EVALUATION QUESTION 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback? BY MAX FRANKEL

• I found the process of collecting audience feedback on my media text really interesting. Finding out how audiences reacted to my short film was very instructive. I posted my completed video on YouTube and Vimeo because they both have lots of unique users every day. I also posted on Facebook with a link to my media text, telling them to watch it and let me know what they thought. I found that most reactions to my text were positive. Viewers said that they enjoyed the opening titles and they thought the film’s catchphrase was punchy, memorable and witty. They also said that they enjoyed the suspense of the first shot of the abandoned Joker mask on the floor. It was interesting to see how different viewers interpreted this scene. I intended for it to look like the mask had been dropped in a hurry by Rossi’s character, but some people told me they thought somebody was buried in the ground beneath the mask and that the diegetic sound of “Help! Help” was them crying out. When filming that shot I didn’t even consider that that could be a possible interpretation, but getting audience feedback has helped me think more about deliberately including ambiguity in media texts which actually encourage doubt in the audience. It’s made me think about how I would try to include more mystery into my short film if I did it again. I think it actually makes the text and the experience of viewing it richer.

• I also posted my ancillary texts on Facebook and Instagram. People’s response to my poster was on the whole very positive. They liked how simple and uncluttered it was. Some commented that they liked that I tried to keep the text to a minimum: just the film title, strapline, principal actors’ names, critic review, film credits and release date. I found that among my intended target audience of 18-30 year old males the poster was received really well. They could see that it was a gangster movie and the title made it clear that they could expect a movie centered around an elaborate heist. They liked the simple positioning of the three main characters and some said they liked how they even seemed to come out of the darkness, suggesting they were very shady characters. Using the Joker mask as the other clear focal point on the poster was a success for some people, but for others it didn’t work and they found it confusing – they fed back that it confused genre conventions and made them think of horror. Another piece of constructive criticism I got was about the colour scheme of the poster. Some people did question why I chose to put it in black in white. They said that it would have been better in colour, but I found that it made it seem artistic and sinister. One thing a viewer said which challenged what I’d previously thought was that she couldn’t imagine seeing it on the side of a bus or on the Underground network as it was too monochrome. I hadn’t thought about the specific locations the posters would be posted and this was a really interesting comment. I found it really valuable asking them what expectations they had of the film based on the poster. It showed me how much we’re all aware of certain conventions and how these shape our expectations.