1. What have you learnt about Audience Feedback?
Duringthe productionof my shortfilm,Ilearnthow significantaudience feedbackiswhencreatinga
productsuch as the short film,film posterandamagazine review. Fromaudience feedback,Iwas
able to navigate asto whomy targetaudience wasandhow I couldappeal tothem.I seta target
audience of mixedgender19-25 yearolds.Thiswas because thisisthe majorityof people who
watch shortfilmsandfavoura psychological thrillertheme.Ifoundthis outthroughthe use of
questionnairesandaudience theory.The audience theoryIresearchedintowassecondaryresearch,
as I lookedonlineasto whatshotfilmare popularaccordingto my chosentargetaudience.When
doingmyown researchtospecifically reachouttomy audience,Imade questionnairesand
interviewstogatherquantitativeandqualitative feedback.Thismeantaswell asfindingoutspecific
informationsuchasyesand no answers,Icouldalsounderstandthe audiencestake onthe filmand
whataspectsof the filmwere seenaseffective andhow theyinfluencedthe audience. Ipresented
the audience feedbackbythe use of tablesandgraphs,representingthe resultsinwhichIreceived
fromthe questionnaireshandedout.Itwascrucial that I assessedthe audiencetake onthe short
film,asthe representationsImade withinthe film,shouldhave appealedtothe audience.Thisalso
helpedasif there were aspectsof the filmthatthe audience didn’tlike,Icouldtake the constructive
criticismandeditthe filmtomake it appeal more tothe audience.Byhavingaudience feedbackfor
the short film,we foundareasthatneededimproving,whichmade the shortfilmmore successful.
The firststepin makingthe shortfilmwasfindinganaudience that Icouldmake an audience for.By
havinga specificaudience,Icouldthenfocusthe filmonwhatintereststhemthe most.Thismeans
that the audience shouldfindthe filminterestingandwanttowatch it.I couldfindoutwhat they
wouldexpectfromashort filmandbase the narrative aroundtheirexpectations,makingthe film
appealingtothem.Bycollectingquantitativedata,we couldsee whowatchesshortfilmandfound
out that the mostpeople whowatchedandhadan interestforshortfilmswas19-25 year oldsof a
mixedgender.Afterfindingthisout,itbroadenedourideasastohow we couldmake thisfilmfitthe
likesof the targetaudience.Thissocial groupthenbecame ourtargetaudience.Icouldthenfind
waysof makingthisage appropriate for themand suittheirneedsandinterests.The storyline was
whatattracted thisgroupof people most,which iswhythe shortfilmneededtohave aninteresting
plotline. Mygroup andI thendecided thata plotline withatwistwouldkeepouraudience
entertainedandthisishowwe appealedourshortfilmtothem. Thiswasfurtherbackedupas I
foundoutthat my specifiedaudience prefersadramatypedgenre of film.Ialsoknow from audience
feedbackthatmyaudience watchesshortfilmsonline most,meaningthatIknew todistribute my
filmonline throughthe use of YouTube andcompaniessuchasFuture Shorts,whodistribute short
filmsonline.Icollectedthisdataandmade graphsand charts, soI couldchoose a narrative that best
suitedthe targetaudience,whichishowthe productionteamcame upwiththe storyline.
Afterplanningthe plotof the film,we thenmovedontowritingthe scriptof the filmtoget the
narrative goingandon paper.Thisfurtheredthe film’sprogress,aswe hadtakenideasintoaction.
Aftermakingthe scriptI decidedtofurtherquestionthe audience onthe flow of the narrative,to
getfeedback,inordertosee if our filmstill appealedtoourtargetaudience.The groupwantedto
see if the representationsof the characters were readwell fromanaudience,soIaskedmore in
termsof our narrative andcharacters.Thisansweredquestions,suchaswhetherthe characters
were relatable andif the audience couldpickupthe charactertraitsthat we intendedtoconnote
withinthe scripting.Thisshowswe usedqualitative datafeedback,toshow the progressionof our
2. film.The resultstoldusthatthe narrative keptthe audience insuspense and.Some criticism
followedsuchasmakingthe characters traitsmore obviousastheyneeded tobe more relatable to
the audience.The bigresultwe foundfromthisfeedback,wastomake Davidemotionsrange andto
make himmore on edge,ashe wasgrievingthe lossof hisdaughterandshouldhave beenmore
angry at first.I pickeduponthisfeedbackandknew tochange some aspectsof the narrative. The
word“colloquial”wasmentionedaboutRichards’scharacter,provingthatwe hadrepresentedhim
as a traditionalist,whowashappyandcaring,as well asaged.The audience saw himas a typical,
retiredandnicelyagedman,whowasin love withhiswife andhada positive outlookof life.The
audience couldalsoreflectthatEve’scharacter contrastedwithRichardandsaw heron the opposite
side of the scale.Because of thisfeedback,we knew tochange the scriptand make the characters
more relatable,we alsohadtomake Richards charactermore humble,soitwasn’tseenasstrange
for himto picka teenage girl up,eventhoughtheywere forthe rightintentions.Thisiswhy,inthe
script,Richard longedtohave childrenwithhiswife,butwasunfortunate inthisfield,aswe hadto
change it to make the audience feelmore comfortable.
We thenmovedontoaskingaudience feedbackfrompeersandthe targetaudience,whenitcame to
lookingatthe ancillarytasks.Thisshowedus,thatwhenitcame to almostcompletingthe magazine
review,we foundfromqualitative feedbackanddatathat we shouldseparate some of the textas it
was slightlytoomuchtotake in. By knowingthese factorsof improvement, we couldthensitand
make the changes,to benefitthe qualityof the magazine review.We didhowever;mostlyget
obstructive feedback,asmostof the audience wasextremelypleasedwiththe product.Bymaking
the changes,we thenknewthatthe product may follow the codesandconventionmore aswell as
intrigue more peopleandmaybe secondaryaudience towatchour shortfilm.Forthe filmposter,
qualitative feedback,mentionedthatthe majorityof the audience enjoyedthe layoutof the film
posterand thoughtitfitthe genre.Thiswas because,the audience readthe representationswe
usedsemiologyon,totake inthe posterandunderstandthe signswhichsymbolisedthe genre. By
handingthisquestionnaire outtopeople we didnotknow fromourtargetaudience,we could
receive constructivecriticism,astheyare lesslikelytodefendourfeelingsortell usitwas good
because theyare friendsthatdon’twantto criticise ourfilm.Thishelpedme,asitgave me pointers
inwhichI couldtake and change the aspectswhere we failed.The audiencecouldrelate toourfilm
posterand give exampleof filmposterssimilartoours,whichshowedunderstandingif ourfilm
genre,asthe filmstheyrelatedtoourshortfilm, matchedourintermsof genre andnarrative
structure.Thisshowedthatwe fullyfollowedcodesandconventionsof apsychological thrillerfilm
poster.The target audience couldalsoreadEve’scharactertraits,as theybelievedthatthe
protagonistonthe front(Eve) lookedinnocentandvulnerable. We didthisthroughthe use of
semiologytorepresentEve. Thisshowedthatwe receivedquantitativedata,aswe handedthe
questionnairesoutata local shop,to 25 people whofitthe criteriaof ourtarget audience,whogave
us constructive feedback inrelationtoourshortfilm.We thenmade pie chartsand resulttablesto
gatherthe results,sowe couldeasilyreadthemandreflectonthem. We alsofoundoutquantitative
data such as workingoutthe average ratingof ourfilm, whichwas8.5 outof ten.Thisshowsthat
our targetaudience enjoyedthe posterandwantedtosee the film.Theythoughtitwaseffective
and couldreadthe use of semiology.
The last formof audience feedbackwe received,wasregardingourshortfilm.Quantitative data
showswe helda screeningforthe targetaudience,tocome andwatch our shortfilm, before we
addedfinishingtouches.Bydoing this, we couldhandoutquestionnairestothe targetaudience to
3. fill inafterthe film.Fromthese resultswe foundoutthatthe majorityof ourtarget audience
enjoyedthe shortfilmandfoundthe narrative appealingandkepttheminsuspense.The audience
couldalsoread the character traits,as theywere able todescribe the charactersindetailedformat.
These showsthe connotationswe impliedtothe characterswere effectivelyreadfromthe audience.
Because of this,itresultedinclearerunderstandingof the filmandnarrative ingeneral andthe
audience couldunderstandeachcharacteristicsandperspective andunderstoodwhytheyactedlike
theydid.We helda screeningforourtarget audience,asanycriticismstheygave,helpedusimprove
our work,makingthe filmmore appealingtothem. We collectedthisdataandreviewedthe
feedback,sowe couldthenmake the corrections, soourfilmwouldbe of a betterstandardfor our
target audience.Havinginvitedfortypeople,we couldseehow ourshortfilmandall the elements
withinourshortfilmwere beinginterpretedfromawide range of our targetaudience.We were
pleasedwith the outcome of ourtargetaudience feedback,astheywere able torelate tothe film
and the characters.We had manypositive remarks,forthe shortfilm, whichatfirstwe thoughtwas
obstructive feedback,asthe majorityof the audience withinthe screeningwerepeersinschool and
familyof the age range.However,we receive positive feedbackfromthe majorityof the entire
audience there,meaningsome will have beenfrompeople we didn’tknow andpeople whodon’t
mindtellingthe wholetruthontheirfeelingstowardsthe film. However,we didreceive some
criticism,whichprovedveryhelpful,concerningthe colourgradingtoour film, whichwasastruggle
whenmakingourfilm.Whenasked,whendoyouthinkthe shortfilmwasset,mostpeople thought
morningto afternoon.However,we wantedtosetthe shortfilminthe evening,asthiswasa crucial
aspectof the film.We managedwiththisandmendedit,withthe use of colourgradingon Edius7
(the editingsoftwareforourfilm) byloweringthe darkness,withthe YUV curve andinsertedadark
blue tinge tothe film,torepresentnightfall andlate hoursof the evening.Thismade the filmof a
betterqualityandimprovedthe flow of the filmandnarrative.We were pleasedthatthiswasan
obstacle we couldovercome andknewthatwe have appliedthe filmtoourtargetaudience more,as
thiswas an issue theybroughtup.
Overall,audience feedbackhashelpeduswiththe productionof ourfilm, assome errorswe didn’t
notice have beenpickedupwithafreshpairof eyes.We were alsoconfidentafterouraudience
feedback,aswe knowwe didthe bestwe couldto make our short filmrelate tothe audience.We
nowknowthat withthe errors beingamended,the filmisnow atitsbestand suitsour target
audiencesexpectations
