The importance of audience feedback.

Audience feedback is key in the media industry, without an audience, you don’t have a film so at one of the earliest stages in making your film you need to establish an audience. Your chosen audience bring in the revenue and make a persons work credible, it is also what makes the film popular or not, the more that people enjoy a film the more the message of said film gets spread through word of mouth anticipation.

Having audience feedback allows us to create improvements on any issues raised through test screenings, surveys, questionnaires, polls and social networking sites. These means of feedback also indicate how successful the film is likely to be after it’s release and therefore can make or save your money drastically. They allow you to tailor your films towards specific audiences that rate your film highly to get the most out of your product.

Film trailer feedback:

I began gathering feedback of my trailer by creating an automated poll on my blog that my peers and followers can vote on directly after watching my trailer, i wanted a specific reaction to my trailer and tried to find out in which areas my trailer may have some weaknesses or may not be successful, therefore i could re-edit certain areas in order to improve these aspects.

I found from this form of feedback that it was difficult to get people involved in something that they have to give a straightforward answer and choice with no reasoning behind their opinions, i feel they may see it as offensive if they choose certain options, however from this poll i was able to find out that the voice over on my trailer needed some improvements to it and so i began working on making it more effective and thinking about using a female as the speaker and in particular my female protagonist.

I also collected feedback through the form of email, i found it easier to communicate with people if they had to use minimal amount of effort and so i sent them the link to my trailer along side questions and example answers in order for them to get the right idea of the detail feedback i needed to improve my work and understand where i was less successful. I chose to ask two men, between the ages of 20 to 40, as i felt that they would fit in with my target market fairly well, these men are employees at the university of gloucestershire within the arts section and i felt that gaining their opinions would benefit my research massively!

I decided to try some test screenings to present my trailer to some of my peer group, by doing this i hoped to find out their reactions to it and to gain some closer details of their opinions by getting them to answer a questionnaire on what they had just witnessed. Below are some of the questions asked and the answers given by different participants:

Does this work as a trailer? Scott Gourley, 18.

Yes, very professional.

Does it make you want to watch the film? Chris, 27

The editing creates tension with its fast pace and quick cuts, this anticipation as to what happens next makes me want to see the film.

Is the genre of the film established by the trailer and what genre do you believe it is? Robbie Hannah, 18.

You can clearly see that this is a thriller/horror and is presented well.

How did you find the length of the trailer? Peter Saunders, 18.

I think it was a bit short but made me want more.

Choice of actors? Scott Gourley, 18.

Rather limited – maybe another character to add interest and open up the story/plot

Choice of location? Chris, 27.

Choosing to film the different sections in a variety of locations has helped to add a more creative and well thought out element.

Choice of lighting? Robbie Hannah, 18.

Good choice of lighting making it effective, especially changing the scenes to red.

What aspect/features/shots/messages did you find most effective? Peter Saunders, 18.

When the shots blended together, and the twig snapping.

I gained a lot of insight into my audience’s opinion of my trailer because of this questionnaire. I learnt what my weaknesses were through out the trailer and have gained opinions of how these points could have been improved to become more appealing. I was also happy to learn that across the whole of my questionnaire my genre was recognised and some even noted the attempt at adding film noir stylings to my trailer.

The next form of feedback that proved very useful was Wordpress itself, having my profile set public i was able to have people comment on each of my posts through out my construction of all my media products and in particular my teacher was able to share his opinion on my work and help me to improve where he felt it was needed.

Film poster: I decided to use a more direct way of gathering audience feedback through social networking sites for my film poster, i felt like it would be more personal responses as they were directly to me, i also felt like it would be easier to ask more detailed questions and explain what i mean if they were unable to understand what i was looking for.

Film magazine: I chose to interview one of my peers in my class, i felt by getting them to talk about it to me they would give more detail into what they thought about my film magazines and their relations to real media products.

Apr 12

Evaluation Question #2

How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary sales?

Our task this year was to create a trailer alongside ancillary sales, I wanted my alternative products to produce positive feedback on my trailer and create anticipation to watch the film. I feel to do this i needed to product ancillary products that linked into one another in style, text and layout so that they connect and work well to produce the same feeling.

I feel that all four of my products (trailer, mainstream magazine, alternative magazine and poster) incorporate these things and therefore have this link that connects my products in an effective way.

What aspects of all your media products link them together?

Font/text: I chose to use an old fashioned writing that would fit in well with the genre of my trailer, being 1930’s i felt a serifed font would work best. This font i continued to use at the end of my trailer for my title sequence, as a title on my poster and as a tagline for my mainstream magazine design to highlight my trailers article. I only chose to apply it to my mainstream magazine as i felt this would be the magazine that would sell best in a shop and catch the most attention.

Cover image: My cover image for my poster has been manipulated to work within my mainstream magazine as well as being used as a still in my trailer. I feel by using the same image i have created an obvious but effective link between these products, the use of them being black and white images also adds a link to my choice of film noir genre. My arthouse magazine incorporates another still used during my trailer of my female protagonist and is manipulated to produce a hand drawn form, this again links my trailer and magazine together.

cover image

Lighting/colouring: When choosing my colour themes four all four of my media products (trailer, mainstream and arthouse magazines, poster) i chose to stick to my original film noir genre and use mainly black and white.

Marketing my media products to my target audience:

When deciding how i would market my media products i had to consider my target audience and where they would most likely be living and buying things. I would describe my target audience as equivocal, open to interpretation and cannot be defined by an age but instead, can be defined by a common interest. My film would attract those with a taste for traditional, black and white, classic films. They would enjoy the understated quality and be keen to watch films shown at film festivals like Toronto (art house/indie festivals).

Trailer marketing: I would show my trailer in selected cinemas to gain interest from the few of my target audience that are interested in mainstream films as well. I would focus in particular on art house cinemas that would not appeal to the mass audience, i feel places like the Guildhall would work fairly well to draw in my target audience. I would also choose to create a branded website on which my film could be downloaded and therefore marketed, for example warp film has their own website with music records able to download.

Poster: My posters would be placed in areas that my target audience would be living etc they would also be displayed in the usual places such as bill boards and bus stop advertisements.

Magazine: By making both a mainstream and an indie magazine i felt i would gain more promo through sales, i could sell my mainstream magazine in everyday shopping stores that have been carefully selected and certain stores like hmv. My indie magazine would be sold in more selective stores that would appeal to the more arthouse audience.

Apr 9

Evaluation Question #1

I am going to be talking about Question number one: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I began by researching the conventions of a trailer and narrowed them down to a few key points, these being…

Clips showing key moments that give the audience a brief insight into what the film is about without revealing the plot.
Often incorporating powerful texts and/or voice-overs to highlight these key moments within the film.
An important musical beat to suggest the genre of the film
And the pace usually begins slow and gradually quickens throughout.

I decided to produce a trailer that would attract an audience with an interest in the ‘art house’ film industry using a classic film noir style, meaning that I would target my trailer at a niche market. Researching further into these conventions, I began to analyze classic film noir trailers such as Dracula and Frankenstein from the 1930’s as well as modern thriller trailers such as the wolf man and Public enemies.

By looking at these examples in detail I was able to pick out the conventions, how they have been used and apply them in my own workings.

For example, I chose to create a modern take on the classic film noir trailers and so rather than just incorporating black and white images in the way ‘Dracula’ or ‘Frankenstein’ did, I chose to merge fully coloured clips within my trailer in the form of a fast paced montage. I felt by doing this I would attract an older audience with the black and white, vintage style as well as drawing in a younger target audience with the more modern twist, I also feel the clips flow and work well together despite the change in colour.

When editing the clips used in my trailer I have also tried to steer away from a linear narrative made clear by researching Todorov’s narrative theories. I chose to do this so that I could avoid revealing the plot to the film more that necessary.

To conform to the conventions of trailers I chose to include both texts and voice- overs to highlight my key moments in the film.

I noticed when analysing trailers the texts often included tag lines, titles, release dates and directors information such as the well known, ‘Universal pictures presents…’ I chose to add all of these points to my trailer and in particular the final point.

I felt by incorporating this information it would normally remind its audience of previously successful films made by this company and therefore I felt it would be a reason to draw an audience to watch the new release.

I chose two different styles of music to set the atmosphere, a slow beautiful piano piece that I felt would normally challenge the thriller genre, however like the music in the notebook trailer, this piano piece becomes eerie and disheartening, adding to the tension built by the quickening pace of the clips. I also chose to use a drum beat through the montage and end clips of my trailer as the majority of the trailers I had researched had some form of big, jumping moments produced by these beats.

My final trailer was based on a recreation of the notebooks trailer as it included both black and white clips as well as coloured clips, it also incorporated a montage which Is the reason behind my experiments with this form of editing, I felt as the conventions of most trailers are a quickening pace, that I should further this idea and create the quickest form of editing using random clips in a busy, chaotic style to also enhance the confused, panicked feelings of my main protagonists.

In conclusion I feel I have followed the conventions of film trailers fairly carefully by including main points such as soundtrack, editing, titles and voiceovers and also my general attention to detail with my filming by focusing on my protagonists from unusual angles and making sure I have incorporated many different styles of camera shots. however I feel that my choice of genre and how I have reacted to this with a film noir style has challenged what would be considered the norm.

Mar 21