Question 3- What have you learned from your audience feedback?

1. Question 3- What have you learned from your audience feedback? By Samuel Regent

2. Approach to Feedback • As a group we decided that giving the product the opportunity to be viewed by as many people as possible was vital in receiving both reliable and varied feedback from all corners of society. This includes participants of a diverse age category and also that have different interests, not necessarily including film. This is for the purpose of receiving a wide range of opinion through various feedback strategies; we believe as a group this was the most honest strategy in order to gain feedback that would allow us both as aspiring writers to develop our current skills for future media products of our own. Feedback strategies included publishing to a hugely diverse audience though using the modern technology of social networking, including visiting sites such as Instagram and Facebook. In addition we planned to appeal to specialist audiences in order to gain reliable analytical feedback through film forums; posting links of our film on YouTube and further tagging a survey that we developed on survey monkey. This allowed use to receive answers to the questions we desired to be answered.

3. Benefits of feedback • These strategies allowed the product the opportunity to be published to a wide range of people alongside receiving honest professional advice on how the film could be improved, this as a group we appreciated greatly as the advice we received helped use personally as composers alongside the products potential future if later addressed. We performed this through posting on fan pages of short film and in addition using our current social networking accounts on Facebook and Instagram to publish the product. We did this through regularly posting the film on a variety of different pages that could potentially be interested in the product, such as dark comedy fan pages and student film advice pages. This was beneficial in grasping attention, as it’s often the answer when attempting to gain feedback, to potentially pester your potential audience for their attention, as many people have to be forced into their interests. This is a technique used heavily within the film industry, as films would be hugely less profitable if producers did not encourage their potential audience to view their products.

4. Facebook • The first feedback strategy in which we selected, as a group was Facebook as we suggested that it was important to gain important to gain an understanding on how general society reacted to the product; this includes feedback that expresses generalized opinion. We performed this through private messaging friends and family of each member of the group for their response alongside posting the product on news feeds of the site regularly to keep the film fresh in potential viewers minds; tempting them to view it. We felt that this was effective in reaching out to various characters with different interests, opening people up to something we felt was new within the industry as dark comedy short films are not as recognized as they once were. We discovered that feedback varied in formality and honesty as often we would receive feedback that was not taken seriously from members of the friendship group, however we felt strongly about the capability of this product so therefore ignored this and continued with focusing on the film potential improvement. This was vital as its important to not loose focus on the ambition of the task in hand, as feedback for use was vital for us as independent students to get the most success out of the film we had developed for months.

5. Instagram • Another social networking strategy we used was the photography based Instagram; which is a rapidly growing site that is reached new levels of popularity within the past 2 years through celebrities and even presidents having a page of their own. We believe this was perfect for effectively promoting ‘The Soft Stuff’, through posting images of characters and locations within the filming process; using our current pages on the website to publish the film globally. The strategy of doing this gratefully was very successful as our current followers on Instagram encouraged us to post more pictures surrounding the film; almost building a small fan base for the product. This gave us immense confidence in which was hopefully portrayed within the final product, as this encouraged us to use new and creative strategies to entertain.

6. Survey monkey and specialised feedback • Finally the most vital and beneficial aspect of the feedback process for use was gaining professional specialized feedback in participants that have great enthusiasm for the topic of short film or currently work within the industry. This we discovered could be gained through posting the product on film forums in which students in high education visit as well as enthusiasts of film. This gave use the capability of posting the link on these pages to receive honest and reliable feedback. Using film forums such as ‘student room’ allowed use to receive feedback from university candidates studying film around the country that have the interest surrounding the topic to help others through passing on knowledge. In partnership with this we used survey monkey in order to effectively use are survey to gain as much expertise we could in order to benefit our own skills and the films potential. In doing this our awareness of media technology has greatened significantly as we can both used these techniques in later life when we plan to branch out individually to make our own products.