Audience feedback without a doubt is a vastly important aspect regarding media projects. After the creation of a product it is always important to know whether we have reached our intended goal in terms of whether the film is suitable or appropriate for our targeted audiences and the best way to do this is to gain an insight from the audiences themselves. Gaining this insight will allow us to learn from our mistakes and further develop our film so that it suits the audiences preferences.
Examples of how audience feedback has affected real media products:
>While filming Johnny English (2002) with director Peter Howitt, testing led to reshoots of the beginning of the film to set up the character better, and "test scores leaped considerably.
>Edgar Wright, writer and director of Shaun of the Dead, said in an interview that in test screenings done before the film's special effects were completed, audiences remarked that the ending was "a bit abrupt" and "lame". After being given a low budget and two days to finish shooting, the filmmakers added a "15 second" ending, which followup press screening audiences liked, leading to one reviewer changing his earlier bad review, giving "an extra star"
- Cases even exist of where test screenings lead filmmakers to completely change the ending of a movie, by having a character die who would have survived, or vice versa, for instance examples include:
-Mary Poppins
-Final Destination
-Titanic
Regarding the audience feedback for our media products we conducted:
-Individual screenings
-group screenings
-Posted our film on sites such as YouTube allowing it to be viewed by a wide range of audiences.
We received positive feedback as well as some constructive criticism from online audiences.
-Our film poster as well as magazine reviews, were distributed to our audience by hand, so that they could experience the products at first hand which we believe worked successfully.
Film Audience Feedback:
The reason that we had decided to go through with some individual screenings was to ensure that the audience were able to articulate their own opinions about the film instead of being influenced by another member of the audience.
C.J - "I have also been late to school, maybe not late to an exam but I have definitely been late to school, so I understand the pain the character must have been going through"
Stefano - "I could really relate to the film, especially because I am still a student, so the film is easy to understand and the character is also easy to relate to"
Segun - “there was good fast paced score for the first part of the film, however after the mugging scene, the score needs to be a lot tenser and fast paced as it came across as too romantic, however in a sense it seems to create humour as there is a sense of romance between, the main character and the empty exam table, which adds to the light hearted theme of the film”
Moses - Well done, the film certainly targets school aged audiences, going through the exam period and I also found the film very entertaining and it had an interesting narrative”
As a whole the feedback that we had received was very positive and we as a group were very pleased indeed. There were many positives that arose from our film, we were particularly pleased with the comment by Stefano who had said "I could really relate to the film, especially because I am still a student, so the film is easy to understand and the character is also easy to relate to", thus showing that our film was a success as it managed to appeal to the right sort of audiences, mainly students who could relate to the character as they have experienced what the character has gone through before as C.J expressed "I have also been late to school, maybe not late to an exam but I have definitely been late to school, so I understand the pain the character must have been going through". However during one of our film screenings there was a lot of discussion and debate about whether the scores were appropriate for a certain scene:
One viewer explained “there was good fast paced score for the first part of the film, however after the mugging scene, the score needs to be a lot tenser and fast paced as it came across as too romantic” however after some careful consideration we decided to maintain the score as the majority of the viewers were for the ‘romantic’ score as it almost created “sense of romance between, the main character and the empty exam table, which adds to the light hearted theme of the film” explained a viewer. Remaining on the subject of scores, another issue was pointed out there was no score at the beginning of the film it seemed “rather silent” therefore we amended this issue by including a score at the beginning. Moving on to the cinematography aspects of the film, this generally received positive feedback, the only issue was that both endings from the first and second part were very similar, in order to amend this we made the cuts at the end of the first part a lot shorter and in quicker succession, which helped increase the tension and keep the audience interested.
In turn we cut down some scenes from the second part ending instead of repeating the first part.
First part ending:
Second part ending:
Finally we had intentionally aimed to produce this film for audiences ranging from 15 to early 20s, however after the screening early 20s was perhaps too old as the film was said to be more “for school aged audiences, going through the exam period” despite this minor setbacks everything went well. Generally I believed that we had achieved our purpose, it was “entertaining and had an interesting narrative” the theme and genre of the film was very easily established and the right audiences were targeted.
Magazine Review Audience Feedback:
The magazine review also gained positive feedback from audiences.
Dan - “ The text was simple but effective making it easy to read and making the outline of the film easier to understand, if the there was just blocks of writing on the page, I don’t think we would have the patience to read through it all. Also the image worked very well, it drew us as the viewers in right away, when I first looked at the magazine the first thing that caught my eye was the main image"
Adam - "The magazine review worked really well and it linked to the film and poster well with the theme of time and stuff but the only criticism I can give is that, the clock behind the text made it a bit difficult to read, maybe it can be made lighter"
There was one slight problem which was constantly arising, the problem was that the text was hard to read due to the image of the clock placed behind being slightly too dark, the feedback allowed us to respond to the problem and amend it by making the clock more opaque, making the text easier to read.
Before audience feedback:
After audience feedback:
The conversational tone of the text was a great addition as a viewer explained “also very easy to read, making the outline of the film easier to understand, furthermore the image worked very well, it drew us as the viewers in right away, when I first looked at the magazine the first thing that caught my eye was the image” in addition it was also established that the magazine would be perfect for the commuting public as the text is at a minimal so the message can be put across a lot quicker the majority of the viewers were all agreeing with the fact that “if the there was just blocks of writing on the page, I don’t think we would have the patience to read through it all". In addition the review managed to reach our intended target audiences of mainly students as they were able to relate to the story line therefore giving the urge to want to view the film and find out the outcome of the characters miserable day, overall our magazine worked well in terms of layout, text and appealing to the right type of audiences.
Film Poster Review:
Finally similarly to the film and magazine the poster also received positive feedback from audiences.
Kyle - "The thing I like about the film poster is that, there are elements that give little signs away about what the film could possibly be about, especially when you tie the image of the clock and the title 10 minutes together, we get an insight that the film will most likely evolve around the theme of time"
A handful of the audience expressed the fact that "the theme of the film was easily established because of the film title and the images used" the image really had a comical effect with the clock hands on the forehead, this immediately gave the audience the idea that the film will go down a less serious route and take a much more light hearted theme. Furthermore the title also gives abit away about the film, “when you tie the image of the clock and the title 10 minutes together, we get an insight that the film will most likely evolve around the theme of time”.
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