WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

A2 Media Studies

THE IMPORTANCE OF AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

 The process of test screening a film is vital in order for that film to be as successful as possible. The concept of test screening was invented by Harold Lloyd after having done this for the first time in 1928. A test screening is a preview screening of a movie or television show before its formal release in order to test the audience’s reaction. These preview audiences would then be asked to complete a questionnaire or to give feedback in some form. Test screenings allow filmmakers to gain significant, honest and critical feedback from their primary audience and possibly their secondary audience. By doing this, they are then able to make the appropriate changes to the film, in order for the film to be as successful as possible. This process plays a significant role in the success of a film and has been used for many horror films in the past.

 Along with The Woman in Black doing an extensive advertising campaign, they also arranged two test screenings, receiving helpful feedback from their target audience, advising them on areas of improvement and adding in more suspending scenes. As a result of these test screenings and the advertising campaign, the film was a massive success and made an impressive profit.

 Although they are rare occasions where test screenings have resulted in films being released earlier then expected. This was evident for The Conjuring, which received glowing responses from their two test screenings. Generating these types responses is virtually unheard of, overall the film scored around 90%-95% when averaging the number of audience members who rated the film “excellent” or “very good”. Also men under 25 scored even higher, giving a rating just below 100%. For context, its incredibly rare for a film to receive those sort of scores but its even rarer for horror films.

GATHERING FEEDBACK We gathered audience feedback before and during the production of our media products. This allowed us to get a sense of what our target audience wanted to see in a trailer and what type of narrative they preferred to watch, whether that be a supernatural horror or a psychological horror. We collected our first sample of feedback through Survey Monkey before beginning the production stage of our trailer. By doing this we were able to decide on what sub-genre of horror our narrative ought to be, the result we received was majority ‘Supernatural’, so naturally we decided to take that information on board and create a supernatural horror. Using Survey Monkey also helped us to discover our demographics and psychographics. From the results we received on our survey, it was evident that our primary target audience are female teenagers aged between 17-19 years old, that prefer supernatural and slasher horrors. As for psychographics, our target audience seem to be thrill-seeking socialisers with high levels of conscientiousness and are commonly open-minded.

During the post-production stage of constructing our trailers we had a test screening so that we could receive feedback on areas of improvement that we perhaps may have missed. By getting feedback from our peers, we were able to make improvements on any evident mistakes and but also get input on how to make our trailer have more suspense and pace. By filming our feedback, we were able to see the audiences general reaction, from their facial expressions and body language, for instance covering their eyes or jumping with suspense.

FEEDBACK RECEIVED FOR MY MAGAZINE COVER

Constructive feedback: A couple of the improvements that I received were regarding the “replacement of image” so that the masthead didn’t cover so much of the top of the image as this may make the magazine cover more eye-catching. It was also suggested that I added more information to “draw the readers in” so that they are more likely to buy it. One of the criticisms from my secondary audience said that “this could be mistaken for a fashion magazine” due to the style of the masthead.

To gather feedback for my draft magazine cover, I decided to ask my primary target what they thought worked well and what could be improved on in order for my advertising campaign to be able to reach more people. However I did also ask part of my secondary audience for their input as by doing this, it may attract more people then intended.

Positive feedback: The main commendations I received were regarding the “colour diversity over the cover” and the “elegant layout” to draw in the readers attention. I was also praised on the “element of symmetry” of the cover lines which adds to the elegance of the cover.

FEEDBACK RECEIVED FOR MY FILM POSTER

Along with the feedback for my magazine cover, I asked the same people to evaluate my film poster. I asked the same people as I thought this may keep the comments consistent and therefore help me to create an element of unity between my magazine cover and film poster.

Constructive feedback: There were a number of comments about there being “less colour in the image” and so it may be more difficult to grab the target audiences attention. Also there was a comment about some of the writing being difficult to read, for instance the hashtag underneath the tagline. Furthermore, there was a suggestion that the “tagline can be a little larger” so that it can stand out more.

Positive feedback: One re-occurring complement I received was about the image as it “portrays a sense of horror” with all the mist, which obviously works well with the genre of the film. Alongside that, the font style was commended for looking more mature and “not being flashy” so that it doesn’t take too much attention away from the image but at the same time catches the audiences attention so that they would be interested.

FEEDBACK FOR OUR HORROR TRAILER As previously mentioned, in order for us to get feedback on our draft trailer, we provided a test screening to allow our peers to navigate us on areas of improvement and to highlight what worked well in our trailer.

Constructive feedback: Numerous people pointed that the music needed to be worked on as it appeared to be rather “jumpy” and “didn’t flow” properly, which is something we didn’t fully realise until the test screening. Other areas of improvement included: re-recording dialogue that was difficult to understand (in particular the scene with the priest), adding in “more titles to explain the storyline” better and also that the “running scene shots needed to be polished off”.

Positive feedback: A significant comment said was that “the location (graveyard/church) was a good use of horror convention”. This was reassuring as we were making a horror trailer. Along with this, there were numerous remarks about the “good use of camera angles” and “pace” which helps to build up the suspense throughout the trailer.

THE END RESULT – MAGAZINE COVER

Draft Final

After receiving the feedback from my target audience, it was important that I acted on the constructive advise that I was given. Getting feedback from my primary audience was crucial as it allowed me to improve on my product so that it would be more fitting for the audience I was trying to reach and therefore would make my advertising campaign a success. From the feedback I was given, I decided to brighten up my cover lines so that it would grab the readers attention. I didn’t want to “add more information” as I wanted the image to be the main focus point, rather then the other films that were being advertised. I also decided to keep the image in the same place, but edited it differently so that the gradient around the image pulled the focus onto the woman in the image. As for the comment regarding the magazine to look more like a fashion magazine, my primary target audience are female and so it seemed fitting to keep the format of the magazine the way it was in order to draw in my intended audience.

THE END RESULT – FILM POSTER

Draft Final

Due to asking the same people to evaluate my poster as well, I was able to pick out the key problems with my poster as the people I asked were my primary target audience. After reading the list of improvements, I decided to make the hashtag a little bit bigger, but not so much as to cause to much attention to itself, I also placed underneath the “coming soon” as I thought it fitted better there because it was a darker background, therefore making it easier to read. I also took onboard the comments about the tagline being too small, so to improve it, I made it a little bit bigger and brighter so that it stood out more from the dark background and as a result is more eye-catching for the audience. I didn’t decide to change the colouring of the image as I believe that the darkness of it adds to the atmosphere of a horror film. Although there are changes I made that were not mentioned by my target audience, like the actors names, adding a studio logo and age certificate. These changes were to make my poster look more professional and authentic.

THE END RESULT - TRAILER

After receiving feedback for our trailer, it made us realise that we may have been too harsh and critical on ourselves in regards to our trailer. By listening to the positive feedback, we had restored some confidence in what we had created and knew that we were on the right tracks to creating a conventional horror trailer. Although, with this we did take on board the improvements we could make and acted on them were we thought appropriate. The main change we made was the music, we were all in agreement that even though the music worked in certain places, it was not fitting for the entire trailer due to it feeling slightly out of place and we wanted to build more pace towards the end of our trailer. Along with this we also increased the volume on the scene with the priest in the church, as it is crucial that that scene is clear due to it being one of the most significant scenes in the entire trailer as it introduces the character of Miss Anderson to the target audience. Finally, one of the last changes we made was to add more titles to the trailer in order to give a hint of what the story is about so that the audience can make some assumptions as to what to expect from the film. However, we were careful to not give too much of the story away, otherwise this would make the film seem more predictable and as a result, would not be as successful as it potentially could be.