evaluation Q3.

FOCUS GROUP.

As a group, we organised a focus group whereby we gathered a group of people within out target audience age to get immediate feedback on our finished products.Using the recording camera, we recorded them giving their initial thoughts, creating a basis of hightlights and critisims of our tasks. I think this is a more realistic way of getting true feedback, as with questionnaires they are able to write out in a stylistic way, whereas with this form of feedback it is immediate. While we get their true opinions, we were also baring in mind that they dont have an idea of the conventions we followed and why. However, this process was very beneficial, as we were able to see where we went wrong, and where there was room for improvements if any.



GENRE.

The focus group were asked "which aspects of the trailer do you think identified it as a horror?" to which the second person replied "the jumping between scenes" in reference to the montage of shots at the end. This shows that the editing stages were vital, as the audience were able to identify it through that alone, regardless of the other horror-like conventions featured such as blood, death, weapons etc.

Another person commented on the music being "dark" suggesting it was fitting to our genre, and easily identifiable. It was suggested that the concept of an "empty village" was typically found in horror films, and that was also how they were identifying the genre.



INITIAL THOUGHTS.

the first person to speak claimed that although the music was very fitting, it "gave away the entire plot". This suggests that we may have included to many key elements of our plot, however another member of the focus group argued that because it wasnt in chronological order, it wasnt to revealing, and enticed the audience to want to know what happens next. A member of the focus group pointed out sarahs role as being a key image for them, as she was holding a knife with blood dripping down her face. They suggested that she "might be into defacing herself" which isnt entirely true- but is still positive feedback as this is an example of our plot not being to revealing, as the audience still do not know why this has happened to sarah and what her role in the film is.  Although not all members of the focus group agreed with the first point, they did point out that the beginning of the trailer was more abstract than the rest of it, however did go on further to say that it was enticing and overall a good film trailer.



ICONIC IMAGES.

It was immediately pointed out that the match dropping on the floor was significant to the trailer. they enjoyed the "old film" effect that we applied, and instantly understood that they were viewing this from the past, which is what we had hoped the audience would first understand. Lewis tied up screaming was also pointed out, adding "this shows the genre is more extreme horror rather than the usual subtle 'il scare you' sort of horror". The first member of the focus group said that the iconic image for him was 'mark screaming "run" as it was unexpected, and cut immediately too something else, making the audience want to know more.



ANCILLARY TASKS.

due to complications, i was unable to obtain recorded feedback for my other tasks, however i did recieve some written feedback after the focus group had been conducted. both images had been described as "striking"  although the match did cause some confusion among some members of the focus group in my poster. However, I took this as a positive, as it created the code of enigma i had hoped for, and left the audience guessing. It was noted that the taglines on the magazine were "effective" and "realistic" however they were confused on why i had chosen to outline my magazine in red- but i did this as i noticed it was a convention on Empire magazine.