3. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?
Our audience research was helpful as it enabled us to see our trailer from the perspective of our audience. It taught us what aspects of our trailer that were good, were done professionally and stood out for being unique. The feedback could also be elements of or work that the audience feel should not be a part of the trailer, were not done well and suggest improvements that could be made. Suggestions can range across all aspects of our content from our sound, editing, lighting and transitions; to things like our costumes, film settings and ideas. Furthermore, the Audience feedback would enlighten our group on the choices and decisions we made in making our trailer. For instance, our audiences opinions would teach us how well certain elements of our trailer were perceived and their opinions would be reflective on the effectiveness and accurateness or our groups feedback. Finally the feedback would also help our group be able to learn more on how we would do our project differently, given the opportunity to recreate it. Through a variety of mediums such as video feedback, written surveys and posts on social networks, our group gained a number of different opinions and pieces of audience feedback for us to analyse and draw conclusions with.
Video Feedback
One of the ways in which we gathered feedback was to film members of the target audience watching our trailer. Whilst filming the individuals, the camera could pick up in real time, all of the thoughts and reactions were from the viewers. After the trailer had finished we would also ask them a few questions about what they thought of the trailer. After we carried out the exercise, some of the feedback we received said that people were very fond of the chosen sub genre (zombies), and also the trailer's storyline about a post-apocalyptic world which featured both zombies and cannibals as threats to the survival of protagonists. This was evidence towards the accurateness and effectiveness of our group's research that we had carried out prior to making the trailer. This proved to some extend what our group had originally stated about the current popularity of the zombie sub-genre in horror. The fact that our target audience had in fact requested the implementation of more zombies confirms our groups belief that zombies are a very popular current trend in horror. Another thing that this information tells us is that, if our group were to repeat making our horror we should continue the theme/genre of having zombies due to its popularity. However our group should also include a greater number of zombies.
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Social Networks: Facebook
Another way of gathering feedback about our horror trailer was through social networks like Facebook. A member of our group would post our horror trailer on Facebook and request feedback from other users and members of our target audience. We would then review the feedback we received and draw conclusions from it. Facebook was an important tool in finding feedback about our media product as Facebook covers a large range of audiences. The fact that Facebook also lets people write their own feedback in the comments sections makes it easy to analyse .Whilst posting our content on Facebook, we received numerous comments and feedback most of which stated peoples opinions, likes and dislikes of our trailer. One of the most popular types of comments left on our feedback , that was often repeated, were compliments on the trailers soundtrack and sound effects. Many people stated that they liked the sound effects and the music and the atmosphere it created in the trailer. There were also one or two comments that stated the volume levels on the audio needed to be edited and potentially more dialogue in the trailer This information was evidence in favour of the ideas that our group had previously gathered on sound, and its effect on having success in a horror trailer. In the research stage, our group decided that an effective soundtrack was one of the five most essential factors in creating a successful horror trailer. Another thing that our group learnt from this feedback is that we should maintain the level of importance we assigned to making effective soundtracks and audio in our horror, if we were to recreate our product. Because, as the feedback reveals, the audience do appear to pay great attention to the sound in a trailer and has a big effect on their opinions of the trailers success. In a second attempt our group would try to ensure the volume levels for the audio were satisfactory and there is more dialogue.
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Written surveys
Another way in which we received feedback was through written surveys. Writing questions to receive written answers from our audience was helpful because it lets us analyse their words and use quotes as evidence. In our written survey we implemented questions such as "What elements of our trailer did you like?" and " Are there any improvements you'd suggest to be made?". These questions are quite direct which meant that the answers we would receive would refer directly to exactly what we wanted to hear. The feedback we received for our trailer was very positive. Some of the feedback included compliments made about the soundtrack, further confirming our original theories about the importance of sound in making a successful horror trailer. Other comments in the feedback referred to the horror trailer's sub genre of 'zombies'. in general, people showed a strong liking and interest to the use of zombies. However, some people said that the trailer should have included more zombies. Although this is a suggested improvement, this again confirms our groups prognosis of current horror interest. The fact that the audience not only enjoyed the use and implementation of zombies concludes this on a basic level, but the fact that the audience requested an even stronger use of zombies reflect on the popularity of this specific sub-genre, which our group discovered in our research. This feedback has also told our group that if we were to repeat the process again, we would once again use the sub genre of zombies as it have proven to be popular with our target audience, as we suspected. However if we were to improve even further we would use more zombie characters in our trailer.
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Conclusion
Our feedback taught our group firstly about parts of our trailer that they found good or could have been done better, the suggested improvements have given our group a much better idea of how we would go about making the trailer if we were to repeat the process. Furthermore the feedback has helped us measure the accuracy and effectiveness of the theories and ideas our group had derived from research. If our group were to remake the trailer after analysing the feedback we were given we would have made two main differences. One of those differences being increasing the amount of zombies that appeared in our trailer. Some of the most popular feedback from our target audience stated that they liked the zombie genre, however they would've preferred to see more zombies feature in the trailer. The other main main difference our group would make to the trailer would be the audio/soundtrack. Although once again, the majority of the comments about the sound and audio were positive, some feedback stated that the volume levels on the audio could be further perfect and suggested that the trailer should feature more dialogue. Therefore, if our group was to repeat the process of making a horror trailer we would make sure that the audio levels are further scrutinised and perfected, and more dialogue would feature in the trailer. The feedback also taught our group about accuracy and effectiveness of the ideas we had inferred from our research. One of the ideas that our group had derived from our research was that zombies was currently one of the most popular sub-genres in horror. Our feedback provided evidence towards this idea as some of the most popular comments made in the feedback expressed a liking towards the zombie genre. Even suggestions for improvements in the feedback backed up this idea with comments specifying they would like to see more zombies used in the trailer. Our group can conclude from this feedback that our inferences made about the popularity were in fact accurate, and were also affective as the choice of genre provided our with very positive feedback. Another idea and inference that our group had developed from our research was the importance of sound in a horror trailer. During our research, our group compiled a list of what we believed to be the five most important factors to consider, for a horror trailer to be successful. One of the factors we included was sound. The evidence provided in the feedback appears to also prove this point to be true. Some of the most popular and repeated feedback applauded the sound used in the horror, or suggested small improvements to be made to it. Good or bad, the fact that comments made about the sound were some of the most popular and repeated, shows that the sound and audio in a horror trailer is very important when forming an audience's opinion on the success of a horror trailer. This confirms our groups premise that sound is a key factor in the success of a horror trailer and plays a major part in determining the success of the product. In conclusion, not only has the feedback taught our group with an outline of what our group could've improved and done differently if we were to repeat the process; but the feedback has also taught our group that our research and ideas that has derived from our research have proved to be both accurate and effective in terms of making our product successful.