What have you learned from your audience feedback?BY SHANNON HULME

How did you respond to the original brief with the audience in mind?

At first we established the genre we wanted to focus on which was thriller and we all responded to the brief we were given, which was to make a five minute film, independently as we agreed that this would then give us multiple ideas we could choose from. We then talked through each group members ideas and we were able to combine then in order to make a final storyline. Our storyline was mainly inspired by Girl interrupted as this film is also a psychological thriller that features scene within a mental hospital with a large female cast. Once we had established our final film idea we then had to decide on what content we wanted to show in order to specify an age rating by using the BBFC website as a guideline.

How did you respond to the original brief with the audience in mind?

The age rating we chose was certificate 15 as we originally wanted to show a more violent scene within the film which was the car crash and we also considered having drugs shown in the mental institute setting however we didn’t end up using these scenes. Although I do still believe that we have an appropriate age rating as there are some scenes within our film that people under the age of fifteen may find upsetting / distressing such as the focus on Katherine within the mental hospital and the part throughout the graveyard. Due to this we decided to try to aim our thriller at a young adult audience of 15-30. We also considered this target audience as Girl Interrupted wad aimed as a similar audience and it appealed to their target audience and was very successful. However to be sure that out target audience were going to be interested in our plot we created a questionnaire used social media such as Facebook to try to reach out target audience. The response was positive so we decided to go ahead with out ideas.

Audience research Our group did more audience research after establishing out age rating in order to make sure our ideas were suitable for our target audience. We carried out a video questionnaire and online questionnaire, we let the audience read out plot and then asked them some questions to get their opinion on our film idea. The description of the plot: ‘3 daughters are mourning their mothers death when they read her will and discover that they have a long lost sister and it is their mothers wish for them to find her. Upon finding their lost sister it is revealed she has been sectioned in a mental institute after spending her childhood in adoption. Whilst trying to figure out what happened to their sister they find out something shocking about her.’ The questions we asked our potential audience: What genre do you think this film is? e.g. Horror/ThrillerDo you like the storyline? Do you think it sounds similar to any other films? If so which films does it sound similar to?What certificate do you think this film would be? Would you go and see this film at the cinema?If you wanted to buy this on DVD how much would you like to pay for it?Would you make any improvements to this film?

Audience research The people we asked for our video questionnaire were other students at college that fall into our target age category. We made sure that we asked individuals with who were different ages and gender in order to get a more accurate response. The Reponses from the video questionnaire were helpful as the individual was able to express themselves properly instead of just clicking a box and agreeing. The online questionnaire, which we shared through Facebook showed positive results.

Audience research The majority of the online audience reviewed our storyline at 8/10 and a couple of people reviewed it at 10/10 which shows that our storyline was engaging. Also half of the responses when asked what film they thought was similar to our plot said Girl Interrupted which shows that our influence has benefitted our storyline as people believe that it is similar to a film within the same genre we were aiming for, a psychological thriller. This was then reinforced when the audience were asked what genre they though out storyline was and the main responses said thriller with a few saying mystery. The result for our genre are accurate as we are creating a film with elements of both thriller and mystery as our plot doesn’t reveal the trust until the final scene. When asked what age rating the audience though out film was most said 15 with a few saying 12/12A. This shows that the audience also mainly agrees that some content may be distressing for children aged under 15. the results also show that our film could be successful in reaching our target audience as most said they would pay up to ten pounds to buy the film on DVD and a few people said up to twenty pounds.

Link to our questionnaire form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zUbqghJBdlbDy-ucRV-mpg3BrrjE7Imq-W2gaGnCeEc/viewform

Questionnaire results: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zUbqghJBdlbDy-ucRV-mpg3BrrjE7Imq-W2gaGnCeEc/viewform

Audience research Identifying our audience was important as it gave us the conformation that were appealing to our target audience before we even started to make the film. However we did receive some responses from who read our initial storyline who were confused by it and found it hard to understand. Due to this we were careful when producing out film and made sure there were significant shots explaining the plot as it went along. We also incorporated multiple conversations and voiceovers throughout the film which explained to the audience what was happening in a scene if they found it hard to understand the emotions displayed by inexperienced actors. The most important is the voiceover in the final scene of the film as this explains the secret that Katherine has been keeping from her sisters and explains the missing holes in the plot. We also used costumes within the film to establish the each character better and tired to give the audience a feel for their personality. For example we dressed Natalie, who acted as a nurse in a proper uniform.

Rough cut

Link to the rough cut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do8Yk0A-Hqg

Rough cut

The rough cut benefitted us as we were able to see what the audience opinion was of our film before we put the finishing aspects to it. We also had an additional questionnaire as well as the rough cut and this was useful as it allowed us to find out what we could improve on before we posted our final cut of out film. One aspect that we improved on after gaining audience feedback were the sound effects. We added more background music and sound effects to the film in order to make the scene feel more emotive and to have a more dramatic effect on the audience. We also had some missing shots to add in such as the production and distribution companies logos as this made the film look more professional. Also we were pleased to hear that most of the individuals who took the quiz understood our storyline this time and this means that our improvement we made to establish the characters was successful.

Rough cut questionnaire

Final film After making all the necessary changes after analysing the audience feedback we posted out the final cut of our film.

Link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GT_izKy1XE

In conclusion

In conclusion I feel that involving the audience within the production process benefitted our film and made the process simpler for us as we were able to target the problems the audience found. These processes also allowed us to do the changes in stages as we knew what we had to improve on throughout while we were editing. We have been able to make the film more entertaining for the audience and their involvement in the film may make them more inclined to watch it as they will notice their suggestions and be proud of it just like us.