Evaluation Question 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

To gain insight into our product, we recently held an audience screening. I believe the screening was very successful, primarily due to the number of people that attended. We handed out questionnaires collecting both quantitative and qualitative data which can be seen below.

Our total sample size was 17 people, of which 65% of the sample were female. This was interesting as we had initially selected our target audience being primarily male, and so have a largely female sample would give us insight our product might appeal to a female audience. Before watching the film we asked a series of broad questions about the participants interests in films. It was interesting to see that the majority of people (53%) watched at least one film per week, with a significant amount watching over 4 films. There were no participants that stated that they don't watch a film per week, thus showing that our target audience has a regular interest in films. When asked what their favourite genre was, 42% of people stated thriller and 33% comedy. This is a positive response as our product is an action/thriller in which over 60% of people stated as their favourite genre, suggesting that our product would appeal to this audience. When we asked participants what influences them to see a film, over 75% chose word of mouth. This is a particularly positive research for our product as we would aim for people to hear about it through advertising on the internet and telling their social circle. This would be our primary way of marketing as we do not have a large production budget and so would be relying on the popularity of our product to sell it. 

We found that 13/17 responses watched at least one trailer a week and everyone did not try to avoid them before seeing a film. All the participants agreed that they find watching trailers help them to decide whether they want to see a film. This beneficial for our product as a trailer would be our main way of attracting an audience to our product, which we can see may work. Furthermore it was interesting to see that 5/17 people believed that trailers can give too much away, this is good to take into account for our own product as we do not want to deter a potential audience. When asked what films they had seen out of our key influences, 14/17 people had seen The Dark Knight with a further 9/17 having seen Reservoir Dogs. These two results were expected due to their commercial success and recognizable titles. Although only a limited number of people had seen our other influences, this was not an issue as they had previously stated their interest in the action/thriller genre. With over 75% of participants stating that they watch films primarily online (whether legally or illegally),  we can conclude that our most successful distribution base would be online to reach the widest market.

After the audience had watched our trailer, we asked further evaluation questions on what they thought of our product. 14/17 responses correctly identified our trailer within the thriller genre, however only one person identified our trailer within the thriller/action genre. Even though we hoped that the results would be higher for this genre, we were aware our product had hybridity which is relatively uncommon for trailers. Thus we were aware that we would achieve less responses in this area especially as examples of hybrid films are less common. It was interesting to see that one participant identified our product within the action/thriller/romance genre. This result was unexpected, however the participant may have decoded a relationship between Mr Pink and the Girl and thus anticipated our trailer as part romance.

When we asked what participants believed the target age range of our film was, we received a broad response but the majority were within our target age bracket of 15-24. Thus informing us that we are targeting the correct age group, but also suggesting that we could target even a possibly older age range. However as we did not have any participants above the age of 18, we cannot be conclusive that our product would be successful within an older age group. Even though we had initially targeted our film at a primarily male audience, 76% of participants thought the trailer was targeting both genders with only 24% targeting male. Thus proposing that we should target both genres rather than reducing our potential market to just one.

It was reassuring to see that 65% of participants believed the correct amount of narrative was shown , with 24% thinking less should be shown, suggesting that we had shown the right level of narrative. However 11% believed that more narrative should have been shown. This was emphasized by the responses to the question asking if any sections of the trailer weren’t clear. Two people responded stating: ‘How did the girl get into the woods?’ and ‘Whats the story behind the kidnap? Why kidnap just to rescue her again?'. The first statement on the girls arrival into the woods , suggests that we may not have been clear enough in the narrative showing their arrival. Furthermore, the second statement implies an even greater problem within our narrative as we believed that the ‘story behind the kidnap’ was clear. A response misunderstanding the plot, may suggest that our narrative needs to be altered to make it clearer and thus more easily decoded by the audience. However, as we did not receive any other responses referring to this misunderstanding, then it could be taken as an extraneous variable, especially as 89% believed the right amount of even less should be shown.

The prior research was primarily quantitative, to collect qualitative data we asked participants what their favourite part of the trailer was. The responses can be seen below:

The acting, it brought the trailer together

The suspense as it was a cliff-hanger

Title at the end/Car chase with gun/Shooting Robbie as it was realistic/Eliza

The death scene

The acting it made me smile/Background music was cool

The ending I liked that it didn't give too much away

The title/The first shot of the hands tied up as it gets your attention

The pace of transition between scenes

The ending with the victim crying with a bag over the head as it was believable

When the girl was tied up good acting/Cutting between scenes

Didn’t reveal too much plot

The chase part, liked the ending because the suspense built up/The music was good too

Music was really suiting/Loved the filming from a variety of angles

The shot where 3 guys were stood around the captured girl, very dramatic

I liked the kidnap scene

Eliza crying with the bag on her face/good acting/setting

Running through woods as it was tense

Ending with the blood

It was interesting to see that many of the responses referenced the ‘pace of transition between the scenes’. This was positive to see as a key element in the production of our trailer was to ensure that the cutting between scenes varied to ensure visual variety. Furthermore, we wanted to increase the rate of transitions in the second and third act to heighten ‘tension’ and increase ‘suspense’. It was good to see that two key words which we had aimed to achieve in the production of our trailer, were mentioned positively by the audience. We decided to ignore responses referencing the quality of acting in our trailer as during production we had little influence over this and as we had no production budget we were not able to obtain professional actors. One response said the ‘music was really suiting’ which was great to hear as the music in trailers can deeply affect the audiences overall depiction and outcome of the product. Furthermore we received a positive response to the title sequence at the end which featured the effect of running blood. I also used this effect in my magazine and poster and so it can also be taken as feedback to the title in both my ancillary tasks.

To achieve a variety of responses we also asked ‘What their least favourite part of the was”:

Sitting round table, didn't seem serious

Too many scenes in house/sitting around a table

The running sequence

The scene in the house where the men discuss the girl

Started off slow/Lots of the storyline given away eg "There’s two choices" Really? We see Robbie dead…where’s the suspense?

The actors smiling when the guns where by their faces

Robbie’s acting

The scene where they are deciding what to do

The music in the background was too loud

The weird blue shot of the house

Background music slightly too loud

Some of the shots eg. House one/POV

Too much of the beginning was given away

It gave away a lot of beginning of the film

Many responses referenced parts of the acting, which as I said previously, we decided to ignore.  People suggested that there were too many scenes ‘in the house/sitting around a table’, we were aware of this however as we had a low production budget we were unable to source more varied locations. Furthermore we wanted to emphasize our film’s location in suburban London and therefore we believed that scenes within the different houses and on the street would do this. One response felt that it ‘started off slow’ and ‘lots of the storyline was given away’, however the slow beginning was crucial to exaggerate the climax and increasing speeds of the shots as the audience progresses through the trailer. Furthermore the slow beginning allows the audience to become involved with the storyline allowing it to be decoded. Additionally, it is quite essential that a large amount of the storyline is conveyed in trailers to allow the audience to have a concept of the plot. Another response described ‘the weird blue shot of the house’ as their least favourite part, this shot was in fact using day for night filming. Although the feedback suggests a dislike towards it, the effect is essential to keep continuity as our shots within the house were done at night. A helpful piece of feedback was that the ‘background music was slightly too loud’, this can be easily changed on final cut pro to allow for greater clarity between vocals and the background music.

The final question we asked on our questionnaire was ‘does the trailer make you want to watch the film?’ To which it was great to see that 100% responded ‘Yes’, especially as our participants were within our target age range and had shown a clear interest in films and our genre. Furthermore people who had prior reservations or negativities towards our trailer, showed a clear interest in the final question, suggesting our film may do well with our target audience. Overall the use of the audience screening was very useful to gain first hand feedback on our product, collecting both the positive and negative features of our trailer. However due to the limited capacity of a screening it is hard to achieve a broad non-biased view on our product, whilst furthermore attracting an audience of a wider age range. Due to this our biggest limitation was indefinitely the lack of age range in our participants as they were all 18 years old, thus in future it would be beneficial to have people of different ages or at the very least within the upper and lower boundaries of our target audience (15-24).

We also received audience feedback on our final upload to YouTube, this was encouraging to see as people displayed their interests in our trailer. Furthermore one comment referenced our title, which supports the feedback of both my ancillary tasks which used a similar style. It is also interesting to see that the comment included the word 'professional', thus suggesting that it looks similar to real media texts.

For the audience feedback on my ancillary tasks, I took some vox pops evaluating their successfulness and relation to real media texts. The videos can be seen below: 

The ancillary task vox pops were very helpful in understanding what a viewer notices when analysing the product. However the constructive criticisms people gave were scarce, this may have been because they were aware I was filming them and so wanted to reference the positive elements rather than the negative. However lacking in negative feedback, I felt that I was unsure whether anything needed change within my products. In future it would also be good to interview more people on my product and of different ages. This would give me a more balanced insight into the effective elements on my poster and those that need altering.

In the poster reviews, I was pleased to hear that people liked the lower third of the poster, featuring the character banner. I constantly changed the banner during the development of my poster, as I wanted to feature the three main male character but I was unable to successfully merge their respective scenic backgrounds. Thus I finally decided to create a neutral background on which I could overlay the characters. I was pleased that some people particularly liked the main central image of the tied hands, as this was a key element in exaggerating the meaning behind the title, portraying a characters circumstance. In the magazine reviews, Adam picked up on the use of colour and fonts. I was pleased with this as these features play a large subconscious role in how appealing a magazine cover can look to the viewer.

EJ