What I Learnt from my Audience Feeback

1. EVALUATION QUESTION 3:
What Have I Learnt From the Audience Feedback?

2. The importance of Audience Feedback
When producing an ad campaign for a film, audience feedback is the most reliable
source of criticism. They are the ones who the trailer is aimed toward and it will be
their decision whether it is a successful trailer or not. Even real-world trailer producers
will rely on the opinions of their audience and produce something targeted to what
they think their audience will like, therefore, leading them to buy a ticket and watch
the film. The 2012 film, Woman in Black carried out a huge amount of audience
research to ensure their product was suited to their target audience, being Harry Potter
fans and young adults and teens under the age of twenty who go out to socialise and
particularly enjoy going to the cinema. The producers of woman in Black ensured that
they considered the young Harry Potter fans and had the film certified by the BBFC to
pass as a 12 rating.

3. How I Collected My Audience Feedback
■ In order to collect the audience feedback, we showed our trailer in college to the rest of the class
(who are of our target audience’s age). Everybody used a small piece of paper to write three
improvements and three things they liked about the trailer. Once we had these back, we typed
them up and evaluated what we needed to improve on before making the improvements. To
collect feedback for my poster and magazine, I printed them both out and showed them around
my media class to ask people their thoughts on what I could improve and what they thought
worked well. Whilst they were talking I wrote what they said on a notepad before typing these up
too and making improvements.
■ Having watched our trailer over and over again during the editing process, we were not in a
position to see what may need have changing but from an audience who had never seen the
trailer, some of the criticism we received was unapparent to us and we were then able to see how
the audience felt and make improvements in areas that we may not have realised needed
improving.
■ Link to Audience Feedback: http://laureneasticka2media.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/poster-
magazine-and-trailer-feedback.html

4. Trailer Feedback
We received very helpful constructive criticism from the audience. For example, it was
suggested for us to try shortening the equilibrium section of the trailer; this was helpful to
us because once we analysed that section we realised that actually some of the shots
could be shortened whilst still making sense and giving the effect - in terms of helping
establishing the storyline- we wanted to achieve. Another comment made which was
helpful to us was to add institutional data, such as titles and the date of release. Of course
we realised that this was necessary to our trailer, we just hadn’t yet decided on the font and
effects we wanted for these that would fit with the theme of our trailer- this is what we
focused on next as it would help to keep the audience latched on throughout the duration
of the trailer. Another factor which helped us finalise the trailer after the feedback was
adding more sound effects; we felt that in order to add more powerful impact to our trailer
we wanted to find strong, horror themed sound effects; for example a shocking and
frightening sound for jump scare which we didn’t have at the time of the screening.
NEGATIVE

5. Trailer Feedback
■ As well as negative comments, we also received some highly positive feedback
from the audience after our first screening of the trailer. The audience thought we
had a really effective range of shot types, in particular the underwater shots, which
we wanted to stand out as an eye-catching and unusual factor of our trailer.
■ Another aspect of the trailer which people enjoyed was the fast pace of the trailer.
We are pleased with this feedback because we spent a lot of time ensuring we had
a wide range of action shots to build up the pace of the trailer; so that when it
came to editing we could use the action along with sound effects to build suspense
and tension; therefore, we are glad this aspect has paid off.
POSITIVE

6. Horror Magazine Cover Feedback
■ For my draft horror magazine cover, I printed it out and passed it around my media
class, who are of the age certificate of the film, and asked for their opinions firstly on
what they thought worked well, but also what they felt that I could do to improve the
product.
■ I received some constructive criticism, advising me to add a third colour to the cover. I
considered this point and I decided I would add red features to the magazine to help
catch the reader’s attention and to enhance the horror theme. Another student
suggested making the size of the date smaller in proportion to the rest of the text on the
magazine. I agreed wit this point and decided to make it slightly smaller so that it did
not detract from the title. A comment was raised about the blue being too soft against
the harsh image but I feel that once I had added the bright red features, the blue was
soft enough to tone it down and I felt that if I had have changed it to another colour, it
would have been too much. One response said that the A on ‘GAME’ is hard to read. I
decided that I would change the font completely, giving the magazine a more horror feel
and added a drop shadow, which emphasised the letters. Another point raised
suggested adding more coverlines. I think this was a good point so I decided to add
some more, change the fonts and fill the areas around the images to make the cover
more aesthetically pleasing and eye-catching. DRAFT HORROR MAGAZINE COVER
NEGATIVE

7. Horror Magazine Cover Feedback
■ After responding to the comments, it helped to build my magazine
and give it a more aesthetically pleasing look that will draw readers
in and allow for easy quick reading and encourage them to make
the decision to see the full film.
■ I also received some positive feedback and the respondents
seemed to think that the image on the magazine cover was very
fitting with the horror film. They commented on the lighting,
intensifying the stern look on the girl’s face and though that the
makeup really captured the gory theme and draws viewers in.
POSITIVE
FINAL, IMPROVED HORROR MAGAZINE COVER

8. Horror Poster Feedback
■ For the draft horror poster, I again, printed it and asked students in my class to
give their opinions on anything they liked about the poster and suggest things
that might need improving.
■ One of my fellow students said that they thought the text was too spread out and
it looked empty. I considered this comment and felt that they were right. I wanted
to add smaller text and more of it. I though the best solution with the most
professional look would be to add a billing block at the bottom of the poster.
Another comment suggested making the title in the centre fit the width of the
page. I agreed with this comment and decided to not only make it bigger, but to
change the font to suitably fir the horror theme and also relate it to my magazine
cover where I also used this font. One particular respondent said that the text at
the top of the page displaying the release date was too small and could not be
easily read it at first glance. I decided after having made the other changes, to
move this feature to the bottom of the page and make it very slightly bigger and
more prominent.
NEGATIVE
DRAFT HORROR POSTER

9. Horror Poster Feedback
■ I took all of the comments into consideration, and made the changes
suggested to me that I felt would improve my poster. I think that this
made the poster look much more professional and helped turn it into
something that promoted the film well and now it has a higher
chance of enticing the audience to watch the film.
■ Along with the constructive criticism, I received some positive
comments too, which were helpful to know so that I was aware what
the audience thought worked well. One particular respondent said
that they liked the way the image of the girl was over to one side
with light over to the right and dark shadows on the left. One
comment said the red text, in conjunction with the rest of the text in
white, replicated the blood on the grey dress, enhancing the horror
theme.
FINAL, IMPOVED HORROR POSTER
POSITIVE

10. How I Used the Audience Feedback
The audience feedback I was given is the most reliable source of
criticism, after all, they are who the film is aimed towards and they are
the ones we are trying to persuade to buy a ticket to view the full film. I
used the feedback to improve my three products in a way that is
specified and calculated by the target audience. Once having made
these improvements, it allowed me to create a campaign that is unique
and professional, drawing customers in and encouraging them to
become involved with the film.
To Improve My Work