Education

1. 3. What have you learned
from your audience feedback?

2. Who is my target audience and
why?
• My target audience is males between the ages of 15-30, and after researching Pete
Buckingham’s audience table, I came to the conclusion that my target audience
would fall under the brackets of ‘Impressionable Socialites’ according to Pete
Buckingham’s audience theory, the reason why I have chosen this to be my target
audience is because it is mainly men that go to view Thriller’s because they enjoy
the suspense and anticipation more, especially when there are weapons and
murders involved but not much romance; as well as this, Thriller’s are most often
certified as age 15 or above because of their content, and as they are usually dark
and gritty, hence why my target audience is from this age and higher. Finally, the
type of film that I am making is not one that would be actively searched for by my
target audience, and my target audience are also unlikely to give it strong,
opinionated critics view, they are just more likely to go to the cinema to watch
something that they think they will enjoy.
• I do have a post on me discussing my target audience, however in the video my
target audience was too vague after showing it to my media teacher and because
of this I chose to put a little update on my new choice of target audience at the
bottom of the post, I chose to keep the video to show the development of my
choice of target audience.

3. How did I attract/address my
audiences pleasures and desires?
• I made surveys to address what sort of conventions my
target audience would like to see in my main
production and ancillary products.
• Surveys:
- Main production
- Ancillary products
• Due to making these surveys for all three of my
products, I was able to identify what type of
conventions and codes that my target audience would
expect in them, and make sure that they were included
in my actual products to attract my target audience.

4. Audience feedback at the research
and planning stage
• The only piece of audience feedback that I got from
my research and planning was my original pitch for
my teaser trailer and ancillary products, and how
they were going to come together and how they
were going to work effectively together.
•The people that I chose for this focus group were
just a few members from my A Level media group,
as this was only an initial pitch of my idea, and
therefore needed experienced media students to
discuss this with and whether it would fit the
conventions of my genre, but also if they felt it was
possible to create as well as being appropriate for
my target audience. You can find what they said
about my initial pitch in this blog post here.

5. How did the audience feedback
from my initial pitch influence my
products?
• Getting that piece of feedback definitely showed my how much
enigma and suspense I needed to make sure to create in all three of
my products to ensure that they stuck to the genre that I had
chosen.
• However, originally I was going to choose to use the two boys that I
had used in my Film Noir in AS to play the characters in my Thriller,
but after discussing with my focus group they looked nothing alike
and therefore it would be too hard to convince audiences that they
were brothers, plus I needed actors that I could get a hold of easily
at the times I needed them and it was too much of a risk as we are
all studying at the minute, I could not promise that they would be
there when I needed them. Therefore I came to the conclusion that
I would ask my actual brothers if they would mind and they said
they would, which was perfect as they do look alike, and we all still
live together, making filming and getting photos very easy to
organise.

6. My own progress – strengths and
weaknesses
• Strengths: One of my strengths is to identify what would be most
appropriate for my products and thinking through how I could carry
them out, as well as attracting the target audience, I believe I
developed this skill after my first feedback where I hadn’t though
through what actors would be the best choice for my products, and
therefore every decision made since then has had these thoughts in
hindsight before they were put in place.
• Weaknesses: My weakness is most often the organisation between
getting everything together, for example I had started researching
different types of magazine covers and teaser trailers before I had
even told anyone about my idea which meant I was unsure as to
where I would start, therefore getting a focus group together taught
me to write a list of tasks that need to be done in priority of what
needs to be done first, so that I am not wasting time carrying out
tasks that are less important than others.

7. Audience feedback during the
production stage
• Some of the other similar productions that I
looked at that were similar to mine were
‘Taken’ and ‘Inception’.
• Both of these films were extremely successful,
especially after looking on iMDb; with ‘Taken’ earning
$24, 717, 037 in its opening weekend, and ‘Inception’
took £5, 912, 814 in its opening weekend. And they
both fall under the Thriller genre, because of this piece
of information I chose to use some of their conventions
and themes and incorporate them into my own, I asked
different people if they had watched these two films
and the majority of the people I asked who said “yes”
were men between the ages that my target audience
are, and due to this I decided that I wanted my films to
be perceived the way that these two films are, and that
having a similar target audience to them would be
appropriate for this.

8. How did I know that I was meeting
my target audiences interests?
• The first piece of feedback I got for my teaser trailer was when I had put all the filmed scenes together and edited
them to fit well together, but it did not have any audio, as you can see in this blog post here. Even though, it was
commented on that there was enigma coming from the teaser trailer and that they liked the transition between
the flicking of the light switch to the graveyard scenes; unfortunately it was mentioned that it did not follow the
conventions of a teaser trailer as it felt like the scenes followed on from one another and therefore was more like
a opening title sequence, also even though I needed to create enigma it wasn’t entirely clear on what the story of
the film was. Due to this I knew that sticking with my plot and keeping the light switch transition would be right
and meet my target audiences desires, but I also knew what to do next apart from adding sound to improve my
teaser trailer.
• My second focus group for my teaser trailer was after I had re-filmed scenes and added all audio that I wanted to
add, this time I chose to use the same focus group as I knew it was not my final edit. This time round I had made
changes to everything that they had commented on before and had done the majority of improvements that they
said I should do; this time there were compliments that the depth of the narrative was much better, that my titles
were very professional, that there was a high amount of suspense, and that the use of a gun and hints at violence
raised adrenaline, again meeting the main expectations from my target audience for this Thriller tease trailer,
although the one thing that was affecting them was Carl’s piece of dialogue being unclear, and this was
unacceptable for my teaser trailer as it was aimed at audiences who are considered to be ‘Impressionable
Socialites’ and therefore everything needed to be clear as they were just going to the cinema to idly sit and enjoy
the film, not get actively involved with it.
• For my ancillary products, my feedback was from my friend Sophie who sits besides me in lessons and they were
the only times that I edited my ancillary products, and also asking my media teachers for advice on whether it
looked correct compared to other ‘Empire’ magazine editions or film posters, and these were my audience
feedbacks for my ancillary products as they were easier to receive while editing my ancillary product because the
website I was using, PicMonkey, would not allow you to make changes to previous edits once they had been saved
therefore I would ask whether it was appropriate before I saved.

9. How did feedback from the focus group
reveal audiences likes/dislikes, and also
help towards making final decisions?
• It was mainly my second focus group that helped me towards making final
decisions and I have linked to that in the previous slide.
• This focus group defined that my narrative was much better compared to
last one because of the changes in clips that were shown, and also the
audio that I had added to it. There were also comments on how the titles
looked very professional, and that it did create suspension and enigma.
• However, there was a little bit of audio to change and some clip lengths
that needed to be shortened because they lingered for too long.
• For my ancillary products, it was commented on by my media teacher that
one of the conventions of an ‘Empire’ magazine was to have the main
picture over-lapping the title of magazines and at that moment of time my
cover wasn’t doing this which meant my main picture wasn’t the main
focus of the cover.
• And, my posters looked very professional, especially my poster of the two
brothers which is my main poster.

10. Did I change any content or
aesthetic style in response to
feedback?
• Yes, after my first feedback I noticed that I wasn’t getting the response from my
teaser trailer that I originally wanted and these thoughts were spoken by members
of the focus group.
• As seen in my first focus group, which is linked to in slide 8, it was noticed that my
narrative was not clear and therefore I had to change/re-film some of the clips that
were to feature in the teaser trailer, and there was no audio so that needed to be
recorded.
• My idea for my film poster was not going to work when I tried to link it to where it
would be distributed, as in my ancillary product survey, which I have linked to in
slide 3, the answer as to where my film poster would likely be distributed for my
target audience to see it was ‘billboards and bus stop posters’ and once I had
thought about my poster, I had decided that the aesthetics of it would not fit both
of these exhibition places, and therefore I needed to change my idea, which is
where I came up with the idea of having two posters, one for the billboard and
magazine spread (the landscape poster of the two brothers), and one for the bus
stop (the portrait of my close up). You can see me discussing this reason at the
bottom of this blog post.

11. How did feedback influence your
decisions on exhibition and marketing?
• I knew of many different places that I could exhibit all three of my products, however
deciding on where would be most appropriate for my target audience was difficult for me to
decide by myself.
• Therefore, I made surveys asking these questions, as you can see on slide 3.
• Although, not everyone who was answering my surveys were male, they were all of an age
above 15 or below 30, and a handful of them were in fact male, therefore I got a rough
understanding of where to exhibit my products that would be effective to my target
audience.
• For my teaser trailer, I felt the best place to exhibit it, was in a conglomerate cinema such as
Odeon or Vue, as my target audience are considered to be ‘Impressionable Socialites’,
meaning they are unlikely to actively seek out a cinema in an Art House cinema, as they only
go to view films for fun.
• And my magazine cover, would be sold in shops like Tesco’s or HMV, as my target audience
are likely to often go and shop within these stores, rather than going to film stores, although I
could also exhibit it on the ‘Empire’ website, as my target audience are males that are young
adults or in their adulthood, meaning they will be experienced with technology and often use
the internet so this would be a popular way to exhibit my magazine cover.
• Finally, my film posters will be exhibited where I have mentioned before, on bus stops and
billboards, but also inside the magazine cover or HMV, or even on the ‘Empire’ website as
well, especially for the billboard poster that mentions on the magazine cover that it features
inside the actual magazine.

12. How did you decide that the
feedback was reliable or useful?
• I knew that every bit of feedback that I got would
be useful because in each focus group I had
someone who would be a member of my target
audience giving feedback, and if they were happy
with it then I knew the majority of my target
audience would be happy with it.
• Also, I was always going to show it to a member
of my target audience once everything was done,
who knew nothing about it and who wouldn’t be
biased.

13. Evidence of feedback on
distribution and exhibition

14. In the post-production stages, what
was the feedback on the final 3
texts?
• I done one final piece of feedback with a member of my target audience who was Danny;
he’s 18 and male, and falls under the ‘Impressionable Socialite’ category, but will happily
provide criticism if he feels he needs to.
• My blog posts for these feedback are linked below:
- Final feedback for my teaser trailer
- Final feedback for my ancillary products
• The majority of the feedback that I received from Danny was positive, the only few little
pointers of criticism that he gave was; that at the end of a few of the shots he felt that they
may have wobbled a bit, and that some of the cropping out the background of the brothers
on the magazine cover was a bit noticeable, and that some teaser posters have production
company names at the bottom of their film posters.
• However, he said that these were pointers that he was picking up because he studies Film
Studies, but that as a casual viewer he would most likely be unable to notice.
• My response to his little bits of criticism; the wobbly endings to some of the clips were hardly
noticeable but also helped to make it seem more realistic which fitted with the conventions
of a Thriller, and the film posters that I had created were only teaser posters and therefore,
the film is unlikely to be completely finished when these are released so it would be wrong to
credit some companies but not others, and also other teaser posters do not feature
production companies as they will feature on theatrical posters that will be released later.

15. How did you get the feedback for
your post-production and was the
method good enough?
• All I had to do to arrange my feedback was to arrange a
time with Danny as to when he would be able to set some
time aside to give feedback on my products properly.
• However, I felt that he should look at these at a time when
he would most likely in reality, especially for the teaser
trailer, because I think people are in different mind sets for
different times of the day. Therefore, we arranged for
Danny to give me feedback on a Friday night which is most
likely when he would go out tot he cinema to watch this
film, especially at a conglomerate cinema.
• I felt the method was very effective, as he gave plenty of
feedback, and gave full attention to everything he was
viewing, which gave me a very good idea all around as to
how my target audience would react to my products.

16. What did feedback tell you about
the strengths and weaknesses?
• From looking through the comments from Danny on all
of my products, it is easy for me to say that the enigma,
narrative and representations of genre are a strength
within all of my products which is important for the
type of media that I am creating, and for my products
to be effective together.
• However, the weaknesses seem to be the final touches,
making sure that the little finishes that make
everything clean and smooth are possibly my downfall,
and something that I struggle to identify, although I
feel this is not too important especially considering the
genre my product falls into, because this reflects the
realism and gritty nature of Thrillers.

17. Was your target audience feedback
success?
• I would say yes, that my target audience feedback was
extremely successful for all of my products, as
receiving criticism enabled me to improve all of my
products to a standard that is satisfying and
exceedingly successful for my target audience, but also
hearing positive feedback motivated me to make sure
that all of my products were of a high quality and
completed before all the deadlines. As you can see in
this blog post I have completed all of the products that
I set out to do, to a high level and one that has
impressed my target audience as well as others.