What have you learned from your audience Feedback?
For our A2 media coursework we produced a teaser trailer of the supernatural/psychological genre as well as a poster and magazine. Audience feedback is important because it enables us to know what the target audience liked, where exactly we went wrong and suggestions of areas of improvement if we were to do it again. Also, it’s important to know what the aimed audience thinks of the product. Our planned target audience was both male and female aged 15+. Therefore we used different forms of media methods to collect feedback to see what our target audience thought of our overall finished product.
Who are our Target Audience ?
Before we were able to conduct our audience feedback it was important to actually remind ourselves of who our target audience is and weather or not our products appealed to them. In the pre-production stage we decided that our target audience would be young adults aged between 15-21 and we would target both genders. When conducting audience research for our evaluation stage we found that mostly females were watching the trailer and they were mostly in the age range that we'd wanted them to be. On the other hand, very few males were eager to watch our trailer and in fact only older males were inclined to view the trailer. Looking at these results about our demographic it seems as though we've only appealed to half of our target audience and haven't managed to actually attract the people we wanted to watch the film or be interested in our finished products. Using statistics from our YouTube video we found that our audience is mostly in the United Kingdom rather than anywhere else in the world. We were hoping our video would be somewhat viral and perhaps reach people around the world especially in this digital age.
Below are existing movie posters from the supernatural genre that we adopted for our own film. These are popular movies and even though some might be older they're still recognized by horror fans across the world, for instance the Ring is a popular movie in both America and Japan. We hoped we could reach this cult status nad regardless of the genre we could attract our target audience and other viewers who are maybe not fans but will having watched our trailer. Movies such as Carrie(2013) and The Conjuring would be appealing to a mass audience ,rather than a niche group of supernatural fanatics, due to their big budgets but since we're a small and new production company then we have to appeal to those who actually enjoy watching the horror movie that we've made. As a group we noticed that our target audience 15-21 weren't the ones who watched our film but rather older viewers. The movies below also aimed to target the same young adults we did but they had more success than us because of their ability to market whilst we had to depend on social networking sites.
Teaser Trailer Feedback
To investigate what our target audience thought about our teaser trailer in relation to our genre choice, narrative, and actors used and production we decided to form a questionnaire that was appropriate to what we wanted to get responses with. The questionnaire contained 10 questions. It was applicable to ask the questionnaire to individuals who are similar to the demographic who watch horror films meaning that their opinion could represent a number of people in their age bracket who like watching films.The questionnaire results were analysed early on in the project meaning that the results of our three media products were influenced to a certain degree by my questionnaire results.
The 10 Questions that have been asked were:
1.What do you feel are successful elements of the teaser trailer?
Victims Tension Antagonist(killer) Sound None
2. Do you feel the narrative is addressed well?
Yes No Not Sure
3.Do you understand the narrative and what’s involved and when watching the teaser trailer?
Yes No Not Sure
4.Do you think the teaser trailer is similar to existing horror trailers?
Yes No Not Sure
5.Do you think the ending is terrifying?
Yes No Not Sure
6.What horror sub-genre would you describe our teaser trailer?
Slasher Supernatural/Psychological J-Horror Zombie Splatter
7. Do the captions in the teaser trailer make you have a better understanding of the narrative?
Yes No Not Sure
8.Does the pacing of the trailer help create the tension to the trailer?
Yes No Not Sure
9.Was the sound of our trailer effective enough to build tension and fear?
Yes No Not Sure
10.Does the teaser trailer make you want to go and watch the film?
Yes No Not Sure
The 10 Questions that have been asked were:
1.What do you feel are successful elements of the teaser trailer?
Victims Tension Antagonist(killer) Sound None
2. Do you feel the narrative is addressed well?
Yes No Not Sure
3.Do you understand the narrative and what’s involved and when watching the teaser trailer?
Yes No Not Sure
4.Do you think the teaser trailer is similar to existing horror trailers?
Yes No Not Sure
5.Do you think the ending is terrifying?
Yes No Not Sure
6.What horror sub-genre would you describe our teaser trailer?
Slasher Supernatural/Psychological J-Horror Zombie Splatter
7. Do the captions in the teaser trailer make you have a better understanding of the narrative?
Yes No Not Sure
8.Does the pacing of the trailer help create the tension to the trailer?
Yes No Not Sure
9.Was the sound of our trailer effective enough to build tension and fear?
Yes No Not Sure
10.Does the teaser trailer make you want to go and watch the film?
Yes No Not Sure
Initial Reactions - Trailer
Before I could delve into the questionnaire I had to ask my audience what their initial thoughts about the trailer were. By doing this I would be getting their thoughts instantly and these would hopefully be honest opinions that they had developed whilst watching for the first time. Below you will find some screen grabs that I got from my audience using Whatsapp. The social networking site Whatsapp is were most of my audience is situated therefore it made sense to contact them there and ask for their opinion.
The initial reactions that we received were actually quite positive. Most of our audience members commented on the sound pointing out that it created 'suspense' and added 'tension' to the trailer which is essential to making the movie appear scary. Others didn't like the trailer's sound and thought that it didn't build up any 'fear' and therefore didn't frighten them. The sound effects received negative comments with many saying that they didn't find it effective and terrifying enough. There was,however, an overwhelming positive response to the visuals of the trailer which mean people thought was unique to any other existing trailer. The narrative was clear to many of our viewers and scenes such as 'the train passing' were very popular amongst the target audience. A small amount of audience members commented on the acting and said that they didn't think it wasn't very good which then makes the trailer less scary.
10 Questions - Whatsapp
1.What do you feel are successful elements of the teaser trailer?
The first question went down very well as seen in the 'screen grabs' and the results from the questionnaire. People voted for victims as the most successful elements of a teaser trailer. This is good news as our trailer included a lot of quick shots showing victims of the antagonist and the biggest victim ,our protagonist, was also a dominant feature of the trailer. The antagonist was also a popular element needed for a successful trailer and again we included an array of shots to show the them. Some of the elements which were voted least successful included tension and sound.
2. Do you feel the narrative is addressed well?
70% of our viewers did say that our narrative was addressed well , which is essential for our trailer because if the narrative is boring or lacklustre then we wouldn't be popular and the movie would flop. The majority did say that they liked the way we did the narrative and how we didn't go in chronological order but rather had a non-linear order. Although we had an positive outcome on this question some people did have criticisms and said that the non-linear order confused them.
3. Do you understand the narrative/storyline when watching the teaser trailer?
We found out that the narrative was understandable to our viewers which is great because if they didn't understand the narrative then they'd be no point in watching the movie if it was to be in cinemas. Some of our target audience had to watch the trailer more than once to understand the storyline which is a shame because we hoped that the first would be enough. Even though others did watch it again they still had issues understanding the storyline and perhaps if we could do it all again we would have our trailer going in chronological order.
4. Do you think the teaser trailer is similar to existing horror trailers?
It was important for our trailer to be easily identifiable as a supernatural horror flick and similar to existing trailers on the market. Our audience did find out trailer to be similar to other horror movie trailers with some noting that the suspense and jump shots were effective in achieving this. There were only two people who viewed the trailer and found it to be completely different from other horror trailers. The overall results from this question were positive and little changes would be made for improvement.
5. Do you think the ending is effective/terrifying?
This question received mixed reactions from our audience. The majority found our ending to be scary or slightly shocking. Some who were very enthusiastic about the ending and eager to known more having finished watching is wonderful because then they're more likely to watch the movie in cinemas. On the other hand, 33% of our target audience weren't scared and told us that they wouldn't want to see the film. If we were to do this again then perhaps we would make the sound more ominous and the last shot even more disturbing or eye-catching.
6. What horror sub-genre would you describe our teaser trailer?
Thankfully our audience was able to recognize our subgenre, Supernatural/Psycological, which means that we've been successful in making a trailer that contained all elements of the sub-genre e.g. an supernatural antagonist. However, 40% of our target audience thought the sub-genre was J-Horror which is understandable since our antagonist was Asian and that's a common feature of J-Horror. Only one person said that our sub-genre was slasher and the rest recieved no votes. Overall it seems we were succesful in making a trailer for our sub-genre.
7. Do the captions in the teaser trailer make you have a better understanding of the narrative?
The majority of our target audience definiately thought the the capitions helped them to understand the narrative much better. A few audience members even complimented the style and design of the captions. The reception from only one person was that the captions didn't help them understand the trailer which is a shame but luckily more people were aided by the captions which is great.
8. Does the pacing of the trailer help create tension ?
The pacing of the trailer was particularly not a favorite of our audience who thought that it was too slow and therefore didn't create any tension. In our result details 55% of our viewers didn't like the slow pace and even in the Whatsapp conversations we were told that at certain points there was tension but most of the time the pace made the trailer seem long and perhaps tedious. If we could change our trailer then perhaps we could have more quick shots but not only of the victims but other things just so we don't seem as though we're repeating the same scenes.
9. Was the sound of our trailer effective enough to build tension and fear?
The sound was deemed effective enough to build up tension and fear. 80% of our audience thought that at some parts in particular ,e.g. the montage, the sound was able to really shock them. There were only two people who didn't find the sound effective enough to build up tension or fear but that's fine as the majority did think the sound was effective. If we were to change the trailer then we would create sound with a faster tempo and more drums that resemble heart beats.
10. Does the teaser trailer make you want to go and watch the film?
Overall 90% of our target audience wanted to watch the teaser trailer which is fantastic because it suggests that the trailer was successful. People did offer suggestions as to what we could've done to improve the trailer as a whole. The ending was very popular but our audience expected us to have more blood and gore throughout. A few people wanted to see more variation in the shots and the music to be more fast pace. Some of our audience weren't horror fans and therefore didn't see the point in watching the film in cinema, however we'd hoped that despite this our trailer would convince them otherwise. Even those who are horror fans did say that they wouldn't watch the trailer due to it seeming 'typical' but despite this we are happy with the results.
Initial Reactions - Trailer
As a group it was important to be able to communicate with our target audience. The only way we could do that was through popular social networking sites such as Twitter. If our trailer is on twitter there's always an possibility that we could be a trending topic if lots of people in our target audience like it. On twitter we used the group account in order to talk to our audience who gave us some useful feedback on the trailer. It was really easy to direct message to communicate with followers and have them personally give us their opinion.
The people on twitter were a whole different group from the ones I had questioned on Whatsapp in the respects that they were slightly older but still met the age requirements for our target group. The initial reactions were balanced, there wasn't an overwhelming number of people who hated or loved the trailer. The editing was praised and the narrative was also hailed as been easy to follow. Negative comments focused on the chosen actors to play the roles and some said the sound was too slow making the overall trailer slower. It was interesting to find that some audience members compared our concept to that of widely known horror films like 'The Ring' which we consider a huge compliment as the film is very successful and popular.
10 Questions - Twitter
1.What do you feel are successful elements of the teaser trailer?
When we put the first question forward to the followers on twitter it was interesting to find that most people favoured victims as the most successful element of teaser trailers. Victims were also an popular answer on Whatsapp which proves that overall the target audience would prefer to see a variety of shots mostly surrounding victims. We are glad that we did include shots that featured victims running away or in fear of the antagonist. On the twitter the tension tied with victims as one of the successful elements which is contrast to the results we received on Whatsapp. The sound was consistently low on both Whatsapp and twitter.
2. Do you feel the narrative is addressed well?
This question received a very positive response from both audiences on Whatsapp and Twitter. On Twitter it was evident that more people didn't think we addressed the narrative well than those on Whatsapp. Suggestions were made by some twitter followers that we should consider using different actors in order to make the trailer look more realistic. If we were to take the advice of both our target audiences on Whatsapp and Twitter then we would change the lead actress and place the focus on a range of other characters that the antagonist is following.
3. Do you understand the narrative/storyline when watching the teaser trailer?
Our target audience on Whatsapp were very favourable about this question and said that they understood the storyline which is great which is similar to the response we got on Twitter. It was essential for our target audience to understand the storyline and therefore be enthusiastic to watch the film if it was to be in cinemas. Only three people in total were confused about the storyline but that's normal as some people wouldn't understand.
4. Do you think the teaser trailer is similar to existing horror trailers?
Our target audience on Twitter was less convinced that our trailer resembled similar trailers on the market which is a shame as viewers on Whatsapp thought our trailer looked realistic enough. One thing that could've caused the audiences to think the trailer wasn't convincing is perhaps the actors and maybe even the editing. However we did receive an overwhelming amount of positive feedback on Whatsapp so maybe it was only this particular audience that did not agree with out trailer.
5. Do you think the ending is effective/terrifying?
For once the audience on Twitter was very positive about our ending although this is not shown in the screen grabs it was the case when we spoke to other people. The people who answered no when asked to elaborate, they said it was the sound and pacing that made everything seem slow rather than exciting, mysterious or even scary.
6.What horror sub-genre would you describe our teaser trailer?
Luckily a lot of our audience was able to identify what type of sub-genre our movie was meaning that was must've included the right elements from the genre. There were the odd few people who said 'J-horror' and only one person who said Zombie which is completely erroneous but we can see why they'd think that based on the main image.
7. Do the captions in the teaser trailer make you have a better understanding of the narrative?
Like in the Whatsapp conversations we found that the audience actually used the captions in order to get a better understanding of the narrative which is great because that was the purpose anyway.
8. Does the pacing of the trailer help create tension ?
This question was probably the one that split the audiences into two. There were those that thought the slow pace helped to create tension and make the trailer have suspense. But then again a couple of people stated that the pace was far too slow therefore making everything else seem quite long and tedious.
9. Was the sound of our trailer effective enough to build tension and fear?
Again pacing was an issue but this time it was in terms of sound. The audiences in the Whatsapp conversations were pretty split when it came to judging weather or not the pace of the sound did create tension and fear. In terms of Twitter there was a similar reaction.
10. Does the teaser trailer make you want to go and watch the film?
The last question was essential to finding out if we actually did a good job. A lot of our audience members said that they would watch the film in cinemas regardless of the criticisms that might have arose in the previous questions which is a great thing to know. We also had to compare the reaction from this question to that of the Whatsapp conversation and it is really great that both target audiences on different networks/mediums liked our trailer !
Audience Reactions - Trailer
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This audience member was quite positive and actually really liked the editing done in the trailer alongside the sound which they thought was good as well. An issue that often occurred in this video was that our audience member didn't remember too much of our video suggesting that perhaps it was unmemorable and if we were to do it again then we might have some shots that are unique and eye-catching.
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This person attended the film screenings and thankfully did enjoy the most part of the trailer. There were some negative comments and slight criticisms about the pace and some of the shots chosen but despite this the comments were overall positive and complimentary. Some adjustments that we could make to the trailer based on the audience's comments are the montage - adding shots that are as we said before unique and different.
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Poster Feedback
To investigate what our target audience thought about our teaser trailer in relation to our genre choice, narrative, and actors used and production we decided to form a questionnaire that was appropriate to what we wanted to get responses with. The questionnaire contained 10 questions. It was applicable to ask the questionnaire to individuals who are similar to the demographic who watch horror films meaning that their opinion could represent a number of people in their age bracket who like watching films.The questionnaire results were analysed early on in the project meaning that the results of our three media products were influenced to a certain degree by my questionnaire results.
The 10 Questions that have been asked were:
1.Do you think that the layout of the poster is good?
Yes No Not Sure
2. Is the main image scary or not effective?
Yes No Not Sure
3. Is the typography clear and easy to read?
Yes No Not Sure
4.Do you think the colours work well together on the poster?
Yes No Not Sure
5. Is the tagline eye-catching and mysterious?
Yes No Not Sure
6.What horror sub-genre would you say this is?
Slasher Supernatural/Psychological J-Horror Zombie Splatter
7. Do the reviews make you trust that the film is good?
Yes No Not Sure
8.Do you think the poster is spaced out well and not cluttered?
Yes No Not Sure
9.Do you think the title sounds like a horror film and looks like it?
Yes No Not Sure
10.Does the poster make you want to watch the film?
Yes No Not Sure
The 10 Questions that have been asked were:
1.Do you think that the layout of the poster is good?
Yes No Not Sure
2. Is the main image scary or not effective?
Yes No Not Sure
3. Is the typography clear and easy to read?
Yes No Not Sure
4.Do you think the colours work well together on the poster?
Yes No Not Sure
5. Is the tagline eye-catching and mysterious?
Yes No Not Sure
6.What horror sub-genre would you say this is?
Slasher Supernatural/Psychological J-Horror Zombie Splatter
7. Do the reviews make you trust that the film is good?
Yes No Not Sure
8.Do you think the poster is spaced out well and not cluttered?
Yes No Not Sure
9.Do you think the title sounds like a horror film and looks like it?
Yes No Not Sure
10.Does the poster make you want to watch the film?
Yes No Not Sure
Initial Reactions - Poster
On Facebook I was able to communicate with my target audience. Facebook is the biggest social networking site and I was able to utilise it in order to get audience feedback. However, due to the fact that this website has real people I've had to conceal their identities in order to maintain their privacy. Nonetheless my audience has still given me the much needed feedback that I required and all of it was positive which is really great. On Facebook we also messaged our audience in order to get an more in-depth understanding of what exactly they liked about the poster.
What people liked most about this trailer is the image of the girl which they mostly commented was 'eye grabbing' and captured their attention. Some even compared the poster to the Blair Witch Project which is reasonable since the poster has a supernatural feel to it and the girl is in the woods. A few of our audience members thought that the colour on the girl was slightly strange and not as scary as we would'v intended.
10 Questions - Poster
Dooshima was as other recipients very positive but the problem of sub-genre occurred once more. Dooshima stated that the sub-genre is 'zombie' which is completely erroneous but shows that perhaps our image was quite misleading.
ConclusionThe overall responses I would say were positive and rarely critical of the work that we did which is wonderful because it means the poster was popular with our target audiences. What did strike us as unusual was the amount of people who didn't understand what genre this film was. Some even stated that it was Zombie but maybe it should be expected as the make-up and costume might suggest that this is an eroding zombie corpse. Other people suggested that the sub-genre was even J-horror which is reasonable as the main image did resemble a typical film poster for that sub-genre. If we were to do this again perhaps we would try to include more conventional elements of the supernatural/psychological genre.
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This person was very enthusiastic about our poster as most of the answers we received were 'yes'. Unlike other members of the audience research this person was able to identify our sub-genre correctly, suggesting that perhaps we didn't make our poster similar to existing posters of the same genre.
This was a positive response again from this audience member who also responded mostly yes. She was also able acknowledge our sub-genre which is great as it means we've been to successfully conform to conventions of this genre that the audience have been able to recognize.
The view from Alba was great but she misjudged what our sub-genre was. In her opinion it was J-horror which isn't surprising as we did have elements of the genre e.g. Japanese ghost which has long dark hair.
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Classroom Discussions
The overall responses I would say were positive and rarely critical of the work that we did which is wonderful because it means the poster was popular with our target audience. What did strike us as unusual was the amount of people who didn't understand what genre this film was. Some even stated that it was Zombie but maybe it this should be expected as the make-up and costume might suggest that . Other people suggested that the sub-genre was even J-horror which is reasonable as the main image did resemble a typical film poster for that sub-genre. If we were to do this again perhaps we would try to include more conventional elements of the supernatural/psychological genre.
Interview with the stars - Yomi
Magazine Feedback
To investigate what our target audience thought about our teaser trailer in relation to our genre choice, narrative, and actors used and production we decided to form a questionnaire that was appropriate to what we wanted to get responses with. The questionnaire contained 10 questions. It was applicable to ask the questionnaire to individuals who are similar to the demographic who watch horror films meaning that their opinion could represent a number of people in their age bracket who like watching films.The questionnaire results were analysed early on in the project meaning that the results of our three media products were influenced to a certain degree by my questionnaire results.
The 10 Questions that have been asked were:
1.What do like most about the magazine cover?
Masthead Main-Image Left-third
2. Do you feel the narrative is addressed well?
Yes No Not Sure
3.Do you understand the narrative and what’s involved and when watching the teaser trailer?
Yes No Not Sure
4.Do you think the teaser trailer is similar to existing horror trailers?
Yes No Not Sure
5.Do you think the ending is terrifying?
Yes No Not Sure
6.What horror sub-genre would you describe our teaser trailer?
Slasher Supernatural/Psychological J-Horror Zombie Splatter
7. Do the captions in the teaser trailer make you have a better understanding of the narrative?
Yes No Not Sure
8.Does the pacing of the trailer help create the tension to the trailer?
Yes No Not Sure
9.Was the sound of our trailer effective enough to build tension and fear?
Yes No Not Sure
10.Does the teaser trailer make you want to go and watch the film?
Yes No Not Sure
The 10 Questions that have been asked were:
1.What do like most about the magazine cover?
Masthead Main-Image Left-third
2. Do you feel the narrative is addressed well?
Yes No Not Sure
3.Do you understand the narrative and what’s involved and when watching the teaser trailer?
Yes No Not Sure
4.Do you think the teaser trailer is similar to existing horror trailers?
Yes No Not Sure
5.Do you think the ending is terrifying?
Yes No Not Sure
6.What horror sub-genre would you describe our teaser trailer?
Slasher Supernatural/Psychological J-Horror Zombie Splatter
7. Do the captions in the teaser trailer make you have a better understanding of the narrative?
Yes No Not Sure
8.Does the pacing of the trailer help create the tension to the trailer?
Yes No Not Sure
9.Was the sound of our trailer effective enough to build tension and fear?
Yes No Not Sure
10.Does the teaser trailer make you want to go and watch the film?
Yes No Not Sure
Initial Reactions - Magazine
Questionnaire - Magazine - Tumblr
In this section of our Audience research we were able to use both the survey website ' Poll Daddy' and 'Tumblr' in order to communicate with the target audience. Polldaddy was really helpful and on it I could create my own custom survey with the production logo serving as a background. The audience were mostly positive there wasn't an overwhelming amount of criticism but actually a range in answers that we hadn't received from any other question. Using Tumblr I would advertise the opportunity to do the questionnaire with a link at the bottom of the magazine !
An example poll made below -
Conclusion to the Evaluation
Trailer - Our Target Audience was able to give us positives and areas of improvement. There was a balance from both sides, which suggests that we did pretty well in terms of our trailer. The main positives highlighted were that the shots are focused and the effects work well. The captions and the last shot gained a positive reaction from the audience. The areas of improvement were able to give us information about what the audience didn't like or thought could have been more effective. The target audience thought that our sound was too basic and they found problems with the caption background. Other issues included the stars for the ratings been far too small. These were small things that we can adjust hopefully. People were mostly complimentary of our work, citing the good shots and iconic sound as a way to make an effective trailer. The iconic sound would be pivotal when it comes to synergy and trademarking. If the sound does indeed become iconic then we will be able to appeal to variety of audiences, even those who don't watch horror. We many comments about the acting this is an surprise as we'd assumed that the acting was actually quite good. Some audience members felt that we revealed too much of our narrative and therefore we were unable to really keep the mystery or suspense. Sound was another problem listed but this comment lacked detail or explanation therefore we were confused as to what they meant.
Poster - Our poster was well-received again which is wonderful. We were able to take advantage of social networking sites such as Facebook in order to communicate with the target audience. Facebook ,the largest social networking site at the moment, was able to supply us with different methods of communication and collecting data. Sometimes we would use messenger in order to get direct answers for the questionnaire and other times we would use the public-posts in order to get a varied and open-ended response. The same applied to Twitter which enabled us to once more communicate with our audience.
Magazine - The magazine was perhaps not our most popular product but it managed to garner a largely positive response as the previous products did. What most audience members point out was the Masthead and the Main image as the things they liked most about the magazine which is wonderful. The masthead was popular and many on the questionnaire said 'Yes' to it been eye-catching and creative. The other good thing that people liked was the main image which of course looked scary and haunting.