1. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR
AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?
Simisola Adeyemi
2. IN ORDER TO GAIN AN INSIGHT INTO HOW TO MAKE MY
TRAILER SUCCESSFUL TO APPEAL TO THE MASSES, IT
WAS NECESSARY FOR ME TO TAKE STEPS THAT WOULD
ENABLE ME TO DO THIS. THE FOLLOWING STEPS I TOOK
INCLUDED:
•Written Questionnaires
•Film Screening
Simisola Adeyemi
3. ON THE 3RD OF MARCH 2015, A SCREENING TOOK PLACE AT MY
COLLEGE THEATRE WHERE I AND MY FELLOW MEDIA STUDENTS
WERE GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHOWCASE OUR MAIN MEDIA
COURSEWORK TO PEOPLE WHO WERE IN ATTENDANCE SUCH AS
PARENTS, TEACHERS, MEDIA LECTURERS AND OTHER NON-MEDIA
STUDENTS. ALL OF THE COURSEWORK WERE SHOWN
SYSTEMATICALLY.
THE LIVE AUDIENCE WERE GIVEN A MINUTE OR SO TO FILL OUT
QUESTIONNAIRES PROVIDED BY THE PARTICIPATING MEDIA
STUDENTS. THE AUDIENCE'S WRITTEN FEEDBACK WAS COLLATED IN
ORDER TO GIVE US GUIDANCE ON HOW TO IMPROVE OUR
COURSEWORK FURTHER . ADDITIONALLY, THE AUDIENCE WERE GIVEN
THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE THEIR THOUGHTS ABOUT INDIVIDUAL
TRAILERS/MUSIC VIDEOS ON CAMERA OR A VOICE RECORDER. ALL IN
ALL IT WAS A SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE FORM OF GATHERING AUDIENCE
FEEDBACK.
Simisola Adeyemi
4. USING THE RESEARCH METHOD OF QUESTIONNAIRES WAS A
SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE FORM FOR GATHERING AUDIENCE’S
FEEDBACK. IT ENABLED ME TO UNDERSTAND MY TARGET
DEMOGRAPHIC. I USED THIS RESEARCH METHOD BECAUSE IT
IS BOTH QUALITITATIVE AND OBJECTIVE ALLOWING A
POLARITY IN PEOPLE’S ANSWERS BECAUSE I WAS ABLE TO
COLLATE OPINONS AND DATE THROUGH NUMBERS (DATA) AND
OPINION.
MY INTENDED DEMOGRAPHIC WERE PEOPLE FROM THE AGES
17-21. ALLOWING PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT OCCUPATION,
ETHNICITY AND GENDER AND ALSO PEOPLE WHO DIDN’T
KNOW OF ME, TO FILL OUT THE QUESTIONNAIRES HELPED ME
GET RID OF ANY POTENTIAL BIAS THAT MAY AFFECT THE
RESULTS.
Simisola Adeyemi
11. FOCUS GROUP
FOR MY FOCUS GROUP, I ENLISTED THE HELP OF MEDIA STUDENTS
FROM A2 AS THEY WILL HAVE BETTER UNDERTSANDING OF HOW TO
TACKLE THE QUESTION AND GIVE GUIDANCE OF HOW TO IMPROVE MY
PRODUCTS FURTHER. THEY WERE ASKED A TOTAL OF 5 QUESTIONS IN
ORDER TO GIVE BRIEF AND STRAIGHTFOWARD ANSWERS.
Simisola Adeyemi
12. WAS THE MAGAZINE COVER SUCCESSFUL IN TERMS OF THE GENRE AND
DOES THAT COVER REFLECT THE GENRE?
This questionnaire is more demanding for the audience; because in order for them to
critically analyse and answer the question, they have to comprehend what is meant by
“reflect the genre” is. I enlisted the help of fellow media students who analysed the
magazine cover and gave me feedback on my print production. Since they are also
fellow media students, I concluded that they are more likely to understand how to
tackle the question and give me the best feedback possible. This question is
imperative in this whole questionnaire as it will give me guidance on how to further
improve where needed. In order to make the product (the magazine cover) as
successful as possible, I needed information on whether the lighting, costume, props
etc did their jobs of reflecting the genre as overtly as possible. By implementing two
options as answers allowed me to collect data on just how successful in the whole
packaging of my cover. Also, by giving people who ticked the answer “NO” the option
to express their opinions on how I could improve my cover helped me in constructing
my cover as professionally as possible.
Simisola Adeyemi
13. WAS THE FILM POSTER SUCCESFUL IN TERMS OF THE GENRE AND DOES
THE POSTER REFLECT THE GENRE?
This question again aims for the audience to fully identify the genre of my film
poster and give their honest feedback on whether the film poster was actually
successful in reflecting the intended genre of my main coursework and ancillary
texts. Once the audience can identify the generic codes and conventions that
belong to a particular genre then the feedback is easier to give. Although some
understanding of codes and conventions is needed to properly answer this
question, it is not essential because understanding and associating elements to
a genre can be done subliminally e.g. due to the products that are similar to
ours for example ‘thriller film poster’. Most of the individuals in our focus group
gave feedback that our film poster did infact reflect the genre which didn’t prove
to be quite a surprise due to the fact that our poster was assembled from bits
and pieces of professional posters that already existed. Others who didn’t find
that our posters reflected the genre said that our poster text should be typed in
colours such as black or red which is a minor thing we have since corrected.
Simisola Adeyemi
14. How would you rate the graphics for both the magazine
cover and film poster?
This question isn’t as demanding as the previous questions because one
may or not may not have an understanding of technology, so it gives the
focus group the opportunity to review both the ancillary texts in terms of
they aesthetically appealing the graphics on both products were making the
responses slightly unbiased. By having a numerical response for this
question enables me to notice trends in correspondence with the other
questions and just how received my ancillary texts were. The purpose of
this question is to encourage all individuals there to give an opinion on how
effective the ancillary texts are in terms of professional graphical appeal.
Simisola Adeyemi
15. WOULD THE MAGAZINE COVER AND FILM POSTER
ENCOURAGE YOU TO SEE THE FILM IN THE CINEMAS.
This is focusing on the marketing and realistic aspect of film
distributing and production. It coerces the target audience and
demographic to be unsympathetically biased and condemnatory of
both products. It is suggested that they should see both products as
real media products and beyond a piece of mandatory coursework.
The multiple choice is used purposely to give a straightforward answer
that can be turned into quantitative data. The multiple choice answer
are as thus: Yes, No and Maybe.
Simisola Adeyemi
16. Can you suggest anything that could improve the appeal of the
productions?
This question is necessary in order to help our ancillary texts appeal to a
wider demographic. It gives the focus group the opportunity to get
involved and express their own opinions and views as opposed to the
“hypodermic needle theory” , this theory was the first attempt to explain
how mass audiences might react to mass media. It suggests that
audiences passively receive the information transmitted via a media text,
without any attempt on their part to process or challenge the data. By
asking this question, I have enabled my focus group/audience to be
actively involved in the process of our productions.
Simisola Adeyemi
17. TRAILER FEEDBACK [MALES]:
The male feedback ranging from ages 17-30+, from the screening were positive; majority
of the male audience were clearly impressed giving mainly positive feedbacks. This goes
to prove that my trailer was successful in targeting the male demographic; it was nice to
appeal to the mal demographic because the movie was quite romanticised making me
worried as to how well received the trailer will be by the male population. However, I am
glad to find that there were aspects that kept them interested. A male teacher commented
“I’ll happily go and watch that in the cinema. Well done. You related domestic abuse and
the issue of sociopaths in a realistic way”. Another male individual said that “it looks like a
proper trailer and I really enjoyed it. I wish it was a trailer to an actual upcoming movie”
This shows that my trailer will be widely received if it was an actual trailer and not that of a
coursework.
My main worry was that the trailer might have used scenes that were in the same setting
which might prove quite boring to the audience but the male demographic suggested no
ways of improving this so I came to the conclusion that maybe it didn’t really matter to the
males.
The demographics also thought the genre of the trailer was reflected through the video,
which again is essential considering I was trying to appeal to a wider audience, not a
niche one.
Simisola Adeyemi
18. TRAILER FEEDBACK [FEMALES]:
Similar to the male feedback, the female feedback ranging from the ages 17-
30+, were mostly positive. However, a female teacher stated that it “derogatise
the female as objects for the pleasure of male viewing” However we didn’t
intend for the trailer to come across like that as I do not believe the trailer was
shot from the conventional idea of a male gaze. We wanted to touch upon the
importance of domestic abuse however the idea of this was misinterpreted. I
agree there may be scenes where the female character is dressed scantily but
this is to reflect her character’s stance and occupation. In addition, both the
female and male characters are presented with a flaw that accounts to their
downfall. However, in terms of improvement, I refuse to change the role of the
female character as it is too late to change anything and also because the
female character’s occupation is the reason why both characters met in the first
place. However, other younger female demographics who viewed the trailer
screening all gave positive feedbacks, this could be because they are unaware
of the “male gaze theory” or they may have just simply enjoyed the trailer. One
even said she “emotionally invested in Candice’s situation and felt empathetic
towards her”
Simisola Adeyemi
19. MAGAZINE COVER AND FILM POSTER FOCUS GROUP FEEDBACK [MALE]:
From my male demographic, I received positive feedback which I was glad about as it
meant I was successful in fulfilling the codes and conventions for both the magazine cover
and film poster unit. It goes to prove to prove that once again my ancillary text reflected the
genre. A male viewer, when asked what he thought of both products, said “both the poster
and cover were extremely eye-catching and it definitely shows the genre that you were
trying to sell to your audience”. Another said “I like the simple structure of both stylings of
both of them because most magazine covers and film posters out there are sometimes
overloaded with images and texts” I agree with this because I earlier mentioned in one of
my evaluation that I wanted a minimal style and structure to my ancillary texts. However,
someone claimed “it was quite generic” It is likely that the person in this case was not able
to identify himself with both products; perhaps he wanted something more “gory and scary”
however it also needs to be put into account that out trailer is based on a psychological
romantic thriller genre. Also, maybe it is the romantic aspect that he couldn’t quite come to
terms.
20. Simisola Adeyemi
MAGAZINE COVER AND FILM POSTER FOCUS GROUP FEEDBACK
[FEMALE]:
The feedback from the female demographic was one I was happy with. A
female viewer said that she liked “the picture of the female character and
the intensity of her stare” She then went on to explain that she thinks that the
film poster represents the thriller genre effectively. Another suggested that
we needed to make some changes to the colour of the font to a red colour,
we tried this but we felt it looked tacky so we settled for another colour. The
female demographic were hyper-critical in the feedback they gave, such as
making the picture of Candice more obvious since her name is the title of the
trailer.
21. IN CONCLUSION……
I have come to the realisation that without audience feedback, the failure of an amateur trailer
is imminent. From the audience feedback, I have learnt that different audience’s have different
expectations and gratifications from each genre. The positive feedback enabled me to
conclude that overall, my main coursework and ancillary texts proved to be quite successful
and effective. Although, I received some negative feedback, the positive feedback out-shone
the negative. However, it is imperative that I take all negative feedback into consideration so I
have taken those suggestions and tried my best as possible to fix any problems that needed
to be fixed. I found that I was right in making my target audience between the ages 18-21
because we found that it was someone from the older generation who criticised the trailer,
possibly because she didn’t grasp the idea and issue we were trying to put across.
The majority of feedback regarding improvements were based around the style of the font
used on the ancillary texts and adding a scene at the beginning that explains why the male
character descends into such a state which we have tackled since then.
Overall, I have learnt about effective codes and conventions in order to create a successful
unit of work and ways in which I could manipulate these codes and conventions to fit to my
needs.
Simisola Adeyemi
