What has you learned from your audience feedback?

1. What has you learned from your audience feedback? By Tyrone Callender – Edwards 13w

2. Brief Throughout the on going process of production it has become evident that constructive criticisms and feedback from peers/audiences are extremely vital because his then allows myself and my group to reflect on how we could improve upon the various ancillary tasks. The whole idea of creating these various ancillary tasks is so that audiences will appreciate and enjoy everything we produce. Therefore by gaining there feedback, we can then improve the products ensuring a good reception when the final finished products are ready. We have been able to gain this audience feedback through the method of video recordings (used by flip camera’s) so that we could record the feedback and then upload it to YouTube in order to find out the strengths and weaknesses to our idea allowing us to then develop on it. Lastly, feedback was obtained through; interviews, questionnaires, individual feedback and also comments made on the blog.

3. Group Interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMexcebEKHI&feature=player_embedded Click on the link in order to watch the full interview. This image depicts one of the video recordings that was taken of my group and myself within the planning stages of the production. At this point we had a very vague idea of what we actually wanted our trailer to consist of. We brainstormed the rough idea we had so that we could present it back to the class and gain initial feedback. After receiving the feedback from our peers, it became evident that the plot need to be developed much more thoroughly and efficiently in order to produce the trailer to the highest quality

4. The target audience questionnaire For us to establish a target audience we had to ask questions, we achieved this through the process of a questionnaire. Below we have a print screen of the questionnaire which was produced through the use of Microsoft Word. Click here to view the questionnaire as a document

5. How old are you? This graph shows that in both series of questionnaires for males and females the majority of participants were between 16 and 18 years of age.

6. Are you male or female? This graph shows that out of 10 participants 5 were male and 5 were female.

7. What do you enjoy about thrillers? This graph shows that out of a total of 10 participants, 7 (the majority) enjoyed suspense, 2 enjoyed mystery and lastly 1 participant enjoyed thrillers to reflect real life.

8. What types of codes and conventions do you expect to see in thrillers? The codes and convention expected to see in a thriller varied, however the most important code and convention discovered through the participants was; mystery/threats/weapons

9. What do you expect to see in a thriller? This question found three different expectations in thrillers. Participants expected to see/hear; eerie music, dramatic dialogue and lastly a psychological twist to the plot. This meant that we would have to possibly incorporate all three into a trailer.

10. What location do you think is the most effective for a thriller? The most effective location chosen by our audience was in fact a “neighbourhood” which is why we decided to film in a neighbourhood similarly.

11. Do you feel that having a “love triangle” twist included in the narrative of a thriller is interesting? 9/10 participants had ticked yes on this question highlighting the fact that this could be a powerful twist within the trailer, which would also be favoured by audiences.

12. To conclude, I have gathered this piece of audience research has enabled myself and my group to depict who the target audience are (males and females aged 16 and above) and what they like to see in thrillers. I have also reaffirmed parts of my narrative and location to make sure that the target audience would like it. The questionnaire has been an effective tool because it allowed us to gain feedback and correlate results.

13. The film poster questionnaire • What do you look for most in a film poster? (circle however many appropriate) • The image • The title • The tagline • The actors • The director • The distribution company • The colours • The layout • The release date • All of the above For a crime-thriller film, what main colours should feature in the poster? (circle however many appropriate) Do you think that the distribution company logo should be shown in large on the poster? Red Black White Blue Green Silver Gold Grey Yellow Yes No • Where do you think that the title of the film should be placed? • At the top • At the bottom • In the centre • By the side • Within the image Is it important to you that the main actors’ names are on the poster? Yes No Is it important to you that the director’s name is on the poster? Yes No What do you think should be the focus of the image? All the main characters The one main character The location Important props (such as a knife) What type of font for the title for a crime-thriller called ‘Through The Mask’ do you think should be used on the poster? Bold Ghostly writing Italic Sharp (with pointed edges on the letters) Bold Italic

14. First by a long margin was “the top” meaning audiences would much rather the title to be at the top as opposed to anywhere else on the poster.

15. More than half of the audience felt that the main character should take centre stage on the poster showing his power and dominance.

16. This was an unpopular question with audiences as they believed that the distribution company should’nt be shown in large. Possibly because it would take significance away from the main character.

17. Audience felt that the main characters names should be but on the poster.

18. Audience felt that the director should get recognition, therefore their name should be placed on the poster.

19. Ghostly writing and bold was the preferred font amongst the majority, therefore we used these fonts for both ancillary tasks.

20. Audience Feedback (what they liked) This individual liked the lighting, the tension as to who the killer could be and also the use of location. Click on the link to view the interview on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMKat_ktM74 This individual enjoyed the murder scene at the beginning of the trailer, and how it flowed with the distribution company etc. Click on the link to view the interview on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCv6chnFoKQ This individual favoured the “character development” in our trailer. Click on the link to view the interview on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzSvTBBiUtM

21. Audience feedback (improvements) This individual believed that the killer character should have been better represented. Click on the link to view the interview on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp9AvLG3yp4 Amazingly this individual believed that there was no improvements that could be made. However, as a reflective learner I believe that there is always room for improvements. Click on the link to view the interview on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cLpqC9YmNo Lastly, this individual believed that we could have incorporated more scenes (quick cuts) in order to reinforce the rapid nature of trailers. Click on the link to view the interview on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUz9RAlm-oo

22. Conclusion Throughout the duration of this audience feedback process, I have gathered from the various feedbacks what is necessary when constructing the ancillary task (thriller poster). Constructive criticisms/feedback is extremely helpful because audiences may pick out things that I didn’t notice or acknowledge at first. It allows a second opinion that could possibly increase the product immensely. Also, gaining the feedback was good because it allowed me to increase my knowledge on audience expectations and also developed my use of flip camera’s which I had not previously used before.