What have you learned from your audience feedback?
- 1. Question 3
- 2. To receive feedback for our trailer we put together a focus group where we received both negative and positive results through a questionnaire and a discussion. We targeted our audience for the film at 15-20 year olds and when we asked our respondents what age bracket they thought our trailer fell under 8/9 gave us the correct answer, and 100% stated that the target audience was both male and female which was also our target. This was because the audience felt that the involvement of social media best fitted this age category and also the character’s ages were easily identified and related to the target audience age brackets. We asked our target audience if our film trailer appealed to them in any way and if so why. 6/9 respondents said that the trailer appealed to them and that they would go and see the full film because it “outline’s the harmful effects of social media” which is a positive response as that is what my group and I were trying to portray.
- 3. Predicted Genre Psychological Thriller Drama 5/9 of the respondents said that They thought the trailer was a Pyschological Thriller while the remaining 4 said they though the trailer was a drama as it was “similar to soap opera’s”. The film trailer could fall under both genres as the story emphasizes the unstable psychological states of the characters as they’re all victims of an online threat. It could also fall under the drama genre due to the dramatic events and situations such as relationships and cheating which is often seen in many dramas.
- 4. When asking our respondents what 3 key shots stood out to them the most there was 2 images in particular that received 100% responses. These were the discussions on the oovoo chats as they reflected the social media side throughout the trailer. The second was the shot where Sarah slaps Jake, this was a key image because at this point in the trailer the equilibrium breaks which was noticed by our respondents because “as from this point the pace throughout the trailer increased and the dramatic sound effects kick in”. 100% of our respondents said that the soundtrack throughout the trailer was effective as it was “reflecting the contrast from the false reality to what really happens”. This was shown when the soundtrack immediately cut off and the harsh dramatic sound effects were deep and loud. However, they started that the soundtrack was obvious while it was looped so this is an improvement that needed to be made. We also asked the respondents if they could predict the bully, also known as the anonymous user. 1 respondent out of 9 thought they knew who the bully was but they was incorrect. This was a success for us as we know that the anonymous user was not given away in the trailer. This would now make the audience go and see the film as they would want to know who this person is.
- 5. For my poster I received peers, my target audience and people from outside my target audience to see if my poster would also appeal to them. I asked the question ‘Do you feel my poster represents the genre of social media?’ my respondents said that my poster does represent the genre of social media due to the hash tag in relation to twitter and how the anonymous icon is placed in the middle of the page. They also stated that the images are clearly taken from a web cam due to the quality so its obvious that the characters are in some sort of video chat together. However, my respondents said that my poster isn't giving much out about the plot so to solve this issue a bullying report button was added to the top centre of the page as it is a popular feature of the internet and teenagers as they can report abusing behaviour online which is a major theme throughout our plot. The anonymous icon was made red to reflect how dangerous the person behind it is. Also the dotted lines leading from the anonymous image to the characters were also made bold and red to show that they're linked to the user but not in any way that may be good.
- 6. When giving my film magazine to peers and my target audience to gather feedback I immediately asked ‘Without reading the content of front cover, does the design and layout appeal to you?’ This result came back positive as it was colourful and bright and my respondents thought it was “eye catching”. I then asked my respondents to focus on the main image and written content and if they still found it appealing. They stated after watching the trailer they don’t feel that the image fits the heartache events that occur throughout the trailer. However, one respondent started “Even though the image doesn’t fit events of the trailer after reading the text over the image you see that the article isn't about the plot of the film its about what happens behind the seen and the actress doesn’t want to give anything away”. From this I have found that my magazine is only in the interest of some of my target audience. However, the ones that understood the text were the ones who stated the film trailer appealed to them.
- 7. “Outlines the harmful effects of social media” “Interested in the solution of the conflict” “Reflecting the contrast from the false reality to what really happens” “Disconnected is showing the fact that the friends are disconnecting and getting torn apart” “The social media is connected, and the hash tag is related to twitter”