Audience Feedback

I created this post with the purpose of getting the thoughts/opinions of friends and family, as well as some strangers after they watched my short film. I've done this because it's important for me to see whether it was enjoyable for my target audience and it allows me to see what I could do better next time to improve the quality for the audience. To collect this data I made a questionnaire on Google Forms and I sent the link to a number of people with the hopes they'd fill it out. I also left a link to the questionnaire under my final production on YouTube so any strangers were able to participant too. Below is an embedded version of my questionnaire.

I've decided I'm going to take a sample of three peoples questionnaire responses and analyse them as it means I can go into depth when talking about them without needing to repeat myself whilst completing evaluation question three which is "What Have You Learnt From Your Audience Feedback?".

I've asked:

1) "What Gender Are You?" - This is because I wanted to see if I was right in thinking that the male section of the market would enjoy my short film more than the female so asking this question allowed me to see this in a practical way.

2) "How Old Are You?" - I decided to ask this as I predicted that the best audience for my film would be aged between 15 & 17. This was because I've said my movie would get a certificated rating of 15 by the BBFC so I wanted to see what the most popular age demographic for my film was in the end.

3) "Did You Enjoy My Short Film?" - Although a basic question I still believe it's an important one to ask as it allows me to breakdown whether the audience member loved, liked or disliked the film.

4) "What Did You Enjoy About This Film?" - This question allowed me to identify my movie strengths so I know what to do again next time.

5) "Who Was Your Favourite Character" - Asking this question means I can see what character people thought were the best written and acted within the film.

6) "Please State Your Favourite Character & Why They Were." - This matched with the last question will let me see which characters were the best identifiable for my target audience and which weren't if they don't get picked meaning I can see which types of characters to include in any future shorts.

7) "How Would You Rate My Short Film Out Of Ten?" - I chose to ask this because I thought having a quantitative piece of data would give me factual data I could better breakdown to see whether it could be a success in the real life market.

8) "How Could I Improve My Short Film?" - This was an important question to ask as it means I can see what my target audience thought I did wrong/didn't do at all so it would allow me to next time better focus my efforts on these factors to make sure my short film is of a higher quality/enjoyment for them.

9) "Would You Recommend This Short To Someone Else?" - I thought I'd include this question as it means I could see if my short film could be a success in a real market as the only true good publicity is a positive word of mouth from the audience.

Participant 1)

I chose to analyse this participants response to my questionnaire as they're part of my predetermined target audience as their age and gender match what I intended for my films audience members to be which allowed me to centre my film around their typical desires in a comedy film.

As you can see from these results this student clearly enjoyed my final media product which has shown me that I have produced a suitable and enjoyable film for this audience member. This fills me with confidence that in a real market my short film could be successful one as other people would likely share the opinions and thoughts of this audience member. This participant also gave me some positive criticism with there answer to question eight. This is because they said to improve my short film I should include a scene of the group revealing their secrets which helps me know what I could do better next time in order to receive a ten/ten from this type of audience member. This response overall was useful to me as it means I could reconfirm my beliefs about whether I made a good product for my audience and it allowed me to see what I could do better.

Participant 2)

I decided to analyse this persons response as it was someone I hadn't considered targeting my short film towards as they are a female of an older age so I'm hoping they give me some information that is different than my usual demographics.

This participants response surprised me as although they were a completely different segment of the target audience they seemed to really enjoy the production and understand the tone of the short film without any issues. As they loved the short film I haven't got any criticism to build upon but, they chose David as their favourite character and stated "his acting abilities" were the reason for this. This has helped me as I now know what other types of audience members like in comedic short film as I can assume as David was this persons favourite they enjoyed the opening montage too as it starred him. This has made me think I could easily include other scenes like this successfully to please more people, making this response very useful to me when considering future projects.

Participant 3)

Finally, I've chose to analyse this persons response as it was one of the lowest scoring feedback I received when it came to the rating my film out of ten. I think analysing this will best help me identify the flaws in my film and hopefully upon reflection would help me make a produce something better in future.

What I've learnt from this response is that this participant in particular is a fan of action being mixed in with his comedy films. I've been able to come to his conclusion as he's stated his favourite character was Lawrence because he knocked out David and that scene in particular was his favourite as well. This has shown he that next time I could include some more action scenes or confrontational scenes at least to better cater towards these sorts of audience members. The answer for what I should improved was a little surprising to me as I thought it would be for me to include more fighting but instead I go a useful answer that made a comment about how I should show more of the arguments/things that are said between the characters. This has helped me understand my target audience better as it showed me that although I'd predicted my ideal audience member that there are others that don't conform to it and I should consider more peoples thoughts and desires rather than a select few when making a short film.

Overall, the feedback I received from this sample was very positive for me to get from creating this questionnaire as it allowed me to see that my product is successful with multiple audiences but, it also managed to show me what I could have done better too. This wasn't a negative thing though as it has allowed me to reflect upon my work in a more critical way and if anything it has made me more determined and confident that next time I produce a similar piece of work I can improve the quality further. However, I am still very happy with my final piece now and these responses are partly the reason for it because even though people managed to pick out certain flaws or things they'd change they still gave me high scores and responses saying they'd happily tell others to watch my short film meaning I can say this project was a success.