Evaluation: What have you learned from audience feedback?

Throughout the creation of my media products I have developed my ideas due to the audience feedback that has been gained. Without the help of audience feedback I would have found it a lot harder to develop my idea and think of different ways I could change what I had created in order to make them even better. Having audience feedback allows you to have a range of opinions about the work in which has been created, showing you what works and why along with what doesn't work and how/why it should be changed. As soon as I gained feedback from my audience I made the changes that had been suggested and showed them once again asking if any further changes should be made. 

When asking for audience feedback I went to my target audience which are people that are around the age of 13-19 as they are the individuals that I want my media product to be targeting. The main character Hannah, is an attractive teenager herself which means that she is going to attract the attention of teenage girls of the same age of herself and teenage boys as the typically watch things due to the main character being attractive. This means that my film is going to be watched by both genders however I am mainly targeting a female audience. Although my film is following a similar storyline to Pretty Little Lairs I am expecting my film to have a niche market due to being a film created on a small budget, this means that I am not going to have large budget behind the marketing of the film like major films do. Due to filming my film in a school environment it makes it a lot more relatable to the target audience as that is what they do on a daily basis, also having three girls ganging up on Megan together is stereotypical of most teen drama films. These are two of the many aspects that my target audience said that they liked the most about my film when gaining audience feedback from them. As well as teenagers my film will also appeal to parents as they may watch the film at the same time as their children meaning aspects of the film also needs to interest them. When parents watched my film the most appealing character to them was Lilly as she tried to make the situation fair as she wanted Hannah to see that there could be more to the story and that Megan shouldn't be treated unfairly. Although the actions that Lilly took at the end of the film were wrong it has clearly been done for entertainment and wouldn't be copied by the audience. 

Here is a short clip of one the audience feedbacks that I got straight after the person had watching my short film for the very first time. The reaction that I got showed me without them having to say anything that my end product had been successful as they were shocked by the ending and complemented many of the different effects used like the typing on the screen in order to help the storyline to be understood. I also got feedback on what else I could have done better to show that although the film had been enjoyed there are always changes that can be made in order to make you work even better. 

My preferred method of gaining audience feedback was through conversations or over text messages where I had screenshot my progress and asked them what they thought. I was going to create surveys and questionnaires and go onto to analyse all of the data created and make tables etc to show my results. However this can become very time consuming, you may end up spending so long planning questions to ask the audience and creating the result tables that you have long enough to create your final products as best as you wanted to. I liked having conversations a lot more with people also as you could ask further questions about what they mean and how they think it should be done, as when using questionnaires and surveys they can have closed questions. Meaning you end up with a yes or no answer and no follow up about how you should go about making the changes that they feel like should be made.When asking for feedback I often made the changes while the person was there to see if the improved outcome was better. When asking for feedback from people over text this was dominantly for the ancillary tasks. I first created a rough idea of that I wanted the outcome to look like and asked for feedback from that point onwards. I would ask them if I was unsure about anything from the size of the front to if they feel like the review written was adequate. Due to technology being such a massive part of teenagers lives this was so much easier then planning to do interviews with people as the responses that I got were pretty much instant and I could then message them once again once I had made the changes and carry on the processes of getting feedback and making these changes until we were both happy with the outcome. 

Film Feedback: 

When asking my audience for feedback this one the video that I showed them. I didn't want to show them the absolute final product as they may say that I needed to change the way scenes had been filmed in order to make the storyline easier to understand, which did occur. As well as asking my target audience I also asked my media teacher who gave me a lot of help and direction of what I should change about the camera angles etc to make it even better. Due to not being finished I knew that I had things in mind that I was going to add so while watching it I informed the person watching what I was going to do and the way in which I was going to do it. These things are as follows: 

• The first scene thats the empty woods is going to have the title appear. 
• As Hannah and Megan receive the text messages what is being said will be shown on the screen.
• As Hannah is getting ready to go to the woods there will be a song playing in order to fit the mood. 
• Before Hannah dies there will be a long shot of the woods followed by a scream and a gun shot. 
• The last 6 seconds shouldn't be there. 
• The film will end with credits being shown on the screen.

First person: 

The scene where the title is going to be added doesn't need to be as long as it seems a bit dragged out and it wasting time as short films aren't meant to be very long. The first scene is very good however the fact that they are in detention isn't made very clear so you may want it to be mentioned in the dialogue or written on the board. After Hannah receives the text message there is a crossing over between emily and hannah talking which makes it hard to hear, also there needs to be a sound match between the two scenes as Hannahs voice sounds quieter to the rest of the dialogue that has occurred. 

Overall I love the idea that you are following and am looking forward to seeing the finished product with all of the features that you have mentioned and with the ideas that I have given you. 

Second Person: 

I feel you need to trim a lot of your clips in order to ensure your film runs as smooth as possible without seeing the parts where your actors are about to start talking. Also there are some scenes that would work well with a transition added between them, for example the move from the woods to the classroom should have a transition between the two different locations. As Hannah is getting ready to go to the woods having some sort of voice over would be effective get an insight into her thoughts. 

The camera angles as Lilly and Emily are having their conversation looks so professional especially the way the corridor behind Lilly is all out of focus. You have also used a different range of camera angles as they are walking towards the woods and the point of view shots are extremely effective, it makes you feel although you are walking towards yourself building the suspense of what is going to occur as they get there. 

Media Teacher: 

The classroom scene has a lot of dialogue in it which does make the story easy to follow however there have not been enough camera angles used.  Having a close up off what the three girls are looking at on Hannah's phone would give you another camera angle it would also give the audience an insight as to what the three girls are talking about. When Lilly is talking to Hannah about being nice to Megan you should have close up of her face. There are a few parts where the scene could be cut a few seconds before you have in order to make it run smoother, an effective way of doing this is to blade the scene which gets you a sharper cut. Once you have added all of the features that you have mentioned to me and a few more camera angles the film is going to look very professional. 

I love the camera angles that have been used especially the ones in the woods you have shown clear a clear improvement of camera work as the film has progressed. The storyline is very interesting and kept me engaged throughout. I can see that you have put large amounts of effort into all of the filming that has taken place also organisation skills have shown that you can clearly manage a group of people to do what you need them to. 

After I took this advice into account I then made the correct changes in order to improve my work as best as possible. When the title is shown on screen I also edited in a part of the music that is put over the film at the end, I also shorted the scene down to save time and to apply what I was told during my audience feedback. In order to make it clear that the four girls are in detention I added text to the top of the screen I wanted this to be kept for a good amount of time to allow the audience to see that it is there. I also added in a close up of Hannah, Lilly and Emily all looking at the phone. I decided to use Megan's Instargram to show the fact that they don't like her which is why they are so nasty when she walks in. My media teacher asked me to do a close up of Lilly's face when they are talking however she died her hair as she thought that filming was all finished however I still wanted another camera angle to be used, so I used a point of view shot from Lilly's point of view, as this means that I have still used another camera angle. When Hannah is getting ready for the woods rather than having a voice over to how she is feeling I chose to have writing added to the screen as this gets the same effect and causing the audience to concentrate more on what is going on as they have to consistanly be reading what is being shown on the screen. Once I then added everything that I wanted to my film I then when through and edited all of the sound ensuring that it was all at the same volume and that there was not any crossing over of speech which meant that it becomes difficult to hear. I think blade a few scenes and  made the clips run smoother into each other by taking a few seconds off the begging and end of them so that you can't see where the actors have started and stopped talking. I also added transitions between a few of the scenes.

Film poster: 

When creating my film poster I first did some research into other successful film posters that had been created, I then deconstructed them to get a full unstinting of the conventions that they had used. My first draft of my poster was just to get a visual idea for myself to see what I wanted. While taking the pictures for my poster I was able to get instant feedback from Hannah, I started editing the pictures while she was with me which meant that she was telling me what edits that she liked the most and why. Once I finalised editing the picture I sent my target audience a few of the different edits and asked which one they liked. I then used the one that had the majority vote and that I liked the most. 

As you can see my double page spread has a lot of alterations done to it before I was happy with my end result. Each step on the way I was asking for feedback from my target audience. The main things that I was told to change was the front and size of the writing that I had chosen. The first draft that I created I did in order to get a basic idea of what I wanted the colour scheme to look like. The main feedback that I for from my second edit of the poster was the fact that the top of the 'Trust No One' had been cut off. The reason in which I chose this front was to signify the fact that the trust Hannah had in Lilly had been cut hence why the writing has also been cut, however the feedback I was given said they found it difficult to read and didn't look right hence why I then changed it. They said that the explanantion I had towards using the front was good however was only understood once I had explained it to them otherwise it just looked like it wasn't meant to be like that. The second thing that was commented on was the boldness on the title 'Betrayed', I asked a friend who did media last year and they gave me some website suggestions of where I can get interesting fonts from. This where I then got the final font that was used. Another font that I got offline was the one for the credits at the bottom of the poster which I asked a class mate about once giving them feedback on their own poster. 

Film review page: 

Like wise with the film poster I gained my audience feedback in the same way, asking people in person what they thought have the work that had been created and sending screenshots of my progress so far. Again the main aspect of the poster that I the audience picked up on was the text, when showing a group of people in my media set my first draft the main point that was picked up on was the lack of writing that I had on the page. After showing them the magazine in which I was using the conventions of the understood why it looked the way that it did however this lead me to then look into the text that I had added to my poster and change what was written adding more to it. Also The way in which the text had been formatted had been picked up on meaning that I changed it to look more like a real magazine rather than just a paragraph. Everyone that I asked said they liked the way in which the pictures had been formatted meaning that I didn't need to make any changes to them at all. 

With all of the three media texts I then asked people who had not seen them mid product what there thoughts were. I always asked them if they felt like what I had produced looked professional and something that would see on youtube/ short of the week and as a poster and everyone that I asked agreed that they did look professional. This then meant I didn't need to make any further changes to the products that I had created. 
Here is one of the responses that I got from people that saw my media texts for the first time: 

Person one: Wow! Your short films looks so professional, you can't tell that it has all been filmed at different times as all of the actors have got the same costume on and having there/ hair/ make up the same. The storyline is so engaging and made me want to carry on watching till the end especially as the suspense was building up as Hannah was getting ready to leave. The camera angles are all very thought about especially when Lilly and Emily are having the conversation together. The poster and double page spread are also vert professional and after seeing the professional magazine and poster that you used I can see that if they were real products they would be very successful.

I found audience feedback one of the most important things while creating my media product as I am creating the product in order to appeal to my target audience, and if they didn't like what I was doing or felt like something needed to be changed and I didn't listen to them then my product was not meeting the reason that it was being created for. Also people see things in different ways and will you tell you to develop an idea that you have in a way that you would have never thought about doing for yourself. I always asked honest people that would tell me the truth so if something that I was doing didn't look good they would tell me stop but also an idea of how to make it look better.