Evaluation Question 4

How did I Use New Media Technologies in the Construction and Research, Planning and Evaluative Stages? 

Below is a Slideshare presentation which explores what technology I have used to research, plan, create and evaluate my products and why I have used them. 

Evaluation Question 3

What have I Learnt from Audience Feedback? 

Asking people to vote in my polls on Facebook

Throughout planning, creating and evaluating my products I have learnt huge amounts from my target audience. My target audience are aged between 14 and 26 and because of this I have been able to use peer assessment to learn what my audience like and dislike and I have tried to take advantage of this as much as possible as in order for my products to be successful they must appeal to their audience.

Polls on my blog

One way in which I have learnt from my target audience is through polls on my blog. Blogger is a useful platform to gain information from my audience as it a site they regularly use and I used it to ask two questions, one about what I should call my film and the other regarding the soundtrack. I used the majority vote of both polls to decide what soundtrack to use and what to call my film which is very helpful as I learnt what would most appeal to my target audience which, in order for my text to be successful, I must do.  In order to get as many people to vote in polls as possible I also posted a link to my blog on Facebook and asked people to vote on it.

First Version 

I also learnt a lot from my target audience in relation to my ancillary texts. As I learnt through my audience and promotion research my target audience are incredibly media savvy and spend vast amounts of time on social networking sites such as Facebook at the same time as browsing other websites. This means it was very easy to get audience feedback by posting my ancillaries on it and asking what people liked or disliked.  It's also important to post my ancillaries on Facebook as if it were a real product my film poster would almost certainly be advertised in the sidebar on Facebook and other social networking sites so I must make sure it grabs my audience's attention.

Second Version after I've made changes based on my audience feedback

From posting my review on Facebook I got a number of positive comments but also some constructive criticism which I used to shape my product. One example of this is a comment about the caption of the picture not fitting the image and the two pages not seeming to connect properly. In response to this I changed the caption and made the "Review" section go across both pages to join the two. I then posted it on Facebook again and got much more positive feedback.

Image of me showing my products to my peers

I also posted my film poster on Facebook but found that the most useful feedback for this product came from asking my peers in person what they thought about it. Overall almost everyone liked my poster but there was some concern over not including a certificate rating for it as my audience thought there were some themes in my film such as drugs and alcohol that weren't appropriate for children. I therefore added a certificate of 12A for it.

First Version 

Second Version with the certificate

In order to get feedback for my film I took advantage of being able to show it form groups within the school and interview the group afterwards asking what they did and didn't like. To start of with I showed it a a 6th Form tutor group and a years 10 and 11 tutor group. What I found especially interesting was how the different demographics responded to the film. The 6th Formers found the speech the funniest thing whereas the Years 10 and 11 found more physical comedy funny. I then experimented by showing a year 7 class my film to see if I had got my target audience age group right which I assumed was 14 to 26. However after showing to the Year 7's I have extended my target audience group to include 12 to 26 as they loved the film. They didn't pick up on the more adult themes such as drugs but really liked the way I created tension to then subvert it.

From showing my film to these three groups I got the feedback that the party section was slightly too long and the volume of the music over the credits were too loud. I therefore cut down the party scene and reduced the volume of the music.

First Version of the film with a longer party scene and louder music on the gag reel.

Second Version with a shorter party scene and a quieter gag reel. 



The most important thing I have learnt from audience feedback is that my target audience was different to what I initially thought it was. This is extremely useful as it means my product appeals to a larger target audience than I realised and allowed me to get feedback from a wide breadth of my target audience not just my peers but those slightly younger and older. By gaining audience feedback it has really reinforced the way a text gains meaning from the way the individual reads it and no matter how many codes and signifiers a producer can use to try and encourage a preferred reading it is up to the reader to decide what they take from it. This was extremely evident in the way different age groups reacted to the text and made me truly realise how important it is to get audience feedback as it is only by understanding what some of my audience think about the text that I can judge whether or not my product is successful and conotes the concepts I wanted it to.

Evaluation Question 2

How Effective is the Combination of your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

Below is a Prezi presentation of all three of my products together which explores how they relate together and to what effect. 

In order to judge how effective the combination of my three products are I have interviewed a group of teens who are representative of my target audience after they have watched the film and seen the ancillaries. This is the most effective way of judging how effective the combination of the three products are as they are intended for my target audience and it is therefore imperative that they are attracted to them in order for them to be successful. Cohesion between the three products is also important as it enables the target audience to recognise them as a group and better understand what the product is based on the conventions of the three pieces.
After interviewing a large group of my target audience to get the overall feel of how my target audience respond to my product I then had a one on one interview to get a more in depth response. 

Below is my interview with my target audience.
The overall response was very positive from both the group of teens and the individual.  They could all see clear links between all three of my products and it appealed to almost all of them even though they had differing tastes in genres of films. This indicates that my three pieces work together effectively as they can easily be identified and have a brand identity and work together to promote my main product which is my film.  

Evaluation Question 1

In What Ways does my Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions or Real Media Products?

The Prezi presentation below reveals how I have researched the conventions of comedy horror films, film posters and magazine film reviews and which conventions I have chosen to use and why, which I have tried to develop and which I have challenged and why. 

Audience Feedback

After I have created my three pieces it is imperative that I get audience feedback from my target audience so that I can assess how successful my film is.
I have posted my first finished version of my film on both Facebook and Youtube as this is where my target audience consume media, especially short films such as mine.
Below is my first full edit of my film.

In order to judge how my target audience are responding to my film I have taken screen shots of the comments people have been leaving on both Facebook and Youtube.
Another way I can judge how well my audience respond to my film is to show it to my target audience and ask them questions about what they liked and disliked. I showed it to two groups of people, the first aged 17 to 18 and the second aged 15 to 17.
After showing it to the first group of people they had a number of comments both positive and negative, they liked:

• The variety of shots
• Steady camera shots
• Really enjoyed the gag reel
• Thought the plot was interesting and built tension really well before subverting expectations
• Enjoyed the end of the film most
• Thought the play on 'Paranormal Activity' worked well and indicated the genre as being cmedy horror
• The majority of the rooms enjoyed watching the film
• They found it funny and laughed at most of the parts I wanted them too.

They thought I could:

• Slow down the ending as some thought it felt too rushed
• Shorten the gag reel slightly as it was a bit too long
• Turn down the music in the gag reel as people couldn't hear the actors laughing and joking
• Cut down the party scene slightly as it was too long

I have taken their feedback and have created a second edit of my film which I then showed to the second group of people.
Below is the second edit.

Final Three Pieces

Below is my short film in it's entirety, my film poster and my film review.