Saturday, 29 April 2017
Thursday, 27 April 2017
Wednesday, 26 April 2017
Evaluation 3
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Throughout the process of creating my coursework, I have ensured that I have carried out multiple audience feedback questionnaires to gain the opinions of the target audience. Doing this has given me a genuine insight as to what I could do to improve my products so that they would successfully appeal to the demographic we were aiming the film trailer at. It was important that we used the target audience as the participants to make sure that the feedback we are receiving relates directly to the needs of the potential recipients of the film trailer and ancillary products.
The first piece of audience feed back that myself and my partner carried out was our initial pitch of 3 ideas to the class; we presented our ideas to our media class, and carried out a class discussion on how we could develop these ideas, or if there were any that they didn't feel would work. Here is some of the feedback that we received from this presentation:
Throughout the process of creating my coursework, I have ensured that I have carried out multiple audience feedback questionnaires to gain the opinions of the target audience. Doing this has given me a genuine insight as to what I could do to improve my products so that they would successfully appeal to the demographic we were aiming the film trailer at. It was important that we used the target audience as the participants to make sure that the feedback we are receiving relates directly to the needs of the potential recipients of the film trailer and ancillary products.
The first piece of audience feed back that myself and my partner carried out was our initial pitch of 3 ideas to the class; we presented our ideas to our media class, and carried out a class discussion on how we could develop these ideas, or if there were any that they didn't feel would work. Here is some of the feedback that we received from this presentation:
- The majority of the audience ruled out the second idea that we had, which was based on a conventional romance narrative with two best friends falling in love; they felt that this was too generic and didn't allow us to explore more complicated and unique ideas.
- There was an equal split between the first and second idea, although we gained lots of ideas that eventually will help us to decide which one we want to choose.
- The audience who received our third pitch said that this idea was interesting as it follows an unconventional narrative that doesn't include stereotypical romance features.
- They did however question how we would be able to show our technical ability through the editing as it could be very difficult to show the violence in the film; this could be solved by using match on action edits to show different activities merging into one.
We used this feedback to help us develop the third narrative idea, using this their suggestions to create a narrative that we felt would be effective in appealing to the target audience. We did this as we agreed with the comments about it subverting the conventional romance genre and so it would help us to develop our skills on seeing how far we would be able to push boundaries while continuing to make the genre recognisable.
As it transpires, this narrative didn't work out; after we began to edit we discovered that the actors found it very difficult to portray the romantic relationship on screen, and this was confirmed by a second set of audience feedback; we had a meeting with our media teachers and we discussed if we would be able to work with what we had produced, or if we need to begin the process again. As a group, we came to the conclusion that the footage was too basic and minimalistic to use in an A grade film trailer, and comments from the teachers said how it was extremely linear, and didn't follow a trailer conventions. Because of this we had create a new narrative idea, that eventually became a thriller rather than a romance; when planning our new idea we gained suggestions from various members of our class, who helped us develop the narrative into what it is now. This wasn't formal audience feedback as it was often passing comments that helped us, however it was continuous in assisting us during the planning and production stages of creation.
Having produced the first draft of our film trailer, we carried out an audience feedback survey using Survey Monkey so that we could send it to people via the internet for convenience. We sent it to both males and females of the age of our target audience to effectively represent the target audience we had decided on, both primary (females) and secondary (males).
A previous blog post explains the results in more detail, but one of the most important things we learnt from carrying this out was that 90% of people felt that there were elements that conformed, but it didn't efficiently follow the genre. This was a huge piece of feedback that encourage us to re-edit the film trailer and carry out further days of shooting in order to produce some shots that met the convention of thriller. While we hadn't fully finished the trailer at this stage, we weren't planning to add extra footage to further conform to the genre until this was mentioned; the proportion of participants that selected this on the questionnaire raised it as the biggest issue that we faced, and it was rectified once we began to re-edit.
Following this, a second draft was published and another audience feedback survey created. We asked the same participants as we used in the first survey as they would be able to see the improvements we had made and assess whether this was enough or not. From this survey, also analysed in a previous blog post, 100% of participants agreed with that the trailer had improved; this question was left open to allow subjective comments to be made based on what they think about the second draft. Many said that the biggest improvement on the first draft was the inclusion of a voiceover throughout the beginning; we felt that some of the narrative needed an extra layer to help the audience understand the concept we are trying to explain, and the has been successful in doing so. A further improvement to made that was pointed out to us was that the outdoor shots that were included in a montage didn't reflect the genre; comments were made that they were too bright to portray tension or suspense, so this was something that we changed as a result.
These questionnaires have given us insightful opinions that have provided suggestions for us to improve on; there are elements that we would have never considered had we not gained any audience feedback.
The below results are from the final survey we asked a target group once we had completed the main film trailer product. The results have been analysed and explained. There are also 4 questions that were asked to the same group with egads to the film poster and the magazine cover - these haven't been analysed, however I also used a second method of feedback that will be discussed after:
Naturally, the production of my ancillary products took much less time than the main product due to the nature of the products I was creating. I made the decision to gain extensive audience feedback once I had completed both products as I felt confident in my abilities to create a poster and magazine that followed the stereotypical conventions.
Once completed, I made the decision to use social media as a way of getting in contact with the target audience for some feedback on the products I had created; I felt that this was an effective way of getting feedback as the internet is such prevalent media platform in today's society, therefore it would be more time efficient and easy to use. I used Twitter as my way of contacting people that I knew, who were within the target audience age bracket to provide me with bot strengths and weaknesses of the poster and magazine. I send a direct message to each person with an image of each ancillary with the attached message:
"hi, for my media coursework I need some feed back on some products that I have made! If you can, would you be able to give me you thoughts (both positive and negative) on the following products!"
The reposes I received gave me both constructive criticisms as well as positives, all of which have given me an insight as to how I could improve the ancillaries given the chance. Many said that the colour scheme of the poster was good at representing the genre, while the magazine had effectively represented the target audience.
From this feedback, I have learnt that many of the participants were able to follow the narrative of the film using the conventions of the poster form, as it allowed them to identify the fact that it was a film poster, and further figure out the genre using the codes I had used. They mentioned that the reflection that was put into the camera lens created a sense of ambiguity and mysteriousness; the ideal emotions provoked by the producer to the audience as they are close codes go the thriller genre. This set of audience feedback also highlighted to me that the magazine was my weakest ancillary product, as there are barely any hints of the genre to the audience, so prior knowledge would be required to understand the context behind the main cover line and article featuring the protagonist. I have also learned that despite being able to follow and meet the conventions of the magazine form, the representation of the film and genre needs to be stronger, with a darker image for example to help connote sincerity and seriousness, as the image was too bright to be able to do that. Some of the responses received are shown below:
Teacher feedback was an extremely important part of the production process; regularly, they would sit down with myself and my partner and watch the film trailer, giving us feedback on what went well and what we could do to improve; as we had difficulty with our original narrative, this was vital in helping us to make the decision to rewrite the narrative and move onto a different genre. Without this audience feedback, we would have been unable to create the film trailer to the standard that we have, as it was through their idea and suggestions that assisted us in developing the narrative to become what it is now. The teachers also left comments in a file that was created, where every blog post was recorded and comments given on how we could improve or what we needed to change. Comments included analysing the footage we had taken, and questioning whether we had repeated too many of the same type of shots; this inspired us to re-film some scenes to ensure we had gained the highest quality footage as possible. The teacher feedback also bought issues to our attention such as the use of sound - if this had been done in the most effective way in order to hook the audience in and maintain their attention on the trailer; upon reflection, we felt we needed more tension and suspense within the audio, and so encouraged us to locate further music that could be inserted to produce a sound that would build in tension and relay this feeling to the audience.
Naturally, the production of my ancillary products took much less time than the main product due to the nature of the products I was creating. I made the decision to gain extensive audience feedback once I had completed both products as I felt confident in my abilities to create a poster and magazine that followed the stereotypical conventions.
Once completed, I made the decision to use social media as a way of getting in contact with the target audience for some feedback on the products I had created; I felt that this was an effective way of getting feedback as the internet is such prevalent media platform in today's society, therefore it would be more time efficient and easy to use. I used Twitter as my way of contacting people that I knew, who were within the target audience age bracket to provide me with bot strengths and weaknesses of the poster and magazine. I send a direct message to each person with an image of each ancillary with the attached message:
"hi, for my media coursework I need some feed back on some products that I have made! If you can, would you be able to give me you thoughts (both positive and negative) on the following products!"
The reposes I received gave me both constructive criticisms as well as positives, all of which have given me an insight as to how I could improve the ancillaries given the chance. Many said that the colour scheme of the poster was good at representing the genre, while the magazine had effectively represented the target audience.
From this feedback, I have learnt that many of the participants were able to follow the narrative of the film using the conventions of the poster form, as it allowed them to identify the fact that it was a film poster, and further figure out the genre using the codes I had used. They mentioned that the reflection that was put into the camera lens created a sense of ambiguity and mysteriousness; the ideal emotions provoked by the producer to the audience as they are close codes go the thriller genre. This set of audience feedback also highlighted to me that the magazine was my weakest ancillary product, as there are barely any hints of the genre to the audience, so prior knowledge would be required to understand the context behind the main cover line and article featuring the protagonist. I have also learned that despite being able to follow and meet the conventions of the magazine form, the representation of the film and genre needs to be stronger, with a darker image for example to help connote sincerity and seriousness, as the image was too bright to be able to do that. Some of the responses received are shown below:
Teacher feedback was an extremely important part of the production process; regularly, they would sit down with myself and my partner and watch the film trailer, giving us feedback on what went well and what we could do to improve; as we had difficulty with our original narrative, this was vital in helping us to make the decision to rewrite the narrative and move onto a different genre. Without this audience feedback, we would have been unable to create the film trailer to the standard that we have, as it was through their idea and suggestions that assisted us in developing the narrative to become what it is now. The teachers also left comments in a file that was created, where every blog post was recorded and comments given on how we could improve or what we needed to change. Comments included analysing the footage we had taken, and questioning whether we had repeated too many of the same type of shots; this inspired us to re-film some scenes to ensure we had gained the highest quality footage as possible. The teacher feedback also bought issues to our attention such as the use of sound - if this had been done in the most effective way in order to hook the audience in and maintain their attention on the trailer; upon reflection, we felt we needed more tension and suspense within the audio, and so encouraged us to locate further music that could be inserted to produce a sound that would build in tension and relay this feeling to the audience.
Tuesday, 25 April 2017
Monday, 24 April 2017
Evaluation 1
In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Forms and conventions are elements within a product that make it recognisable to an audience as a specific product or genre. Psychological thriller contains many conventions that are included in films to indicate to the audience the genre of the film; these include visual elements such as low key lighting, which is used to address the tension within a scene and can be used to represent a character's inner darkness, as well as quick camera cuts to help build panic in a scene and enstill the emotions a character is feeling into the audience. There are also hidden elements that are located within a psychological thriller that provide the narrative so commonly associated with the genre; these often are shown in binary opposites like good vs evil, that form the basis of the narrative. As well as creating a film trailer, I also produced a poster and magazine cover, both of which have their own conventions of form.
Film trailer conventions include:
Film poster conventions include:
Film magazine cover conventions include:
Forms and conventions are elements within a product that make it recognisable to an audience as a specific product or genre. Psychological thriller contains many conventions that are included in films to indicate to the audience the genre of the film; these include visual elements such as low key lighting, which is used to address the tension within a scene and can be used to represent a character's inner darkness, as well as quick camera cuts to help build panic in a scene and enstill the emotions a character is feeling into the audience. There are also hidden elements that are located within a psychological thriller that provide the narrative so commonly associated with the genre; these often are shown in binary opposites like good vs evil, that form the basis of the narrative. As well as creating a film trailer, I also produced a poster and magazine cover, both of which have their own conventions of form.
Film trailer conventions include:
- Cast and production company details
- Film title
- Release date
- Short in length
- Sounds appropriate to the genre portrayed
- Slow pace amounting to a fast paced montage
Film poster conventions include:
- Film title
- Credits
- Main image
- A hook/tagline
- Release date
- Masthead
- Anchorage text
- Cover lines
- Star burst
- Barcode
- Issue date
- Price
- Sky line
- Main image
Throughout the A2 coursework process, I have attempted to both conform and subvert from the conventions of each of the forms, to ensure that make the products recognisable to the form but equally to challenge existing stereotypes to push boundaries and expand on what already exists.
In the below presentation I have evaluated how I have either used, developed or challenged thriller forms and conventions in my own three media products.
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