Audience Feedback -

We posted our final version of "The Unheard" on facebook to see the comment we got. This tells us if the audience have connected with the opening, if they understand it and appreciate some of the elements of it. Audience feedback is vital for producers that want to know if their film is going to be a hit, they will consult their targeted audience along the way. Our target audience is young adults and older teens (15+) of both genders, however it might also appeal to a slightly older age range. we found in our research that People of this age tend to be quite opinionated, but also not so quick and knowledgeable, so want a more easily digestible film, not one that is too difficult to understand unlike Inception or The Da Vinci Code. The people that commented were towards the lower barrier of our target audience, all between 16 and 18, this is because this is the section of our audience we could easily target. because of this, the feedback isnt entirely reppresentative of our audience, so whilst it is useful to gain the feedback, it doesnt show us the views of our whole target audience.

"best part no doubt was the whispering. creeeeeepy"

( this was mentioned often, that the use of the whispers was very effective, and quite creepy, which is important for a psychological thriller )

"i like the use of trees, very nicely done"

( the audience also connected with the tree's as they are a well known and used convention or a psychological/mystery thriller, this shows us that the audience react well to the familiar conventions we have used )

"the music is nice and atmospheric and combined with the long lingering shots of the trees and the way the camera pans round, it adds an eerie element of suspense. but your names don't have capital letters"
( This person mentions the tree's adding suspense, as they are making a link between the tree's in our thriller and in other thrillers they have seen before. The audience will know from previous films that if they see shots of tree's and woods, combined with tense music they are expecting something to happen. this is an example of where the conventions are so familiar that the audience is one step ahead of the opening, which could be taken to mean that they "know what will happen next" and are therefore over exposed to this combination of woods and tense music and are therefore not excited by it. however, i think it is an achievement tha the audience could make that connection between our oepning and other thrillers of the genre, through the conventions we used) 


"i think it's a great opening, as it doesn't have to much of a story and leaves the viewer engaged. I like the suspense of the pans, but feel they do slightly drag on. I love the music as it adds to the suspense, and i love the title at the end :) "
( this person really appreciated the end title, which was something a bit different and impressive, it is also quite fitting of the genre, this once again suggests that the audience appreciate familiarity with the genre )

"I loved the music - really chilling! And the whispering was great, I have to agree :) I think this is a really cool start"
( the music was very popular, as it set a tense mood)

"Love the timing of the music and the whispering. Really builds up the suspense! Love it"
We paid specific attention to the timing of the music so that the tension built up fluidly, to a peak in time with the peak of the footage, so that it flowed. This shows us that the extra attention to timing paid off, as the whole piece built up to a point. this was something we had a problem with when intially filming, and in the first drafts that we did.

It was really useful to gain feedback, but could have been a good plan to ask our audiences opinions during production , because we did audience research at the beginning, and assesed their reactions at the end, but during the process it would have been useful as it would have helped shape our opening and tailor it more to their wants. From the feedback it is clear some of the aspects of the opening have been successful with our target audience, but a wider range of views from a wider audience on some other aspects such as the editing, which was overlooked by the audience, would have been more valuable. a more critical response would have been useful too.