WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

Survey analysis – Film poster and magazine front cover

Q1: WHAT IS YOUR AGE? I INCLUDED THIS NON-PRODUCT RELATED QUESTION TO GAGE AN IDEA OF THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF MY FEEDBACK, SO I CAN COMPARE IT TO MY OTHER AUDIENCE FEEDBACK FROM STUDENTS THAT RANGE FROM 15-18 YEARS OLD.

THIS WOULD HELP TO SHOW ANY DIFFERENCES AND/OR SIMILARITIES BETWEEN DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS.

Although there's not much to analyse for this question, I managed to receive a well-rounded response through a variety of ages – despite still centering on the adolescent age. However, I don’t see this as a negative as my target

audience are of this age therefore I would naturally value their responses the most.

Data = quantitative

Q2: Which feature(s) would you say standouts the most on my film poster?

I asked this question to see what my audience thought stood out to them the most. However, this also helps determine the most successful features of my film poster – as I wanted all of them to stand

out and have a role in catching the eye of the audience, with the exclusion of features such as the

billing block.

Here are some of the answers I received

- From this question I learnt that the film title AURORA and the dominant image were the two key elements of my poster for my target audience.

- Aurora was a prominent feature because, as one participant

mentioned, was 'emblazoned in bold red'. This made it eye-catching at the top of the page and drew the attention of the audience straight

away to the name of the film.

- The other prominent feature was the black and white image, likely because it dominates half of the

page. With 8 of the 13 mentioning it, the image that I edited to the style of neo noir, was the most popular

and prominent feature.

- Along with this, many said the extra features such as the movie

ratings and the font helped in combination with the dominant

features to make the poster look professionalData = Qualitative

3. Which feature(s) would you say stand out the most on my film magazine?

Similar to question 2, I asked this to see what features of my magazine stood out to my audience the most, which helps determine the success of the features. Also like my poster, I wanted features like a dominant cover image or the masthead to catch the eye of

my audience rather than a barcode or nothing at all.

- Similar to the previous question of my film poster, the masthead (MOTION) and dominant cover image were the two most common answers.

- The fact that these two were mentioned suggests I have conformed successfully to the generic conventions of magazine front covers. Typically, you want your audience to notice the magazine masthead and the dominant cover image first, especially in the composition template I used. This is because the cover lacks secondary cover lines, in order to be portrayed as more artistic, rather than be jam-packed with information, typically associated with lower quality magazines.

- Therefore, the dominant image needs to intrigue the audience enough to attract them to buy it, as I not used other features typically used to do this. At first I thought this was a risk as some may not recognise the text as a magazine front cover, but through the responses in this answer, I can conclude the image in particular was successful again in appealing to the audience.

- A few more in-depth replies said that the whites of the eyes of the character is what stood out to them the most. This was interesting as, although I didn't focus particular on the eyes, I edited the dominant image to have high contrast between the black and white colours. This meant that the eyes of the character stood out on the largely black background – helping to create further character development.

Q4. Would you say there is a clear continuity between the two products. If so, how?

One of the leading aims of creating a marketing package is for the audience to recognise the link between each text. So for this question, I wanted to find out if my audience though this was successful or not and if it was, which elements achieved this.

- My overall response for this question was very positive, with 12 saying the two products achieve continuity, with only 1 person saying it didn't – although they did not mention why. This would therefore imply that I achieved continuity between the two products, according to my audience.

- The element that was most commonly mentioned as the key factor in creating the continuity was the use of the same colour scheme - black/red/white, something I have attempted to remain the same throughout my whole portfolio. Therefore it was good to see this response as I did purposely use the same colour scheme to show a continuity between my poster, magazine and the film trailer through font, black & white scenes, images and other micro-elements such as lighting. Therefore, I learned that I was successful in this aim.

- Some of the more unexpected, yet positive, responses mentioned the character's serious facial expression on both texts helped them to associate the two texts with each other. This also then helps create a character development that assists the same development in the film trailer and film poster, rather than it being contradictory (e.g smiling on one, serious face on another). Therefore, through my request to the actor/model that plays Hugo to have a serious and angry face when shooting for these photos, I have created a successful continuity between the two ancillary texts.

Q5. Would you be interested in seeing the film/film trailer after seeing these two products?

In addition to the previous question, I also aimed to persuade the audience to go see the film that I had advertised through the marketing campaign. Therefore this question aims to see if this was the case, and if not why they weren't interested.

Why?

- For this question I received the perfect response in the sense that everyone said they would be interested in seeing the full film or at least the trailer which I did not include in this questionnaire.

- A few of the reasons for this is that the style of my film simply appealed to them, and that's how they would determine whether to research further into the film. Another reason was that action codes such as the knife, shown in the film poster, appealed to them as they are iconography of other film genres

they like, such as action or crime. These genres are more mainstream, well-known genres compared to the neo noir genre. Therefore, the use of iconography through props in my dominant images intrigued

the audience, fulfilling the purpose of the two texts.

Q6. Is there anything you would add/change to the film poster?This question was to gage the constructive criticism, and see whether there were any common responses that highlight there was a definite need

for change on my film poster.

Responses- Although 6 respondents said there was nothing they would

alter, I did receive some constructive criticisms on how I could make the poster more appealing to them.

One of the recurring themes was to make the ratings less dominant, and to instead include images of different characters rather than just the protagonist. This is particularly interesting

as the lack of subsidiary character development was a common criticism of my film trailer when I conducted my separate

audience research for that product. This signifies that a lack of character development for other characters, such as the wife, is a consistent problem throughout my marketing package – and is definitely one of the key things I have learnt from my feedback

- To add to this two said that the billing block should be smaller in comparison to the rest of the poster. When creating my poster

I didn't intend or want the billing block to be a prominent feature, and the size that It is was more to fit the space

surrounding it. In hindsight, I have learnt that it was maybe too big, therefore taking the attention of more 'important'

conventions of the poster.

Q7. Is there anything you would add/change to the film magazine front cover?

This question was to gage the constructive criticism, and see whether there were any common responses that highlight there was a definite need for change on my film magazine front cover.

Responses- Similar to question 6, I received only a few separate criticisms but they

were brought up multiple times. In my opinion this is a more positive response rather than the whole text being mentioned, even if it's just by

one person.

- The most recurring element was the need for more coverlines/storylines on the cover. I am not surprised that this was a common answer (5/13) as this was my pre-determined style inspired by the existing film magazine

Sight & Sound. Looking at that, I believe there is quite a clear link in terms of composition – especially with the lack of coverlines. However,

the fact two believed it meant the text was not as recognisable as a magazine front cover suggests that I infact did not include enough coverlines, or didn't make them as prominent as they should be.

- Therefore, I have learnt that if I created my magazine again, I might add more coverlines to the side of the dominant cover image so that it is more

recongisable as a stereotypical magazine.

- However, I did get one response that contradicted the above, and showed they realised my initial intent for not using the typical amount of coverlines (emphasis on the image). This shows that it was effective for one person, and it may have been for more if I had used a larger sample

size.