Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From my insightful and dynamic feedback from my target audience I learnt many things both from my chosen genres and how people view and react to these as well as their opinions, push's and pull's from trailers. Obtaining this knowledge I made it paramount to apply this to my trailer an presentation for Soul, tailoring it specifically to appeal to a larger teenage audience.

(refferenced audience feedback :
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xnx50wOFXs-y5-foWy8zZuXtARG0qh8XPVvNlCe5B_0/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aNKiU5vKzslfreFz5_6KSsCzG-_yKaZRhdj97O-IvUY/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gXSX_b71rwSZbjxFoiiCd8ru7H2Lu__WypPbYCnQpwc/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AeNbP8P1WibGAdWiKyBaU8fghfg8qCsGhl343Cq5IJQ/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fNeUrhm3G8xMQNEEFUEmNQ998eIBJZEUwmbzbZsXjFQ/edit 
)


some of the key factors that stood out to me from the audience feedback was the atmosphere and presentation of characters and story in contribution to the genre or sub genres, having many people comment on the mystery factors and arguing that this is one of the most important traits to keep an audience engaged with the trailer. This also comes into play with the introduction of characters and their intentions, giving the bases of their character personalities but not too much to give away their whole story, peaking the audience's interest to want to find out how they react and what will happen, persuading them to watch the full product.

There was also emphasis on atmosphere as well as interesting character building. In response to this I made sure to introduce faith in a mysterious way, having the audience presented the information of her wanting to commit suicide for a unknown reason at face value and how she is even still alive after the contents of the three table boxes empty. This is also further emphasized when the audience hears Soul's voice for the first time with no presence on screen as well as the demonic filter over the top to elaborate upon his out of world character; exemplifying the mystery factor by having the audience piece together the points as the trailer goes on while at the same time leaving gaps in order to hook the audience on watching the full length film. Many people also commented on how characters should be presented while also acknowledging the time span the characters have to make a statement for themselves, saying that memorable characters will certainly make for a more watchable film upon release. In response to this I played further upon the vulnerability and position of Faith against higher status and powerful adults knowing the audience would oddly identify her within a thriller / horror film in an unconventional way, further adding interest to the character and story to see an unusual and stereotypical character in this genre as well as situation.


I also wanted to make sure I asked about plot twists and false endings and people's opinions of them, knowing from my previous research that these factors alone can either make or break a film. Many people argued to giving hints that there could be a plot twist while others saying it's best left ambiguous to the audience so they don't expect it at all. for both sides giving reasonable and agreeable evidence I decide to implement both sides into 'Soul'. This was exercised by having the original fake equilibrium in leading the audience to believe that Faith and Soul would take revenge upon Demi for trying to break the two apart however with them in realty having a tough fight than expected, throwing the audience off completely as they are then forced to run a second time. With the audience believing this was the only plot twist in the story they are then presented with Faith's death as a sacrifice to lead Soul into the mortal realm however having Faith be reduced to a spirit in the spiritual realm.Having this would then also evoke the effect of having the audience on edge and not knowing what to expect next as a result of the original film's story going into a completely different direction compared to what was originally set up.


Another question I was sure to ask was the opinion of what ruins a trailer for people in order to make sure what to avoid or perhaps work around and instead exemplify the opposite effect. The most predominant answer from nearly everyone was the trailer resulting in becoming too obvious and ridiculous as well as having the whole story said and done within the trailer, leaving little to no mystery or ambiguity in how the story would pan out or how the characters would grow to conclude the plot. I understood and completely agreed with what many people said because of the analysis of Carrie I undertook, comparing the trailer to the movie and seeing pretty much the whole movie summarized within the trailer and the segments it did leave out where too predictable due to the content that was shown, foreshadowing or giving obvious hints to what would happen. In comparison to this I made sure to link back to the plot twist question, having one plot twist slightly hinted at while the other not referenced in order to keep the shock factor and have ambiguity throughout the trailer, causing the audience to want to see the film full because of the questions left unanswered; There was still no conclusion to what Soul was or even looked like, why Faith had attempted to kill herself and how this being had found her in the first place as well as why Demi was so interested in Faith situation juxtaposed with her sinister and evil outlook.