WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

OUR TARGET

AUDIENCE:

• Male and female

• 16-25

• Working – middle class

• Teenagers

TARGET AUDIENCE READING OUR FILM• We wanted our target audience to read our film as a mixture of emotions. We

wanted them to feel love. The friendship that our main characters have is key to the film; we wanted them to become emotional, crying. Declan’s has to decide on what to do with his life which causes him much distress, which we wanted our target audience to feel with him, meaning they could cry; we also wanted them to laugh and feel happy. The film may be about a life struggle that many teenagers go through, but there will be moments when the audience will laugh and feel happy when seeing the friendship of Declan and Adam develop.

• As the film is told from the perspective of Declan, he’s positioned as the protagonist and the audience are immediately on his side. The audience will want him to triumph and to see the people who mocked and doubted him to feel bad for what they’ve done.

DID WE REACH OUR TARGET AUDIENCE?

We did reach our target audience as many teenagers both male and female enjoyed our main product and ancillary tasks. From seeing our poster, they anticipated the film to be about a teenage boy’s struggle with many issues in his life. The teaser trailer provides the same message as the protagonist has a decision to make between his head and heart. From the reviewers who saw our poster and watched our teaser trailer, they would go and watch the full length movie as they feel a connection with Declan already and they want to find out what happens to him. Our target audience are interested in our film, ‘VERSES’ as they can relate to the problems that Declan is facing because it is stereotypical issues that teens have to deal with as they grow into adulthood.

OUR TEASER TRAILER ON THE BIG SCREEN

• As our film is a British Independent film, it would be unlikely that it would be having big screen premieres world wide.

• Our target audience would expect to see our film at special film festivals as it’s a cheaper way of getting our film out there and they can watch loads of films in a day.

• In addition to it being at film festivals, our film, ‘VERSES’ would be shown in independent cinemas that specialise in films like ours. This means we are directly aiming at our target audience.

• However, as our film is shot in Nottingham and the makers and actors are local as well, mainstream cinemas in the area of Nottingham may show our film. This has happened previously, e.g. Shane Meadows films shown in Nottingham cinemas due to him being local.

THE TEASER TRAILER - READINGS

Audience readings Stuart Hall - role of audience positioning. Hall came up with a model

suggesting 3 ways in which we may read a media text:

• Dominant the audience will accept the preferred reading of the text. Our film ‘VERSES’ dominant reading would be that Declan and Adam are best friends and Adam helps Declan decide between his head and heart.

• Negotiated the audience will partly accept the preferred reading but also modifies it and partly rejects it. Our film ‘VERSES’ negotiated reading would be that Declan and Adam are best friends, but there’s hints of a questionable love between them.

• Oppositional the audience will reject the preferred reading of the text. Our film ‘VERSES’ oppositional reading would be that Declan and Adam’s friendship has a sexual tone to it, where they end up in a relationship.

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED FROM AUDIENCE

FEEDBACK?• The main thing we learnt from audience feedback is that target audience is one of

the most important factors in making a film successful. There are many products that can be made to attract a target audience. Our main product (teaser trailer) and ancillary tasks (poster and magazine) are typical ways a production company would promote their film and attract their target audience.

• For our main product, our target audience gave us feedback that they liked our teaser trailer and would go to watch the film as they want to know what happens to our protagonist.

• Our ancillary tasks, the poster really attracted an audience as they wanted to know more about the main character on the poster and the tag lone drew them in. The magazine also got the audience wanting to know about the film on a whole and the actor who plays the protagonist Declan.

• Audience feedback has made us learn that it’s needed to test if a film will be a hit or not. Creating a teaser trailer and a poster, then getting feedback from the film’s target audience, helps us to see if anything needs changing, but it’s still enough in advance of the film officially coming out.

TO CONCLUDE...Overall, we know the significance of a target audience and receiving feedback from them so we know what’s attracting them to see the film and if there’s any need for improvements. Target audience is key to the production and we were able to see what we did well in our main product and ancillary tasks and what we would change if we were making it again.