Evaluation : Audience Feedback

After we had finished our dramas it was decided that we would have a listening party. Where we invited people to come and listen to our radio drama and give is feedback. They were given a sheet with four headings. What did you like? What did you dislike? What could be improved technically? And finally what could be improved in relation to plot/storyline.

1.What did you like?
We had four things that most people commented on. Firstly was the prologue, we had comments such as, “intriguing and interesting” “you could picture it “. Secondly was the Storyline, one listener said “it grabbed me in straight away “. Other commented on the issues that it raised, such as abuse and stalking. We also had a large number of comments about the acting. comments such as “ was very convincing” and that the dialogue was clearly spoken. Over 75% of people said that the sound effects used were very affective, in particular the scream at the end of the prologue.

2.What did you dislike?
The most predominant thing that people disliked about The Unseen was sound levels in particular the footsteps and the phone vibrating in scene 5. I agreed with this and have changed this as they were far too loud and didn’t sound realistic. Secondly the voices faded out too quickly at the end so it wasn’t always clear what the person was saying. The final comment was the change of storyline (prologue).

3.What could be improved technically?
Technically two main issues came up, Sound effects and volume. In particular the sound effects at the beginning, as the listeners thought that they were not clear enough. The volume throughout was very mixed at parts it would be very loud and others just a normal volume, In particular the footsteps and the phone vibrating.

4.What could be improved in relation to plot/storyline?
We only had two comments in this section. The first was to not have a prologue, as it was confusing. The second was there was too many characters, and was hard to distinguish who was who.

I was very pleased with our feedback, it was crucial that we knew what people liked and disliked about the product as we felt that it wasn’t at its best and could be improved. After the feedback, we went back into the recording suite; we created different sound effects for footsteps and the phone. After this we re-edited the piece and changed some of the fades, finally we changed the sound levels so the drama was easier to be listened to. Some of the listeners thought that the storyline in particular the prologue was confusing, we have not changed this as I believe that This is an issue with the audience that we had listening as around 50% were students, social demographic E, where as we were aiming from B to C2. Overall I think the feedback we received was very positive, and the audience seemed to enjoy it.