What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Question [3]Gabriel, Sahra & Hodan

AudienceOur target audience was established through our choice in genre

for our film, having chosen horror as a genre, we headed to IMDB to see which audience we should appeal most too.

Having found that 18 and under was the group which most preferred the horror genre came to be a very convenient fact as it allowed us to ask friends which were of similar age range (18-)

for audience feedback for the most reliable opinions as they were the age range which we wanted to appeal to the most.

Another reason for this convenience was that upon setting up a Facebook group for our movie, I was able to invite all my friends for reliable input as most of which fell into the target age range.

Our friends provided a supporting voice for many of the decisions made toward our ancillary texts and media trailer.

Feedback gathering: Video Recording

At the start of the project we didn’t have a Facebook group, so first hand data was initially gathered through approaching people in school and asking them a set of questions with a camera to record their response.

Through this form of audience feedback gathering we were able to show people props and introduce to them possible film narratives, which in the end provided us with sufficient advice on ways to improve our plotline. Through gathered feedback we had swapped the teddy bears roll to a little doll instead as it proved more sinister, the downfall however was that it was less convenient showing them drafts of products and getting feedback on them.

Feedback gathering: Social Networks

Upon completion of the first draft of our ancillary text, I uploaded the film poster to my personal Facebook, and asked friends for ways to improve it. They provided me with their opinions on what to change which lead to a major transformation of the first draft.

However the second draft soon got replaced oncethe Facebook group got setup as we had put up a variety of photographs taken previously during a photoshoot for our film poster and magazine, this was to establish whether we had made the right choice by having independently chosen a picture of our preference. Evidentially major preference was in a close-up of her eye.

Social Networks: Facebook groupsAs we were having a drastic revamp of our project, a Facebook group got setup for our film project, this was so that an audience would be better accessible for feedback. We had questions, through the facilities granted by Facebook to ask questions with a limited selection of answers, we asked which would be the most appealing name of horror film, with a selection of four other.

We had also uploaded 15 photographs from a selection of 200 to ask all those who liked our page to vote for which they preferred to see most in a film poster by liking the photograph they thought was most suitable and even commenting on them with their opinions. Our friends proved fairly useful and active with requests posted on the Facebook page, I theorize this is because since the horror genre is particularly appealing to 18 and under age range, they’re more eager to contribute.

Feedback

“it’s got an interesting synopsis, like another version of chucky”

“it needs more of an enigma on the origins of the supernatural behavior”

“I like the fact that a girl is the protagonist, it’s very conventional of horrors”

“I’m really looking forward to seeing the final trailer!”

“darken the background and heighten the contrast to add more shock”

“woah that looks like a proper real magazine”“change the heading font it looks ridiculous”

“add L-cuts and don’t have so many inter-titles!”“the animation on your production logo is impressive”

Actions taken“It needs more of an enigma on the origins of the supernatural behavior”

To fix this dilemma we changed the narrative so that we didn’t have to know what the cause for commotion was, as originally we had two young twins using ‘supernatural’ force displayed through acting. Now any supernatural events occur without force displayed, eg: Sahra dragged from across the floor by an invisible force and the doll unexplainably relocating.

“change the heading font it looks ridiculous”Once the film magazine had been drastically redrafted into its third draft, it’s fair to say the heading wasn’t the most professional looking title available, so we changed it alongside the rest of the graphology of the magazine so that it would look more sophisticated.

“Add L-cuts and don’t have so many inter-titles!”During editing I done exactly this, added an L-cut during a cutaway before a new character was established as the therapist which is shown in a short clip saying ‘explain’ and the protagonist then talks over the scene of supernatural stuff happening.