What have you learned from your audience feedback?

1. QUESTION 3
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
By Simone

2. With every idea we had for our film, our group pitched these ideas to each other and to our
class during reflection sessions. The feedback received from these sessions about our film (both
positive and negative) enabled my group members to reflect on our work and come up with
alternative ways to improve it. The feedback enabled us to think about how we were going to
get the story line across to our audience with minimal amount of verbal communication. This in
turn made us think about:
• The use of camera angles - to give the perception that the story was about a stalker.
• Depth of field - to give the appearance that the jogger was being watched from a distance.
• Lighting - to put across the audience that the film started off innocently (being shot in daylight) and changed to being
sinister (being shot in low light in a container).
• The use of non-verbal communication between the two actresses and the use of props to bring out the storyline.
• Who the target audience should be as the film is a thriller with the implication of violence.
The feedback received from the reflection sessions was really helpful as the information was
used to help us reshoot certain scenes so that we achieved the desired effect. Further
feedback from family and friends after showing them the draft cuts of the film enabled the
group to make further improvements to the film e.g. continuity of clothing and props, close ups
of the face to see non-verbal expressions clearer and filming behind the actress to give
anonymity to the character.

3. PRE-PRODUCTION

4. SHORT FILM
The first pre-production pitch was the idea
for the short film; this went well as we did
not receive many negative feedbacks, as
the class believed that our film is
achievable from the beginning to end.
The only negative feedback we received
from this pitch was about the burning
scene as they believe lighting a fire would
be dangerous. From this reaction we
created a new treatment pitch which did
not involve the burnt hand scene, but still
involved our other key items of only using
two characters; including a voice over,
but moving it to where it appeared in the
film; and keeping the two locations.

5. PRINT PRODUCTS
The second pre-production pitch was the idea for our
print products; this also went well as the mock up ideas we
created (the one consisting of the image of the eye),
attracted everyone’s attention in the class. This was a
good positive start for our group as it showed that other
students were interested in what we were planning. This in
turn urged my group to go down this design route. While
the poster design was a positive hit, the name of our film
and the layout of the text did not attract as much positive
attention from the class. The original ‘R’ for the word ‘Run’
was reversed within the title. This was later changed as
feedback indicated that there was no added benefit in
doing this and linking it to the title. On reflection, it may
have been better to keep the reversed ‘R’ as it would
have represented the reverse in roles of the two actresses.
We also tried making the letter ‘R’ look like it was running
by angling the lower two parts of the letter to make them
look like legs and feet. Again, feedback from the group
resulted in this being removed as the class members felt
that there was no connection with the other media. In its
place my group agreed on replacing the pupil of the eye
on the poster with an image of one of the actress’s feet
wearing jogging shoes to character being observed while
running.

6. ROUGH CUT/ POST PRODUCTION:

7. SHORT FILM
The feedback we received from the short film
was not as good as we wanted it to be as the
class was unable to understand the storyline,
this is due to the darkness of the cargo
container as it was hard to see items within the
film setting, also the class found the film a little
bit funny, which is not the effect that we
wanted to achieve for a thriller. Another key
point that arose was that the way we
presented the radio music is unnoticeable as it
just sounds like general background music
rather than something on the radio. What was
well received by the class members was that
they liked the use of the radio broadcast that
we included. My group members took on
board these suggestions for improvements that
and we made the relevant reshoots and editing
of the film to help us achieve the desired effect.

8. POSTER
Here we were able to take photographs of
eyes to use for our movie poster, and re-
shoot pictures of someone running. This was
important as the eye and the reflection
image are the key items within the poster.
Once having this picture, we were able to
create the design to present to people. The
results from our poster were highly
favourable, as they enjoyed how we was
able to incorporate the three colours of our
colour scheme as, they believed the only
way we would incorporate the colour green
was through the text. The improvement
feedback we received was to remove the
tick from the eye reflection, as this was seen
as advertisement and also created a focal
point around itself which we did not want.
Also from the group I was told to change the
number of stars which was placed on the
poster as they believed it deserved a five
star, compared to the four star which was
placed.

9. FILM REVIEW
The film review was originally created
as a double page spread using the
colour scheme which we chose
green, black and white. We had
mixed feedback about our review
page. While undertaking further
research on the layout of print on a
page, we decided that a single
page rather than double page
spread would make a better impact.
The improvements we made was to
remove the peach colour as it did
not match our colour scheme; redo
the bottom right text as it is confusing
to read; and to find better stills as the
blue square as it was still inside the
still.

10. OVERALL PRODUCTS

11. SHORT FILM
Overall our short film consisted of mix reviews as the
positive reviews are that they like the different use of
camera angels within our film as if we used the same
one, in and out would be boring; the use of music in
the forest scene as the music goes with the chase
scene; enjoyed the twist in the film as it was
unexpected. While these were good reviews we did
also receive negative reviews which was some of the
transitions were ‘weird’ as they were unnecessary; the
cargo container scene was a bit dark; the music in the
cargo did not match as much as the music did in the
forest; and the storyline is a bit confusing. These
negative feedbacks would help me in any future
productions as it has taught me to try and find lighter
locations as the scenes can be darkened on final cut
pro; to decide on music with the planning of the film
rather than just finding music to suit it as we edit; to find
different ways to express the storyline as people were
unable to follow the storyline as the key item
happened in the cargo container but due to the
darkness, the audience was unable to tell what was
happening (both actors were working for the same
person).

12. POSTER
Overall, the poster received good comments as
they are able to understand the colour scheme
which was chosen to relate to the film “the use
of green fits in well with the theme of the film
which is mostly in the forest”; “the reflection of
the feet running in the eye is a good
connotation of being watched”, “…edited a
part of the forest into the eye”; what “is good is
the use of the shadow in the title, representing
running”.
The improved points we received was to “add
... Who the film is presented and sponsored by to
make it look like a professional poster”; make
“the font at the bottom of the page should be
the same as the other font used in order to keep
it looking consistent.” These are good points as
these are things seen within other movie posters
and they also add consistency into the product.

13. FILM REVIEW
Our poster went through many improvements
but resulted into one final piece. The positive
comments we received was that the main
image “… covers the top half of the page”;
“the Q&A box on the right hand side of the
page”; “you have used conventions such as
gutters, page numbers, and pull quotes.”; “You
have kept to a clear colour scheme through the
poster which is good”.
The improvements we received were to
“change the font to Arial as I think it would read
better”; “change the background colour to
white”; “the quote is placed in the middle which
distorts the columns and ruins the alignment of
the work”; “double page spread you could
have included more content”. For future
productions these are good points to continue
with me as people would want to know more
about the film, so more content is needed
allowing audience to see if it is worth their time;
it is always better to use a font which people
can read, so Arial is always the best choice as it
is the most common font.