Audience Feedback.

In order to get feedback I asked the same 10 people what they thought of all 3 of my ancillary texts. What I received:

'Very professional and it looked real.'

'I didn't quite get how the cruel woman and the pretty girl were the same two people, however I'm open to the idea of French New Wave I quite enjoyed it!'

'My favourite thing about all three was the poster, it was fun, cool and playful. I liked the French flag which was incorporated into in really snazzy!'

'I like how the magazine was so simple and wasn't over-powered with fonts! I would definitely pick up that magazine'

'I really liked the music in the trailer, it was very catchy and I'm finding myself humming to it now!'

'I think it's because I don't really understand the genre that I don't really get why the shots were so long...'

I also posted questions on Yahoo answers asking what they thought of all three of my ancillary texts, unfortunately I only got one reply:

the pretty girl , cruel girl and the English girl look like the same girl? They should be more unique in their appearances so they stand out as individuals. The bad boy looks like a smart *** but not a bad boy. Also when you show the spark.. you should strike the match much sooner. Take away some of the long pauses and get more to the point.

Although I appreciate and take on board what he is saying, I don't think he completely understood the concept of French New Wave. I'm not saying my trailer is perfect, as it is far from it, I just don't think he GOT it. Which I completely understand.

This is why I intended to keep my audience niche instead of branching out like many films make the mistake of doing. The reason I will not do this is because it will not tend to the needs and wants to many individuals, like this man for example.

Adding onto this I posted all three of my texts onto my tumblr.

For my poster I got 17 notes.

12 people liked it and I got 5 responses:

'This is so cool!!'

'I wish I was French now!'

'I have a lot of love for this, never knew you were so creative!'

'LOVE! LOVE! LOVE THIS SO MUCH!'

'Lucille, please can you get this printed out HUGE so I can put this in my room? Tehe <3'

For my trailer I got 10 responses:

8 people liked it and I gained 2 comments:

'Parlez vous Francais? I DO, I DO! This is so cool xx'

'Chic and sophisticated and silly, I like it!'

For my magazine I received 5 responses:

4 people liked it and I got 1 response:

'I would read this, well done xxx'

I found all of this feedback useful however, I did come across a problem that none of it was completely

Prezi Presentation

http://prezi.com/86bxdufbzj9w/french-new-wave-cinema/

I used this presentation to show to 20 of my peers.

Before showing this I found that their understanding and knowledge of French New Wave was very limited. I also found that they were quite apathetic towards the whole genre and found that they were not prepared to open their minds towards it.

After constructing this presentation, I showed them more about the genre in order to try and open their narrow minds.

After doing so I asked them the following questions:

Do you feel more interested in the genre?

The feedback I found from the individuals were unanimous in the fact that the genre definitely intrigued them, however the French language and subtitles definitely put them off. One answer I was particularly interested by was how one girl felt that you would have to be part of a very specific group to be able to enjoy and appreciate it and that it wasn't something that would interest everyone.

Is it as complicated and intimidating as you first thought?

The group said that they did not find the idea of French New Wave complicated, however they did still find it intimidating. One way a boy described in was as if the film was an onion; on the outside it looks simple however, there are so many layers to it which put him off it. Although, he said, he would still want to watch French New Wave film just to get a feel of the genre.

What do you think about the films being in black and white?

The whole of the group didn't really mind the film being in black and white because they felt that if it was any other way it wouldn't really fit the genre. One person did say that it did bother him, he said that French New Wave didn't interest him at all and the fact that it was in black and white annoyed him slightly because he felt it was slightly 'pretentious'.

Although you are not used to the codes and conventions of French New Wave, how do you think you reacted towards them when they were used?

Once again they agreed that the codes and conventions didn't really faze them because they believed that they had been picked up in the bog-standard Hollywood blockbusters. They agreed that it seem like something they had never seen before and because of monologue by Karina in Alphaville it interested them deeply as it was a complete different world to them.

Conclusion:

Overall I found that French New Wave is a VERY niche market and overall I must not aim my target audience at a whole wide range of people in the style of the Hollywood blockbusters. I must pin-point who I want to target and keep it just at that.

Questions I asked on yahoo answers.

What do you know about French New Wave?

The only answer I got: 'Nothing'.

In your opinion what was the best French New Wave film?

1st Answer:

Masculin Feminin by Jen-Luc Godard. "The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola" This piece in my opinion, is a film that really examines the social climate of the time. Theslow decay of value, the nihilist overtones really shine in this film. I like this film due to its linear aspect, which is not apparent in most of Godard's work in the 1960's. I mean its interesting to see how the work of italian surrealists prior, influenced the state of French New Cinema, this is best seen in my opinion in Godard's Masculin Feminin

2 answer:

A bout de souffle (Godard)
Les Quatre cent coups (Truffaut)
La Boulangère de Monceau (Rohmer)
Bob le flambeur (Melville) (technically before the official New Wave, but his best film)
Le bonheur (Agnes Varda)

What's your favourite character from French New Wave cinema?

1st answer:

The Jean Luc Godard film "the Mother and the Whore" is one of the better french films I've seen because of it's simplicity. I didn't care for either of Alexander's lovers but it was realistic. A lot of women end up the other woman to some loser of a boyfriend. I never quite understood the title though. It seemed liked both his women were mothering him.

2nd answer:

Bardot in "Une Vie Privee." She was courageous enough to actually play herself, with all the self-contradictions in plain sight: trained as a dancer but destined to be a movie star, famous but lonely, adored but despised, rich but miserable. All in all, BB gave the performance of a lifetime-totally convincing and equally moving.

Target audience.

After the questionnaire results I received I have successfully discovered my target audience.

Typical male interested in French New Wave:
The age of my male target audience will be 21-35; I believe that it would be this age because this is when they become less fickle and will have found their true interests. They will be middle class, and has achieved a degree in media or psychology. Although he was bought up into a relatively wealthy background he will see himself as liberal however prides himself in his left-wing political views; he will be a religious reader of 'The Guardian' and will occasionally voice his views by writing letters to the paper and is known to get quite fiery when it comes to politics.
He doesn't care about fashion and tends to be scruffy wearing baggy clothes with a 5 0'clock shadow because he's so nonchalant. He's the sort of person that sits in Starbucks writing poetry on his laptop while shaking from the previous 3 expresso shots because he was up all night reading William Wordsworth.

Typical woman interested in French New Wave:

I believe that the woman would be slightly younger than the male and would not be as interested. I see the typical female who is interested in French New Wave is more intrigued by the whole concept. She would have seen posts on Tumblr featuring pictures and quotes from French New Wave films and she thinks it looks interesting and is merely fascinated by the genre simply because it's seen as 'cool'. She's the sort of girl that sits outside Costa drinking lattes in a cloud of cigarette smoke with her friends. She cares what everyone thinks of here style and thrives to be 'individual' and 'cool'; she wants people to look at her and think 'wow, doesn't she stand out, I want to be like that girl'. This girl pretends not to care what people think of her but deep down she cares deeply what they think because she is secretly a people pleaser and craves to be a trend-setter.

Questionnaire results

When asking 20 people whether they knew of French new wave cinema, only 2 people said yes, that they did. This may not seem promising however when making my trailer, I feel I do not need someone to know of 'French new wave' to understand the concept but to appreciate it. Although it would be preferable, I am not aiming my trailer at a broad audience but people who know of/appreciate the niche. This therefore gave me the idea of creating a presentation in order to introduce a group of people into the French New Wave genre. By doing this I could pin-point the type of people who would be intrigued and interested by it and the people who were not so. Overall I could therefore get one step closer to creating a satisfactory film trailer to hail in my appropriate target audience.

When asking 20 people what was their view on Independent films 4 people associated them with a 'low-budget'. 7 people believed that it was better that the 'big-budget- films and linking in with this 2 people thought they had deep meanings; controversially 7 other people thought that independent films just don't interest them. These findings did sway me and I believe that I am now realising how hard it is to engage an audience into a low budget independent film.

These findings have showed me how there is only so much media coverage of small independent films and that there is a huge metaphorical 'Hollywood' umbrella stopping them from getting the attention they deserve. In society today it is only the big blockbusters that interest people and it is very hard for any small independent films to get a foot in edgeways.

In order to find out about our target audience we must ask them questions about their likes and dislike. This way we will get a clear idea of what we should include in our trailer, film poster and magazine front coveer.

In our questionnaire we hope to get answers that will help us to discover what people enjoy about the film industry. For instance, we would like to find out about wht makes people want to watch a film and what storylines they prefer.


1) How old are you?...............

Are you male ort female?...................

2) What is your favourite genre of film?

Romance Crime/gangster Sci-fi Comedy Horror

3)Would you rather watch an....

Independant film or a blockbuster film

4) What do you think of low budget films?

.....................................................................

5) Circle what film you prefer (think you'd prefer)

• Indiana Jones
• James Bond (Old or new, specify)
• The notebook
• A single man
• A bright star

6)What do you like about this film?

...................................................................

7) How often fo you visit the cinema?

Never Once a year one a month 2-5 times a month

8)What makes you want to watch a film?

Famous director Famous cast Storyline Genre Good trailer

9)How much does the trailer affect you in the decision of watching a film?

..........................................................................................................

10) What genre do you dislike?

11) Do you chose to watch a film guided by the posters?

With this questionnaire I discovered a problem that the questions were either far too opened or closed for me to get any valid answer in order to get any closer to creating the perfect product for my chosen target audience.