Evaluation Question 3

The way that we decided to test our product on our audience was by creating a hand written questionnaire which was later transmitted into a digital hard copy using Microsoft Word. We gathered our answers to our survey by  asking current A2 Media students who are around the age of 17-18 years old- this age group fits well with our target audience range. The people we asked were of mixed genders in order to get a varied response. To complete the survey we played our trailer to our interviewees individually or in groups of two in order to get a more directed response. This also allowed us to get a more detailed and well structured response. When creating a response for this survey we played the trailer twice. The first time allowed our interviewees to watch the trailer as an audience viewer and then the second time as a media student giving us constructive feedback.

In order to get a varied and detailed response we used a different rating system that ranged from the basic scoring system- this was 1-5 with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best. This showed a basic response for our audience to respond with. We then contrasted these types of questions with ones that required a more specific answer that contained more detailing on improvements. We didn't want to use these types of questions for the entirety of our questionnaire as we felt it may become tedious and our viewers would only give short and quick responses instead of the detailed ones that would really help our trailer to improve. So we included some basic yes, no and I don't know answers to a couple of the questions.

The first question that we started with was a basic one and one that we felt was critical for our audience feedback, if we didn't ask our audience if they liked the trailer we felt that we wouldn't receive detailed enough feedback about our trailer. We felt that the audience enjoyment was one of the more important questions in our feedback. From all of our responses our average collected was about a rating of 3 or 4. This showed to us that our trailer was quite successful within our target audience and connoted to us that most of the really enjoyed it.

The second question from our survey was about interest in our trailer. We again received a score of around 3 or 4 for this question. Due to the dual narrative that we incorporated into our trailer I think that this could've helped the audience to maintain their interest in our trailer. The contrast we showed between the protagonist and the antagonist's scenes added a twist to the trailer and showed the audience two sides to our narrative.

As our questions were asked to media students we felt that they would be able to give us constructive feedback in terms of camera and editing as they will have experience on how it should look. For this question we received around 3.5. This feedback shows us that our camera work was relatively successful but could also be improved. From looking at the scores throughout the responses on this question I can assume that we may have scored slightly lowly on the parts where we filmed in the darker location. This meant that the camera quality wasn't as high as it would've been in more high key lighting.

The next question was about whether or not our trailer was long enough. The responses we received for this question were between correct length or unsure. We expected this sort of answer as the people that we asked these questions to were a mix of media students and non media students. This meant that the people who are studying media would have more of an idea of the correct length to the trailer. Therefore the non media students struggled slightly more on identifying the correct length.

The question that we felt was one of the more important ones in the survey was the one asking "what was effective in the trailer". This type of question allowed the audience to give a more detailed and  constructive answer to the question. Here as some of the responses that we received from this question:

• I found the switch between the two characters interesting and different to normal trailers.
• I thought the style of music was really creepy and fitted in well with the horror theme.
• I liked how the identity of the villain has been hidden- it adds mystery.
• The sound effect at the end with the Dialtone title fitted in well with the storyline.

These responses were extremely useful when we were editing our trailer. It helped us to know what we were doing right in the process and what we should keep in our trailer.

The other more detailed question- "Did you find anything confusing?". This question allowed us to know if we could do anything to improve our trailer. The responses we received from this question were mainly no. This showed that our trailer was clear and showed an understandable structure. Some of the people who we asked informed us that the voiceover was useful in grasping an understanding of the trailer.

Ancillary Products

In order to test out the products that have been created for our trailer we created questions in a similar format and were asked to the same mix of people in order to receive constructive feedback. For this set of questions we mainly used a scoring system as we felt it was the best way to receive feedback. The questions that we asked mainly focused on appearance and the aesthetic of the products as we felt these were the most important factors of a magazine cover and film posters.

After asking these questions to our target audience we received strong feedback. The first question we received a score of mainly 4 or 5. This was a success for this question and transmitted to us that the appearance was strong and worked well- this is vital as this was one of the more important questions in terms of ancillary products. The next two questions about the font being clear and how eye-catching the products were received again mainly 4 and 5. The interviewees informed is that the font used was bold and the colours used made it stand out well against the background. They also thought that the imagery used for the poster was bold and drew their eye to the products.

Another one of the more important questions were: "Do our products look like a poster or magazine?". From this question we received a score of mainly 4s. This signified to us that our products followed the conventions and the style of posters and magazines that would usually be expected in the media industry.

In terms of the quality of image and the overall appearance of the poster and magazine photograph our interviewees rated this as a 5. This shows my partner and myself that the images we took worked well for ancillary products and that the overall quality were very high and professional looking. From our audience feedback the viewers gave a 4 for the question enquiring about how the products relate to the narrative. This score is relatively high which shows my partner and myself that the images that we have taken relate well to the narrative of our trailer. I think that this was emphasized by the phone prop that was used in all of our images. The prop highlights and emphasises the title of our trailer.