Richard Brown

EVALUATION 3: WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

HOW DID YOU RESPOND TO THE ORIGINAL BRIEF WITH THE AUDIENCE IN MIND?

• The audience played a very important role in the production of our film as well as advertising and distributing in post-production. Upon deciding our genre to be a Drama, we carefully thought how we would target our audience and how the film would affect them. With our target audience mainly being mature teenagers and adults, mostly female, as well as families, we thought the best way to allow a connection between the audience and the characters would be, to have two sisters as the main characters. As the audience would connect emotionally to the characters, we would then plan our storyline to have a sad but effective ending. Upon creating our storyline, we produced an online questionnaire where our audience would read our storyline and answer questions on how they felt about the idea. From this, we would make improvements to the storyline including ideas on music and the level of detail to the plot.

• We also produced a video questionnaire in College, picking random students to answer questions. Just like the online questionnaire, we would get the student to read our storyline and then answer the selected questions. This allowed us to get a face-to-face response and could discuss their ideas further. The results for the video questionnaire was similar to the previous questionnaire, however the genre of our film was misunderstood in the video questionnaire. After producing this questionnaire, we further developed and finished our storyline to then make a rough cut of the film.

IN FILMING AND EDITING HOW DID YOU ENSURE MEANING WOULD BE APPARENT TO THE AUDIENCE?

• We used several filming techniques to portray different elements to the film including the 180 degree rule, panning, eye line match and shot reverse shot to show a conversation or the focus on a certain object. We would also include a lack of variation in shots to show tension in the scene, especially in the argument scene between Peaches and mother, Karen. However during slow, emotional scenes, close-ups and slow panning were used to emphasise characters’ facial expressions and the pace of conversations.

• The soundtrack/music in the film is an obvious element to the mood of the scene we try to portray to the audience. For example, in the montage scene where sisters, Peaches and Lillie, are shown cheerfully playing in a park while happy and upbeat piano is played. This gives the impression to the audience of how cheerful the characters are and the mood emulated from the scene. However in the scene of Lillie’s death, the music is in a very minor tone and makes the audience sad when watching it. We did this to help the audience understand the events and allow them to feel sympathy for the characters.

• Lillie’s costume is also an important element in how we portray that she has a life-threatening illness. Her costume includes a headscarf, implying she has lost her hair from the chemotherapy treating her illness. Her makeup makes Lillie look pale to show she is really ill. In contrast to Lillie’s costume, the other characters, Peaches and Karen, wear casual clothes and makeup to show they are healthy in contrast to Lillie.

HOW DID THE AUDIENCE RESPOND WHEN YOU TRIALLED ASPECTS OF YOUR FILM?

• Upon the production of the rough cut of our film, we produced another online questionnaire to identify the reaction and views towards the film from our target audience. The feedback was good and showed our message from the film was understood well. As we asked for improvements we were suggested to add more background music in the end scene to add tension and to add more filters and lighting effects. We made these improvements during the editing process of the final cut of our film and received good feedback for the final cut.

• Overall, I believe the feedback changed how we produced the film in a good way, producing the best film possible. The feedback we received in the final questionnaire was well-received as our target audience were able to understand our message and complimented us on the quality of our film.