were suggested were to change the soundtrack music, change the intertitles used and try and make it more unique so to therefore make it more individual to the Psychological Horror genre market.

Draft two feedback

More feedback was gained via my target audience in the form of more post-it notes for the second drafts of my product to push myself to improve my work even more.

Magazine cover improvements recommended were; make certain text features bigger to improve the visibility to my audience and change the image used and the effect I was currently using to edit it was not exactly suitable to the tastes of my target audience.

Film poster improvements that were suggested were; to possibly include a website information that the audience could search for, change the image and to also alter fonts that the individual did not find appealing.

As for my trailer, the improvements recommended were to; add more effects to improve the look and appeal of the trailer, change the font used for the intertitles to match the fonts used in my other ancillary products and to add more sound effects to increase the drama and pace of a seemingly Horror/Thriller type film.

In the images/trailers on the right, you can see how these suggestions have been taken on board and in how I have chosen to use them to my advantage so that they would be both satisfy the audience and the creator.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6FYaM1V2EU&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6RHGHIeTmQ&feature=player_embedded

Before

>>

After >>

Final Products

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6FYaM1V2EU&feature=player_embedded

Feedback for real products releasedFor real professional products similar to the ones I myself have created, individual techniques and methods will have been used to generate feedback and responses to their film. Depending on the budget that the film can invest in pre-release audience research, multiple distinct types of research can be conducted. For example, for a high budget Hollywood film such as American Hustle (2013), a million dollars could possibly be spent on researching into where to position the release date in comparison to other premieres of other high budget films, test screenings of fully finished films and testing of audience response to advertising material.As audience research is a major aspect in figuring out how well a film will actually do once released, most big budget films do spend this amount before their films are released, however for smaller money films and independent film distributors who don’t have the budget for such things, will spend little to no time on pre-release audience research. It is also known that as part of a film’s marketing, a strategy is carefully planned and created where producers create promotional content for the audience for up to a certain period of time prior to the film’s release and will change multiple times as the audience research changes and develops also.More feedback is also received via multiple ways after the film’s release, either by magazine reviews, social networking or film sites like IMDb which also help determine how successful the film will be/remain.Obviously, as such time and energy is invested into audience feedback, it was a good idea that I try to gain as much feedback and response as possible to try and better my products as much as possible.