Throughout each different stage of our production process we ensured we were participating in thorough feedback from our audiences in order to produce a product that would attract our target viewers. The first stages of production were the most crucial when ideas were being initiated and where we began putting them to practice. Once our target audience of ages 16-25 years old was decided - this being chosen from the results of our questionnaire we were able to start the whole process.
Our trailer being considered as the most important process in the production. Already we had created two questionnaires in which informed us of the type of genre/theme our target audience desired to watch on a new soap, what time would be most suitable for them to watch our soap, type of characters and themed storylines that would appeal to them. From this information we were able to produce two main storylines reflecting the type of soap ours was - a new unique modern soap though still the remains of traditional convention aspects. Once we had created these storylines along with our storyboard, the pitch, character profiles and cast photographs we panelled these to three focus groups. These were completed in order to ensure we were on the right track of targeting our audiences. The first focus group involved students in our media class 17 and 18 years of age. We wanted to find out from other media students whether with their knowledge if they thought our soap would be a success. The feedback received were mostly positive though some students supposed the issue with the broadcasting time. originally we had planned for the soap to be screened everyday of the week at 8.30pm though the students felt that this may be a little too late for some as well as on a Friday night viewing rates would drop drastically as the age group of our target audience would be out at this time. therefore we took this into consideration and as a group discussed that it would be far more appropriate to change this being broad casted on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings at 8pm.
Our further focus groups involved people from the public in two specific age groups. One 16 to 19 years old the other 19+. We explained our two main storylines to the group and showed them future possible ideas. We informed them of the kind of soap we aimed to be and asked them a series of questions. Both groups we received all positive feedback. They agreed that the storylines were of equal balance of drama and interest therefore they would definitely be prepared to watch the soap and if they did enjoy it watch it on a regular basis. This time round there were no issues raised about the scheduling times, the groups felt that these were all suitable times where after a long hardworking day they would be able to put their feet up and relax in front of the TV.
This is a short clip of two potential viewers giving us feedback
We took part in one additional focus groups 25+ our secondary viewers to analysis whether we could target outside our primary audience. From this group we again received positive feedback saying that they would consider watching the soap.
Once we had edited part of our trailer we decided to gather a group of our target audience to watch the first draft. We told them that this was not the finished product and it would be worked on furthermore though we wanted to know their opinions in order to know exactly what to change or improve to attract them. Our feedback was generally positive though topics of concern that raised where with the speed of the cuts. The audience felt that as a trailer the different clips should be slightly faster in line with the dramatic storylines as they didn't particularly feel a lot of this was happening. Therefore we noted all improvements to be made and ensured that this would be changed. As a discussion we sat down and had a meeting all of us agreed with this constructive critics and choose that it would be best to change these minor errors. When we went back to editing we ran through the first draft trailer again and cut the longer clips down to faster paced clips. We felt that this greater improved the feeling of the trailer reflecting the true genre of our soap.
As a group we had made a rough sketch of what we wanted our soap website to look like. We wanted it to ENTERTAIN and MARKET our soap. We imported our ideas onto the macs to see what it would look like. Once we had done this we asked a handful of our target audience what they thought about the layout and future page ideas. The audience approved and also came up with extra page suggestions, such as a games page. Once our feedback was received we began creating. We combined our ideas with ideas given to us by our target audience to produce our website. Following the majority of our soap being produced we again picked a handful of our target audience to view our almost finished website. They admitted that once the soap was on TV they would come and visit the website for further information on the soap as well as for entertainment purposes. They specially liked the character profile pages which included a insight to the lives of the main characters and felt that this was a great way as an introduction for them to get to know the characters. Though they did feel as if some images should be re-arranged and moved slightly. We took this into account and moved the images to their preferred place.
For marketing purposes I produced a TV guide cover and two posters. before i began producing these I researched into current products observing ones which i think would suit our modern soap most. I firstly produced a of number of different poster template ideas and asked target audiences which one they would be attracted to most. I also asked them questions about TV guide covers - in conjunction of our type of soap would they go for a brighter bolder magazine such as "Whats on"or a more simple looking type such as the "Radio times". The audience said they would prefer one similar to that of Whats on as this would attract their age group more than a plainer type. Therefore with this information i began creating a product to fit these requirements. I produced two different posters to attract a variety of target audience and one TV magazine front cover. After these were finished I distributed them to our target audience. feedback was all positive with audiences declaring that these would attract them.
The final stages of production were the end results of our products taking all audience feedback into consideration to produce products that would appeal to them.
With the trailer fully completed we again gathered a larger group of our target audience and permitted them to watch the clip. Where after we asked for their opinions. This was the most successful and we were overwhelmed by all the positive feedback. The audiences fully understood both plots of the two storylines and felt they acquired enough drama for them to want to watch the soap. We also promoted our soap onto social network websites asking for feedback. these are some of them;
Feedback from contacts on Facebook, as you can see most is very positive;
As well as promoting and advertising our soap on facebook we also uploaded it onto the website YOUTUBE, these are the further positive criticism we received; (click on bottom image for a clearer view of the comments we received)
This feedback we received must not be ignored. They will be taken into consideration and slight adjustments will be made if needed. Though the screening we of our trailer to our target audience no negative criticisms were made.
We then showed our target audience our finished website with the completed pages. This too was a success. The audience said that they thought we had done a really good job in creating it and it looked very professional. They felt the style of the layout and the pages went well with the genre of our soap appealing to them as an individual. Some even asked whether they could post comments on our fan forum page. The sneak peek clip that was included on the homepage of our website was a winner with the audiences too, after they watched it they were speechless and told us they defiantly wanted to watch the episode to find out what will happen next to the characters.
The final draft of my TV magazine front cover and two posters also received positive feedback. Some viewers preferred one poster and others preferred the other this is the reason i choose to produce two suiting the viewers needs though both reflected the genre of our soap. the target audience told me that the TV magazine front cover i produced if placed in shops would stand out to them and they would defiantly purchase it. Though perhaps in future front covers include a photograph of the characters with the biggest most dramatic storyline. i also promoted these on my facebook where again positive feedback was received with a few suggestions of possibly changing some colours of the front cover.
Overall with all the feedback we received from our target audience we were extremely pleased. With all the hard work we participated in was well worth the responses we obtained. Without the research we took part in our products; the trailer, website, TV magazine front cover and posters they wouldn't have been as successful. We needed this feedback from our audience in order to identify their requests and this is what we done. Our audience gave us the information we needed to achieve all that we have done so. In addition we reached our goal in producing these successful media products.
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