Question 3 summary of trailer audience feedback

SUMMARY O

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HOW DID I GATHER MY INFORMATION?

I recorded interviews with a focus group of people who fitted into my target audience. They watched my trailer and afterwards, we asked them a number of questions. Gathering these different opinions enables me to have a wider view of my target audience and also identify more of the strengths and more of the weaknesses in my production.

“Overall, do you think our trailer is successful?”

The focus group’s responses to this question were varied, which is positive because it shows how all of the different elements of the trailer attract the audience and not just one particular strength. Aaron said that he thought the the trailer was very conventional to an action film, Tom backed this up by stating how the characters were introduced well, and Heather and Charles said they liked the story line and it made them want to watch the whole film. This feedback is extremely positive in comparison to our focus group interviews from our last trailer, which shows we have taken into account the suggestions that we previously received and worked the production around the expectations of the audience.

What are the strengths of our trailer?

The dominant recognized strength of our trailer was the story line and the introduction of the characters, in particular Luna, the antagonist. Aaron stated how he enjoyed watching Luna’s wild personality which he found intriguing throughout the trailer. Tom and Charles said they also liked the introduction of Luna as well as the strong narrative of Luna coming along and causing disruption amongst the protagonists. Heather made a point that the characters were conventional because they were young, the media tends to portray young people as violence and not conforming to the rules of society and so these characters fitted well with the theme of the trailer.

I am glad that one of the recognized strengths is the way Luna is presented, because I worked hard around basing particular camera angles around her. For example, I used low angle shots to show her dominance against the protagonists, I used low key lighting to symbolize her dark personality and also I also based mise en scene on this evil personality through the way she wears dark, dull clothes, is very pale, wears dark make up and somewhat portrays a gothic character, relating to death.

How would you improve it?

Aaron, Heather and Charles stated that adding more characters, in particular males, would be an improvement on our trailer. However, since my trailer is intended to be focused on a female dominated role, focusing on the drama’s and pressures surrounding the home life of struggling teenagers, I feel having a limited number of female characters bought across this atmosphere, which does go against the conventions expected of this focus group.

Other than more characters, other improvements included more props, a different font and a variety of camera angles. Using more props was an improvement we made since our previous audience feedback which proved to be successful, however the audience may have expected more hard-weapons such as guns and professional props like fast cars, both of which we were unable to access. The font use was limited because we could only use the fonts available on iMovie. Unlike my ancillary tasks where I was able to use fonts from fontspace.com and dafont.com, I could not copy these onto the video format of iMovie.

Does this fit conventions?

Each member of the focus group suggested reasons why my trailer was conventional. Aaron thought that the use of drugs and alcohol props, as well as the break in scene, made the trailer seem like a real action film, this contradicts the previous improvement suggestion that I needed more props. Similiarily, Tom said that reckless behaviour and actions from the characters was very conventional. Heather liked the fact the trailer was very faced paced with a range of low key and high key lighting to represent the different characters, she thought this made the trailer dramatic and exciting which I was I was aiming for. On the other hand, Charles stuck with his previous suggestion that it would be more conventional if there were more males included, however, as previously explained, I intended to make my trailer unconventional in the way it is female dominated as a pose to males, so the fact the audience have picked up on this differentiation between my trailer and other action trailers is a positive thing.

Every person said they would go and watch this film if it was legitimate. This shows my trailer has actually been successful, despite there still being improvements that I could’ve made.

SURVEY

HOW DID I GATHER MY INFORMATION?

I created a survey on surveymonkey.com which enabled me to ask my target audience what they thought about the final production of my trailer. The purpose of this is to analyze whether or not our product was successful and to show how we moulded each improved production around the conventions and preferences of the audiences, in order for it to be as appealing as possible.

To reach out to my audience and gather the information, I posted the link on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, which are both sites typically used daily by my target audience.

I asked 6 specific questions in my survey. This is fewer than I have asked in my surveys before because before, I needed to explore the demographic in which I was aiming at, to gain an understand of what my products should entail and to gain a basic knowledge of target audience, by asking about particular interests and what they would expect to see in my trailer.

However, since then, I have produced my product based on the information and knowledge I have acquired about my target audience, and no longer need to know any background knowledge. I do however, need to know my audiences personal opinions on the production so I can analyze whether or not it is successful.

I included both open and closed questions in my survey. The open questions enabled the audience to answer freely, offering their opinion and giving detailed answers which I haven’t manipulated. However, I also included closed questions in order to obtain more specific information that the audience may not be able to answer as well.

“Do you think the trailer to Wild met the conventions of a real action thriller trailer?”

All but one person said that they weren’t sure my trailer met the conventions of an action thriller trailer. In a way this was positive feedback because it was my intention to make my production unconventional in the way it was female dominated. In regards to the other responses, I now know I was successful in meeting the audience’s expectations and conventions of action films.

“What elements of the trailer did you enjoy the most?”

The responses to this question varied throughout which is positive as it shows that all the different parts of my trailer appeal to the audiences, rather than only one particular section standing out with the rest not being as good. My strengths appear to be my storyline, the mystery surrounding the trailer and the fact the audience doesn’t know exactly what is going on, the music combined with the editing skills, and the actors and fonts used throughout.

“What do you think weakens my trailer?”

One person said that the fonts are the weakness to my trailer which contradicts the previous statement where someone said it was the strongest point. Another contradictive statement is how someone criticized the fact the storyline is unclear, however someone else said that was what they liked about it. Someone pointed out that there was not a lot of action in the trailer, which is something we improved on since our last target audience feedback.

They suggest there should be characters such as ‘batman’ in the film, which implies this person may think of action films as more of stereotypical superhero movies rather than crime thrillers, which is what my production focuses on.Also, someone says how the part where Kate runs towards the fences does not fit the mood of the trailer. This is a fair point, however I included this in my trailer to signify a pivotal point of Kate having the realization that she must escape which introduces the resolution of the storyline, hence the high key lighting contrasting to the low key lighting where the antagonist is present.

“If you were to re-do my trailer yourself, what would you change?”

The improvements suggested by my audience include putting in more speaking scenes and including more of the story line to reveal more information, as well as including ‘batman’. Both of these comments, about revealing more of the storyline and including

batman can be justified because the criticism of the story line was contradicted by the person who said that was one of the main strengths, and including characters such as superheroes like batman would make the trailer more of a stereotypical action adventure, rather than an action crime.

“Out of these options, what was your favourite part of the trailer?”

The responses showed that my target audiences favourite part of the trailer was the sound track and sound effects and also the conventional characters. One person mentioned the characters, however if I were to gather more results a new pattern may occur or may stay the same.

“Is there anything about the trailer which intrigued you and made you want to watch the film? If so, what parts?”

The responses said that the things that stood out in my trailer and made them want to go and see the film was the writing on the screen which interacted with the audience, in particular where it says ‘you’d better be careful’ as this makes them want to find out why. They said they liked how the story line was not fully exposed and the element of mystery was intriguing.

DID MY SURVEY HELP?

My survey enabled me to get anonymous feedback from people so they could openly express what they felt about my trailer, however the results were still positive and even the negative feedback could be justified by my intentions in the production. For example, someone criticized the scene where Kate is running away in high key lighting because they didn’t think it fitted in with the theme of the rest of the trailer. However, I intended for it to contrast against the rest of the film as it symbolizes the pivotal point in the storyline where Kate’s character realizes committing acts of delinquency is not right.

Overall the feedback has improved since I last approached my target audience with feedback from my previous trailer, which shows I have corrected the errors and made it a more conventional and successful production.

QUESTIONNAIR

E

HOW DID I GATHER INFORMATION?

My questionnaire involved the focus group which I interviewed previously during pre-production. I returned to this specific focus group they have an understanding of what my initial product was like, so they can see how I have progressed and tell me whether or not I was successful in following the conventions and their particular preferences. I used Padlet to convey this information, however the interviews took place with my focus group face to face.

My focus group consisted of:

I interviewed this particular people because they all represent the different sub-groups in my overall target audience, which meant each person gave me extremely different opinions on my trailer. Exploring different psychographics of the whole demographic enables me to become flexible when creating my product to not only appeal to one particular sub-group, but attempt to appeal to all of them.

Oli ShaniseAbbiTamar

aJamie

WHAT WERE THE RESULTS OF MY FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONNAIRE?

“Relating back to what you said my strengths were in my first draft, do you think these strengths have remained constant, or even improved, throughout?”The response to this first question was positive because each person said they thought their favourite aspect in the previous trailer had been made better in my final production. For example; Abbi said she liked how the song I used in my first trailer became heavier and faster as the tension built, however, I took out this song and replaced it with three different songs and she said she noticed this and thought I had made the right decision as it sounded more professional with the more diverse range of sounds which matched up with the clips.

“Have I cancelled out the weaknesses you found in our first draft?”Three of my focus group said that my trailer didn’t make a lot of sense before and didn’t flow very well. However, they each said that by portraying the antagonist as more evil and in low key lighting, and by adding more shots of action, etc, I have made it clear who the characters are and what the plot is. Shanise said that she would also like to see more action, I added more action shots such as the beating up scene, the blood, and the break in, which apparently worked since she said it made my trailer more interesting and action-filled. Oli explained that he would like to see a more male dominated story line, however, this is one of the conventions that I intended to break when producing my trailer. Much like Spring Breakers, the film is based on stereotypical girls who turn unconventionally juvenile, which is one of the main themes in both my production and Spring Breakers. I didn’t want to change this because I think, along with the majority of my target audience, the unconventional female characters make the film unique and rather unusual.

Have I been successful in portraying the improvements you suggested?Again, Oli explained how he would’ve been more interested in the film if the trailer portrayed the action as more male-dominated. He described this as the ‘more classic style’, which shows how he prefers conventional films to films like Wild and Spring Breakers, which challenge the norms of the stereotypical action film. Tamara said she now understands the separation of the antagonists and the protagonists, whereas before she was confused as to who was who. Abbi explained how she lost interest in the trailer at the beginning because of the slow paced editing and lack of variety in shot type, but she said that she now prefers the increased range of shots and the fact it is faster, she particularly liked the fast-paced, low key lighting shots of the antagonist which briefly appeared between shots of the protagonist as she felt it built the tension a lot. Shanise suggested I include more action shots, and I have fulfilled this by including the break in, the antagonist beating someone up, the drug deal, the blood, etc. Finally Jamie suggested the trailer be longer because it seemed to cut off without him being able to make sense of the characters or plot. He explained how my use music and mise en scene enabled him to now make sense of the disequilibrium and who the characters were.

HAS MY

PRODUCTI

ON BEEN

SUCCESSFUL?

Overall, my audience feedback has shown that my finalized product

has improved greatly since my first draft with test shots etc. I am also

able to see that my audience can easily relate my ancillary products

to my trailer and that they successfully promote each other.

Although my trailer may not be conventional in that it is based on a female dominated plot, rather than

a masculine one, the audience feedback suggests the audience were intrigued by my trailer and

would be interested in the film nonetheless.