EVALUATION QUESTION 3:WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

After creating our three media products- trailer, film poster and magazine cover, we decided to gain audience feedback in order to gain a greater knowledge on what went well in our work and what we could have done to improve. To achieve this, we created a survey on surveymonkey.com and ensured that we gained 50 responses, both from in and beyond our target audience (15-25 years of age) in order to gain valid feedback after advertising ‘The Aftermath’ on social media.

As shown through the data, we achieved our aim of creating a film in the horror genre since more than half of the respondents identified conventions of the horror genre. From some of the more detailed feedback we got, we found that this was due to features such as the stabbing shots and use of fake blood and makeup, as well as the build in music, causing heightened fear amongst audiences. However, it is important to note that 3 of our respondents (6%) felt that our trailer was of the drama genre, which could be due to the fact that we explore the theme of relationships between people such as from brothers (characters of Alex and Jordan) and friendship (between Adrien and Samantha), which is typical of the drama genre.

This can also be applied to our apocalyptic sub-genre (as shown above) in which 59% of respondents felt that it was extremely relevant to the apocalypse sub-genre, from feedback it became evident that this was largely to do with the news clips, editing and the difference in the busy shots in London as well as the empty shots of train station and fields. However, the amount of people who felt that the apocalypse sub-genre was ‘somewhat relevant’ rather than ‘very relevant’ was close (48%) which could be due to the fact that we did not use a large amount of gore which may have been expected of a trailer with horror as the main genre.

The fact that 84% of our respondents felt that they would see the film after watching the trailer, proves that our production was successful in its task of enticing audiences to see the film. The 16% who responded saying that they would not watch it may have chosen to due to the fact that they are not fans of the horror apocalyptic genre or felt that they would not enjoy the creation as a film due to various reasons. However, overall, the result we gained from this question is extremely positive and shows that a film version of ‘The Aftermath’ trailer is an idea which appeals to many who watched it.

Our chosen age group during the creation of the trailer was 15-25 years of age, which caused us to be pleased by the fact that 92% of responses also felt that this was the age group in which our film trailer would appeal to.

As a group, we spent a large amount of time deciding the settings we would film in due to the fact that it is a vital part of showing the world as ‘apocalyptic’ and deserted. It would not have made sense for there to be many people around during the filming, due to the fact that the population would have presumably decreased, therefore, we ensured that we filmed at times

when there would not be many people and worked at places which we thought would suit the storyline through showing the characters’ isolation. For this reason, we filmed a large majority in places which were not highly populated and also used forests, therefore, it is good to know that 96% of respondents believed that these were highly effective locations and setting.

Due to the large amount of shots we had taken, we were extremely careful in the way in which our narrative was constructed and therefore kept checking with others that the trailer was making sense. Although a lot of our clips were not used, I feel that this ensured that there were no unnecessary clips which would have made the trailer feel long and confusing. To achieve this, we planned a three act structure and the particular shots which would go into these to check that the shots we planned on using were effective without giving away too much information about the storyline. This worked well for us due to the fact that 87.76% of our responses were in agreeance that the narrative was made clear in the trailer.

A large majority of our time was spent on looking for music and ensuring that it fitted in well with the clips we had put into the sequence. We wished to have many shots which were in time with the music in order to keep the audience interested in the trailer and enticed into wanting to know what would happen next. A good example of this is through the fact that we had three different music pieces to separate each act and deliberately got music which was increasingly building towards the end of the trailer, to heighten suspense and tension.

We decided to focus our trailer on modern conventions of the horror genre as well in incorporate classical conventions of the genre such as the use of gore (achieved by our fake blood and makeup). The modern intake of the horror genre can be seen in the fact that our titles have a clear and modern look to them due to the fact that they are on the shots themselves rather than after on a black screen which would have been a feature of classic horror films.

We chose the title due to the fact that it holds relevance with the apocalyptic sub-genre since it is based in a post-apocalyptic time. Therefore, the narrative matches the name ‘The Aftermath’ and from the action shown in the trailer, it is clear as to why this is the cause of the title. However, after gaining feedback from respondents who claimed to have said no to this question, I became aware that the reason as to why the title did not seem relevant to the trailer

is due to the fact that they had a lack of understanding as to what the word aftermath means. Another reason for this could also be due to the fact that we may not have made it clear that the film world was based in a post-apocalyptic time and it may have been presumed to have been based in the time of the apocalypse, making the title seem irrelevant.

We deliberately worked with the same colour schemes, characters, font types and many other qualities to ensure that they worked well and complimented each other, which is shown to have been effective through the fact that 96% of our respondents felt the three components did complement each other.