Monday 28 April 2014

EVALUATION: What have you learned from your audience feedback?


USES AND GRATIFICATIONS
 
Why might my audiences like my short?
 
Blumler and Katz (1974)
 
1. Escape and Diversion from everyday life - The story is larger than life, presenting an imagination that takes over the characters reality, an extreme form of escapism, which parallels the audience's own personal needs.
 
2. Surveillance and Information - The audience watch the protagonist and gain information about him, they enjoy discovering the story and characters. The short film may also provide information on the world as it is.
 
3. Personal Relationships - The short film represents a starting point for discussion, where the audience and like minded people can discuss the film and forge relationships, an opportunity for personal interaction.
 
4. Personal Identification - The main character is a young adult male (the same as my core demographic) with a vivid imagination. He may be relatable in many ways for the audience, providing satisfaction for them, however he represents an extreme of a spectrum on which the audience is situated. Showing them how his reality has been obscured.

Sunday 27 April 2014

Audience Response Open (Eval prep)

Here are a selection of answers from the open questionnaire - answered b 15 people , again a range of ages 16 -21 and some upwards and a mix of males and females.
  1. Did you enjoy the short film? Explain why?

    Yes, I really enjoyed it, I liked how it went from the black and white to the colour and was like two different pieces.

    Yeah its short and entertaining.

    I thought it was an easy watch. Thoroughly enjoyed.
  1. What was your favourite part about the short film?

    Loved the music

    My favourite part was the duel. I thought it was very exciting.

    The story I wasnt sure what was going on and really liked the twist at the end.


  1. What was your opinion of the storyline? Why do you think this?

    It sucked me in, liked the contrast between the western and the real life
    I didn't think it went anywhere - wasn't sure if I liked it, the twist didn't catch me off guard.

    Loved the black and white part, really unsettling.

    I completely understood it. Great!

  1. Is there anything you didn’t understand about the storyline? 

    No, it was all good!

    Understood it all, no problems.

    Wasn't sure what the drawings were about. Did they come alive? 

  1. What is your opinion of the locations chosen?

    The locations suited the story. Worked really well.
    Good choice of location, didnt distract.




Click to read more answers -

Audience Responses Closed (Eval Prep)

About 35 people responded to this questionnaire - the percentages are rounded for ease.

As expected the age range was evenly spread across the groupings and the Male to Female ratio was around 50:50, with a slightly more males.

Around 80% responded to the question:  Did you enjoy the short film? with Yes, the Not Sure and No vote were split at about 10%. Again, this is not unusual, I had to expect that my short film couldn't please everyone.

Which part of the film did you prefer? - This question resulted in a majority in favour of the duel, but a sizable minority around 30-40%, preferred the black and white sequences. I'm happy with this result. I was worried that the black and white sequences would be marginalised.

The question - Did you enjoy the storyline of the video? - received the same response as "Did you enjoy the film." Presumably those who were unsure or did not like it found their faults mainly in the story.

Around 90% of respondents said they found the story clear to follow.

Everybody seemed to agree that the location choice was appropriate for the video. I'm glad that the audience appreciated the locations and felt it worked for the story. Similarly, most people liked the costume designs - around 90%, suggested I succeeded in creating authentic/believable costumes.

80% of respondents said they'd share it with a friend and around 20% said they weren't sure - only 1 person said they wouldn't.


The average rating of the acting was 4. I'm pleasantly surprised considering non of the actors were professionals or aspiring actors, just friends willing to help.


For the question - Which parts of the film did you feel were most effective? the answers were evenly spread, with slightly less given towards the shot range- perhaps because people generally don't pick up on shot range when watching films casually.

In response to - Which parts of the recording did you feel were least effective? - most answers were left blank - but around 20% said either acting or shot range.

However helpful these responses are, they only give me a snapshot of my audience's opinion. Perhaps my choice of answers could have been more varied, but again it would only give me a number, which is does not give me anything concrete on what to change, especially when most of the participants have took to it so kindly.  


 


Saturday 26 April 2014

Questionnaires - Audience Response

The last two posts are my open and closed questionnaires - I sent them to a large group of people - around 30 - and sent them a copy of the current cut of my short film. Later I'll be able to post the results of my questionnaires - the closed will give me a clear perspective on my audience's opinion as a whole, if there is any consensus on what works and what doesn't - the open will give me wider and more varied answers, a look at some individual concerns and chance for them to elaborate on their opinions.

I'll use these responses to change and further edit my short film to satisfy my audience, and then evaluate how the audience feedback has helped improve my short film.

Closed Questionnaire

Open Questionnaire

Saturday 19 April 2014

Evaluation: GENRE

In response to: 
In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I intend to follow this up with a more in-depth discussion of "iconography" and how it applies to this question through a audio/visual commentary of the short film itself.:)

Tuesday 15 April 2014

The Anxiety Club

Autumn last year I cowrote a short film as part of a Film Academy based in the North East I took part in over a five month period. I was the Director of Photography over the three day shoot and spent a couple of months coediting during post production. The website for the academy with our profiles and an outline of our short film, The Anxiety Club, alongside the other two groups, is now live! http://www.northernstarsfictionacademy.co.uk/

You can watch the short here:
Anxiety Club (Fiction Academy 2013) from Northern Stars on Vimeo.

Friday 4 April 2014

First Cut of Draw

This is the first time I've managed to stitch together the scenes and have close to a finished product. This is what I will show to peers and "test" audiences to get a sense of what is good and what needs to be changed. I understand it still needs a considerable amount of work, but I won't go in detail about that in this post, but instead will discuss it after receiving an audience response. One note is that the song at the very end is a place holder for the time being, as it interrupts and ruins the tone! If something doesn't seem polished I have probably already considered it, but I needed to export a clip to evaluate over the holiday :)