Evaluation Task 3 - What Have You Learnt From Your Audience Feedback?

Pre Production Pitch - 
As part of our pre production we were asked to create a presentation containing our initial ideas and pitch it to our class mates and teachers. The pitch was recorded and uploaded to our blogs. After pitching our ideas we were then able to receive positive audience feedback and constructive criticism based on what was discussed. 

Positive	Negative
Storyline Narrative         Clip Ideas           Strong understanding of genre conventions           Target audience	Characters            Production Company Logo’s

From this we received both positive and negative feedback based on elements such as unique selling point, target audience, production company logo, plot outline and narratives, characters, generic conventions, trailer conventions, music, and settings & locations. Some of the positive feedback we received from our audiences admitted positive uses of genre and trailer conventions, as we researched existing codes + conventions and considered how we could apply them to our trailer, for example including sound effects such as police sirens and eerie back ground noises. Other positive comments we received included feedback regarding our storyline, plot layout, and use of narrative revolving around a game of hide and seek. In our pitch we also included a list of clip ideas that we have brainstormed before presenting our ideas to the class, the feedback from these were all positive showing our involvement in the planning and eagerness considering elements such as camera work. 

Change 1. 

Although we received such positive feedback from our teachers and peers we were also warned to consider realism in elements such as age within the storyline and characters. Although we wanted to base our storyline around a teen mother, we were advised it was important to establish the relationship between the mother and daughter, as our main actress Alissa may not be believable as a mother for the audience, as she is only 18.  Therefore we agreed it was important to cast the daughter young enough to manipulate the audience into thinking she is mother, 'Sarah's' child. We had various changes in cast as to who would best fit that part. We eventually clarified Bluebell (Alissa's younger sister (4) ) would be playing the part. This was very effective during their on screen relationship as both Alissa and Bluebell were both comfortable acting with one another and this is massively shown in their clips together. We also used mise en scene elements such as sound and voice clips to emphasise the role of Alissa as the missing girls Mother, we included dialogue such as 'Its all your fault' and 'You should have known better' to be played after the audience is aware of the little girls disappearance. Dialogue like this suggests to the audience that the situation is down to her immaturity and incapability to look after a child, and that she is still one herself. 

Another piece of constructive criticism we received was based on our idea of using two production company logos. As our original group gained a new member, he also wanted to include his production company logo 'Black Out Pictures' as well as our original SKS Productions. Our teachers decided against this and decided it would be best to use just one production company in our trailer.  Therefore we have only included one title page showing one production company "SKS Productions".

Trailer -

Me and Sophie designed a questionnaire based around our trailer to gather feedback from audiences, when creating the questionnaire we considered thoughtful questions such as "Would you go and see the film in the cinema after watching our trailer?" and "Did you feel the editing builds in intensity towards the end of the trailer?" by asking questions such as these we can accumulate a general audience response of the overall opinions of the trailer and adapt key elements such as sound and editing to further enhance our product. Using a pie chart on Microsoft word I was able to generate a simple layout of the feedback.






     





Questionnaire for Here I Come;
1. What are your opinions on our main mother character? 
- The general response from this question showed audience members to enjoy Alissa's role on screen  as mother believed her and her daughters relationships as a young single mother to be a realistic scenario as many women/girls these days give birth at younger ages. Comments such as "A realistic character perfect for the role and shows a close relationship with her daughter despite her age" show success in our efforts to portray the family situation through use of sound effects and camera techniques. Other comments included "Very good actor, so realistic I built sympathy for her towards the end and I hope she ends up finding her daughter!". Reposes such as these show positive audience feedback as the trailer enabled audiences to build emotion towards our characters and the plot, therefore they become more engrossed throughout the trailer as it develops. However, not every response idealised the choice of character as some audience members wrote comments such as "confused by her age" and "too young to play the role of a mother"  we expected one or two remarks regarding the age of our characters as not all audiences members are aware of the growth of teen pregnancies, however we believe our trailer highlights this situation and shows teen mothers to be determined, strong and loving towards their children. If we were to recreate this trailer again, we would consider casting an older mother or a younger daughter.

2. What do you think of the plot?
- Again we received various positive comments based on our plot as audience members seemed to really enjoy watching gripping story lines revolving around realistic events with mysterious twists. Comments such as "Brilliant" "Excellent" and "So realistic I loved it!" indicates the storyline engaged them as 95% of our feedback showed viewers would go and see the film at the cinema after watching the trailer. Young women and mothers showed great enthusiasm towards the mothers strength and determination throughout the trailer which implies the storyline was successful.

3. Is the relationship between the mother and daughter realistic?
- This was an important factor in our trailer as we did not want to devalue our product because of the age of certain characters. We based our plot around the events of a young single mother as these are typical targets in thriller films as females are associated as weak and vulnerable, especially on their own and even more so with children. When casting our roles we changed the role of the daughter multiple times to ensure we could create the best and most realistic relationship between the two characters. The feedback we received on this question included answers such as "It is very clear they have a create relationship, almost as if they were actually related" this clarified our final decision was the correct one to cast Alissa's little sister Bluebell as the daughter of mother Rosie. This was a very successful decision as their family dynamics was apparent on screen as bluebell looks up to her sister almost like a mother.

4. Would you go and see the film in the cinema after watching the trailer?
- After creating a pie chart to hold all of the information that we collected calculations showed us that 95% of audience members that watched the trailer, would then go and view the film at the cinema. This is one of the most important feedback results for us, as the aim of our trailer is to encourage viewers pay to see the whole film.

5. Could you give feedback on what you thought of the ending of the trailer?
- We had mixed expectations for the results of this question as we decided to leave the end of our trailer ambiguous, therefore viewers where unable to predict the outcome of the trailer, furthermore encouraging them to view the film at the cinema. Comments such as "Great use of sound and music" "I loved the special effects make up, so spooky!" and "Great use of editing to build intensity and climax as the trailer progressed". These were all key elements in creating the end of our trailer as we wanted to confuse audience members leaving them wanting more.

6. What did you think of the music and sound effects used in our trailer?
- A large amount of the response we received from our questionnaires highlighted the affective use of sound within our trailer. We layered different audio's such as sound effects, voice overs, music and dialogue in key parts of our trailer to add to the suspense and intensity. Comments such as "Very creepy, effective for a crime thriller", "Need to be a little louder, the sound at the end is so haunting" and "Loved the fact you used a twisted nursery rhyme in the background as the story was about a missing girl" show that not only did we appeal to our main target audience, but we also applied genre conventions within to convey our crime thriller.

7. Do you feel that the editing builds in intensity towards the end of the trailer?
- The editing was a key stage in our project as we believe this is where we could attract the widest target audience through conventions of crime and thriller genres such as montage editing and key sound effects such as sirens and heartbeats. A stereotypical convention of a thriller trailer is to build in intensity as the trailer progresses, comments such as "Perfectly" "Yes" and "As the pace increases so does the intensity" shows we conformed to this trailer/genre convention.

From the results of our feedback we are able to adapt any minor changes, and learn from constructive criticism what worked best in our trailer. The positive feedback highlighted affective use of sounds, editing and camerawork throughout our trailer and negative ones include adaptions in lighting and casting that will be considered in future products.



Social Media Feedback

During the editing stages we were able to share our progress with our friends via social networking. By uploading our trailer to our friends, family and other potential audience members we were able to gather information on what worked well and what needed improving. As young adults are our main target audience we decided to upload our trailer to Facebook where we received a range of feedback. We uploaded the final product via the Facebook page we created for "Here I Come" as a marketing approach to target our main demographic of young adults age 15-35.  After conducting some market research we realised that this age bracket often socialise on social media. As well as this social media can also be used as platform for free advertising amongst consumers in which we can interact with them by replying to their comments and feedback on our trailer. 

The feedback received was very encouraging as the majority of comments were positive such as "creepy sound effects", "dead spooky" and "Gave me chills" which generates the types of response we are looking for as a production company. Other comments mentioned the verisimilitude in the trailer with the use of sounds and effects to add to the atmosphere of the trailer. 

Change 2 -

We also received feedback such as "one improvement is make the lighting darker" to which we can adjust technically through 'Luma Key' and colour contrast on premiere pro to foreshadow the upcoming danger. Low key lighting is a key convention of crime thrillers as it adds to the eerie mood however we didn't include enough shots at night, therefore me and Sophie went out and recorded new clips of a wounded women lying on the floor in the woods. This is shown in the screenshot below where the colour drops in contrast as the equilibrium begins to shift. 

Other constructive criticism we received was adjustments such as the length of time the credits appear for at the end of the trailer, and building the sound effects for longer as the trailer intensifies as climaxes. 

Change 3 - 

After reviewing the feedback we received based on our trailer, it was apparent that we hadn't included enough inter titles between the action shots for example the release date and 'from the people who brought you ... '. Originally, the only inter title in our trailer was the film title, therefore we included extra information considered by audiences. We used Adobe Premiere Pro to design the title pages  revealing information between clips in our trailer. These inter titles includes a production company logo (which was adjusted to feature just one company), a news extract (to reveal the name, age and other information of the disappearance of the little girl), the film title, and 'from the people that brought you stillborn'. The inter titles where edited to sync with the rhythm of trailer and to raise and drop the pace. We decided to design each separate inter title with the same synergetic format which was a black background, and bold white 'chiller' font, therefore audiences can associate this style/theme with our trailer as it becomes recognisable. We revealed our film title in separate inter titles between shots of the mother to manipulate the audience into believing the title is appearing as the mother is speaking it, as part of the game of hide and seek. 

                                              

Poster Feedback -

As part of our post production we were asked to individually create a film poster for our trailer "Here I Come". When designing my poster I created a couple of draft versions to gather feedback from my peers and teachers on what worked well, and what could be improved. 

Draft 1                               Draft 2                           Draft 3

Positive  - 

- Synergic as the colour scheme is repeated throughout

- Main image of the little girl

- Colour connotations 

Negative - 

 - No mention of star power or credits of the film

 - No release date or unique selling point

Change 1. 

In draft one of my poster I conformed to basic film poster conventions such as film title, production company, reviews and quotes. However, when reviewing my poster with my teachers and peers it was apparent that some conventions such as release date, usp, star power and star ratings. Therefore I went back to photoshop where I was able to reedit the original 'psd' document and I added a brief overview of the film "Heart wrenching tragedy which turns a families worst nightmare into a reality" by adding this small piece of information such as this it appeals to audiences as they can identify the genre and gain a brief overview of the storyline to decide if its something they would go and see or not. 

Change 2.

Another piece of constructive criticism I received was based on a typical convention - a release date. Initially this was not an element I had considered as we had not chosen an exact date for the film to be released. However after researching similar crime thriller films a lot of horrors/thriller films come out around October as this is traditionally the month for ghosts and ghouls, therefore consumers are more likely to visit the cinema in their free time and watch our crime thriller. I also decided to include my red colour connotations for the release date as it stands out from the page as the only number therefore, even if viewers don't read the whole poster, they will most likely know when it will be released.

Change 3. 

The final improvement I made to my film poster was adding the edit credits of my trailer under my film title on the poster so that audiences could identify the main actors, directors, producers and other cast and crew. By including my actress name "Alissa King Underwood" and her face as the cover, star power is generated as fans of her will come to see the film just because she is in it. 

Magazine Feedback - 

During the post production stages we were also asked to make a film magazine front cover. In AS we were taught basic photoshop skills and we recreated an original magazine cover in preparation for this task. Therefore we thought it was key to research conventions of magazine front covers such as Mastheads, cover lines, puffs, pugs, tag lines, incentives, dates, barcodes and price to include in this years magazine cover. I presented my magazine cover along with my poster to my teachers and peers where I again collected various feedback for the design of the magazine. 

Positive -

- Composition of main image

- Cover lines

- Poster incentive 

Negative -

- No low key lighting 

- Empty Space 

- Barcode + Date

Change 1. 

When reviewing my poster after each draft stage, it was apparent that my magazine cover was lacking in low key lighting and colour contrast. As you can see from the drafts, as the process went on each draft was adjusted in 'brightness and contrast'  on photoshop to convey a more eerie atmosphere and apply the genre through convention. I also used vector masks to darken the background and brighten the mothers coat in the foreground of the image, this was also enhanced by turning the layer to black and white and lowering the opacity. This also meant that key information stood out more on the page. 

Change 2.
Before my first draft, I was told my poster lacked images other than the main one as the magazine appeared to have negative space. Therefore, I decided to create a film strip where I took screenshots from my trailer and added them onto a 'film strip'. This allows audiences to gain insights into the trailer and encourages them to purchase the magazine by writing 'behind the scenes action'. This way viewers are drawn to buy the magazine as it holds information that the film/trailer does not reveal.

Change 3. 
Before finalising my magazine poster I was advised by my teachers to created a check list of the different types of magazine conventions to make sure I had created the most realistic and professional looking film magazine. These included all extra conventions such as barcodes to make the magazine appear as if it is an actual product, a price to inform consumers how much it is per magazine, and a release date to show that it is a monthly magazine which I then added on photoshop.