Draft Evaluation Question Four

What have you learnt about audience feedback?

As a class we were able to participate in many focus group screenings, which allowed us to give and receive both positive and negative feedback about the trailers in the class. This formally structured focus group allowed criticism to be used only for helping the trailer be improved and not for putting others work down. 

Our first screening was when we had just started our trailer and had a rough cut of our idea. We believed it was important to show our trailer so early on in the development process so that if any major issues arose we were able to change them without panicking. The rough-cut feedback was done very formally and in a controlled manner. We had sheets to fill out with a score box out of ten in the top right corner, and then a ‘what you like’ box and ‘what could be improved’ box. This allowed all the feedback to be anonymous and for people to all have their own opinions on the trailers progress.  Not only was this stage vital for the production of the trailer but also it was very important as it was the first time we got to self evaluate our work as a group.  We were able to also fill out the sheet about our own work, being critical about the weaker parts. The self-evaluation progress really helped us as a group to find some stability of where we are and what things we personally felt we needed to focus more on.  With the evaluation sheets I got given back I took it upon myself to type up the results and then write a small evaluation of what had been said. This way I was organized to look back and see what I needed to change and what others thought was already very successful in our trailer. Our score out of ten was an astonishing eight meaning that the majority of the class enjoyed watching our trailer and had many positive comments to feedback on.

The majority of the class really liked our general story line narrative and said that the actual plot really works well for our choice of trailer and would appeal to our particular audience very well. We got a variety of positive comments including a great use of different camera angles, a wide range of shots, a good use of pace and a very creepy location.  You can see the great use of the creepy location when we get a panoramic view of the woods later leading onto the outside of the abandoned house.  This automatically brings the audience out of their comfort zone and shows that the remote location could signify danger and represent a lot more than a mysterious house.

Many more positivity’s were mentioned which allowed our group to really focus more on the negative comments so that we could precisely find the main reasons for the negative feedback and be able to change these to please the audience when watching it.  Negative feedback was a vital part of the production side of making our trailer. We took the negative comments and tried to manipulate them into being things to work on, and in some cases we used the negativities to create something that now stands out in our trailer as being a very successful part.  This is shown in the darkening of the trailer. Our first attempt at the trailer came out very light and did not have a negative vibe throughout it, and the darkness and contrast really needed to be edited.  In our final trailer you can see this improvement and can really see the difference that the darkness can make.

A majority of our feedback mentioned that our quick paced montage of shots needed to be quicker. When analyzing the trailer ourselves we also thought that this was an important part of the improvement stage and therefore took a lot of time to edit each individual shot and make them look and feel more paced and rapid.  We can see this in the shot when Frankie is being dragged away by the demented girl.  In our edited version you can see that the pace really improves the impact of the shot itself and therefore the feedback given was a very good piece of critical advice.

In our second focus group screening (when the trailer was basically finished) it was a chance for us to say the things that work really well and the positive comments on the improvements that had been made on the trailer. This gave us a chance to hear what others thought of our final product alongside hear comments that people thought could have been improved better if we had more time. As a group we found the second focus group more reassuring, and it made the editing worthwhile. The second focus group was more relaxed (as there was less critic to be given with the edited versions) and therefore we were all allowed to discuss what we thought worked really well. All groups commented on our final jump scare at the end of our trailer and said it was a very memorable moment.

I found that audience feedback not only helped with editing our trailer, but also helped me as an individual to take on criticism and make it better, rather than get defensive of my work. Audience feedback helped me to understand my target audience to a higher level and therefore I was able to adapt my trailer and fit the requests of the horror fans.