Evaluation 3

EVALUATION OF MEDIA
PRODUCT
Question 3

QUESTION…
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
In order to answer this question I will be using the feedback I
collected from a selection of year 11 and year 12 classes within my
school. I made two questionnaires, one specific to the film trailer,
giving me and Millie 18 responses we could gain feedback from, and
one specific to my ancillary tasks, which gave me 15 responses which
I could analyse based on my ancillary task. I have picked certain
aspects from each piece of feedback which I may agree with or argue
against. I will especially focus on features which are recurrent and by
doing this I hope to show what I have learned from my feedback.

FILM TRAILER QUESTIONNAIRE
FEEDBACK…

FILM TRAILER FEEDBACK…
1.
One question on my first questionnaire was ‘Could you summarise the plot line?’.
Despite most people getting the right sort of idea, there were many different versions
recorded in the feedback, for example;
A) Character is gay but has a fake boyfriend so people don’t think she’s gay
B) One girl leaves the other for a boy
C) same-sex couple struggling to come out to their friends
Although these ideas are all along the correct lines only a minor 3 out of 18 got the
plot line spot on. This tells me that we needed to be more clear in what was
happening in the film. This uncertainty also lead to people answering the question ‘Is
the trailer structured in a way that would make you want to go and see it’ as unsure,
due to the fact they didn’t quite know what they would be going to watch. This is a
major flaw, as any producer needs to make sure the audience understands the plot
line in order to grasp their attention and not leave them puzzled. However, a couple
people did say that the vagueness made them more intrigued to watch the film as
they wanted answers. So, next time Millie and I would need to find a balance between
these two, in order to grasp attention of the audience but also intrigue them into
wanting to watch the entire film.

2.
Another feature which came up few times was the length of the
shots. While editing our trailer Millie and I struggled with deciding the
length for a selection of clips, in particular the argument shot and the
shots of Alice with the laptop. When reading the feedback it wasn’t a
surprise that some people found them too long, however due to it
being a minority of four people I believe it might come down to
personal opinion. Millie and I made these shots slightly longer in
order to help create an atmosphere.
For example, the shot where Alice’s face is lit up by the computer
screen was elongate because we felt it enhanced the idea of Alice
being isolated and alone in society as well as in her room right there
in the shot. However, I will agree that the shot with the argument
does stretch a bit too long and if we were to re-edit it, I would
defiantly make this shot shorter, or cut the shot up and place bit of
the argument throughout the trailer instead of all at once.

3.
Millie and I asked a question in our questionnaire to find out what we
could’ve done better, ‘What are two things we could improve on?’. One
common response was the steadiness of the camera work, a few
specifically mentioned that this was apparent in the argument shot . This
shot was filmed in Millie’s house and we unfortunately forgot to ask for a
tripod from the media department so tired to make do with out, as filming
was already over-running. In hindsight I wish Millie and I had taken the
time to re-film this one shot, as I do believe it brings the professional look
to the trailer down a notch.
Millie and I tired to use the ‘stabilising tool’ on iMovie to help this shot
seem more still as this tool works but finding a average ‘still point’ and
keeping the shot inline with that. However, as Millie and I had edited clips
together to make this argument, each clip had its own ‘still point’ so the
shot jumped around even more. In the future I will be sure to use a tripod
to film any shots that require the camera moving.

4.
One major attribute of our trailer was the soundtrack Millie and I recorded, this was
said to be ‘very effective’ in 16 responses. This I was very pleased about as Millie and I
worked really hard to find a song that worked well with the storyline. Recording the
song also took a lot of organisation and time, so get a positive response to it was a
big relief. Examples;
A) ‘Yes! The soundtrack worked really well alongside the trailer’
B) ’Yes, particularly effective in conveying the feelings of the main character’
C) ‘Perfect in everyway’
However, a few responses said they liked the song choice, yet didn’t see the link to
the trailer. This may be due to the uncertainty of the storyline which I have discussed
in a previous slide. Examples;
A) ‘Very effective, doesn’t link but creates a good atmosphere’
B) ‘Good choice but could link slightly better’
C) ‘Nice song, but doesn’t link’

5.
The fifth question on our trailer questionnaire was ‘What genre would
you say the film trailer is’. This question received a variety of
answers;
Genre
Drama Romance Indie
Romantic Drama Social Realism
The most common answer for the genre of the trailer was romance,
this is understandable due to the romantic features in the trailer. I
also think that the ‘social realism’ genre is hard to recognise as it is
a minority and certain audiences may not have knowledge of the
genre and therefore wouldn’t be able to identify it.
The second most common genre was drama, this again is plausible
due to the argument scene and plot line of almost a love triangle,
which could both create a theme of drama.
Millie and I were concerned that the ‘social realism’ genre wouldn’t
be picked up on enough, but in my Evaluation 1 I have explored
how my trailer develops or challenges conventions of other media
products, focusing on other social realism films, which will help
point out the relevant aspects which make it a social realism film.

6.
A recurrent response Millie and I found to our
sixth question, ‘What are two things you
particularly liked’, was the use of good camera
angles. Examples;
A) ‘Different shot/angles showed technique’
B) ‘The pan shots/camera angles’
C) ‘The acting and camera work’
Millie and I worked hard to incorporate different
camera angles in order to help catch the audiences
attention throughout the entire trailer, so I was glad
to see that our test audiences picked up on this.

7.
Another response to our sixth question was that the use of
lighting was effective. This was also carefully consider by Millie and I
whilst filming and editing. The more intimate shots were shot to have
softer lighting, to help create the warm and trusting atmosphere. So
if this lighting wasn’t achieved in the initial shot, Millie and I used
editing tools on iMovie to change the ‘tone’ or ‘colour’ of the shot.
We were also specific with the lighting in the argument shots. This
lighting was a lot harsher and brighter than other shots in order to
enhance the vulnerability in the characters. Alice and Maggie were
both fully exposed in the light when arguing so the audience could
also clearly see their emotions.

8.
Another improvement that occurred was the volume of the sound,
this was mentioned by seven people. Many clips consisted of three
different pieces of audio;
1. The soundtrack 2. Character’s voices 3. Background noise from
the clips
Adjusting these three audios in order to make them balanced was a
challenge and we tried many techniques in order to achieve what we
did. For a couple of clips Millie and I detached the audio to that it was
independent and we could then manipulate them from there. Yet,
balancing it with the soundtrack proved difficult as we didn’t want the
volume of the soundtrack to dip and rise between shots. So therefore
we had to keep the soundtrack the same volume and raise the volume
of the characters voices, which unfortunately made them rather loud.

ANCILLARY TASK – FILM POSTER
FEEDBACK

FILM POSTER FEEDBACK…
1.
Millie and I created different questionnaires for our ancillary task due to having
produced individual film posters and magazine covers.
One key aspect I found that people liked was the layout of my film poster. Three
people said that the layout was ‘Simplistic and pure’, they said this allowed
them to pay full attention to the image and title and ‘have no background
distractions’. This was a main goal of mine, as many other film posters I had
researched seemed very minimal but I was worried that it would appear as
boring or unfinished, however getting this feedback has reassured me it worked
out well.
Along with the layout, many people commented on the colour scheme. The
main blue colour was said to ‘grab [your] attention’. I believe this may be
because of the gradient, ‘the lighter blue was focused around the main
characters’ which helped draw thee audiences attention to that specific part of
the poster. The chosen blue also coincidentally matches the blue in Alice’s

2.
The main image used in my film poster was taken in a photoshoot Millie and
I organised with Ann and Flo, during a free period in school. I had originally
planned to used a screengrab from the trailer itself but I couldn’t find I shot
that would’ve worked on a film poster, and was hard to find one with both
characters in and facing the same way. As well as receiving good feedback
from the choice of the main image, some people believed that the main
image made the film appear as more of ‘a romantic comedy’ or ‘more
comedic’. I was slightly disappointed with this as I believed the image
worked well with the poster as a whole and that it linked well with the trailer,
and I didn’t see a comedic side to it. However, I can see how it may appear
as a romantic as Maggie is seen to be staring at Alice in a loving way.
One response said that they thought the main image was ‘a little bit staged
rather than real life’, this is understandable as the image was taken purely
for the film poster and not taken from any footage we filmed.

3.
A couple of people commented on the font choice and how they believed it
matched the genre well. Examples;
1. ‘The font gives a sort of indie vibe which looks good in relation to the trailer’
2. ‘The font gives a professional look’
3. ‘Reflects a handwritten sort of style’
I was pleased that people we able to make clear links to the genre and trailer,
even with small details such as the font choice, one response clearly said ‘the
poster links with the trailer as they use the same font’. I was happy that this was
picked up on by six responses. Another response said that they believed they
linked well due to the fact the poster wasn’t ‘heavily edited’, which links with the
connotation of the social realism genre.
However, one response did say that they thought ‘There [were] too many fonts’.
This is understandable as looking at the poster myself I can count six different
fonts. Although when I was researching film posters, many of them used a wide
range of fonts as it makes different sections stand out instead of all just blending
together.

4.
Within my questionnaire I asked a question specifically to do with the QR Code I
included, the question was;
‘On my film poster I included a QR Code (bottom left hand corner). Would you use your
mobile to scan this and see where it took you?’
Unsurprisingly I received a mix of responses to this question, but overall nine out of 13
people said ‘yes’ they would scan the code. The four people who said ‘no’ said so
because;
1. ‘I don’t use them – I rarely stop and look at posters long enough to take the time’
2. ‘There is no indication on where it leads to, so doesn’t intrigue me’
3. ‘Don’t usually scan those codes’
4. ‘I don’t have a QR scanner’
Adding the QR Code wasn’t because I had seen them on other film posters when
researching but because my film was aimed a teenagers and this was a potential way to
grab their interest and from these responses I can see that it was a successful idea.

ANCILLARY TASK – MAGAZINE
COVER FEEDBACK…

MAGAZINE COVER FEEDBACK…
1.
One specific feature that three people mentioned they particularly
liked was the title of the magazine, both the name and the design.
One response said they liked how it was ‘bold and stood out’. I was
glad when I read this as I had worked hard, tying different
techniques, to make the title eye-catching. I firstly tried making the
font bolder and larger, but it then was taking up too much space.
Secondly I tried to add a glow around the letters but once I managed
to create the look I was picturing, I didn’t think it worked well with
the rest of the cover. So I eventually decided to add a lighter ‘shadow’
effect, which gave the title the professional finish I wanted.
The other two said simply that they thought ‘[the title] was very
good’.

2.
When researching other magazine covers, I found that the structure and
conventions were very important to get right and so I really focused on
how to portray them correctly. So when four people commented on the
‘very good’ layout and how it ‘[followed] the structural conventions of a
magazine cover’ I was very pleased.
I followed conventions by having a lot of text around the headlines,
which gave potential readers an insight to the articles inside the
magazine and one reader said that they believed this made the magazine
look more ‘genuine’. I also followed conventions by having bold fonts,
one person said they thought this looked ‘creative’.

MAGAZINE COVER
FEEDBACK…
3.
The image I used for magazine cover was taken in a photoshoot
that I organised with Ann, due to having technical issues which
meant we lost a lot of the initial photographs we took. I chose
just to have Alice in the photo and not Maggie because I wanted the
magazine to focus on her character, as she is the one who deals with
the online bullying and feeling isolated which are current issues in
our society. So focusing on this in on the cover of the magazine
could’ve helped encourage people to read it, due to the content being
current.
However, despite this reasoning some people believed that the made
the magazine and trailer link less, as the trailer clearly included two
females characters yet the magazine only showed one. Another
person thought that the magazine ‘[focused] on the actor more than
the film, it seemed like the film was seconded’.

4.
In my responses I found that a few people initially saw the magazine
as a ‘fashion magazine ‘ or ‘a gossip magazine’. This was obviously
disappointing as this is not the image I wanted to portray to potential
audiences. I do however understand that the pink font and some of
the text could create a ‘fashion’ ‘gossip’ feel to the cover.
I asked the question ‘Does my Film Poster and Magazine Cover go
well with my film trailer’ and one person responded that my
magazine cover looked similar to a ‘girly magazine but just with film
links’. This again was frustrating as my target audience was teenagers
of both sexes, so for an audience member to see it a predominately
‘girly’ was a shame. However, as I said before the mix of the pink font
and the light blue background could create a ‘girly’ theme.

5.
Four people responded to my question, ‘Does my Film Poster and
Magazine Cover go well with my film trailer’, with;
1. ‘Assumes the audience knows everything about the film’
2. ‘Assumes you know a lot about the film’
3. ‘Lack of film content’
4. ‘Doesn’t convey what the film is about’
From these responses I can see that it would have been important to
remember that the potential audience for the magazine aren’t
guaranteed to have seen the trailer beforehand and therefore I should
have included more information about the trailer in order to then
create the links between the two.

WHAT HAVE I LEARNT…
From all of this feedback I have learnt that what I believe works well
isn’t always what others will agree with. This has now allowed me to
be able to see where I could improve on next time and more
specifically what to exactly improve on e.g. font, colour, sizing,
editing.
As well as the criticism being constructive for the future, the positives
that people have picked out has also helped. I now know what
aspects I got right and if I were to have a similar, or the same, task in
the future I would have the knowledge on how to do the task
correctly.
I’ve learnt that all the little details really count, such as a shaky
camera in one clip can effect how someone perceives the whole
trailer. Another detail such as the choice of pink font, can change the
whole perception of the magazine cover. It is important to consider
all the smaller details as they are what comes together to create the

Evaluation 3

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