Evaluation 3

QUESTION 3
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?
Audience feedback becomes critically important in the production of film making, it allows the producers to know exactly what their target audience wants to see, what they don’t, whether it’s going to be successful and what can be improved to allow the film to succeed further. Also the audience bring in the revenue and make a person’s work credible, the aim of the producer is to please their audience, so the producers will have to react to supply and demand given by the audience. An example of a film that done a fair amount of research is The Woman in Black produced vast amounts of advertising products to really get their audience involved in the film they were producing. One way in which I collected audience feedback was through class screenings. We screened our groups trailer in-front of the media class in order to gain knowledge as to what they liked about the trailer we had produced, what they thought should be removed or changed, how they thought we could improve our product and also whether they genuinely liked the look of the film we were advertising. We had also filmed the audience’s feedback as visible in the link given. Another way in which I gained audience’s responses was by showing it to my family and friends. I had showed it to my family and friends as it would give a wider and potentially more honest feedback to how we could adapt the trailer to ensure its success. Because the target audience for our film was generally males and females aged 16-19 we had to specifically target people between those ages, being in college, when screening our trailer to the class, the audience immediately fits between those ages, as well as friends, but however, when showing my family I only asked and acted on the feedback given by my brothers and sister due to the fact they’re aged between those ages or close to.
Positive feedback
• The audience stated that the location we had used was very good in terms of the state of the building and the sense of horror that came with it. This was satisfying because this was the whole initial point of choosing this location, because it was a horrific building that would suit the horror genre.
• The audience rated the soundtrack and said it helped to build the tension within the trailer and it matched the scenes in terms of the tempo of the trailer.
• Also the camera work was liked by the audience, this is because we had a range of shot types.
• Establishing an equilibrium within the trailer was also noted, because the sound track at the very start makes everything appear fine and then the music changes and gives off a sense of horror and fear just within the trailers soundtrack
• Also people enjoyed the trailer overall and said that if the film was to come out then they would watch it.
Negative feedback
• A lot of people who viewed the trailer stated the dialogue in the opening scenes are a bit too hard to hear.
• A few didn’t understand ‘the upside down cross’. This was something that only occurred a few times and it wasn’t anything bad about the trailer or posters, the cross resembles antichrist, which just inflicts demon typed horror into the film. It is a symbol that is widely recognised so therefore I didn’t remove the cross.
• Some suggested that the camera work was shaky, this is because the film wanted to be filmed in a handheld way, it was added that we should add a digital camera overlay to show that it is found footage.
• Lighting was an issue for some as the shots were dark, however it does appear lighter on the computer rather than when it is projected on to a bigger screen.
• Another criticism is that the trailer lacked pace and anticipation towards the end, where in theory it should speed up to entice the viewers.
How we responded to the feedback
• With the problems with the dialogue, we overdubbed the soundtrack in order to make the dialogue clearer and more understandable.
• With the shakiness of the camera we added a digital camera overlay because we wanted our trailer to include handheld camera work scenes and we wanted to make everyone aware at what points were handheld. Camera features would appear, battery life and screen size and so on, therefore people knew which points of the trailer were handheld. This was looked at in a positive light because it was unique to the class groups.
• With the speed of the shots, we doubled the shot speed so that it would appear quicker than it was, we also cut the length down so we had a sequence of quick paced shots in order for the trailer to appear faster.