Critical evaluation - Question 3

http://prezi.com/q8kwxxzwfs09/evaluation-question-3/
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Question 3 -What have you learned from your audience feedback?

a) How did you responds to the original brief with the audience in mind? Give details of audience research carried out at the planning stage.
The audience is a key part to the success of any film. Therefore after choosing a genre and having an initial brief idea of the narrative, the audience then came to be of major importance.
Questionnaires
We needed to find a target audience and the response we gave was to find out both audiences for short films in general and for our specific film.
Video
This is a video we made of audience feedback which was to find out a variety of things such as, peoples favourite films or if they would watch a 5 minute short film of the romantic genre. We attempted to find out this from various ages but clearly we gained responses from more students.
Google docs
As our video was very limited in the people we asked we therefore wanted to gain more varied opinions, particularly about our film.. Due to extreme storyline changes we made numerous questionnaires in order to gain accurate feedback. We kept the answers anonymous however, we did want to know background information about each individual such as age, gender so we could make an audience profile and know who we are targeting when making the film. We also ensured that the layout of our questionnaires would have some relation to the film, for example in this one, the title is underlined with a heart which is a convention of the romantic genre.
Distribution
We wanted to take advantage of the internets popularity particularly by the rise in users of social networking websites. Distribution of our video (on YouTube) and our questionnaires (on Facebook and Twitter) was significant in gaining audience feedback. Without these it would have been more of a struggle to gain a good, accurate set of results and helped us to understand our target audience more.
Facebook
Facebook is a good way to ask friends to fill in the questionnaire however can be again narrowed in the variety of results you can gain.
Twitter
Twitter is a good website to use because your profile is of public access and it is arguably the most dominant social networking website of today. Furthermore, because of its 'followers' feature the people don't necessarily have to know you personally, therefore it contributes in gaining a wider set of results and opinions.
b) In filming and editing how did you ensure meaning would be apparent to the audience? What creative decisions did you make in planning, rehearsing, filming and editing that were influenced by your sense of the audience and how they might interpret your finished film?
Planning and filming
In the filming process we knew that our audience would mainly be young teenage girls, therefore we changed the narrative of the film from a boys perspective to a girls. By doing this, it shows we were more aware of our target audience more because they may be be able to relate more with the storyline and main character, being able to sympathise with her more. Furthermore, we made the characters in filming realistic, with how a typical teenager would not necessarily act the same way in the situation but by the way she dresses and the social life she has.
We wanted to portray meaning of the film by using flashbacks to show the event in different parts with an ongoing conversation splitting it up to ensure that the audience know what is happening within the film.
We also relied on facial expressions when filming. When James finds our about Sally and George at the party, she hurries to the door looking guilty and shocked, knowing that she is in the wrong. In planning in the script, we decided to add in swearing in this scene, "fuck." It was the main reason as to why the certificate was a 12A despite the theme content however, to really express how Sally was feeling and the situation we felt it was necessary to get this across to audiences.
Editing
Editing was crucial for meaning because we had to edit it together and add effects were necessary to ensure that it came across to audiences as we wanted it to. Therefore, we added elements such as party music to portray it more in the film. Also, in the editing we wanted to get across to audiences the extent of how drunk Sally was and we did this by using unsteady camera movements and jump cuts including black screens.
We also wanted to put emphasis on the ending when Sally tells James that she is pregnant. The close up split screen provides this as it is a close up of both Sally and James' face in a split screen. Therefore, we are able to show the reactions of them both about the situation but also it is a way to present shock to the audience because they know what James doesn't, that she is really pregnant with George's baby.
c) How did the audience respond when you trialled aspects of your film? Are there a variety of  different possible interpretations of your film that will depend on the cultural situation of the viewer?
On the first questionnaire we proposed which contained our old narrative, we gained feedback such as 'add more events.' Therefore, when we made the decision to change it completely we ensured that we would add enough in so that the our film would have a better outcome for viewing.
We made a questionnaire to go along with the first draft of our film and this was the most significant part of our audience feedback, what they liked, didn't like and any improvements that can be made.
Overall, feedback suggests that they were able to understand the film and that the layout of it was good, particularly when we portrayed Jess as being drunk. The major issue that everyone seemed to notice was the sound, that some parts were too loud or too quiet. Therefore, in our final draft we edited the sound were necessary to make sure that people could hear it better to enable them a better viewing experience.
In our film we didn't think that there could any different interpretations due to difference in culture. This is because it is based upon teen pregnancy and partying which yes, there can be a cultural difference in behaviour but overall, it can happen to anyone.