3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

One of the most important pieces of information that helped me throughout my coursework was the feedback that I received from my target audience. I collected audience feedback through different forms of research, and this was done in order to understand how to provide for their demands needs and wants. My audience’s feedback has helped me develop and improve all pieces in my coursework and ensured the end result was suitable and contained a mode of address that appeals to my target audience.

One of the first stages of gathering feedback from my audience was by using Questionpro.com which is a website that allows you to create a survey, which included questions that would help me to start forming my projects. I included questions such as ‘how old are you’ in order to understand who my target audience are and the age restriction appropriate for my film. We also asked them questions in relation to the generic slasher films, such as ‘what’s your favourite slasher film’, which enabled us to understand the level of gore and violent activity our audience was comfortable with. We decided to stick with the age restriction of 15 due majority of our audiences being a younger demographic, although they did like the idea of gore and violence, so instead we have catered to this need  by using Fangoria to promote our film, which is seen as a gore magazine. Alternative questions such as what weapon would they prefer and specific horror locations they liked best helped me make a decision throughout the planning of my trailer.

During the research process for my poster and magazine I decided to use a qualitative method so I was able to gain a further understanding of the fact and opinions of my intentional target audience. I printed a variety of designs for my poster and magazine in which I had presented to a focus group. For my poster, this had received a popular response of the idea of intertexual reference to The Ring, which seemed to have amused my demographic. Very few responded positively to alternative designs such as an image of the teenagers in the forest, as some stated this was too ‘plain’. Whereas for my magazine, majority of the responses that I had received from the focus group was in favour of Fangoria templates, as they liked the idea of gory images. They also discussed together the idea of Little White Lies being hard to identify a horror image, and therefore was their least favourite. The group as a team also liked the idea of our typography after describing the reasons why we decided to design it in the way we did, which was to represent pieces of ripped flesh, which had the colours of red and white, with joining drips of blood at the end of the lettering. This therefore helped me make my decision for my magazine and poster and also allows me to create a mode of address to suit my target audience.

After successfully completing the trailer, I shared this with a focus group in which they all seemed to have enjoyed. After we had gathered the group to watch the trailer, we then asked them to fill out a questionnaire that we had created beforehand of 5 questions, and this could help us evaluate our work. Before they answered the questions, we had explained briefly to the group what our project was about and why we would need honest opinions to see where we went wrong and how we could improve.
Here are the 5 questions that we asked the group: -

•       What elements of this trailer bear resemblance or how does it differ from other trailers you've seen? (Preferably within the Horror genre)
•         Using the trailer you've viewed, what exactly is the premise of The Return?
•        What segments or parts of ‘The Return’ trailer did you find most scary?
•       What were the worst and best elements of the trailer?
•       How could we improve these negative elements?

Our first questions expresses what the audience thinks our trailer shares resemblance to or how does it differs from other trailers. The audience were able to recognise that our trailer contained intertexual reference to the films in particular ‘The Ring’ and ‘The Grudge’, which both express female villains. Some people amongst the group referred to specific scenes that remind them of films they have seen. For instance a member of the focus group referred to our car scene which reminded them of the grudge, where others would suggest the trailer in general bear resemblance of ‘The Orphan’, which isn’t portrayed as a slasher film, although falls under the horror category. In relation to this, the audience also noticed slasher film usual codes and conventions of the villain being portrayed from a male’s perspective, and therefore were able to acknowledge that we had challenged this convention by using a female for our villain. Some members of the group also acknowledged the typical group of teenage friends that are conventionally seen within a slasher film. Other members of the group also recognised the sound that was being used and saw this as conventional and recognised this non-diegetic music such as the tension building music, and the heartbeat which was apparent throughout the trailer. This shows that the audience were able to understand conventional aspects of a slasher film trailer.

Our next question is asking whether the group understood the narrative within the trailer. We can see that majority of the audience were able to understand that main aspects such as ‘A girl went missing and returns to seek revenge’ which is what the narrative is primarily about. Although, some of the members recognised that the villain was in fact the adopted sister of the final girl, and her twin sister. This was only recognised by a few, which tells us we could have improved on this particular scene. Others recognised the conventional way a villain seeks revenge which is by killing off the characters one by one, which the audience were able to recognise due to our use of shots and montage editing which therefore created meaning for the audience. The high toned music were also able to allow the audience to know when a character is about to be killed, which automatically reinforces audience positioning as the audience get put in the ‘shoes’ of the villain which reinforces Roland Barthes

semantic code which expresses the idea of the audience viewing the narrative from the viewpoint of characters, and therefore are placed in a manipulative position which makes them feel uncomfortable, and helpless towards the characters, and this can help feeling can help the audience understand when a character is about to die. An example of this is expressed in our trailer where the camera is shot hand held to portray a point of view affect, which is racing towards a character behind their back, in which they are unaware of. This therefore reinforces the fact the audience were able to understand the narrative from the use of montage editing which created meaning, the use of sound and camera shots that we had used.

Our third question asked the audience what they found the scariest about the trailer. We receive a mixed variety of responses to this question, as some of the group suggested the fast pace edits which are seen as a convention in trailers frightened them the most throughout the trailer as this created tension amongst the audience, leaving them in suspense as to what is going to happen next, and this can lead to the audience wanting to watch the film. There is also the idea along these fast paced shots that the music played alongside rises at the same time of tension that is building amongst the audience, which can create further fear amongst the audience. However some referred to the slow pace edits that created tension, for instance a scene where our villain is walking down the road was one of the scenes a member of the group found the most scariest, and this was due to the scene being ‘quite chilling’ which shows our effective use of shots which were used in order to make the audience feel fearful.

The fourth question that was asked referred to what the audience found to be their worst and best

opinions on the trailer. Firstly, majority of the characters seemed to have enjoyed the high angled shots of the forest scenes which expressed the fear from the teenagers, which the audience understood the meaning of, reinforcing our effective use of camera shots. The audience believed this shot reinforces the characters fears as they are running through the forest not knowing where they are going, reinforcing their isolation. Others enjoyed the point of view shots from the party scenes which expresses the characters living their daily lives, reinforcing the ideology of teenage life style in which the audience felt they could relate to, hence why they enjoyed this scene. Alternative answered show that they enjoyed the sound of screams from characters which they believed to be effective use of sound that created tension to round off the trailer. This therefore shows that the audience were able to identify our effective uses of conventional aspects to form a formulaic shape of a traditional slasher film trailer. Although, there were also aspects from the trailer that the group found to be the worst. For instance some of the group did not like the idea of the villains identity being shown too early in the trailer, and that the identity should have been kept unknown until the release of the film as this could create more tension as to what the villain looks like. Some also disliked the fact they didn’t understand the plot of certain scenes, such as the equilibrium at the beginning of the trailer which some of the group did not understand how this related to the narrative, and this therefore tells us we should have made this clear this is the characters enjoying the normality of their lives before being disrupted by the villain, which is portrayed in Todorovs theory that expresses the 5 stages visible in slasher films. This therefore tells us as a group what we could have improved on.

Our last question therefore is based on what we could have done to improve our trailer, which gave the audience the chance to answer honestly. A lot of the responses referred to the ‘irrelevant scenes’ that they did not understand how the related to the narrative, and therefore their suggestions refer to introducing each scene more clear so that the audience are able to identify the meaning of each scene. This is particularly aimed at the party scene at the beginning of the trailer, in which some of the group did not understand this was expressing a typical teenager lifestyle. Others recommended that we kept the villains identity hidden until further down in the trailer, as this would have kept the audience in suspense, questioning the audience.  Other responses suggested the acting could have been better,

although they are not professional actors and therefore could not produce high quality acting.

Here is how we presented our final trailer to the focus group.

Although we had received a vast amount of feedback from the focus group, we wanted a wider response. In order to do this, I posted my trailer on popular social media websites such as Facebook which is commonly used by my demographic. Along with posting this onto Facebook, I had asked my demographic to give me some feedback. Majority of the responses were positive towards the trailer,
suggesting it was really ‘scary'. There were also a majority amount of other responses of people who

'liked' the trailer, reinforcing they enjoyed my trailer. There were no negative comments posted about the trailer, suggesting my demographic from social media websites were satisfied with my conventional formulaic slasher film trailer.

Furthermore, in order to gain a wider response I decided to construct an structured interview with a friend who also answered my pre set 5 questions after viewing the trailer. I believe that by having a variety of different types of feedback will offer me a wide range of different opinions, which could offer me a great range of feedback. Before conducting the interview I had made it clear to the interviewee that I needed honest feedback in order to help evaluate my work. I also alerted the interviewee that the interview was a part of my media coursework that was going to be filmed to be a part as my audience feedback. She clearly answered all 5 questions judged by her own opinions which were helpful as she expressed positive aspects of the trailer and drawbacks such as to make improvements on the props used in the trailer. She also understood the conventions seen through a slasher film as she understood and the resemblance of the The Return through films such as The Ring and The Grudge, which is what we ended to make reference to. The interviewee also understood the narrative being portrayed throughout the trailer, and this was recognisable through the use of dialogue, camera, sound and mise en scene. This therefore helps evaluate my trailer from a variety of responses such as through focus groups and through individual interviews which enables me to gain a wider result. Altogether, my audience has clearly shown their understanding to a formulaic conventional slasher trailer as they were able to recognise the conventions used.