What have you learnt from your audience feedback? Audience feedback is an important factor when producing an ad campaign as this effectively targets a wider audience which will have a successful impact on the box office. Audience feedback gives you various information including; what the target audience are looking for in a product, criticism and positive feedback allowing appropriate improvements to be made. It is critical that a film does a lot research in order to set up the appropriate campaign for the target audience which is why test screenings are useful as producers receive feedback from an audience prior to the original release so they are able to change and alter their products conventions using the feedback they receive both positive and negative. I have found that the film ‘The Woman in Black’ done a huge amount of research and campaigning. The purpose of research allows the distributors to identify which film promotions are suitable for the film and how it will reach and entice the target audience. ‘The Woman in Black’ had a huge campaign for the film spread across various media platforms as well as marketing by David Radcliffe. The purpose for ‘The Woman in Black’ campaign and marketing was important for the success of the film. The extra marketing from Daniel Radcliffe was significant as this was the first film he starred in after the ‘Harry Potter’ films. Therefore, not only did his marketing target Harry Potter fans but this also allowed Daniel to market his new role which was different to his previous role in the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise allowing the fans to adjust to his new acting and entice them to watch his new film. I gathered feedback before we began filming through a questionnaire answered by multiple people in ages that got access to the questionnaire through social media. This initial feedback allowed us to see what age range and what audience would be interested in our synopsis as well as other factors which entice them to see a film. Once we began filming and produced our first initial draft for our trailer we had setup screenings in class where we all gave feedback to each other’s trailers which were effective as our primary target audience is teenagers and allowed us to gain feedback through a test screening which helped us to develop our thoughts further. I gathered audience feedback for my magazine and poster from my peers in college and outside of college who were older in age to see what they thought about the products I had produced. This feedback was extremely helpful as they all gave positive and constructive feedback which helped me to balance the good features on my products and work on the negatives in order to improve and make a professional magazine cover and poster which united with our trailer so the audience would easily pick up they are advertising the same film. Our initial feedback from our questionnaire prior
to filming our trailer was answered by an audience which ranged in age from 15 to 62. This age range gives a main demographic of E which are students and pensioners amongst two other categories. The demographic for our questionnaire is E due to the mode age of 17 year olds who responded to our questionnaire all of which will be students as teenagers have to be in some form of education until the age of 18. Although some were responses from older ages such as; 20, 21, 28, 46 and 62 all of which are in the employment age but we do not know their job role or if they are retired therefore they can’t be included in the demographic of our audience. Whereas, 17 year olds are inevitably students due to the law stating everyone has to be in some form of education until 18 years of age. The psychographics are not clear from our questionnaire feedback as the questions didn’t reveal or ask for their social class, lifestyle and personality characteristics. However, from looking at the psychographics categories the explorers are typically students which are the majority of our audience feedback. My personal feedback for my magazine cover and poster represents similar results. However, my personal feedback asked the audience to state their age, gender and occupation. Therefore, the demographics and psychographics were slightly different due to this added information of their occupation. From looking at my magazine cover and poster feedback the ages of the audience are 17, 18 and 23 which gives a demographic of C2, E and a psychographic of explorer and aspirers due to the occupations of students and a dancer.
Trailer Feedback: Constructive: We have gained both constructive and positive feedback to our group trailer which was set up as a class screening. I have received feedback for my ancillary texts which will have a positive impact on my magazine and horror poster in terms of improvements. I have conducted audience feedback both before and after filming for our trailer which has had an impact on our final product due to this extra knowledge of audience research which is critical. From looking at the feedback for our trailer we received from the class there are occurring critics which show that a majority of the audience picked up on the same weaknesses of our trailer. For starters a mention of the audio occurred in a couple of the feedback sheets, quotes from the feedback such as; “maybe vary music”, “some sounds tweaked”, “might have to change the music there is too much going on” and finally “make music quieter”. These are only a couple of quotes from the feedback we received regarding constructive feedback from our sheets. However, from reading back these quotes it is clear the music is too heavy in our trailer in terms of the loudness and tension it brings. Therefore as a group we sat down and went through the trailer making the soundtrack quieter and made sure it wasn’t overlaid in as many places.
Another key term which has kept appearing in our audience feedback is the use of repeated scenes in the woods. “Re-think repeated shots”, “a few shots were a bit repetitive” and “repeated shots from woods”. These quotes are from our audience feedback and have allowed us to realise that we have used the same shot twice in our trailer which is a scene from the woods with the protagonist running. We didn’t notice these repetitive scenes until we had the set screening and changed this immediately when we began to improve our trailer accordingly using our constructive feedback. Finally, the other reoccurring constructive feedback is a mention of the ending scene which came across as a jump scare but didn’t have the effect of making the audience jump or catch them off guard. “The jump scare at the end - wasn’t enough tension, didn’t scare me like I think it’s meant to”, “scream at the end felt a little bit detached”, “jump scare at the end wasn’t very ‘jumpy’” and finally “remove the scare”. These quotes from our audience feedback show that a couple members of the audience didn’t feel the scream at the end was well placed and didn’t make a very good jump scare. Therefore, we decided to remove this end scream as we thought the same and used this constructive feedback to improve our trailer. Overall, the feedback I have quoted and the mention of the repeated scenes, jump scare and soundtrack are the most occurring factors we received in our feedback. Although I have only mentioned these three factors we looked at all of our constructive feedback and made changes accordingly to improve our trailer to produce and make a polished product.
Positive: During our set screening in class we have gathered a variety of positive feedback, one of the most mentioned was the voice overs. “Voice over was really good – it gave the audience an idea of narrative. “Voice over helped add context”, “the voice over worked well”, “voice overs – idea of what’s going on, “voice over”. These quotes are from various different feedback sheets as the majority have mentioned our voice overs as a positive in our trailer which we were all happy about as we worked hard to record and come up with what to say. Another occurring mention was the narrative which as a result allows the audience to understand and gain an insight to the character types and storyline. “Good sense of story”, “good sense of narrative” and “the narration”. Again these quotes are from our audience feedback and are positives to what the audience thought worked well in our trailer. Knowing that the audience have picked up on our narrative is extremely good as a narrative is such an important convention is every trailer. Finally, the last reoccurring factor throughout our audience feedback is the music and how it creates suspense and tension well throughout our trailer. “Built tension well, music suited it”, “the music – genre/pace”, “intense music”, “music fit well”, music –
suspense – builds tension”, “music fitted well”, “music – tension worked well with the running scenes and scream”, “music contrast and continuity when it changed scene”, “well-chosen music”. All of these quotes are from the audience feedback who watched the set screening as a class. However, this feedback is positive as we have received constructive feedback on our music which shows that the audience have mixed feelings towards our soundtrack. Although, we have received more positive feedback than constructive therefore our music has a positive impact on our trailer but we have still considered the constructive feedback and made changes to our sound accordingly.
Magazine Feedback: Constructive: I received and asked six people to fill out my feedback sheet for my magazine once I finished my draft ancillary text. From receiving this information I have since changed and made alterations to improve my horror magazine to create a polished professional product using my constructive feedback. In my feedback received for my horror magazine an occurring factor mentioned by a couple of people was some of the red text I have used on my magazine. “Could make the blood and the red text the same colour?”, “red writing on black background could be brighter”, “website should be a brighter colour or tone” and “make the red text stand out more”. These quotes are what have been written on my feedback sheet in the constructive feedback for areas for improvement. This feedback has helped me to realise that I need to change the colour of this red text in order for the words to be clear and stand out so the audience are hooked to my magazine. Another constructive feedback consisted of my main image which has a huge impact on my magazine as you need a strong image in order to produce a professional polished product. The quotes from my feedback sheet say, “Image could be shifted up slightly to fill some blank space between that and the masthead” and “the girl could look more scared/in danger”. This feedback is critical as I need a strong image in order to not only hook the audience but have the conventions for a horror magazine and the emotions of the characters are extremely important. Finally, the last quotes of constructive feedback I received were mentioned about the spelling and background colours of my magazine. “Dull out some of the background colours” and “double check spelling”. This constructive feedback has helped me to understand what the audience think of my ancillary text which is helpful for both research and improving my product as the people who gave feedback are my target audience. Overall, all of this constructive feedback is extremely useful and helpful for me to refer to when making alterations for the better.
Positive: I have received multiple positive feedback from all six of the participants who looked at my ancillary texts. For my magazine cover there has been a reoccurring mention of my colour scheme used. “Very good colour scheme – white really stands out”, “I like the colour scheme”, “effective colour scheme” and finally “the layout and colour scheme works really well together”. This feedback is important as more than one participant commented on the colour scheme which I have used connoting that the colours work well together and stand out to catch the audience eyes as well as representing the horror genre as I have used red to connote blood and gore which is anchored by the blood splatter I have used and the quote from my feedback “I like the use of the blood effect”. I have received some positive feedback about the layout of my magazine, “good magazine layout, doesn’t cover too much of the image”. This quote connotes the positive feedback I received involving the layout of my magazine. I am pleased I receive this feedback as this is an important convention to produce a professional product. More fined details have been mentioned such as my cover lines, main image, and the strip at the top of my magazine. “Good bold cover line headlines”, “good use of contrast in the image allowing a darker background with lighter characters to stand out” and finally “ the black strip at the top is also very effective”. These little details which have been mentioned shows that the audience have noticed these small details when looking at my magazine. Overall, I am happy with the positive feedback I have received as it shows the audience have looked at my magazine in detail and noticed the fine elements picking up on the conventions.
Poster Feedback: Constructive: In terms of my other ancillary text the horror poster there has been a reoccurrence of mentioning the title. “Larger title perhaps?”, “could make the title bigger” and finally “using a different font for the title, it could be bolder”. This constructive feedback has helped to make appropriate changes and made me think about how I can change the title so it stands out more. There has also been a mention of my tag line and the date in order to make them stand out. A mention of the red text has been wrote as an improvement on my feedback sheet for me poster. “Implement more of the red colour from June 2 into some cover lines” and “could include more red font”. These suggestions have made me think about the use of colour on my poster and how adding redder text will have an impact. Finally, my last constructive feedback includes my tag line, image and a suggestion of adding
actor names. “Maybe add actor names?”, “tag line could be bolder so it grabs your attention more” and “hide more at the victims face to make it more intriguing, she could look down?” The mention of my tag line is constructive feedback whilst the actor names and image is a suggestion. I will take all of my feedback into consideration when making changes.
Positive: I have multiple positive feedback which varies in the conventions that have been mentioned, to begin with the most occurring convention is my main image. “Image with the shadow is really powerful”, “love the image, shadow adds context to what the film could be about”, “the clear image is very opposing which is eye catching which brings to the audience who is good and who is bad”, “the image is very appropriate for the genre. Her body language shows being ‘insecure and scared’ the shadow over her clearly represents the title. It looks like a professional poster” and finally “I love the photo”. These quotes are from my feedback sheet and connote that the audience like my main image and think it is appropriate for industry standards. I have received other positive feedback which focuses on the red text and darkness of the poster. “The introduction of red in the release date makes it stand out”, “darkness of poster is effective in context”. This positive feedback allows me to compare the positive feedback about the release date being the only text which is red compared to the constructive feedback I have received. Personally, I am happy with the release date being the only red text as this was my intention in order for the date of release to stand out so the audience are aware of release in theatres which will bring the box office sales up. The release date is common in the horror genre to be a different colour from the rest of the poster especially red as this represents blood and gore connoting the genre and convention.
How I used my feedback: I have used both my constructive and positive feedback to improve my ancillary texts of my magazine cover and poster. As a group we used our trailer feedback to work together and make suggestions whereas our ancillary texts were improved individually.
Magazine: To begin with I changed my magazine cover first using my constructive feedback, I decided to change the masthead of my magazine as the original title ‘Harmony’ sounds like a music magazine not a horror. Therefore, I decided to change the title to ‘Fright Night’ as this would be an expected title to represent the horror genre. Instead of having two tones of red on my magazine like I did in my draft I decided to
change the red text such as my cover lines, magazine website and selling line to the same tone as the blood splatter seen on my magazine. This new tone of red effectively allows the text to stand out especially the selling line which has a black background which was a constructive suggestion I received and have to say it has improved the look of my magazine. The biggest change I have made visually is my main image; I have taken my constructive on board and made changes to produce a better quality cover. My feedback consisted of alterations to my main image such as; dulling out some background colours and the main female protagonist could have a little more emotion on her face to connote she is in danger and scared. Therefore, I retook photos for my magazine to anchor a sad emotion through the protagonist facial expressions which I feel I have achieved. I have edited my image in a variety of ways including removal of blemishes, removed the green screen background and added gradient over the antagonist to dull some background colours especially where the cover lines are so they aren’t washed out by the antagonists light hoodie. Due to the change in shot I have effectively taken a close up which shows more emotion for the audience to connect with. Using a close up has allowed me to have no wasteful space between the masthead and main image which was another constructive suggestion I received and took on board. I have checked my spelling and altered the mistakes I had accidently made and didn’t realise. Although this is a slight change it had a big impact on my magazine, I made my cover lines closer together in terms of each individual one so there wasn’t such a big gap between the lines which makes my magazine look professional and neat. Overall, I have changed my magazine for the best and taken all my constructive feedback into consideration and made all the changes suggested plus more. This audience feedback has allowed me to produce a professional polished product and widen my ideas.
Poster:
In terms of my poster I have made various alterations including the title, although I haven’t changed the colour I have made my masthead bigger and added a shadow behind by duplicating my masthead and reducing the opacity. I placed this added masthead behind the other slightly to the right to give a shadow effect. I have changed the boldness of my tag line and used a font which has a slight distortion to connote the narrative of our trailer and antagonist. Due to the change in boldness of my tag line this helps to catch the attention of the audience hooking them to look at my poster. The main change I have made to my poster is the main image, I re-took the photo and made sure the camera was more focused and edited the image accordingly to make the image darker so the white and red text were visible against the background image. I have changed the tone of the release date on my poster to the same tone of the blood splatter on my magazine cover, not only has this allowed the release date to stand out more but created continuity and unity throughout my ancillary texts as the same colour schemes have been used. Overall, I have used the advice I have received through constructive feedback and applied this to my poster to produce a different end result to my draft. The changes I’ve made have improved my final product by changing and tweaking little conventions which as a result has produced an industry standard product.
Trailer: Our trailer received mixed emotions towards certain elements of our trailer specifically the music. We did make changes to our soundtrack such as the overlaying areas and loudness but kept the same music as we had multiple people give positive feedback on the soundtrack which gives a tense atmosphere. The biggest changes we made to our trailer were the woods scenes; we cut the antagonist out so it left the audience questioning who or what the protagonist is running from. We decided to make these changes to add mystery to our trailer and remove the repeated woods scene.
Once we received our audience feedback it was clear that the audience wanted to see more characters in the trailer to explain more about the film. We done this by adding another scene of the protagonist and her friend talking about the situation and the uncertainty the main character is feeling after noticing strange activities. We decided to cut out various scenes in the woods as our trailer ended up being too long with the added scenes. In terms of the antagonist we only kept the scenes where they are seen
stalking the protagonist and when they bump shoulders in the city. We have done this so the audience weren’t confused when the antagonist was seen running after our main character with their identity hidden and the same person seen in city which initially confused the audience as they didn’t understand who this character in the city was. Therefore, we cut the antagonist out of all the woods scenes so the audience would feel the tense atmosphere and suspense of the unknown. By cutting the antagonist out of scenes this allowed us draw back some of the storyline effectively giving the audience enough to know what was going on without giving too much away which is a good technique to hook the audience. As previously said we shot new footage to add in our trailer which added suspense and a better understanding of what the protagonist is going through so the audience can relate and feel her emotions which is connoted in the scene where she is talking to the counsellor and finds an envelope which contains photos of herself.
Overall, made changes were
we have various which given as
constructive feedback and used our own ideas to alter our trailer for the best
producing a professional polished product. Not only have we made alterations to the shots but we also made changes to our editing to improve our trailer making it more conventional. This is connoted in the editing which appears at the beginning of our trailer when the camera pans from the woods into the city.