The document discusses audience feedback the author received during various stages of creating a short film about forced/arranged marriages. The author learned that some religiously sensitive content was deemed offensive and removed a scene accordingly. Additional feedback helped the author better understand and apply the technique of social realism. Cutting an unappealing opening scene based on feedback also improved the film. Re-screening for a wider age range provided both positive feedback on filmmaking skills as well as critical feedback that led to further refinements. A focus group also provided generally positive reviews along with insights into how different genders may perceive the sensitive topic. Feedback on film posters helped enhance the author's design skills.

1. What have you learned from
your audience feedback?
Evaluation

2. The first piece of audience feedback I conducted was a open ended questionnaire. At
this stage, I was certain about my ideas on forced/arranged marriages and the themes
that I want to include such as distress, love, pain and heartbreak. The questionnaire was
based on my treatment (please see planning tab) to see what others think of my ideas.
I deliberately picked out respondents that are of the same target audience of my short
films – teenagers and young adults; I did this because I thought that it will be more
useful and beneficial for me because their opinion will matter most as they are my
intended target audience.
From this audience feedback, I have learned that some ideas can be seen as offensive to
others. For example, the scene where Sofia rips off her headscarf; some respondents
saw this as offensive towards the religion Islam and that it portrays Muslims in a negative
light. Therefore, I decided to not include this scene in my short film as I did not want to
upset any viewers.

3. The second piece of audience feedback I conducted was a series of interviews regarding
my short film. At this stage, I was half way through constructing The Bride, I had already
produced effective planning such as a storyboard, scripts etc. (please see planning tab).
The interview was to find out if I chose the appropriate target audience for my short film
and if those of the intended demographic understood what social realism is.
I gathered that every one has a slight understanding of what social realism is and they
were able to explain how it is used in The Bride.
From this work and feedback from the respondents, I learned that to be able to reach your
target audience, you must include themes and situations that they could be able to relate
to. Therefore forced/arranged marriages was a good topic to choose as my target audience
felt that there was a gap in the market for this hidden issue that they would be interested
in watching.
Moreover, from this audience feedback, I decided to research what social realism is and
how it is defined as I thought my definition was not as accurate.
One definition of social realism is: Social Realism, an international art movement, refers to
the work of painters, printmakers, photographers and filmmakers who draw attention to
the everyday conditions of the working classes and the poor, and who are critical of the
social structures that maintain these conditions. While the movement's artistic styles vary
from nation to nation, it almost always utilizes a form of descriptive or critical realism
I made sure that I adhere to these definitions and apply social realism effectively in my
short film.

4. I believe that audience research is essential through out the whole production process and
therefore, I decided to gather audience feedback in the post construction stage. I screened
my first edit of The Bride to a group of all ages varying between 15-40; I chose a larger age
range group because the respondents from my previous audience feedback were all
teenagers and young adults as they are my target audience. Although I wanted feedback
for my production, I also wanted to test my hypothesis that if an older demographic would
be interested in my short film and their views about it.
From this audience feedback, I conducted questionnaires and also unstructured interviews
with those who watched my short film. I received positive feedback such as effective
cinematography skills and mise-en-scene, however I also gathered a lot of negative and
critical feedback.(Please see audience feedback tab) 4/10 respondents said that they
thought that the beginning of my short film (where Sofia’s father and her husband to be
are having a conversation) was the least appealing. From this, I decided to cut the whole
scene off as I thought it was more effective with out it and allowed a sense of enigma in
the beginning which was carried out through out the short film.
I believe this audience feedback was very useful as it allowed me to develop my creative
thinking further and take on the negative responses and improve my short film. I re-filmed
scenes that were least effective such as the park scene making sure that my
cinematography skills are up to a high standard; moreover, I technologically advanced my
editing skills on Serif Page Plus given the feedback I was given. Also, although the older
respondents of this audience feedback were very critical of The Bride, overall they said that
they would watch it which implies that I may also have an older demographic.

5. I had also conducted a focus group in audio format which unfortunately due
to technical difficulties is unable to upload on Weebly. However I believe
that a focus group is a very effective way in gathering audience feedback.
The respondents had a discussion about what went well and what could be
improved in my short film and if they would recommend it. As a conclusion,
all those involved in the focus group had positive reviews about my short
film and all of them rated it above 7 (out of 10).
From the focus group I learnt that females tend to be more sensitive about
the topic of forced/arranged marriages than men; this is because more
females are victims of crime rather then men. This can have an effect on my
target audience as more females may watch The Bride than males.

6. As you can see on my ancillary task tab, I have conducted many edits of the
film poster of The Bride. I conducted audience feedback on what could be
improved from the previous edit in which I gained useful ideas (please see
audience feedback tab).
From this I learnt, that the more aesthetically pleasing a poster looks, the more
viewers I will gain for my short film. I decided to enhance my creativity skills
and use Serif Page Plus even more efficiently to produce a excellent film poster.
I learnt new techniques on Serif Page Plus such as the cropping of text and how
to use margins and guide lines.