Nathan Evaluation - Question 3

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

It proved incredibly valuable for us to have audience feedback as the process of creating our short film, posters and review went on. We received feedback on a variety of platforms at different stages throughout, ensuring that we were mainly getting responses from our target audience as these are the people we aim to attract.

Initial feedback

During pre-production we wanted to gather some audience feedback on the type of film we were setting out to create. We needed to understand what characters, themes and issues interest 15-25 year olds. We therefore asked 4 people these questions:

• Would you be interested in this genre (drama) and why?
• Do you like films that have a cliff hanger or not and why?
• Do you think the idea is good? is there any improvements we could make to appeal more to your age group.

Here are their responses:

Caitlin, aged 23

"I would be interested in a drama genre because suspense makes it interesting and keeps your attention. Yes I like cliff hangers, but not if they're too obvious as to what is going to happen next. I think there should be more information given on the dads background and why he ended up depressed as this will make the characters more relatable to the audience."

Connor, aged 17

"I would be interested in a drama genre because it sounds very gripping and a well thought out story. I think a cliff hanger in a film is good because it makes you think what happened after and keeps you thinking. It's a good idea, but it could be made clearer on why he is depressed and why he is so desperate to commit suicide."

Tara, aged 17

"It seems like an interesting short film and something I think along with other teenagers would be intrigued by mostly due to the fact that the drugs involved could perhaps be relatable in some cases however personally I think what would be most intriguing to me is the dramatic plot. Honestly no I would only probably like a film with a cliff hanger if I knew there could be a second film to find out all the information. I think that adding more information on all the characters would be good (so your audience connects with each character more). I would also suggest focusing on the dad a lot. An idea, maybe the daughters mother actually died a long time ago and that was the catalyst for the father which caused the depression and eventually the drug use."

Kellie, aged 19

"It sounds as it could be along the lines of crime drama and anyone who knows me knows I love a good crime or mystery and I love a bit of drama. I love films that have cliff hangers. It's like when you read a really good book and you get to the end and theres a huge twist and it ends on a cliff hanger and you just want more. Cliff hangers are just exciting because there's usually twists and things you weren't expecting and they get you all excited wanting more of the story. The idea in itself is good. I think maybe you could add a little more mystery in it, even if its the tiniest little thing. It would appeal to my age group, but could also appeal to those older than me because of the mystery and crime essence about it."

How this helped us:
These responses enabled us as a group to understand what we were hoping to achieve in the final product, and what we should include or exclude from the original idea. The feedback was essential to constructing the opening and how much screen time we would give each character.

We agreed with Tara's idea of focussing heavily on the father, and also felt it was necessary to show a lot of his relationship with Rebecca. The ending is a fundamental part of 'On the Brink', and this audience feedback confirmed that it would be an engaging yet controversial idea to leave the narrative on a cliff hanger, as "they get you all excited wanting more of the story" as Kellie said.

We were very pleased to hear that all of these members of our target audience were interested in the themes and issues we would explore such as drug use. They made it clear that it was important to make it very dramatic, so we ensured this by using a variety of visual and sound techniques to achieve this. Shallow depth of field, handheld camerawork, intense soundtrack and drone camerawork were just some of the devices we used to make 'On the Brink' increasingly dramatic in the build up to the cliffhanger at the end.

Now that we had feedback on our initial ideas, we were ready to construct the film. When in the post production stage, we wanted further feedback to keep us on the right tracks and ensure we were still appealing to our target audience:

Erol: 

We asked Erol, age 18, about our short film. We wanted to understand if we would generate the intended response from the target audience, and how we might be able to improve. Though he didn't mention any specific points in the film where we could improve, our discussion with him made us understand which the most successful parts were. This enabled us to spend less time dwelling on the best scenes, and instead perfecting the rest of the film.

Do you think the ending is successful? How does it make you feel?

Yes, it leave the audience in suspense and made me feel very tense.

Do you think John's motives are clear enough?

Yes, definitely. It is clearly represented though out the film. 

Did we use appropriate settings in the film? 

You have chosen great locations, for example, Beachy Head as it is so iconic and sadly meaningful to the kind of message you are putting across. 

Does the music reinforce the mood of the narrative?

The music is very fitting to the narrative and adds an emotional response to the situation.

Any other comments or improvements on our film?

I think the acting is really good and very genuine. I also think many people can relate to it on some levels as mental health is such a common thing. 





James and Niamh:

An additional 3 questions were then asked to 2 students who don't take Media Studies as a course to get a variety of perspectives on our film. James and Niamh provided great responses which confirmed to us that 'On the Brink' was having the desired effect on our target audience, and sending out the right messages.

Do you understand the relationship between each character from watching the opening shots of the film? 

James: "Hello Darling" made it very clear what the relationship was between the daughter and father. You can tell that the daughter was more relaxed as she was with her family, however it clearly showed that the young man was her boyfriend through his handshake with the father.

Niamh: I can tell it was the mum and dad inviting in their daughter and her partner. I can tell this through their excited facial expressions and body language which expressed that it was the daughters parents. 

How effective do you think this scene is in portraying John as a character with immense stress and addictions?

James: The shot in the water really expressed his distress as it was very distorted. Where the tablets were hidden makes it appear that he knows what he is doing and has been hiding this addiction for a long time.

Niamh: It was effective as it engages you to understand his situation that he is in and why he is doing it. The close-up of him taking the pills emphasises his stress and addiction, generating a sympathetic response. 

Does this ending build suspense effectively and leave audiences on a successful cliffhanger?  

James: Yes, I feel as though this cliffhanger is very intense. I love cliffhangers as it makes you want to watch more.

Niamh: It captivates you and want to see what happens, it is almost frustrating as you want answers.  

The frustration generated by the ending is exactly how we intended it, as it should be a memorable feeling for spectators given by our film. This would then act as a talking point in the film which could attract other people to see 'On the Brink'.

Survey

Our survey was sent to people aged 15-25. There was a question one for each of the products we created, and it generated 13 responses. 

Questions:

1) After watching On the Brink, do you feel we were successful in creating a range of emotions? 

2) Take a look at On the Brink's film posters. Do you think that these posters represent the film well without giving too much away?

3) Looking/Reading On the Brinks film review, do you think it is a well written review and is true to the short film?

The responses we received are what we hoped for. Many positive answers, showing we successfully created 3 products that all work well together. However, we did receive 1 or 2 criticisms which were very useful to us in learning how to improve certain elements.

Question 1:

Every response except from one was entirely positive as seen above. We are very pleased with this result, as people seemed to really connect with the film emotionally.

From question 1 we also had 2 comments from our target audience:

Comments:

Question 2:

Again, these responses were hugely positive, with just one person claiming the posters do not represent the film well. We are glad most people agree that the correct amount of information was given, as we wanted to ensure that we did not spoil the narrative in the posters, but at the same time they need to be enticing posters.

Comments:

Question 3:

Answers:

These responses provided us with confidence in our review being a success, but also a couple of interesting criticisms about the detail and technicality of the review. We feel that this demonstrates the difficulties in trying to appeal to a variety of people, as most couldn't fault the review. Those who found it slightly too detailed or technical may not be in the audience we were targeting for Little White Lies magazine who we expect to already have a good knowledge of film.

Final Feedback

For more detailed comments on our finished film, we looked to the other students in our class for feedback:

Erol, Jacob and Oscar

-Good shot variety
-Great body language to suggest meaning
-Use of different filming techniques
-Variety of shot sizes
-Close up to show emotion

These comments were very positive, with our techniques having all the desired effects on this set of spectators.

Sam, Jake and Connor

Very good, keeps the audience engaged throughout. The camerawork looked very professional. Story is easy to follow however we feel that the ending seemed a bit sudden.

After the note reading the short film feels more like a trailer, this could be due to the music, the sudden ending and the title screen being at the end. 

We were pleased with this feedback as they commented on how it was easy to follow, which was one thing we were very focussed on achieving. This was a difficult task due to the many characters and elements of the plot, so we are glad that they understood the film and were "engaged throughout".

In their response, they also say the film felt more like a trailer towards the end, which we can understand due to the similar techniques used in both trailers and Drama short films. It was important to us to get this balance right, and although we agree it does feel like a trailer in some ways, we feel that we incorporate short film conventions right until the end, and we are pleased if the ending generates a frustration for spectators who wish to see more.

 

Joe, Alex and Imogen

The story line was really good and the narrative fitted well. The music tended to fit together with the action in moments on the hill. The title was effective and when the actors walked to the door and it faded away. The techniques used for editing were really good too.

Although, it's not clear what the message is and it didn't feel like a short film, just the opening of something yet to come. Some of the conversations don't reflect on how a conversation takes place i.e when talking about searching for the Dad. The gaps were long.

The feedback from this group was initially very positive, as they commented on our appropriate use of music, titles and editing. It has been incredibly important to us that these three elements work together well to match the genre of 'On the Brink'.

They then claimed that "it's not clear what the message is" in our film, which is a comment we haven't heard from any other spectators, as we feel that the messages are constructed very clearly. This could come down to a different interpretation of the narrative from this group, which is important to us as this could generate debates surrounding our short film, which ultimately creates more interest for it through word of mouth.

Tasha, Jess and Maria

-interesting and relatable storyline for the demographic
-the parallel shots between characters were very effective and also built up the tension
-eyecatching settings
-the dialogue sound was very clear and edited well
-keeps the audience guessing being left on a cliff hanger
-very emotional subject and can effect people in different ways

This final piece of feedback was entirely positive and they seemed to grasp the messages and values we were trying to create. As they are in our target audience, it is crucial that the narrative will relate to this group, so we are delighted to hear that it is an "interesting and relatable storyline for the demographic". They also comment on out appropriate use of settings, parallel shots, sound and cliff hanger at the end.

Overall, we are very pleased with how the audience feedback has evolved throughout the process of creating 'On the Brink' and the ancillary products which come with it. It has been an essential part of improving elements of the film in each stage of production, and the final feedback we have recieved is overwhelmingly positive which has confirmed to us that we have created the successful short film we had envisaged.