EVALUATION 3 – WHAT HAVE

YOU LEARNT FROM YOUR

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?
BY TLZ PRODUCTIONS
 AT RESEARCH & PLANNING STAGE …

• Throughout our planning and research stage, collectively as a group we had roles in which we had to fulfill and
followed an ‘production schedule’, which was an evenly divided schedule of what each production member needed
to carry out and the research that needed to occur in order for our group to have a clear idea of how we wanted
things to go. There was a various amount of research that needed to be carried out for example; genre research,
script writing, SWOT analysis, Risk assessment, storyboard, etc. The production schedule was also used to track how
much work had been done and what needed to be done or improved. Throughout our research stage, we also used
an blog and website to evident our research that we had collected in order to show this in an appropriate and
professional way, this also made it easier for members within the production group to navigate or find information
from their research to aid them in future paperwork needed to be carried out.
• When focusing upon the feedback we received, altered the way we continued our research and planning process,
this was because when gaining feedback from their peers within our class, our teacher or vital information from our
target audience, it was crucial that we took on board any improvements that could bring our film to an more
advanced level of professionalism and truly enjoyed by our target audience.
• Furthermore, it was highly important that throughout the research stage, our group remained contact and clear
communication, in regards to improvements with paperwork and also major decisions, for example, what genre we
wanted to focus our film within, the title of our film, draft of the script and also the tagline.
 AT RESEARCH & PLANNING STAGE …

• Within our group we had 3 members; Tamia Mullaney-Downer (Director), Leila Monfared (Cinematographer) and Zafir
Choudhury (Editor/Sound). Each member was allocated paper work and research which linked to their specific role within
the group, which was further aid their contribution within the filming process and also support them with greater knowledge
within their role. For example; our director, Tamia Mullaney-Downer, was allocated the research role of finding our actors and
doing profiles, whereby she had to go through an audition process with a number of different actors in order to find the
perfect two actors which fitted our description of our characters appropriately. She had to complete an piece of work
describing this process and why she choose our current two actors.
• Throughout the research process, we worked together to gain the most effective research needed to benefit our filming
process, however one of the most significant was the use of us providing an pre-questionnaire. This was an public survey,
published on an public survey website called SurveyMonkey, whereby we prepared 15 questions related to our script,
synopsis and plot- which needed to be read before completing the survey, we collected the data needed from our target
audience (12-25), which significantly aided us to continue to make improvements to our storyline and the relationship shown
throughout the film, that was relevant enough for our target audience and also understand clearly.
• As an group, we have significantly improved from collecting our data from the pre-questionnaire and doing research based
upon our target audience, for example we now understand that our narrative needed to be drafted and crafted appropriately
to be understood by our younger audience, within our target audience.
 DURING PRODUCTION STAGES…

How did feedback ensure that you were: meeting their desires and interests?
• When considering the gratification of our chosen audience, it was important to create a verisimilitude
they were comfortable with, as well as characters they could connect with on a relatable level. During the
Production Stages of our work, we decided to survey various individuals of all ages and ethnicities, in
order to pinpoint which age groups would be mist suited to our films themes and issues. We came to find
that the older individuals, although liking the concept of an educational movie, lacked any enthusiasm with
the characters and felt they wouldn’t be able to relate to them on an emotional level. Paradoxically,
audience members of the same age as the protagonists identified with the characters we described to
them well, therefore they would have been able to follow the plot with an open mind.

How did you decide if the feedback was reliable or useful?

• Due to the fact we asked a range of individuals with different demographic and psychographic
backgrounds, it was easy for us to collate a variety of opinions from various people within the media.
 DURING PRODUCTION STAGES

How did feedback for the target audience/focus group reveal audiences likes/dislikes helping final narrative decisions / representation
decisions?
• When we were given the audience feedback, we wanted to alter the characters slightly, creating a sense of female empowerment and subverting gender
roles of woman in today’s culture being too afraid to leave their boyfriends/husbands, derived from their fear of being alone. At the start of the planning
process, we wanted the story line to entail Kyle’s death; he would have argued with Olivia and then left her the next day, resulting in his death. However,
after collating some audience feedback on this chosen narrative, many audience members said how they would have liked to see a subversion in the gender
roles, resulting in our change of narrative.
• Terrorism is an extremely sensitive and controversial topic, therefore we researched other films involving this to see how the characters would react to
the situation and who would take charge. We watched the film, ‘No Escape’ based on a family who go on holiday and are caught in a terrorist attack. From
this we could see the male took charge and led his family allowing them to survive. However, the mother within the plot risked the threat of rape and
death to protect her family’s lives, putting her in a position of courage and bravery. We wanted to therefore contradict this convention of men taking charge
on instinct, therefore we used the idea of Olivia taking the initiative and being in control, forcing Kyle to chase her and make amends. As well as this, we
also discovered the film, London River, based on two lovers who go on a journey searching for their children after the 2005 London Bombings. This idea of
a strong bond in times of grief appealed to us therefore at the start of the planning process, we wanted to exemplify two lover within a strong relationship
to make one of their deaths even more poignant and hard hitting. Despite this after hearing audience feedback, they decided this wouldn’t abide by the
codes and conventions of a drama. The audience would know that something was going to go wrong due to the heavy amount of normality. Due to the fact
it is a drama, the audience would be expecting a disruption. As well as this, in today’s society, no relationship is perfect therefore our desired audience
would find it hard to relate to the characters on an emotional level. Due to this we decided to implement a dysfunctional relationship so the audience
believe the only disruption is Olivia leaving Kyle.
•