Q3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The focus group consisted of the following students 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Mimi Female, aged 17 Niala Female, aged 17 Fadel Male, aged 16 Yaqoub Male, aged 16 Maham Female, aged 20 Gurtith Male, aged 20 Daniel Male, aged 15 Deeksha Female, aged 19

As you can see, the population of our focus group reflects the character profiles of our target audience. The age range varies from 15 to 19 years old, which directly coincides with the BBFC classification of our film [15+]. The representative group is also made appropriate due to its male and female inclusion, which again relates to the wider target audience of our film. Making sure that the focus group is similar to our potential viewers is fundamentally important as it is their beliefs that should influence any decisions made during the filming and constructing stages of the trailer. Keeping their interest in mind would be beneficial as this is what would enable successful promoting once the trailer had been released. It is vital therefore to consider audience feedback throughout the editing process and to base decisions upon their responses. My group and I had created this focus group on March 15th so that we could address any changes and refer to the feedback in the evaluation stages of the task. With this in mind, we asked the sample audience how they felt about specific parts of the trailer and we found that according to our viewers, the following areas needed improvement. The most important for me was the text fonts as Mimi correctly points out were too childish. We asked other people about this issue and found that the majority agreed; claiming that it did not follow the typical conventions of a trailer. A teacher- Ms Shaban Ali [aged 26] stated that although the chalk does link in to the idea of a teacher, it doesnt seem to fit in with the storyline of the film. We decided therefore to change the font and so conducted further research on how to do this effectively. The feedback given from our focus group also led to some changed in the production logos as we had previously chosen a red flash light for the NAS Productions and a blue for the Embelish.

Rihanna Nasrat

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Q3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

As Deeksha points out however, these two colours were too contrasting and so we took her suggestion of using different shades of the same colour. We felt that this worked better as the created mood is maintained and a sense of continuity is established.

One aspect of our trailer, which my group and I had constantly debated about, was the diegetic Christmas music in the background of the Christmas shot. Our doubts had been confirmed by the feedback of the focus group as they too felt like it was too much of a change. We agreed with their opinion, as the upbeat music did not reflect the depressing atmosphere of the trailer and so this almost breaks out of continuity. We experimented with other types of music but found that the most effective was actually using none. Having no background sounds or dialogue is effective in creating an eerie atmosphere and enables the audience to focus entirely on the characters on screen. There was also positive feedback that we received and this was quite reassuring for my group and I. Yaqoub for example stated that he particularly liked the ending of the trailer with the footsteps and sirens and the group seemed to have agreed with this. From this, my group and I were able to leave this part of the trailer in confidence and focus on other areas that needed improvement. Positive feedback as such therefore, helped us not only with reassurance but also channelled our priorities into other areas that required attention.

Rihanna Nasrat

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