EVALUATION

WHA T HAVE YOU LEA RNT FROM YOUR A UDIENCE FEEDBACK?

WHAT HAVE YOUR LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

I believe my audience demographic is predominantly males rather than females, simply because the themes explored are more likely to be interesting to males rather than females, although I am not ruling out females for being part of my demographic; there will just be a smaller amount of them. The research that I undertook into the demographic has prompt me to think about how my questionnaire answers will differ depending on the interviewee's age range and whether theyre male or female, as factors such as those my affect their opinions. For example, the poster is more effective to the younger members of my target audience due to Jack being the focus on it as he would be around their age, so theyd be more intrigued. If I had used somebody older as my main character it would have been more effective at targeting the older, adult part of my demographic. However, my plot needs, essentially, a younger main character as it more befitting to our plot, so it wouldnt be as convincing for our film to have an older, adult protagonist, although this would not apply to everyone, there is a risk, that I would be lessening my target audience by doing this, which Id prefer not to take.

 Poster I created my film poster but werent extremely happy with my title and sure whether I should add a tagline or not. Therefore I asked a few people their opinions on my poster in regards to where they think the title should be placed, what font of writing the title should have, and whether I should include a tagline or not. I specifically asked my target audience what style of writing they believe I should have, presenting them with a list of ideas so that I can see what suited them most, what they believed is most appropriate for this poster. I personally wanted something simple, easy to read and in a Sans Serif font, so it is bold and more informal to have connotations of the real-life topics of our drama aspect. Out of 11 different font styles, 4 were mainly picked. But the results were a bit of a mixed bag as out of 10 people asked, 2 people selected one type of font (Yanone Kassefatz), 1 person selected another type of font(Familiar Pro), 2 people selected another type of font (Europe Underground Worn), and 4 people made up the last selected font (LL Rubber Grotesque).This made me realise that the plain/non-worn out styles of font make my film poster look too clean and smart in appearance and it needed some roughness to it. As the largest percentage selected font style was the worn out/deteriorated style of font LL Rubber Grotesque, I concluded that that type of font must be the type I use for my poster, although I had doubts on that certain styleLL Rubber Grotesque, This is as the people were questioned by looking at the list of font styles on the questionnaire sheet and a copy of the film poster separately, they had to imagine what it would appear like. So, I thought it might be too much of a horror-styled font when it actually goes on my poster. So once I did try it out on my poster, I discovered that this is the case; it gave it too much of a horror-type film feel, and that Europe Underground Worn was much better suited to my film and my poster as it better represents the themes and slight rough edge about my film.

 I also asked them for any other comments and/or improvements on my poster. Everyone stated that the dark colours and shading were connoting the thriller genre, and the bleak themes explored. Dramas also conventionally use themes of mystery, lies and morally wrong elements, so the slight shading of the face represented the drama in specific. Some people thought that it is very plain as it is only of one character surrounded by shadows and darkness. Also someone suggested that it is too ambiguous, as the audience do not know who or what the character is looking at, where this character is, and what they are doing. An individual said that it may be more interesting to add a background on the poster rather than just a black background fill. From this I learnt that I need to add a bit more interest in my poster rather than keep it completely simple so I added a tagline. I asked my audience if they believe that my posters colour schemes are reflective of the drama/thriller genres that my film mainly consists of. As the palette consists of dark or dull colours, it touches upon the types of elements which would form the conventions of the thriller genre. Also the shades emanate a certain feeling which sets the tone for the film- -themes given include the character in the film being uneasy, thinking about or doing something difficult and that he is troubled altogether. There were also some people which said that the posters colour scheme was leaning a bit too much towards horror as the major part of it is the black background. Some even said it looked a bit like a documentarys poster as it has the dull grey writing, and the nearly monochrome effect (grey writing and black background) which is typically used by realist films of the documentary genre.

 To review my article, I sat down with a small focus group of 6 people in my media class and the other media class, that are all within my target audience. They all mentioned that it looks rather professional and sophisticated. This was down to my colours choices; the medium tone of green used was not too bright yet uplifting. They mentioned that it is very definitive of the type of audience that would be interested in that type of magazine. For example, if it were a bright blue as is Odeon magazine for example, it would represent a completely different type of audience; commercial, big budget, feature filmseeking. You can tell this simply from the colour scheme of a magazines articles. Some even said the white background and dull-ish but still there shade of green were representative of our drama genre, however this was unintentional on my behalf as I only designed my article to suit the type of film that it is, not the genre. This is because the magazine that the film article would be printed on could have any genre of film on it, so it wouldnt be genre specific, more a generic house style which is a one design fits all, because the films that would be spoken about on there would all be very similar in the sense of that theyd be independent and low budget. So the colours are 100% reflective of that factor, which is whats most important. Additionally, somebody added that they like how the extreme long shot shows a great deal of landscape so the moment you turn to that page in the magazine youre transported to that location (the films world). The people in my focus group were all very conscious of how to create magazine article in InDesign so the information I collected is as beneficial and professional as I could get it (without the participation of any of my tutors), as they would have the right eye for editing in this way.

 I showed the rough cut of our film to my target audience specifically asking them if it thrilled or interested them, as that Is the main aim of our film, but also requested any comments or criticism. Half of the 10 people who watched it were interested and thrilled and the other half werent. Answers included those along the lines of it interested me, but werent thrilling and some shots were a bit too long, a bit exaggerated. The reason some werent thrilled was because our soundtrack was not yet added to the film, and without it, the audience would not get the right feel from the film. The non-diegetic music would immerse the audience in the film as it is another form of stimuli from us, as the directors, to encourage them to comprehend what is on the screen, the way we want them to perceive it. So from this I learnt that music and sound effects are extremely important and must be used cautiously. Some said that the long shots actually drag out the situations portrayed on screen and actually build anticipation. I also had an answer from one person in our media class who said we had various shot durations and very relevant shot composition. The theory of uses and gratification suggests that people use the media for gratification (reward, satisfaction) of social or psychological needs. Gratifications can be obtained through a mediums (media text) content (e.g. watching a specific programme of their likes), from familiarity with a genre within the medium (e.g. as the medium in the above example is a TV programme; watching a soap opera), from general exposure to the medium (e.g. watching TV as a whole) and from the social context in which it is used (e.g. watching it with friends). The social context in which my film relates to my research as the majority of interviewees watched it in a class environment but some watched it in a different social context, at home. Uses and Gratification theorists argue that peoples needs influence how they use or respond to a medium. Zillman (Cited by McQuail in 1987) has shown that mood affects choice i.e. boredom encourages the choice of an exciting content, stress encourages the choice of relaxing content. So as some of my interviewees watched it in a class environment and a few at home, it depends on what their mood was in both locations as to whether they were thrilled and interested or not. If their mood wasnt correct to watch a drama/thriller, their view could have probably been different than if they were in an excitable mood to watch that genre within the film medium. This relates to my research as it explains why my audience had different or opposing views.