Evaluation - Question Three

Evaluation - Question Three

• 1.
  What have youlearned from your audience feedback? Katie Needham Audience feedback from our trailer is hugely important as it allows us to identify what aspects of our trailer were popular amongst our target audience, as well as what they didn’t like. This information allows us to reflect on our work and identify areas we would have done differently with hindsight and any improvements we would like to make. For my audience feedback, I have constructed an online survey through Survey Monkey and sent it to 30 individuals with a copy of the trailer and the ancillary tasks. The variety of questions will demonstrate our audiences opinions of our trailer; certain questions have a space to leave further comments - this will show us feedback in greater depth and detail.
• 2.
  I deliberately sentthe questionnaire to individuals between the age 16-24, as this was my target audience and therefore it is the reaction of this age group that I needed to investigate and research. There were also several individuals that answered the survey despite being older than this target age group. This broader range of results can show whether they would also be interested, despite not being the age group, therefore creating a more versatile and successful soap opera. Survey monkey allows me to view the results individually, and the respondents of the older ages all said they would be interested in watching the soap – demonstrating that the trailer appeals to a variety of age groups as well as the target audience I had. When sending out the surveys, I tried to make the ratio of male to female as equal as possible. This was because I am not aiming my soap at one gender in particular and so am interested in the reaction of both genders equally. Being able to see the responses of the male and female individuals with this question allows me to consider how the different genders reacted to the trailer and if there was any difference in opinion between the two genders. It was especially important for me to know the gender of the person answering the questions due to the fact I incorporated gender stereotypes in my piece, and this may cause the genders to react differently to the trailer. This question revealed that the techniques I used in the editing and filming stages created a ‘well made trailer’ in the opinion of my target audience. It was helpful that I had previously asked them to state their gender as I could tell which gender preferred the soap trailer – for example I would be able to see if a higher percentage of girls stated it was well made in comparison to the boys, as that would reveal I needed to incorporate more themes aimed at men to make it a more equal target audience. 100% of the responses stated it was a well made trailer, showing that I don’t need to make any improvements or changes to make the trailer better in terms of being well made.
• 3.
  It was importantto me to ensure my target audience felt it was appropriate and suitable for the age range I was aiming my trailer at. If there were themes and aspects that were too mature for my target audience, it would exclude the younger viewers from watching my soap and make it less successful and not suited to my target audience. In addition, if it was too ‘young’ and ‘immature’ for my target audience then it would exclude the older viewers that I was aiming my piece at. If either of these cases were revealed through this question, I would need to remove mature themes or remove immature aspects to make it more suitable and appropriate for the age group I am targeting my piece at. 100% of the responses thought it was suitable for the age group I was targeting my trailer at so there is no need to make any changes. This question gave a direct piece of feedback around how well the soap trailer made audiences want to go on and watch the actual soap. The main purpose of trailers is to advertise an upcoming show and to make audiences curious and intrigued so that they increase the viewers they get for the actual show. Therefor if a trailer makes audiences want to watch the full show, it has achieved its main objective and is a successful trailer. I am very pleased with the response to this question as it shows 100% of the responses this question received enjoyed the trailer and would want to watch the soap – demonstrating that I created an intriguing and interesting trailer based on my audience research at the start of the project. In my audience research at the initial stages of the project, a common theme was that audiences felt bored with current soaps and felt that all the storylines and characters were extremely similar and repetitive. It was for this reason that I undertook research into how I could incorporate a unique aspect to my piece, which ended up being illogical verisimilitude by having my characters as a ghost. It was one of my biggest aims to make my trailer unique to meet with the needs of my target audience and I undertook a lot of research into illogical verisimilitude in soap opera and how audiences have reacted to it in actual soaps previously. It is for this reason that I included this question in my survey, I was interested to see if the illogical verisimilitude was taken well with the audience and whether it had made it unique and different enough so that it was an interesting trailer. 100% of the responses said it made it different and unique, I am very pleased with this response as I spent a lot of time and effort to incorporate a unique aspect into my piece.
• 4.
  Previous questions hadalready demonstrated whether or not the audience liked the trailer, however I incorporated these questions to gain more detail around the favourite and least favourite pieces of the trailer so I could reflect on my work and find out what I did well and what didn’t work so well. A strong percentage stated they didn’t have any least favourite aspects which I am really pleased with as it shows some respondents enjoyed all aspects of the trailer. The two options that people stated were their least favourite was the characters and the titles/font. Upon reflection, I would do further research into the types of font that is currently used in soap opera and how audiences react to different types and which ones are more popular than others. I tried keeping the font simple and professional looking to make my products suit the BBC platform, as a lot of the things they show are more professional and simple as opposed to exaggerated and dramatic – however upon reflection maybe as my target audience is younger they would prefer more interesting font. One of the favourite aspects of my trailer was the music, therefore I know it suited the atmosphere of the trailer and audiences liked it. Therefore I wouldn't’t make any changes to the music. A strong amount of responses liked the characters, however there were also responses that didn’t like the characters, this could potentially be linked to the gender stereotype and so from this I will do further research aimed at males and females separately to see if people of different genders reacted differently to the characters’ storyline and gender stereotype. At the planning stages of my project I chose to keep my trailer fairly vague and leave a lot of unanswered questions in order to draw the audience in and make them curious enough to go on to watch the soap. However one of my biggest concerns with making it so vague was whether audiences wouldn't’t understand the brief storyline and would be too confused that they would turn off. The main plot for my trailer, although it was brief and vague was that a relationship had broken down with violence and that the husband had killed the wife. A small portion of the responses stated they didn’t know the storyline, which leads me to consider that I could have made the trailer more detailed. However the majority of responses left their answer, indicating they knew the plot. All answers included the words domestic abuse and murder, demonstrating that the main aspects of the plot were understood by the audience – therefor I am happy with the response to the question.
• 5.
  This question revealedthe biggest thing that audiences didn't like was that the magazine didn’t stand out. In the next question they said it intrigued them to watch the soap – demonstrating they didn’t necessarily dislike the cover but just felt it didn’t stand out significantly. Upon reflection I would incorporate brighter colours into my magazine to make it stand out on shelves better. A fair portion of responses did think the magazine cover stood out well, and so I don’t think it was hugely unsuccessful in standing out, however there is a big enough percentage that said it didn’t to make me want to make changes and improvements. The aspect of my magazine cover that advertised the soap trailer was the photo of the to characters in the middle on the background of clouds. Therefore I wouldn’t change this aspect as it was the aspect that was successful in drawing audiences in to want to watch the soap trailer. I am happy that overall the cover intrigued the audiences to watch the trailer and soap as the main aim of the ancillary products is to draw attention and viewers to the soap and this demonstrates that the cover had done that well. A fair percentage of the responses to this question stated they wouldn’t make any changes which I am happy with as this shows they were fully happy with it. The further comments all stated something similar to ‘needed to stand out more’ which correlates with the previous question and indicates I should incorporate brighter colours to make the magazine cover stand out better.
• 6.
  I set thisquestion in my survey as I wanted to assess how successful and popular my poster was amongst my target audience. I am really happy with the response to this question as 100% of responses felt the poster intrigued them to watch the soap, which ultimately is the main aim of an advertising poster. This response indicated that the colours, themes and layout of my poster went well with the trailer and was appealing to the audience. The cloud effect with the cropped out characters created a dark and mysterious feel to the poster, which links well with the general feeling and atmosphere the trailer creates – dark, eerie and mysterious. I am really happy with the response to this question. 100% of my target audience that answered the survey wouldn’t make any improvements to the poster which demonstrates it is popular amongst the target audience and that I don’t need to make any changes to make it more popular and more suited to the needs of my target audience. It was really important for the trailer, poster and magazine cover to blend well together and look like they suit each other – by using similar photos/colours/fonts. This is important as it creates an image for the soap and makes certain themes in the three products recognisable and familiar to my soap opera – this helps to advertise the product more efficiently.
• 7.
  In addition tothe questionnaire, I decided to interview several members of my target audience to discuss my trailer with them in more detail. In my piece, I incorporated the stereotype that in domestic abuse, the male is the perpetrator. This is a negative stereotype that males are more violent, aggressive and abusive than women. I chose to conform to common actual media products by having the male as the abuser and using the stereotype rather that the countertype. The countertype would have been to have the women abuse the man as this is not stereotypically what happens and is not what is shows in popular media products such as existing soap opera. It was a deliberate decision to incorporate this stereotype as I felt it would have made my soap trailer too unrealistic and different to audiences as I also incorporated illogical verisimilitude. The combination of a strong countertype and illogical verisimilitude may have made my trailer too different and dissimilar to soap opera that my audience currently watches and this may have put people off wanting to watch my soap. Due to the fact I have a gender stereotype in my trailer, I wanted to investigate the reaction and opinion of both female and male audience members to see whether this negatively or positively affected the opinions of either gender.
• 8.
  Interview with amale, aged 18: Katie: “How do you feel about the male being the domestic abuse perpetrator as opposed to the victim?” James: “its what I normally see on TV so it feels more familiar to me, I don’t know how I’d feel about seeing it the other way around it’d be weird to me” Katie: “Would you prefer it to be either way?” James: “Like it wouldn't’t bother me that much either way, it wouldn’t make me stop watching a soap but I think its just more familiar and normal to me for it to be the woman as the victim” Interview with a female, ages 19: Katie: “How do you feel about the male being the domestic abuse perpetrator as opposed to the victim?” Lucy: “I would prefer to see more variety and less gender stereotypes in soap opera because 90% of the time you see the woman depicted as helpless and the victim. However I do feel like it is more familiar and normal to see the stereotypes, and at the end of the day if a soap is trying to tackle such an important issue like domestic abuse then that’s the main thing for me – it doesn't’t bother me too much that gender stereotypes show the woman as the victim. These interviews demonstrate that incorporating this gender stereotype affects the female and male audience differently. I interviewed more than two people however I felt these interviews best reflected the general opinion or each gender. The majority of the men were happy with the woman as the victim, most of them describing it as ‘familiar’ and ‘normal’ to them. However the stereotype caused slight issue amongst the women in the audience, as most of them expressed how they would prefer things to be more equal amongst the genders and how they are depicted in media. Neither gender demonstrated any strong feeling around the stereotypes in my piece, mainly because they're used to seeing this in media and so it isn't shocking or outrageous for them – therefore I don’t see the need to change my piece and change the gender roles. However, the interviews have highlighted the importance of considering how different groups will react to different aspects. For example a heterosexual person may not care about a negative gay stereotype in soap, however a homosexual individual may take great offence to a negative gay stereotype. Within my piece, I tackle gender stereotypes and so it was important for me to investigate how the separate genders reacted to this. If I had discovered that this gender stereotype of women as the victim had caused great offense amongst the female side of my target audience, it would have caused me to change the gender roles in my piece to accommodate with my target audience and not exclude any potential viewers for my soap opera.