3.What have you learnt from audience feedback?

As you can see from my blog, my movie trailer, poster and magazine front cover have all developed and changed dramatically from initial plans. After we showed some audience members first edits of our trailer and rough drafts of our poster and magazine front cover we felt these changes were necessary. We showed our media class (17-18 year old) our first edited media trailer and they commented mainly on two areas. They stated that firstly some shots where too unsteady and that it would look better if some shots where still. We took this audience feedback on board and reshot these. After we had reshot them we then once again showed our media class and teacher our film trailer with the new shots. The response was positive as they stated that the film trailer now looked more professional and easier to watch. Also through audience feedback we discovered that our film trailer didn’t build enough suspense or scare an audience enough. To overcome this we added some shots of a mysterious face along with some stingers and an increasing heartbeat. After we had added these shots we were pleased that our trailer now felt more like a horror trailer and more audience feedback suggested they agreed with us. As you can also see from our blog, we created first drafts of our movie poster and magazine front cover. We uploaded these drafts to a social network site and asked people to comment on the effectiveness of them. From audience feedback we discovered that main image of our poster was too large and mislead the audience to believe the film was called ‘19’. Furthermore it was also commented that our magazine front cover was too bright and pastel in colour. We once again took this feedback on board and made sufficient changes showing that audience feedback had a direct effect on our final media products

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We also gained audience feedback throughout the research and planning phase of production. We conducted a questionnaire where we asked specific audience types what they like to see in a horror movie trailer, poster and magazine. (To view questionnaire see previous post). From this questionnaire we gained an in depth insight into what an audience expect to see in a new horror movie. For example we found that an audience like a complicated narrative that engages them as well as featuring the common novelties of a typical horror like a last girl, an isolated setting and loud scary sound effects.

From this research we were then able to tailor our film to audience requirements. This particularly helped with the development of our film trailer as it meant we had a clear goal we wanted to achieve from it. The questionnaire also helped the development of our ancillary text as we found from audience feedback that people where more intrigued by simplistic posters and magazine front covers. This requirement has of course been identified before in existing media products like the ‘Saww’ poster and certain issues of ‘Fangoria’ which also adopt a simplistic nature. To insure we were keeping on track regarding audience feedback and requirements we made sure that we identified what we were trying to achieve from each and every shot of our film trailer, poster and magazine. If we matched the desired effect , we felt the shot or image was successful but if we did not we made sure extra attention was applied.

3.what have you learnt from audience feedback