What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Once we finished our trailer, we showed it to students in our sixth form, and friends using social networking sites, we then asked 25 people questions about the trailer being shown. the demographic we introduced our trailer to were mainly the ages of 17 and above, to make sure that this questionnaire would not be biased in any way, we made sure that we knew what these people liked and disliked, some of these people did not necessarily watch slasher films, or even did not like slasher films as a genre. this was done in order to make this as fair as possible. Four questions were asked to each of these 25 people, and this allowed them to be all qualitative and open ended questions, so that we could gather both, criticism/negative and positive feedback. 

Once I posted my media product on social networking sites, such as Facebook, and YouTube, I instantly began to gain amazing feedback. However there lacked one very important piece to the answers I was receiving, and that was that they were somewhat biased, because these viewers were mainly friends, and they wanted to please, so they gave answers to please. So we decided to ask the following questions;

•  What did you understand from watching the trailer? 
• Are you able to relate to any of the characters and why? 
• How much more tension does the music add to the trailer? 
• Does the trailer end with a surprise? and does it help add fear within the trailer? 

This is so that they would feel that they were wanted to make honest opinions, whether they were negative or positive. looking at the first question; 

- ''What did you understand from watching the trailer?'' 

The reason we had asked this question was so that we were aware if we gave away too much of the narrative. this would mean the trailer was unsuccessful because the audience after watching the trailer would not pay to go see the film, as they would feel it has nothing to offer them. 

- ''The trailer tells me what the film is about, however while telling the story, it builds up tension and then drops it. the trailer does this occasional and I feel the need to want to find out now!!''

This is a very well and full feedback. from this I took away that the trailer did a really good job, in terms of keeping the audience on edge, however the plot was slightly over revealed, as we had included most of the killing scenes in the trailer, and there is no extra bits to the trailer, in consideration of extra scenes of characters looking worried and exploring the events. this would create additional tension and allow the killing scenes to be more spaced. The way in which we did our trailer, gives a sense of feeling that the film could only consist of killings, which is in fact wrong. So this is something we could improve on.

- ''Are you able to relate to any of the characters and why?''

The main reason we asked this question, is that because, it is important for the audience to be able to relate to the characters on screen, if not relate, at least be acknowledged of these kind of characters. Just like the location, which is a suburban location, this is so that the audience are able to relate to the location, so that they would feel some what uneasy in their own homes. the main aim for a media text is to create a bond between the character on screen and the viewer, the age group for the target audience, is more or less the same age as the characters being shown on screen.

- ''In a way I could relate to this. I myself have been involved in a situation like this, where I have felt used, and resorted to revenge. Even though it is not the right thing to do. while watching the trailer I was made aware that she was mad at a boy, and the cause for this, was the boy himself. I also began to generate sympathetic feelings towards her, even though what she was doing was wrong.''

This response tells us exactly what media texts, need to do, to subconsciously gain the viewer, either by sentimentally attaching the audience by feeling, or by thrilling suspense. This response was given by a female, I have chosen both males and females to ask the questions to. this is because then the results will be as fair as possible. 'A Perfect Get Away' is a film about two killers, that go out to an isolated island, and they are the serial killers, however because we know so much about them as an audience, we do not think it can be them, because we see the film from their perspective we think that they are innocent. However nearing the end of the film, we see another point of view of the story from one of the other couples in the film, and this immediately changes our views on them from negative to positive. Also 'Natural Born Killers' is a very good films in terms of flawing the audience, these two couples, are psychotic and even though they are viscous and aggressive, we are left to love them, this is done very smartly, because they are madly in love. 

The same question asked to a male and the answer was somewhat the same, - ''I understand the boy's position and the girls position, because when a boy, who is in a relationship makes a mistake, the girl is not easy to forgive.'' this tells me that both the male and female audience can relate to some or if not all the characters, meaning the trailer is fairly successful in my opinion because we have created a bond between the characters on screen and the audience.

- ''How much more tension does the music add to the trailer?''

The sound plays a very huge roll in the trailer, because it helps convey meaning, and initially tells the audience what to do and how to react, on a subconscious level. for example when watching a trailer, and the music begins to get all eerie, you instantly expect an interesting event to take place.

- ''I loved the music, it helped me understand what was happening. It actually made me aware of things that were about to happen. the sound in my opinion added a lot of value to the trailer.''

 This tells me that the sound was a very important piece, to the trailer. I decided to watch the trailer once without sound, and the next with the sound, I was astonished at the difference, even though I had heard what it was like with the sound, when I played it without the sound, the trailer had almost halved in value, maybe even nullified, compared to the one with sound.

- ''Does the trailer end with a surprise? and does it help add fear within the trailer?''

 I asked this question to find out if the trailer was in effect, any good at all. the response for this were very mixed, this is one of the twenty five results for this question;


- ''It makes me worried, because it is sudden and a by the end of the trailer, I made like a friendship with one of the characters, and when he was in danger, I feared for him, but it didn't show what happened to him next, so I was left at a cliff hanger. Really good marketing strategy!''


This response tells me that we did a good job with our trailer, and the audience are able to both relate and understand the narrative, without giving away too much information, leaving our potential customers on a negative side. However this also tells us that the montage sequence, when the tension really builds up, was very intensive and it had a good effect on the demographic. 

 I have gained a lot of feedback from the people who answered my questions. This has pointed out the positives and negatives within the trailer, and one important thing I have taken away from this, is that the sound, and edits should match, because it helps represent the meaning, that I was trying to portray. Also the importance of portraying fear into the audience, is very important, because that if you can get the audience to feel the way you want, then they are practically in your hands. Allowing you to eventually 'play' with them. The use of characters, and the characters on screen's social status also appeals to the audience, once again allowing the audience to be able to relate to them. However we could have made improvements to the media product, one of these improvements is that we should have had 'Point of view' shots, allowing the audience to be in the shoes of the character on screen. this would in some ways 'force' them to take place of the character.