What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Having audience feedback was essential in both pre-production and post

production stage. For example, audience feedback for pre-production helped

me to discover what were my target audience’s preferences and dislikes.

Therefore I could make changes to my planning if I didn’t get positive

feedback. It was also important for post production as it informed me if have

pleased my target audience, I could once again make changes if I got negative

feedback.

Here are the methods I used in order to obtain audience feedback:

Focus group

Surveys

Slide Share

Youtube

Vimeo

Focus group

During the pre-production and post- production stages several focus groups

were done. This was useful as I received positive comments and areas of

improvement were discussed.

These were some of the things discussed:

Music: Initially I had two possible instrumentals that parts of itcould

separately be used in my movie trailer. Some people suggested that one of the

instrumentals was too slow, and only using parts of it separately would make

the trailer ‘boring’ and ‘sound weird’ as it wouldn’t play smoothly, therefore

not creating suspense. As a result, it was recommended to use one

instrumental in the beginning of the trailer then add more instrumentals over

the first one to cause an ‘overlap’. This would produce an ‘intimidating’ and

‘alarming’ atmosphere, therefore being more effective than my initial idea.

Story-line: Some people said that the story-line would be too difficult to

understand by only watching the trailer. For that reason I decided not to

include the older sister in the trailer, and only focused on the two protagonists.

Scenes- Although I received positive commentsafter showing my trailer to

some people, it was said that the trailer looked like a ‘small film’ due to many

long scenes being used. Therefore, I decided to not use some scenes and

shorten some, this created more enigma.

Social networks (Youtube and Vimeo)

This is where I share all my videos with the audience. Even though I did not

get direct responses from these websites, such as comments, the videos did not

get any dislikes and the views were quickly increasing as soon as my share

them. This shows that the audience was pleased with my final product.

Survey Monkey

Survey monkey was advantageous as it was a simple and effective way of

creating questionnaire, and as a result obtaining audience feedback.

Pre- production (planning):

I asked this question, to make sure

the responses were from an audience

who liked the genre of my movie

trailer. I was pleased with this

response as it was shows that all the

other responses to my questions are

reliable, since nearly 85% of the

people enjoy watching horror movies.

It was essential to include this question in

the survey as the set of the scenes are a

key element of a movie trailer. Therefore,

it was necessary to know what set was the

most preferred by my target audience

before developing any further ideas.

Nearly 50% said a haunted house would be

the most suitable, as a result I decided to

film my trailer in a dark house to give the

impression that it was haunted.

Post- Production- Film poster

Post- Production- Magazine cover

While planning the story-line I thought of several

names that would be appropriate for my movie. I

was indecisive between ‘The Unknown’ and

‘Deadly Obsession’. However after receiving

some feedback from the questionnaire, I

discovered nearly 45% chose ‘Deadly Obsession’.

Therefore I decided to use this name as many

people said ‘The Unknown’ was too simple and

didn’t create any enigma.

After producing three possible film posters, I

presented them to my audience. As displayed,

the majority chose the last poster. This shows

that this film poster was the most suitable and

promoted my film more effectively.

Similarly, here I presented three possible

magazine cover and as shown, the majority

chose the first cover. I was pleased with this

response as I personally think the editing done

created a menacing appearance and feeling

therefore representing my trailer well.

Post- Production- Movie trailer

I was very content with the feedback about the film trailer as they were

extremely positive. I was pleased to know that the majority thought the

editing was the most effective element and also rated my trailer 10/10.

Although most chose ‘nothing’ when asked what element were the least

effective, some opposed and said acting was the least effective. However,

overall every person said they would be interesting in watching the whole

movie, this shows that the trailer was very effective.

Conclusion

In general all the audience feedback about all the media products were

extremely positive. Obtaining audience feedback was advantageous as it

helped me to develop all my products into effective media products and gave

me a greater knowledge on how to accomplish this. In addition, it provided me

with some areas of improvement in order to promote my products successfully.