What have you learned from your audience feedback?

By Jessica Caluya

Feedback from our Rough Edit:

Audience feedback helped us greatly in the construction of our final promotional package. From our rough edit, we were able to hear what our target audience thought about the trailer so far and so they provided us with ideas on what we could do to improve. From the positive feedback on some aspects, such as the camera shots and music, it allowed us to realise what was working well and so enabled us to further develop on these particular aspects in order to make it the best it could be. Our audiences feedback also helped us recognise details that we missed while editing the trailer, for example, the music tended to overpower the dialogue and so from audience feedback we learned which things needed to be corrected. We learned that audience feedback was vital in the construction of our trailer because the audience brought our attention to things that we overlooked. For example, when the main protagonist is in hospital we show a flashback to her past experiences, however, the audience stated that the flashback was not entirely clear. Therefore, this led us to add in a blurred effect in order to make it evident that the character was having a flashback.

Feedback from our Rough Edit:

Another constructive criticism which we received from our rough edit was that some shots were too long; by having the shots too long, the trailer lost effect as it is suppose to be fast paced and create suspense. Therefore, we believed that this was valuable feedback and so we learned to make sure that some shots did not linger for too long. Whilst making this correction, we also went on to make an effort of making the shots change on the beat of the music so that it gave an impact when the shot changed to another. We did this because the audience said that they wanted to see more suspense and tension created in the trailer and so as a result we felt that changing the shots on the beat created an effective impact on the trailer.

After we finished our final project, we asked 50 people to answer our questionnaire in order to gain feedback on our final product. The participants were aged from 15 to 24, which is our target audience.

Audience feedback not only helped us with the construction of the product but has also helped us after the editing process. By asking the target audience questions related to the trailer, it allowed us to gain an insight into what the audience truly thought and to see whether they reacted to the trailer in the way we wanted them to.

From the audience feedback questionnaire we learnt that out of 50 people, 18 people (36%) answered No and 32 people (64%) answered Yes. However, we found that from the 18 people who answered No, 12 people answered this because it was not their type of genre and therefore would not be interested to see it in the cinema. The 12 people who stated this as their reason claimed that their favourite genre was Comedy or Romantic-Comedy, therefore this would influence their reason as to why they do not want to see the film. From the high percentage (64%) of people who answered Yes to this question, we feel that we have been successful in appealing to our target audience of 15-24 year olds because it is evident that many are intrigued to see the film just by watching the trailer, which was our main goal. 22 of the people who answered Yes all said that After watching this trailer, the trailer looked interesting and the remaining would you go and see the 10 stated that they wanted to watch the film because they wanted to know what happened film? next. Consequently, it is evident that the narrative of the trailer has appealed to the audience NO because they state that the trailer creates intrigue 36% and so it makes them want to see the film in order to find out more of the storyline. YES As a result, we have learnt from our audience 64% feedback that our plotline has been successful for 64% of people out of a possible 50 people.

We learned from our audience feedback that 84% believed that our trailer looked like a real trailer, whereas, 16% believed it did not. From the 42 people who answered Yes, we found that 30 of them believed that the trailer included a variety of shots which created the feel for a real trailer because they tend to include shots that are picked from different parts of the film. From this positive feedback, it is evident that we have been successful in constructing a trailer that is seen as a real trailer, therefore, we have achieved our goal of making a professional trailer. Further feedback stated that our trailer was the correct length, it was not too short or too long, and therefore this reinforces the point that we have made a successful trailer because the length of the trailer is important too; if a trailer is too long, the audience may begin to lose interest whilst watching and if it is too short, the audience may feel that not enough information has been told. Moreover, we found that the audience felt that it looks like a trailer because it included a series of quick cuts towards the end, which is typical of trailers as it creates tension and suspense. After watching our product, 10 out of the 42 people also stated that the trailer did not give away too much information and so consequently, does it look like a trailer? this made the trailer more effective because it creates a narrative enigma. NO On the other hand, 16% of 50 people stated that the 16% trailer did not resemble a real trailer. From the reasons they had given, we learned that they felt that the YES change in setting is too vast, it seems like small clips. 84% However, we believe that the shots from one setting to the next is suitable for this genre because it builds tension and suspense. Also, the person who had said this has a preference for the comedy and romance genre, and so this would affect their answer because in these genres, their trailers tend to have longer length shots as they do not have to have a climatic moment.

What genre do you think this film is? What other films are similar? Here, from this question we learnt that the audience
What genre do you think this film is in?
psychological thriller Horror Drama Other

6% 12%

10%

72%

(Here, the bigger the word, the more popular it is)

were able to distinguish what the genre of the trailer was. Therefore, we felt that we were successful in depicting the genre well because 72% correctly identified the genre. However, there were a number of people who thought that the film was another genre; 12% thought horror, 6% thought Drama and 10% thought it was another genre. We believe that the 6% who thought it was a Drama may have thought this because the first song in the trailer gives a sense of loss and vulnerability, which is typical of dramas. However, we felt that this dramatic; beginning is effective because it introduces the narrative and it allows the trailer to have a turning point later on. The 12% who thought the film was in the horror genre may have thought this because of the chase sequences and the loud scream at the end of the trailer as these are typical conventions of the horror genre. Also, the 12% who said it was in the horror genre also said theyre favourite film genre was Rom-Coms and Comedies and therefore they are not familiar with watching psychological thrillers and so this sways their answer for this question because they may not know the conventions for this genre.

For this question, we found that out of 50 Did you notice a change people, 35 noticed the change in mood and 15 in mood? did not. Also, from the 35 people who answered Yes, 24 of them were able to accurately pinpoint the moment when the mood changes in the trailer. The moment in the trailer was when NO 30% the main protagonist stops taking her medication. The remaining 11 people, who YES answered Yes stated that they thought the 70% mood change occurred when the doctor first appeared. Even though this was not the exact moment, we felt that it was still a good point that the audience were able to notice that there was a change in mood in the trailer. From the high percentage (70%) of people who noticed the change in mood, it is evident that we have been able to create a trailer which, to some extent, conforms to the conventions of a psychological thriller. This is because this genre typically contains a change in mood in order to create more suspense and tension throughout the trailer. The 15 people who answered No to this question all stated in a previous question that Romantic-Comedies or Comedies were their favourite genre of film therefore this may influence their answer to this question because they may only watch trailers in these genres where there is no change in mood. Consequently, they usually may not notice any change in mood in trailers.

Was the music effective in reflecting the mood of the trailer? Why?
We found from our audience feedback that 64% found our music in the trailer always effective; 34% found it sometimes effective; 2% found it not very effective and no one thought it was never effective. From the 32 people who said it was always effective, 25 of them all stated that the song choice was perfect because the songs reflected the mood. In their answer they said that The Cinematic Orchestra was effective in presenting the protagonist as vulnerable and also made it evident that she had gone through something traumatic. They also said that the second song (28 ALWAYS EFFECTIVE SOMETIMES EFFECTIVE days later theme song) was effective in creating NOT VERY EFFECTIVE NEVER EFFECTIVE suspense and tension because it has an eerie feel to it. The 15 of the 17 people who said the music was sometimes effective in the trailer stated that a better choice of music could have been chosen, however, they did not state which type of music could have made the trailer better. 1 person said that the music was not very effective and in their previous answer to the question: After watching our product, does it look like a trailer?, this person answered No, as a result, the person may feel that the music did not contribute well enough to the trailer. This person also stated that their favourite genre of film is Romance and Comedies and consequently, may have a genuine disliking to psychological thrillers, therefore this would sway their answer.

Do you think the magazine and poster went well with the trailer? Why?
Yes No

20%

80%

80% believed that the magazine and poster went well with the trailer, whereas, 20% believed it did not. 32 out of 40 people who answered yes said that the promotional package was cohesive because they all presented a psychological thriller feel especially through the composition of the characters in both the poster and the magazine. Out of the other 20%, 3 stated that the magazine has more of a sci-fi feel because of the purple starry background and therefore didnt compliment the magazine and poster. From reading the answers to this question, we felt that overall it is clear that the majority of our target audience believed that the final promotional package worked well together in depicting the psychological genre.

CONCLUSION<

Through our final promotional package we hoped to achieve a trailer, poster and magazine that was successful in appealing to our target audience. We also hoped to create a psychological thriller trailer that challenged and used conventions from other psychological thriller films in order to make an interesting trailer. From our audience feedback we feel we have learned a lot from their responses. We learned that some of the techniques that we employed for the construction of our final products were successful, whilst other aspects were not. We believe that we have made a successful promotional package because we have learned that the poster, magazine and trailer have successfully appealed to the majority of our target audience.

What impeded the success of our products? And what can we learn from this?

From the audience feedback we learned that the title of the film was not popular with everyone, therefore, we learned that to make this promotional package more effective, we should choose a title that gives more of an insight into the film itself. However, even though we received mixed responses from the question Do you think the name of the film is effective? Why?, we still stand by the choice of our title of the film because even though there were some responses that said it was misleading, we felt that this was effective in itself as the genre is a psychological thriller. Therefore, the mere title makes the audience wonder what the film could be about; it creates intrigue and makes them question the film. As a result, we kept the title because by using a simple title it created intrigue in itself.