2. +
Target Audience
During my research and planning
sections, I spent time analysing genre
specific STA’s and looked at their
codes and conventions so that I learnt
more about my own target audience
and the ways in which I could appeal to
them. This knowledge was developed
when I directly contacted my target
audience via a questionnaire and
interview. All of these activities were
pivotal to the creation of my trailer so
that it was suitable and enjoyable for
those who it was aimed at.
3. +
Questionnaire
Out questionnaire was a more basic level of research but we used it to
ask opinions about some of the fundamental narrative, layout and
design features. The questions were simple but clear with multiple
choice answers, and our results from this test generally confirmed our
previous views about what our target audience would want or expect.
4. +
Questionnaire
My analysis of the questionnaire helped me to interpret the results. We received slightly
unexpected outcomes from our question about the dominant themes as most of our target
audience wanted violence to be the central theme of the trailer. In our opinion, we thought
that although violence can make scenes more interesting and dramatic it doesn’t contain
enough substance for it to be the main feature of our plot so in this instance we didn’t
directly follow our target audience’s advice. However, we decided to incorporate more
violence into our trailer so that it would appear more favourably to our viewers. I created a
very fast montage near the end of our trailer which focused on lots of the aggressive and
emotional scenes which we had filmed. I deliberately chose very brief moments from these
scenes and used the blade tool to cut them down further. By playing these quick shots in
sequence, it was slightly disorientating and really emphasised the aggressive and violent
themes within the film.
5. +
Turning point
The questionnaire described how our audience thought a turning point was best
created through a change in multiple media elements; including music, editing
and lighting. We agreed with this and revoked our initial decision to have just
one piece of backing music and decided to insert another faster song during out
turning point. Interestingly we chose backing songs from well-known artists
because my codes and conventions research revealed that films from the
teenage genre often did this to engage their young audiences. The editing used
throughout was developed during the turning point in time with the music since
this is what our audience felt would be most appropriate. We replayed the exact
moment when she took drugs for the first time and added a red filter rather than
blue to the replay.
6. +
Generally our questionnaire results adhered to our own
ideas about using multiple locations, having a female
protagonist and showing the narrative from the
protagonist’s perspective. Additionally, we decided to
conduct an interview with a small focus group so we were
able to receive more specific and detailed feedback;
looking back now this was an essential part in the
development of our trailers structure and narrative.
7. +
Interview
One of the students suggested it was a good idea to show the protagonist clearly in the beginning of the
trailer but this contrasted to our opening footage that had quick shots of our two lead characters consuming
alcohol and taking drugs (this was initially going to be a flash forward). However because we were in an
interview she mentioned the reasoning behind her idea was so that “you could build a viewer and character
relationship” after understanding the logic behind our target audiences comment we were much more
inclined to follow her advice and immediately started the trailer with 3 mid shots of our protagonist. The
other member of our focus group made a significant remark in terms of the narrative of our piece. She
suggested that our narrative be unchronological to reflect how the protagonist is feeling. “If she wants to
get revenge on her boyfriend then she’ll be stuck in the past a lot” this was a really thoughtful comment and
showed she clearly though about our narrative. It gave me a different perspective on the way we structured
our trailer and it taught me to consider things from a more conceptual basis. As a direct result from this
feedback we added in flash-forwards and flashbacks particularly in our final montage that combines the
ending of our piece with flashbacks to all the important moments in their relationship.
8. +
Feedback
We continued receiving target audience feedback during the
production of our trailer during our showcase. Once we had
completed an initial draft we showed it to a large group of 16 - 17
year old students and asked them to complete a feedback sheet asking
their thoughts on it. Their age was important since the themes and
content in our trailer was intended for people of their maturity.
Please look below the presentation to listen to
some of our audience feedback.
9. +
A lot of the feedback we received was quite similar and
slightly basic. After organising our feedback, we learnt that
our two main areas of improvement were the initial voiceover
and general sound. As a group we specifically looked at the
sound graphs of particular dialogue scenes such as our
footage in the common room where ‘Danielle’can be heard
perfectly but Sarah’s response was barely audible. We had to
target individual sections of the dialogue and increase the
volume. Through this technique we improved all of the
general sound and we learnt how to increase the volume of a
particular word i.e. when Kyle calls Sarah ‘disgusting’ and
this was all as a result of our feedback. After the audience
struggled to hear and understand the beginning of the trailer, I
re-recorded our opening voiceover and changed the words so
that it was from a first person perspective. I wanted
everything to be clear concise and normal to reflect the films
initial equilibrium so I removed the echo and two tone effects
leaving just the bare voice.
10. +
Finally..
We also used the voice over to make the narrative clearer as after
we had a short peer assessment session we discovered people found
it difficult to follow our storyline and in particular the correlation
between her real metal illness and her drug addiction. To solve this
issue we re-worked the begging of our trailer so it showed three
clear mid shots all edited together that showed her taking her
medication on multiple days. This occurred at the same time of
voiceover describing her illness making it clear she has a diagnosed
problem. We reduced confusion by adding a heavy blur affect to
specific flashbacks so it’s clear what they were. Our Target
Audience has definitely influenced the creation of our trailer since
we tried to follow most of the advice they gave us, we learnt from
the advice they gave and the different perspectives they offered.
