Audience Research: Audience feedback from our 75% completed film
Sample & Method
We showed our approximately 75% completed film to eight people in order to gather opinion on what they thought of it so far and how they think it could be improved. Unfortunately, we were unable to ask people which matched our target profile audience, as we collected this data during school times. However, we did keep to our target gender, as out of the eight people 5 were male and only 3 female. This matches our target gender as we stated in our audience profile that, primarily, our target gender would be males, but that females could like it too, so we felt that the roughly two thirds of the feedback from males and one third from females was a good compromise. The people that we asked are all current six formers at City of Norwich School, three of them study media studies and half of the group are big movie fans. We feel that a sample group in which one half are big film fans whilst the other half also watch films but are not so avid followers is reasonable as we said in our audience profile that our film may well be appreciated more by film buffs but would also attract mainstream audiences. Taking these into account, we accept that this data gathered is not from an ideal sample group, but nevertheless we feel that it is a useful exercise and hope that it will provide us with helpful information.
First, we asked each participant to watch the film through, one-by-one, without interruption. We then asked them to fill in a short questionnaire which we had prepared previously. The questionnaire consisted of these questions:
Gender:
Was the mise-en-scene appropriate?
Was the music effective?
Was the narrative readable?
Was the lighting effective?
What aspect of it did you like the most?
How could it be improved?
Findings
Pleasingly, our feedback was extremely positive. For the question ‘Was the mise-en-scene appropriate?’ for example, every single participant (males and females) agreed that it was appropriate, and one male went on to say that it was ‘very’ appropriate as ‘the woods are very secluded’. The responses for the following question, ‘Was the music effective?’, were also very positive, as, again, every participant agreed that it was effective, with one participant (a female) claiming that it was ‘very’ effective whilst another (a male) said that it ‘built tension and atmosphere’. One participant (a female), however, said that it was effective, but ‘could have been better though’. The following question, ‘Was the narrative readable?’, was one that we were very interested in the answer to, as, although we ourselves knew what was happening, were hoping that it was obvious for everyone else too. Fortunately though, all but one of the participants agreed that the narrative was readable, however the one participant (a male) who said that it wasn’t readable also said that this was a good thing as ‘the man in the office was mysterious’. The answers to the subsequent were again extremely positive, as once again every participant agreed that the lighting was effective. We were pleased that this was the case, as we ourselves were very pleased with the lighting in our film. The next question, which we were eagerly awaiting the answers to, provided, as we hoped, a large variety of answers. Three participants (two male and one female) chose ‘he music’ as their favourite, whilst another three participants chose the ‘extreme close-up shots of the man in the office’. Two people (one male and one female) claimed that the ‘quick editing and flashing transitions’ was their favourite. Out of the remaining two participants (both males) one claimed that the ‘slow motion effects, because they’re cool’ were his favourites whilst the last one said that he liked the fact that it was ‘gangster’. The final question was another one that we were excited about the answers to, as the answers to this were the real purpose of the exercise. Unfortunately though, not everyone answered the question, although we took that as a compliment for no improvements could be made. One suggestion that we did receive though (from a male), was that ‘the cast could fit the age description of the characters better and the costumes could be more authentic’. Although there is nothing we can do about this at this point, and our cast was made up by the actors that they were because of certain unfortunate circumstances (see the post entitled ‘Thriller Planning: The cast), we value the opinion nonetheless as we can include it in our evaluation. The other suggestion that we received (also from a male) was to ‘extend the slow motion section, and make the bit where they walk out of the woods slow motion as well’. We were very grateful for this suggestion as, after deliberating between our group, we decided to try it as the participant had suggested, and we, as a group, agreed that it was an improvement.
Conclusion and implications
We were extremely happy with the unanimously positive feedback that we received, and we feel that it has helped us improve our film, thanks especially to the suggestion to extend the slow motion section and to add another slow motion section. Overall, we feel that this has been a useful and positive exercise as the very positive feedback has given us further confidence in our film, and we now feel that we can continue as we have been and get it finished.
We showed our approximately 75% completed film to eight people in order to gather opinion on what they thought of it so far and how they think it could be improved. Unfortunately, we were unable to ask people which matched our target profile audience, as we collected this data during school times. However, we did keep to our target gender, as out of the eight people 5 were male and only 3 female. This matches our target gender as we stated in our audience profile that, primarily, our target gender would be males, but that females could like it too, so we felt that the roughly two thirds of the feedback from males and one third from females was a good compromise. The people that we asked are all current six formers at City of Norwich School, three of them study media studies and half of the group are big movie fans. We feel that a sample group in which one half are big film fans whilst the other half also watch films but are not so avid followers is reasonable as we said in our audience profile that our film may well be appreciated more by film buffs but would also attract mainstream audiences. Taking these into account, we accept that this data gathered is not from an ideal sample group, but nevertheless we feel that it is a useful exercise and hope that it will provide us with helpful information.
First, we asked each participant to watch the film through, one-by-one, without interruption. We then asked them to fill in a short questionnaire which we had prepared previously. The questionnaire consisted of these questions:
Gender:
Was the mise-en-scene appropriate?
Was the music effective?
Was the narrative readable?
Was the lighting effective?
What aspect of it did you like the most?
How could it be improved?
Findings
Pleasingly, our feedback was extremely positive. For the question ‘Was the mise-en-scene appropriate?’ for example, every single participant (males and females) agreed that it was appropriate, and one male went on to say that it was ‘very’ appropriate as ‘the woods are very secluded’. The responses for the following question, ‘Was the music effective?’, were also very positive, as, again, every participant agreed that it was effective, with one participant (a female) claiming that it was ‘very’ effective whilst another (a male) said that it ‘built tension and atmosphere’. One participant (a female), however, said that it was effective, but ‘could have been better though’. The following question, ‘Was the narrative readable?’, was one that we were very interested in the answer to, as, although we ourselves knew what was happening, were hoping that it was obvious for everyone else too. Fortunately though, all but one of the participants agreed that the narrative was readable, however the one participant (a male) who said that it wasn’t readable also said that this was a good thing as ‘the man in the office was mysterious’. The answers to the subsequent were again extremely positive, as once again every participant agreed that the lighting was effective. We were pleased that this was the case, as we ourselves were very pleased with the lighting in our film. The next question, which we were eagerly awaiting the answers to, provided, as we hoped, a large variety of answers. Three participants (two male and one female) chose ‘he music’ as their favourite, whilst another three participants chose the ‘extreme close-up shots of the man in the office’. Two people (one male and one female) claimed that the ‘quick editing and flashing transitions’ was their favourite. Out of the remaining two participants (both males) one claimed that the ‘slow motion effects, because they’re cool’ were his favourites whilst the last one said that he liked the fact that it was ‘gangster’. The final question was another one that we were excited about the answers to, as the answers to this were the real purpose of the exercise. Unfortunately though, not everyone answered the question, although we took that as a compliment for no improvements could be made. One suggestion that we did receive though (from a male), was that ‘the cast could fit the age description of the characters better and the costumes could be more authentic’. Although there is nothing we can do about this at this point, and our cast was made up by the actors that they were because of certain unfortunate circumstances (see the post entitled ‘Thriller Planning: The cast), we value the opinion nonetheless as we can include it in our evaluation. The other suggestion that we received (also from a male) was to ‘extend the slow motion section, and make the bit where they walk out of the woods slow motion as well’. We were very grateful for this suggestion as, after deliberating between our group, we decided to try it as the participant had suggested, and we, as a group, agreed that it was an improvement.
Conclusion and implications
We were extremely happy with the unanimously positive feedback that we received, and we feel that it has helped us improve our film, thanks especially to the suggestion to extend the slow motion section and to add another slow motion section. Overall, we feel that this has been a useful and positive exercise as the very positive feedback has given us further confidence in our film, and we now feel that we can continue as we have been and get it finished.
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