A2 Media Studies

EvaluationSamena Khan 5255

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

A focus group was conducted in order to gain and insight on what my target audience thought of my final products. The focus group was consisted of my target audience of teenagers. The focus group had 30 members and was asked various open ended questions so they could elaborate on their ideas. Constructive criticism and positive feedback was given. An equal number of boys and girls were used in order to gain an insight into what both genders think and also because our target audience were teenagers in general. It would not have been accurate to only gain opinions of one gender.

I received both positive feedback for my documentary as well as constructive

criticism. Some of the feedback I received were:

• Some of the group really like the music and liked how there was a change in tempo when Maya was writing the bucket list. The change in music indicted some happiness that she is trying to turn her life around.

• They really like the use of extreme close ups in Maya's room and how initially the shots were used to indicate a normal teenager’s room; therefore objects in the shots were a Harry Potter book collection, a guitar and a pile of shoes on the floor. After these shots an extreme close up of Maya taking medicine was shown which the audience liked a lot as it showed a strong contrast between the two images. They also really liked the extreme close up of Maya’s hand fidgeting indicating anxiousness/ discomfort which also harmonised with the close up of Maya’s leg fidgeting as it shows that beneath her brave outlook on life there is a an amount of nervousness.

MAIN TASK FEEDBACK

• All members of my focus group liked the fact that we used the main character for the voice over as they felt that it became more evident that it was her story. The audience felt as though they were present with her and said that she was very relatable. By making her relatable it was more enjoyable to watch. Individuals also liked the fact that I used an interview portion in my documentary. During the interview portion I stopped teenagers randomly and asked them two questions. These were: "What would you do for your Bucket List" and "What would you do if you were in Maya's position" whereby the individuals stated whether they would continue in their treatment of chemotherapy or give up and do the things on their bucket list. Individuals liked this portion of the documentary as they were able to see others opinions and it helped to decided on their own personal opinions. It made the audience think more and reflect on others opinions.

• My target audience also said that my  documentary did carry out its purpose: to inform; and that all the facts present were very informative and many of the individuals learnt something new about teenage cancer through the facts. They felt much more aware about the issue as well as find out more about Maya and her background story. A lot of the facts were explained in further detail in the voice-over. This was done in order to have the audience have a visual summary of what is being said rather than listening to the voiceover and possibly missing what the fact was.

• I also received some constructive criticism on my documentary:

• Some members of my focus group felt that the music was too serious and more lighter music should have been played as my documentary is supposed to have a positive message that Maya is fighting through her illness and living to do all the things she wants to do in her life. Individuals of our focus group felt that the small portion of happy music in the end when Maya was writing her bucket list was not a sufficient amount. I also felt that this criticism was true as I felt that I hadn't clearly expressed the positive message that I was trying to portray.

• Individuals also stated that there should also have been a logo of the institution which would have produced/ distributed the documentary to give a more professional finish to my product. If I was to put a logo of the institution I would put a channel 4 logo.

• Many members of my focus group disliked the use of the hand held shot where Maya is walking into her house as it gave a scary and horror-movie like feeling due to the fact that she was wearing a glove. Many said that "she gives the image of a thief in this shot" and stated that if I shot without the glove the shot would have been less intimidating.

• Finally what most of my focus group said were that they would have liked to see more of Maya and have the interview portion of our documentary shortened as they felt interested in her story and her as a person. Although this was a criticism I felt pleased that our audience was thoroughly interested and would be even more interested if our main protagonist was in the documentary more. Overall I  received very good feedback and my audience was very interested in my documentary. They felt that all the conventions of a documentary was met and it carries out its purpose. 

• We received both positive feedback as well as constructive criticism for our newspaper advert. Some of the feedback we received were:

• They liked the colour scheme of orange as it was bright which attracted their eyes to it and the contrast with the black made the orange stand out. They also said that the use of the orange was also a good idea as it was the ribbon for leukaemia so it raised awareness.

NEWSPAPER ADVERT FEEDBACK

• Some but not all member of the group liked the use of a back light in the image as it hid the models face and also gave the programme some mystery. The audience wonders what it will be about so they watch it causing some interest to be gained. This sense of ‘mystery is also present in my main task where the protagonists face is hidden from the audience and so the use of extreme close ups is used.

• Individuals also really liked the positioning of the text "teenage cancer" as it mirrored the positioning of the titles in our documentary establishing a clear house style.

• Some criticism that I received were:• The image could have been better as the use of the

back light didn't look very professional. I also agree with this view as I felt that it could have been better and clearer.

• It is not clear that the orange of the text and the orange of the sweatshirt are supposed to be the same shade. To improve this the orange of the sweatshirt could have been made brighter to show a clear link. 

• In order to further improve my work I could have incorporated the bucket list into the advert in order to give it a positive spin and attract audiences through the use of the bucket list rather than the fact that Maya has cancer. 

• I received both positive feedback for my double page as well as constructive criticism. Some of the feedback I received were:

• All members of my focus group said that this looked highly professional. All conventions were met and it was of very high quality

• When reading the article many members of the group were very interested and said that the content was written very well, the language was not too over complicated and also focused greatly on Maya's positive out look on life.

• Through the article my focus group were able to see what we would have had in store if we made the whole documentary and felt that my ideas were well thought out and executed. 

DOUBLE PAGE TV LISTINGS SPREAD

Some criticism that I received were:

That the orange parts of the article should be darker as it may be difficult to read for some. I also agreed with this as when constructing the article the computer screen made the text darker than it actually was. Older audiences would find this text difficult to read.

Not many criticisms were received for my article. I am very pleased with the results and the amount of interest my three products have gained. Overall audiences felt that the three tasks were very well linked and worked well together.