What have you learned from your audience feedback?

(Please ensure that  you click on the links as the information will help you understand my answer more)

Initial audience research:

• Audience feedback was vital throughout every stage when creating my media products, in the research stage I needed to gather data about the demographics of my target audience so that I could see what my audience wanted in all three products. I did this at the research stage as is helped me to achieve what my target audience wanted in all three media products from the beginning of the my coursework. In order to see what my targeted audience wanted in my horror trailer, I created a survey on survey monkey called ‘the horror trailer film questionnaire’.
• Because of this survey I was able to make decisions about the basic things that were to be involved in my horror trailer, such as it being a psychological horror, eerie settings and scary music,  and the man being at large. So, I chose my horror movie to fall under the psychological genre, to be set in the woods and my main character to be a and 18 year man . I did this so the audience could relate to my main character more as he was in the age group between 18-34.
• I also used audience feed back throughout my planning stage as the main purpose of this was to continuously interact with my target audience so that I was able to always see what my targeted audience liked and as a result the audience feedback aided me to make key decisions for when I was ready to start the creation process. I did this by creating drafts for each media product, this allowed me to develop my ideas through my planning as I was able to see what my audience liked and disliked about all three of my products.
• The amendments told by the audience ensured me that I was on the right track for producing very-well targeted products. Within these blogs posts I make known of the amendments made to each media product, so that I could see what I needed to create for my final product and to further achieve the needs of my targeted audience.
• For my poster drafts as I was stuck on how to portray Josh’s psychosis, I gathered a focus group together and asked my class mates which picture was best to use for my poster.
• I think the audience feedback helped me a lot at this stage because it helped me confirm my suspicious about various different things. The audience feed back also at this point was essential as it helped me to confirm ideas for my ancillary products and therefore enabled me to move on with the construction process.

-Trailer
–Poster
–Magazine

• As the medium of a magazine targets a much wider mainstream audience I had to get my front cover just right to meet the needs of my target audience, therefore I did a lot more research for my horror magazine than for any other of my media products because the conventions were not as easy to subvert, therefore in order to involve my audience again, I created a survey on survey monkey once more, to ask my audience what picture they felt best fit my horror magazine front cover called  ‘choosing the main image for my magazine front cover’, as I was unsure about which picture to use, I felt it was necessary to ask my targeted audience as, after all, its not what I want, it what my target audience want
• In the construction process it was crucial to have constant reassurance about what looked good and about what didn’t look good so that I knew that I was on the right track for all of my media products and without it I would have perhaps ended up with products that none of my target audiences wanted; so it wasn’t worth taking the risk. Because of this, audience feedback was very important as it pointed out any issues that I needed to change in order to improve my products that I may not have noticed myself.
• As I chose my product to be distributed by and independent magazine publisher and an independent film distributor it gave me much more of a creative license. However, even though my film magazine was created as the NO1 alternative magazine it was still necessary to fit the fundamental conventions that came along with a magazine as it targets a much wider audience. Because of this, I had to ask for more audience feedback throughout the construction process of my magazine as I wanted to 100% make sure that it was what my target audience liked.
• At the very final stage of the construction process for my magazine I was unsure on what magazine front cover looked best and more striking, therefore I left it to the public to decide, I posted a snapshot of both edited versions onto my Facebook (as looking at my demographic research too Facebook was one of the most ideal places to target my audience) and waited for responses. Overall my audience feedback aided me to make the right decision when picking which version looked best for my horror magazine, and without the feedback I may have made chosen the wrong version.
• Before starting my project there was always an awareness to consciously consider the audience at every stage of pre-production and production. So where decisions and revisions were made I had to put together a small focus group from my audience and consulted them and there preferences were taken into consideration.
• As the people in the focus group were all in my targeted demographic, I used this to my advantage and constantly asked for their advice. This finalised the choice of what draft I wanted to be my horror poster, and as a result gave me more confidence when going onto create my other media products, here are the different versions:

 

• Other than my class mates, I also posted the different pictures on to Facebook, (as looking at my demographic research I saw that Facebook was the most ideal place to target my audience) and left it to people online to choose which image was better in showing Josh’s psychosis for my poster, I got a lot of different responses which aided my decision. I learned after this audience feedback that although it was scary, a connection between the audience and the character will not be easy as his eyes aren’t fully shown.  I also learned that the picture on the right looks more realistic, without this feedback i would have perhaps not have had such an effective combination of products and therefore would not have reached a wide enough audience.

Audience Feedback post-production stages

I put together a focus group of 3 different students, male and female and from the ages of 18 -20. This qualitative approach to asking my targeted audience allowed me to get a more detailed answer and explenation into what I did well and what I didn’t well. I ased a range of people and different genders to mae my feedbac fair and varied.

Overall I learned that the things I did well on were:

1)

Things i did well:

• The use of effects when Josh knocked on the  camera as it portrayed the horror genre and made it more scary
• He was represented well – as he was shown as vulnerable
• I stuck to the psychological horror whilst also still being able to create tension through the minimal use of gore
• Making it scary
• The prominent use of the eyes in all three of my media products
• I haven;t used the stereotypical, traditional horror story

Things i could have improved on

• better quality

2)

Things i did well

• The sound effects
• The typical conventions in a horror trailer
• Josh was represented well and fitted into the psychological horror genre
• Making it scary because the disorientating factor
• Built suspense
• Used the same colour scheme and the same character throughout all media products,
• Deeper meaning

Things i could have improved on:

• The lighting
• The pixalated shots
• Clearer narrative

3)

Things I did well

• different camera angles
• breaking the barrier between character and audience
• Represented as someone who is normal but doesn’t show all underneath
• Making it scary
• The idea of my character being portrayed as normal in all three of media products
• Fulfilling the conventions of a psychological horror.

Things I could have improved on

• Add a couple more of the flashed to add more fear

What have I learned from this audience feedback?

• Overall I learned from this focus group that all three of my media products relate very well and that its definitely scary, however I also learned that perhaps I may have rushed a few things and made the narrative a bit too confusing.
• I also made a questionnaire and handed it out to 8 different people and showed them all of my media products. As I will not be able to build up a rapport with these respondants it will be more honest feedback. However, as the majority of questions asked in this questionnaire the responses may be rushed and not answered in full detail. However, as I’ve used a mixture of quantitative and qualitative such as a questionnaire and a focus group I will have varied responses from my audience.

• In order for my audience to answer these questions I sent the file to them over the internet so that they could reply online, this was a much better way to access my audience as its easier to target them online.

Here is the questionnaire that I handed out: Questionnaire

I have compiled a list of documents of the 8 different responses:

Questionnaire1

Questionnaire2

Questionnaire3

Questionnaire4

Questionnaire5

Questionnaire6

Questionnaire7

Questionnaire8

Here are my responses (this is the link https://infogr.am/post_production_questionnaire)

What have I learned from this audience feedback?

• Overall from this questionnaire I have learned that I have correctly fulfilled the sub-genre of my trailer through the use of editing, props and character types.
• 100% of people from my questionnaire all stated how they thought it falls under the pychological horror genre.
• However, on refelection, I have also learned from the responses of this questionnare that 50% of the people asked didn’t fully understand the narrative of my trailer, and looking back, I should have planned for a more clear story.
• I am very pleased to have found out that 100% of all respondants belived my trailer was scary. Both the focus group and the questionnaire have shown me how my trailer was scary and how I have successfully managed to fulfil the conventions of a horror trailer whilst also being able to experiment and subvert conventions too.

How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary texts?

Here I have put together a prezi presentation, uploaded it to YouTube and added audio over it so that my answer is made clear, please feel free to pause anything in the video if you have not had enough time to look over the points made

Please ensure that its up to maximum quality which is 480p.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of conventions of real media products?

So to wrap up the ways in which I used, developed and challenged forms of conventions specifically for my horror trailer were:

• I researched horror magazines, horror posters and horror trailers, mainly Donnie Darko, Shutter Island and Fight club in order to replicate the conventions that were in a psychological horror trailer.
• Initially finding out general horror conventions were an important place to start from, such as, dramatic angles, all titles are at the end of the trailer, Barthes enigma code, all settings must be isolated, costumes hair and makeup, non diegetic sound,
• Psychological horror conventions relied on the characters fears, guilt, eerie sound effects, beliefs, emotional instability and the supernatural
• I subverted the convention of a psychological horror including a lot of blood as I wanted the focus to be around Josh’s psychosis rather than based around the amount of blood he can draw from someones body, I did this by only including small snippets of blood.
• I included other elements of fufilling the conventions of a horror trailer, I added a synopsis with it to as it would put the plot of the story into perspective for when the audience watch my horror trailer.
• I converted the Propps character types as Josh was not a typical villain, so that my audience will be able to relate to him, this was done through the camera shots as whole trailer is seen from Josh’s point of view, as though the audience were seeing if from Josh’s eyes.
• The film Donnie Darko helped me to see how I could challenge the final girl theory as the narrative of my trailer is from Josh’s perspective and converted it in a way that it was perhaps ‘the final man theory’.
• This furthered my idea as it enabled me to challenge Judith Butlers idea of ‘all woman are seen as vulnerable’
• I used the film trailer Donnie Darko to give me ideas on how to portray Josh’s psychosis in my trailer by replicating the idea as he sees flashes through the mirror when he is getting ready for school.
• I challenged Laura Mulveys ‘male gaze’ theory as after researching a lot of horror trailers I could see that there was a definite theme throughout’ the sexualised woman, thus I challenged it and covered the girl in my trailer up.. because again this was something that I didn’t want my trailer to be dictated by as showing the audience Josh’s psychosis was far more important.
• I fulfilled Barthes enigma code through Josh’s flashbacks, Shutter Island enabled me to see how this was an important convention of a psychological horror.
• ‘The un-named protagonist’ is something that I saw in Fight Club and thought that I would have been a perfect way to portray Josh as well – I fulfilled this by using the same convention as there being 1 main protagonist, however also challenged the convention as the 1 protagonist by showing him as vulnerable.
• I also fulfilled the convention of my psychological horror being scary by removing the barrier between the audience and the main protagonist as Josh knocks on the camera…ultimately the dietetic element of my trailer fulfills my horror element

Other ways in which I fulfilled the conventions of a horror trailer were:

• The scary, dark and eerie non-diegetic sound over my trailer, here is the SoundCloud link for my Soundtrack for Lucid, I made the soundtrack myself, as I wanted to make sure that my music matched up completely with my horror trailer to further fullfil the convention of my horror trailer being scary.

• Isolated settings here is an example of where it is an isolated setting, he is on his own, no-one else is around, this was done as I felt it fitted well into the theme of a psychological horror too because the camera shows Josh – the main protagonist as alone, fearful and scared, whilst also portraying him to the audience as though he has psychosis.

• Costumes & binary opposition– costumes were a very important part for my horror trailer. Throughout Josh was wearing normal clothes; black attire, not only does this denote to the audience that he is a ‘dark’ character as it were, but it also shows how Josh is terribly normal. This was another aspect of my trailer that used Levi Straus’ theory of binary opposition as the normal clothes and the eerie settings are juxtaposed thus making my trailer scarier.

• All titles are at the end of the trailer : this convention was really important in fulfilling as seen from most other media products it enabled time narrative to unravel first before the equilibrium has been destroyed (Todorovv’s 3 part structure), this increased tension and suspense therefore also adding to the convention of it being a scary horror trailer.
• A convention that I subverted was; Todorovs 3 Part structure, the structure goes a bit like this:
  -State of Equilibrium
  – A disruption
  – A recognition
  – An attempt to repair the disruption
  – A return to equilibrium
  – New Equilibrium.However, my trailer follows the pattern of
  – A disruption (the girl singing at the beginning)
  -State of equilibrium (Josh getting out of bed)
  -A disruption – Josh looking the mirror
  -State of equilibrium (Josh putting kettle on
  -A disruption (From Josh in the forest to Josh slamming his bloody hand on the door)
  This is shown that equilibrium is not stored, and I wanted to subvert this convention as I found it fitted the psychological genre better, because showing the audience little flashes (disruptions) meant that they could discretely see his psychosis developing, until the longest disruption occurs- when his hand slams on the door.

Here is a PowerPoint presentation showing you how I’ve used real media products, challenged conventions and developed ideas for my ancillary products:

To conclude

• Overall I believe that my main product and my ancillary tasks both challenge, develop and use forms of conventions of real media products and as a result it has aided me to make them look and sound more realistic and, as a result would fit into the sub-genre of my product being a psychological horror. I feel that all of the ideas above have been a necessary part in order for my real media product to also fit into the alternative category. Analysing different media products provided me with a perfect platform to use and develop ideas and too see what the typical conventions are of a psychological horror.

Final production pieces

Trailer:

Poster:

Magazine: