One of the most
important components throughout this project has been the feedback I have
gathered from my target demographic. Through doing this research I gained vital
knowledge into what they wanted and was able to cater my products to suit their
needs. Doing this through many means of research gave me broad and reliable
results to help shape the direction of my project.
My initial research
was carried out on the site QuestionPro.com which allowed me to create a survey
and post it on social networking sites to gain insight into what my target
demographic wanted. This helped me make an informed decision on what age rating
I should give my film and my group and I decided upon a 18 certificate based on
the audience feedback. Questions such as ‘favourite murder weapon’ and
‘scariest location’ gave us ideas on what scenarios we could carry out within
our trailer and help us consider which conventions we should use, develop or
break.
After we completed
the trailer, we held a focus group where we screened the trailer and everyone
completed a short questionnaire to help them evaluate our work. Open questions
were necessary to receive detailed, qualitative answers and aid us in seeing
problems which may have passed our minds. We asked them to reply with honest
opinions in order for us to get reliable answers and then take actions to
improve.
The questions gave
us insight into what conventions were recognisable and allowed us to compare
our piece with other conventions within the industry. Many responses mentioned
the soundtrack which built up in pace, complimenting the pace of the camera work
and editing. Also, the production company logos, colour scheme (black, white
and red), captions, end card and voiceover were all mentioned which shows we
have adhered to many conventions within the genre and trailers in
general.
Also to understand
what the audience liked most about our trailer, in order to see whether we had
conveyed the narrative successfully or not. The majority of participants
explained that they liked the use of point of view shots as this broke a
convention of many generic slasher films. They also commented that from this
angle they felt even more uneasy about what they were watching which was an aim
of ours from the outset. This was a success for our group as these two key
features of our trailer really expresses the roots and inspiration of our film,
Peeping Tom.
The responses on
what our audience believed could be improved. The most popular response was
identifying the lack of variety in terms of shots and skills in conveying the
meaning of the narrative through mise en scene. I believe this is true as many
of the emotions and tension which we had aimed to convey through the trailer
just weren't effective at all. Additionally, many said the use of dialogue was
vague and could have aided them in understanding the plot a lot better. I also
agree with this as a trailer still needs to transmit the main plot of the film
without giving away the resolution. However, it may appear that our group were
too afraid of giving anything away as the twist was such a vital part to our
story so we restricted ourselves in terms of ‘not giving too much away’ and
sacrificed successfully conveying the narrative in our trailer.
Lastly, as the focus
group consisted of around 20 people, we wanted to gain some further in-depth
and broad knowledge about our trailer so posted it on various social networking
sites to gain some feedback. Reinforcing points from our focus group, viewers
liked the use of soundtrack and point of view camera angles. We expected to not
get many critical yet constructive comments as it was a public post but we did
receive some very helpful feedback. Some commented that they wished more of the
narrative was conveyed in the trailer as it was difficult to follow, much like
answers we received from the focus group. This reinforced our answers from
before go give us broad and reliable audience feedback.
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