What did you learn from your audience feedback?Joe Turner

Audience feedback is very important, it is used in many ways to make a product successful. When a rough cut, or rough draft of a media text is completed it is run by a group of people, often the target audience, to receive feedback to improve it and make it more successful. In the example of film, often research and feedback is taken from the target audience so that it will be successful on its release. On creating an ad campaign this feedback is also very useful. For example when marketing The Woman in Black, lots of research was done to make a successful marketing campaign.

During class we screened our rough cut trailers to the group. The class is made up of a wide range of psychographic but demographically we are all students in the same age group. When we conducted some class research it turned out that the majority enjoyed horror which both means that this group is ideal to screen rough cuts and get feedback because of the wide range of psychographics and because most of them are the target audience and enjoy horror.

The feedback

The feedback we received in class was very constructive, of course being a rough cut it was not perfected but the feedback we received helped us create a trailer that would be successful. Many of the comments made were that our sound was uneven and often the non-diegetic sound obstructed the dialogue and made it difficult to hear. We addressed this issue easily and made sure that the dialogue could be heard clearly. Another comment that was made was that some of the scenes were too dark and it was difficult to see what was happening so we addressed this and edited the light levels. Finally one last comment that was made was about the ending. It mislead the audience and made them believe that the mannequin that drops to the floor was dead which makes it anticlimactic. Originally we wanted this scene to make the audience question whether or not it is still alive so we added an effect which makes it look like a control light flickers, making the audience question if it is still alive or not.

We also received very positive feedback, that our choice of sound and music was good and helped build the tension. Another positive comment was that the trailer had good pacing and that there was a clear story line to it. Many people were also pleased with the variety of shots and good angles and use of motivated lighting in many of the scenes. This was pleasing for our group because the scenes and sounds did what we wanted to do and we were glad that the audience recognised this. Having known that the story idea was accepted by many when we conducted research before we started filming we were confident that the trailer would be successful, but knowing that many of the other elements in our trailer were successful was good news.

Ancillary texts

When creating my ancillary products I also received feedback from peers and target audience. Because I didn’t want to follow stereotypical texts I decided to design my products with more style. When looking at magazines I looked at Sight and Sound and Total Film. My main image I wanted to be simple and minimalist, so I took a photo of the mannequin standing against a clear background. It took a while for me to decide on the mast head’s colour but with my feedback I decided going for a more subtle colour, opposed to a red or yellow, which makes it more pleasing to the eye. With my film poster I could not decide on what photo to use out of three that I had. So I decided, and because my feedback thought all three were good, to create three that could be used on different media platforms like real media texts would.

The feedback was very helpful and we solved the main issue of the sound overpowering dialogue on the trailer and to perfect my ancillary products. This feedback was very useful and has helped us make our product look professional and be successful.