Now that I have produced a documentary about a selected topic, for a selected target audience, it is only right that I now discuss and explore some opportunities I have for distributing the documentary to my target audience. Before I continue any further, I am going to go over and recap who my target audience actually is – for this, we have to understand why I decided to produce what I did. 

 

The reason I decided to produce a documentary about misophonia is ultimately because I wanted to spread awareness. 4 years ago today I didn’t even know the word misophonia existed, but since my brother first started showing signs of this disorder, everyday I am reminded of how difficult life can be with it. I think it’s important that as many people as possible are aware of people’s disorders so that we can live in a more loving and accepting society. 

 

The reason understanding this first was important is because the product itself had great impact upon who it’s designed for watching – I have a very broad target audience. Though the topic is niche in the sense that misophonia is not well known about, this is purposeful as by the end, an audience member is meant to understand all about it and spread further awareness. My target audience is essentially anyone old enough to understand the concept of misophonia, and due to the first scene being quite intense, I would advise that the minimum age to watch is 16. Though teens younger than this could watch it and understand, this is not who I have targeted it towards – this is additionally due to the fact there are quite technical terms used too. 

 

When looking deeper into my target audience, through my research I was able to understand that my audience fit into two categories in Bulmer and Katz’s uses and gratifications theory. The first category is ‘surveillance’, meaning they are watching a media product to inform and educate themselves – this is often true for most documentary audience members. The second category is ‘personal identity’, meaning those watching are seeking for a sense of relatability, which is so true for my documentary, particularly due to the fact it’s not well heard about, and those with the disorder can often feel lost and alone. 

 

Now that we’ve been able to understand why I made it and who my target audience are, I can now think about how I might distribute it. I have got 4 different techniques that I am going to discuss, where I will also infer the positives and negatives too. 

 

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Technique 1 – This first technique links well with the idea that my target audience are seeking relatability – I could post it on the misophonia Facebook groups that I originally used in my primary research. When I sent out my surveys on these Facebook groups, I had received many comments on my posts from people saying that when it’s finished they would love to see it. What’s better than receiving feedback from people who either have misophonia, are affected by it through family, or have enough interest in it to be a part of a misophonia group on Facebook? It’s a really great opportunity to get some honest feedback, particularly on whether I have been able to represent those with the disorder. This is perhaps the most important and vital task that I had to achieve when making a documentary around a topic like mine, so it will be interesting to hear what they think. 

To ensure that this is a viable option, I have sent all of the admins for the facebook groups a message to check it’s okay. The reason I have done this is because a lot of these groups don’t like self promotion, so it’s important I follow the rules and double check. The message I sent to them can be seen below.

 

Hi name, I have used your group, group name, about 2 months ago to receive some survey results to help me produce my documentary about misophonia. I have several people saying they would love to see my documentary once it's finished, and in 3 days time it is being released. Would it be okay for me to share my documentary on the group? I'm not doing it for self-promotion purposes, I would just love to share what I have produced as I think it's really beneficial to people.

With this, I would be hoping to receive some critical feedback through a 2 minute feedback form.

 

One group that I know that I can definitely use is the Misophonia Help Group/Support as this is a group by soQuiet. I have had permission to mention soQuiet and use their logo/website in my documentary from the founder and president himself. Furthermore, he also had great passion towards me producing the documentary, so I’m sure it would be absolutely fine for me to do this. This leads on to my next technique…

 

 

Technique 2 – As I have just discussed, I have spoken to the founder and president of soQuiet for the past two weeks now, and he has already mentioned that he would love to see it when it is done. Therefore this is a very easy and great method to gain some valuable feedback. Getting feedback from the founder and president of one of the largest charities for the topic of my documentary is absolutely amazing. He will have so much knowledge of misophonia through his work that I can expect some really useful feedback, particularly aimed at whether I’ve been able to appropriately represent those with it, and if there should have been something in the documentary that wasn’t mentioned. 

An obvious disadvantage of this strategy is that I am only distributing it to one person, meaning I will only get one set of feedback. However to counteract that, a positive is that I can ensure that this feedback will be high quality and come from a ‘trusted source’. 

 

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Technique 3 – Another way in which I could distribute my documentary is to show it at the end of year show. This end of year show will include a short speech by me where I get to explain a bit about my film and why I made it, and proceed to show it to them. From there, I can get both in-person feedback by going up to audience members and speaking to them, or by directing them to an online survey through a QR code. This is a great technique because I’m able to get real-world feedback from audience members that I can speak face-to-face. To add to this, as I can speak to them face-to-face, I can further question what they are saying, and try to get even more feedback from there – whereas with an online survey, you can’t (it’s just a set of questions). 

Another positive is that I’m able to show my documentary to a large audience, and have the opportunity to get lots of feedback. However, the reason I say ‘opportunity’ is because not all audience members might give feedback, and they have the full right to do so, so there is a chance I get no feedback at all from it. I suppose this is up to me whether I’m proactive enough to try and seek feedback. 

 

The audience at this show will most likely not know what misophonia is, so if we compare this technique with the 2 previous ones, they are going to have very different audience members. The fact that the audience at the show most likely won’t know what it is, means that as I am their source of information on the topic, they trust and believe everything that’s said in the doc – however, those who understand what it is, may have more to say about whether I’ve been able to represent misophonia well. This is actually more of a positive than a negative: due to the fact my target audience is so broad, the more feedback I get from a range of different audience members. 

 

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Technique 4 – the final technique I could use to distribute my documentary is to share it via social media on both my personal accounts and public accounts. When sharing the documentary I would then attach a link to a feedback form so I can gain some feedback. Through this technique, I would be able to distribute it to my friends and family on my personal accounts, and have the opportunity for it to be seen by anyone at all on public accounts. The idea is that it’s to spread awareness of misophonia, so this is why I would like for anyone to be able to watch it. These accounts would be on Instagram, but as I now think about it, it should also be on YouTube too. I was going to have the YouTube video as unlisted, simply using YouTube as a way to direct those to watch it, but why not also allow the world to see too? 

 

When posting about it on social media, I could design and create a poster for my documentary as this may attract attention to it further.

 

The possibilities for sharing it online like this could be immense, and if people are to like the video and interact with it, then it’s likely that the Youtube algorithm may put it on other people’s suggested videos. The more and more people that watch it, the more attention I am getting, but more importantly, the more awareness of the disorder I’m spreading. When looking at it from a career stand point, this would be a great opportunity to highlight the success of the product I have produced entirely myself. 

 

 

 

I think for all of these different methods of distributing my documentary, and ultimately trying to get feedback from that, I’m giving myself the opportunity to learn and improve. Feedback is the most important aspect of filmmaking to me, as the more constructive criticism you have, the more you have to focus your attention onto and work on to become a better filmmaker. This is great for my future skills and progressing my future career, as employers will be looking for people with comprehensive skills across the board – weak spots mean time spent and money lost.