Evaluation question three for A-Level media advanced portfolio

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

2. THE BRIEF AND IDEA
 The brief for our project was to create a fiction film under the short film length of
5 minutes with a slight leeway of about thirty seconds each way .
 Due to this many ideas were pondered and Dark Room was chosen as the
successful winner.The concept is a story of a teenager moving from Scotland who
manages to find a camera win the many boxes from his old home, he decides to
take photos with it, there is a twist when we find out the camera has almost
magical properties to make people disappear before quickly catching up to our
main character and making him disappear too.

3. HOW DIDYOU RESPONDTOTHE ORIGINAL
BRIEFWITHTHE AUDIENCE IN MIND?
 Our film focuses on the idea of disappearance and the subtle idea
of stranger danger between teenagers and within regular life, due
to this we wanted it to appeal to the teenage market which led to
the target audience being that of 16-30 year olds.
 We also deemed this a suitable target audience due to the
thriller/mystery concepts within it. It was also apparent that due
to the storyline we determined any lower than 12, people would
not be able to understand it, but under 15 there was a potential
risk that the many artistic influences would go unnoticed or
unconsidered.
 This was also supported by a graph one of my fellow group
members found (to the right) which supported the idea that 15-30
was a good range

4. QUESTIONNAIRES
 During the process of research and development of the film, we took many
questionnaires to determine the direction of the film and how the audience would
approve of it.This led to the pre filming, post filming, poster and final film
questionnaires.These all helped us to create the final product and were important
in discovering the important inclusion that would allow us to meet the needs of
the audience

5. PRE FILMING QUESTIONNAIRE
 We thought it was important to conduct a pre filming question to gain an insight
into our audience and ask about the what they thought of potential ideas within
the story.The following slides shows some of this feedback, these were all
conducted via survey monkey and offered within our blog.

6. DOYOUTHINKTHE NAME “DARK ROOM” IS
A SUITABLE NAME?
 We asked the audience many questions
such as their age and gender and what
their preferred viewing was and their
favourite genres, this was then directed
about our film.This question asked ,
after letting them look at the script, if
the name of the film was a suitable
name.With only one person saying no,
we deemed overall that this was a
successful, this was because the films
main part was set within a photo
developing dark room.With the
majority of our audience agreeing with
our idea, we decided to move on

7. WHAT GENRE DOYOUTHINKTHE FILM IS?
 The next question was clarification
question, asking what genre they
thought the film was, this could be split
into a sub-genre but the overall concept
was some form of thriller or mystery
thriller, with one answer suggesting
horror.This is understandable due to
the use of red and the unusual/creepy
like aspects within the film.This
question also reveals that our audience
has a similar thought path to us and
would understand the nature of the film
and thus confirming that we created
the desired effects needed to help us
create a mystery thriller

8. WHAT DOYOU LIKE ABOUT OUR IDEA?
 This question asked the potential
viewers about what they think of the
ideas and concepts within the script.
This shows that there is a lot of
appreciation for the plot and idea of
people disappearing.They also give the
critical view agreeing that the film “fits
closely to the rising action graph” which
meets a standard filming practice to
attract and retain viewers.
 Other responses suggest the idea of
“Roman being clueless” and “People
disappearing” creates and unusual yet
retaining idea.

9. WHICH ENDING DOYOU PREFER?
 This question was important in
determining and ending that we would
use within the film.This resulted in a
70:30 split with the majority going for
the idea that Roman takes a photo,
stumbling out and then disappearing.
This helps to create a more climactic
ending and suggests the audience were
not interested with a simple ending.

10. WHAT DOYOUTHINK OFTHE FILM BEING
RECORDED IN BLACK ANDWHITE?
 We had many artistic ideas for our
project, the proposed idea of the film
being in black and white was created
and posed to the audience.With a
resounding 100% result it was
determined that the film would be
produced in black and white, this meant
extra fictional elements could be added
and it could still seem mysterious and
would only support its ideas further

11. WHAT CERTIFICATE WOULDYOU EXPECT
THIS FILMTO HAVE?
 This question was used to determine
our target audiences and what ranges
our target audience would think this
would be suitable for.This shows that
the two equal responses were that of
12(A) and a 15 certificate, this shows
that our audience has a similar view to
that of us and think that the story is
understand able to a 12 year old but
would not be fully appreciated until
above 15.We determined that overall
due to the film not being strong in
mature content this would probably be
deemed a 12 from the BBFC

12. WHEREWOULDYOU EXPECTTO SEE OUR
FILM?
 This was an extension to another
question asking if the audience would
watch it, where they would most likely
see it.This saw that the overall opinion
was that due to its short length and not
big production budget and effects, it
would most likely be viewed online or
through late night screenings dedicated
to the niche and artistic.
 This seemed suitable with 3 saying an
online site and three other respondents
suggesting late night cinema or tv
viewings

13. WHAT DID WE LEARN FROMTHE PRE-
FILMING QUESTIONNAIRE?
 After conducting and analysing the results we decided it was
important to change some aspects of our film to meet the lines of
what the audience is most likely expecting and most definitely
wanting.This led to follow through with our many ideas such as
using black and white and also meant we had to include a full
ending of Roman stumbling away and including a flash of him
taking a phot of himself.This also led to other changes such as
removing the scene in which a cat has its picture taken of and that
of a canvas that was meant to disappear, however this canvas can
still be seen within the final version of the film, this was due to too
much time being taken up and was not necessary to the story as it
could be understood from what was within it already.We also
determined that after conducting many questionnaires online
maybe using that in tandem of a paper based one would allow
more people to answer it and would allow us to conduct a larger
and potentially more beneficial sample.

14. POST FILMING QUESTIONNAIRE
 When conducting our post filming questionnaire, we decided to continue using
survey monkey to allow the questionnaire to be accessed from our blog whilst also
allowing us to share it over the internet to a lot more people, we did not go with
the idea to use this un tandem with paper as there was a lack of resources at the
time and neither of us within the group had no printing credit. We askes our
audience to watch the draft version of our film onYouTube, which was accessible
from the post ad answer questions based upon it, doing this ensured we were
gaining reasonable data and it would be more focused on that of the media
product rather than just overall opinion and views.

15. EMBEDDED DRAFT

16. AFTERWATCHINGTHE FILMWHAT AREYOU
OPINIONS OF IT?
 This question was an open question
asking what the audience thought of
our first draft and how they felt it was
after watching it.This led to an array of
positive responses ranging from being
“unique” to the simple “good” but also
included a few critical views such as
“the concept seeming too dry” and
“missing some effects”.
 Overall we feel that for the mid point of
the project, this was successful and
showed our progress.To the right
shows these four responses of a few.

17. DIDYOU UNDERSTANDTHE STORY?
 The next question asked if the story was
understood and portrayed from this
draft viewing of the film, this resulted in
a resounding 100% success with all
users saying the story was portrayed
completely through the viewing of the
film.

18. WHAT DIDYOUTHINK WAS PARTICULARLY
GOOD ABOUTTHE FILM?
 This asked the audience what they liked about
the first draft that could not have been
portrayed within the script. We gained a few
responses with the image to the right only
showing four of thee showing that there were
many elements that were liked within the film,
such as the “use of editing” and “The idea of
highlighting specific colours”These al
suggested elements within the film were
positive to the audiences appeal and helped to
accentuate the plot of the film.
 One comment also suggested that these
elements provided “a unique flare to the film”
overall proving that the gratification from the
film was helped by the effects and themes.

19. WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN IMPROVED
WITHIN OUR FILM?
 After finding out about the positives within our
film it was important that we discovered what
needed to be improved upon before the final
version, some of which could not be improved
upon, but some that could.
 For example, one user stated “Some of the
edits and flashes seem loose”, this was
touched up and both none diegetic flash noises
and the actual flash were lined up and edits
were either changed to something new or
implemented to make the flow and continuity
of the film work better, for example this helped
to cope with “the photos being hung up and
moving”

20. WHO DOYOUTHINKTHIS IS AIMEDTOWARDS?
 After asking this same question within
the pre-filming questionnaire, it was
important to ask it again to discover if
any graphical portrayals of the film
changed anyone's view on who the film
is targeted toward, this opinion was
changed slightly to a more confirmed
12 and above or “teenagers” suggesting
that although not drastic the films
storyline was probably more
understandable and suitable within a
visual format.

21. CHANGES AND DIFFERENT IDEAS FINAL
FILM
 After taking on board the ideas of the questionnaire, we decided we would
implement these within the final version of the film, overall I feel like this was a
success, below shows this, However some elements could not be implemented
due to lack of skill with the technology used.

22. FINAL FILM FEEDBACK
 After releasing the final copy of our film we asked a final questionnaire to gain feedback about the, we
gained many positive comments, including:
 "I liked the use of the colour red and editing within the film"
 I thought it was very atmospheric and gave me good feelings
 I liked the story line of it, it's really cool, and all the editing you guys did, mazing
 "It got really creative the further on it went"
 It was a great film, was it supposed to be that he found the girl he'd taken a photo of had disappeared and
he went a bit mad or was it that the camera makes things disappear and he doesn’t realise until the end.
 All these relate to Stuart Halls theory of negotiated readings, suggesting that the main concept
is accepted but may be changed depending upon experiences and interests, the fifth comment shows this
in a great detail as it shows that there is even a self- negotiated response between the audience, overall
this shows the positive views of our overall film and shows its success.