What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Question three: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback was significant throughout the whole process of my production. To begin with I thought I would ask my social media friends whether they could tell me what thei favourite film genre. I asked this question on two different types of social media including Facebook and Twitter. 

Facebook results

After asking this question on Facebook I learnt that the question was too broad as only 23% of people said they liked horror films.

Twitter results

Again the horror genre was left with a very low 13%.

Therefore my next step after social media was giving a questionnaire I created on survey monkey to a random group of people. The survey included questions such as 'How often do you watch horror films?' and 'What is your favourite sub-genre for a horror film?'. I felt as if these are the types of questions I should have been asking in the first place. 

I found out various aspects from this questionnaire such as the majority of people chose slasher as their favourite sub-genre and that people liked horror films for their expect, although still terrifying, jump sequences. Even though a short percentage of the people I asked didn't even like horror films, they still knew what it took to create a good one, which was by following the common forms and conventions.

This questionnaire is where I got the conformation to do a slasher horror film trailer, as it was the most popular sub-genre. I then grouped together the people who chose slasher and created a focus group. I would return to this focus group any time I needed feedback on research, planning and construction. The group consisted of 5 people. My target audience was 15 although my focus group ranged between the ages of 16 - 20, this was to enable me to gain a wider knowledge of people's opinions. 

Below shows some of the contrasting results I gained.

 The results above show that the female focus group member, aged 19-21, sometimes watches horrors films as they make her feel scared. However her favourite sub-genre in the horror genre is a slasher film and believe the setting should be somewhere deserted. The group member likes jumps scares and believes the antagonist should be revealed to the audience.

The second bunch of results shows another female focus group member, ages 16-18, who always watches horror films as they make her feel multiple emotions such as; scared, nervous and excited. The group member's favourite horror sub-genre is also a slasher. However they believe the setting should be a domestic house. She enjoys jump scares and also believes the antagonist should be revealed. 

Although the results have differences, both group members agreed on slasher being their favourite sub-genre. Both agreed it was a good idea that the antagonist be revealed, however the two group members didn't agree on the setting. I decided to go with a domestic house hold because, as mentioned throughout my blog, I wanted to make my horror trailer postmodern. Having a domestic house would help put the audience in a false sense of security, as this could happen to any one of them. 

I also gained feedback after my product was complete. I uploaded my main production onto my YouTube channel so that my target audience could view it on any type of device no matter where they are. Below is one of the comments which has been left.

Although this was a positive comment it didn't go into detail on what was good about the trailer and what could of been improved. 

I thought it would be a good idea to do a final questionnaire, since I did one before my production. This questionnaire was given to the 5 individuals in my focus group. I felt it was important to give this survey to my focus group as they have experience just as much as I have during the making of my production. 

Example One

Example Two

 Reflecting on the answers from the questionnaire, It is clear that one of the common forms and conventions was not meant, as this was a slasher film it would of been more obvious if blood was used. However I felt this wasn't needed for the trailer as it would be used throughout the film, although my audience did. Except for this I feel that my audience helped me learn just what people want to watch. Without having a focus group I would have been unaware of the good or bad decisions I was making.