Audience Screening Feedback

We took a random sample of 11 out of the 30 or so questionnaires (taking every 3).

Every sample was from 17-18 age group as they are in our year at school. About half were male and half were female, and traits did not seem to be based on gender as we expected. Common genre likes were action, thriller, comedy, horror and thriller. Someone even said slasher! These genres were shown in favourite films such as Saw, Scarface and Mean Girls.

Every single person recognised that it was an opening sequence and the title was 'Reservation', which was good from our point of view - our film was clear. Everyone also recognised from the sequence the genre, which was clearly horror with elements of thriller/slasher. About 9 out of the 11 people thought the film could be filmed at a normal cinema or multiplex with the other 2 opting for a student film festival. This tells us that our film could target a mainstream audience and be popular enough to show at a normal cinema. Most people opted for teenagers or 18-30's as the targeted audience with some adding horror enthusiasts or people that like to play violent games on the xbox/PS2. This was a pretty similar view we had for our target audience. Only 2 people mentioned that males would be interested so most people did not feel it dominated one particular gender.

The film seemed to make it obvious who the killer and victim was, and one pressed every single person was able to explain the victim was a captive and was being tortured by the killer. People described the killer as evil, insane, scarily polite, bad, mean, sadistic, murderer and psycho. Nobody described the victim so his personality can be identified as miscillaneous or "normal". Most themes identified were along the lines of fear, revenge, violence, evil and death, so that came across well.

All 11 people in the sample enjoyed the film and found it attractive to watch, with one person saying because they thought it had a clear narrative, and others saying it was tense and filmic. The favoured parts of the film were the hand at the end with the scream and Matt shouting, "I SAID BE QUIET!", which did not really suprise us - they were the most dramatic parts. People generally thought the lighting, music and location worked the best with some people suprisingly liking the flickering lights even though we were not sure about it. However, some people were not sure about the regular blackouts stemming from the flickering lights, and someone thought the acting was not up to scratch although we certainly do not agree with this. Alot of questions were asked about the random foot and then hand at the end - this made us pleased. These signified enigma codes and you were meant to be confused by them, as to continue watching the film to find out what they meant and who they belonged to (everyone commented on how they would continue to watch the film, even the people who said they did not like horror and would be terrified!) - so our film was successful in luring in its audience.

The following were the ratings given out of 10 by the 11 subjects: 10, 10, 9, 7, 8 and a half, 9, 8, 9, 10, 5, 9. On average this works out at about 8 and a half out of 10, which is not bad at all for an amateur film project. We realise some scores and comments maybe bias due to friends being present at the screening, but all in all we are very pleased with this feedback, and will take the criticisms on board in our evaluations.

Audience Screening

Today we held our audience screening in front of around 40 people. All in all I think about 35 questionnaires were filled in and the reaction was very positive. Our sequence got a big round of applause and the shocking ending made nearly everyone in the room jump - exactly what we intended!

So we are very pleased with this feedback and are soon to consolidate it all into a table from which we can base some of our evaluation findings on as evidence.

Shaun

Questionnaire

Our questionnaire will be designed to gain feedback to help answer evaulative questions on our piece, but will be asked in a simple non-technical-worded manner so everyone understands what they are doing. It will be average sized and to the point as all questionnaires try to be. Here are the questions we will probably ask (or along the lines of)...

About them:
Age.
Gender.
What are your favourite types of film?
What was the last film you saw at the cinema/on DVD?
What type of cinema do you visit?

About the film:
Does the film make sense?
Explain what happens in the film.
Is there anything that confused you?
Was it enjoyable?
Did it look like a film/was it attractive to watch?
What was most effective/least effective?
What have you just watched? (e.g. trailer/opening sequence etc.)
What was the title?
What are the main themes? (e.g. love/revenge etc.)
What type of cinema would you expect to see the film in?
What audience is it most likely to appeal to? (age/gender/interests etc.)
Do you think it was American or British made?
Explain about the characters and what role you think they will play in the film.
Would you watch the rest of this film?
Give the film a rating out of 10 (10 being highest).

We will try to cut these questions down to 10-15 precise questions to fit onto 2 sides of A4 (to save paper obviously by making them double-sided questionnaires!)

Audience Screening

Some time next week we are to have an audience screening in the media block, to gain feedback from our target audience. We are planning to this at school in the media block on Monday at 12.45pm. It should last about 20 minutes to half an hour. Lots of organisation is required before Monday and on the day:

- We must know our target audience (18-30's core, 12-60's secondary, all genders, horror enthusiasts mainly).

- We must decide who to invite. We think a wider audience will be accepted for our big audience screening to gain feedback from every party. At school it will only be possible to test the 12-18 bracket. Fellow sixth formers will provide core audience feedback, whilst year 7-11's will provide wider audience feedback. Other age groups over 18 will be shown the film out of school and we will collaborate all the feedback we individually gain out of school.

- For the big screening on Monday we are going to prepare a questionnaire, which I will write about in a new post. This is to gain quick and simple feedback from a large group of people. For smaller screenings, say at home with family, we can just talk to them about the film in a more detailed and personal manner. This we decided would be the best way of gaining large amounts of feedback. Group feedback from the big audience screening will be posted on this blog, whilst individual smaller screen feedback we individually gain will go on our individual blogs.

- Between now and Monday we will have to advertise for the screening, by a poster or by word of mouth amongst our friends. We will be busy doing this mainly in the sixth form common room and some around the rest of the school (younger year groups).

- On the day of the screening we will split up roles between the 3 of us. Beforehand, one will be in charge of technical things, making sure we have a DVD copy and testing it out on the big screen for perfect playback and volume. One will be in charge of photocopying the questionnaires and preparing the pencils and pens for people to write with. The other person will be responcible for setting up the room with lots of chairs and closing curtains and windows, whilst controlling lighting for a cinematic experience. During the screening, the technical person will be in charge of obviously playing the DVD etc. The person with the questionnaires will be at the door directing people into the right media room and giving out the questionnaires (also collecting them and the pencils after). The person setting up the room will probably have to deliver a short speech before the film explaining what we want from the people invited and a bit about our project.

So, before now and Monday we have plenty of things to get on with to keep us occupied before we begin our evaluations.

Kris, on behalf of the group.

BLK Feedback

Miss Blackborow took a look at our (finished) project and gave us the go ahead for our test screening. However she did have a few issues which we will look at when we have a screening. There was issues with fuzziness on the audio of some of Matt's shots and it is noticeable when they cut to shots of Rob. She wasn't 100% on the title as well and thought the shot with Matt shouting should be closer shot but it is impossible to change now.

BLK Feedback

Miss Blackborow watched our sequence thoroughly and analysed it. Overall her comments were very positive about the titles, visualisation, pace and structure. She pointed out a few more little niggles for us to deal with to make the sequence perfect. This included making the fades between titles longer at the beginning to hold suspence, and bringing in the story slower. She also advised us to make the actor titles the same length, and take out one clip towards the end which is too dark. It was of Matt walking down a corridor towards the basement exit to link him walking away from Rob to him opening the door. However, taking out this clip made the sequence faster with this clip being irrelevant as the two fitted together fine for continuity. Other than this we still have to work on the sound with the help of Ryan, the media technition, and continue to work away at the tiny little bits of perfection such as cutting down shots slightly. This feedback was very useful and now we feel we have a finished sequence that we simply need to smarten up a bit, and Miss Blackborow agreed on this.

THR feedback

After watching our near-finished edited sequence, Miss Thrasher was overall convinced by it and was complimentary of the sequence as a whole. However she gave us a few things to work on, or as she put it... a few little "niggles". We have to work on the sound of the dialogue with Matt's voice being a bit too quiet compared to Rob's. We also need to work on the lighting in the clips of Rob and the entrance/exit clips which are all too dark. We can fiddle about with the brightness and balance of these without making the thing too grainy by adding too many effects. Miss also suggested tightening up some of the shots for better continuity and faster flow, working on the cut points and making them spot on. She thought the titles were perfect.

BLK Feedback

Same issues as Ms Thrasher with the lights taking away from the action. Doesn't think the re-shoot clips are as good though. Suggest another re-shoot which is done excactly the same only brighter for the killers entrance and without flashing lights. Light needs to be brighter on victims face in conversation as well. The end should also not have the cross disolving part and instead have something which anchors that there is more then one victim. Need to re-shoot exit without getting light in. another issue was the acting when the victim has his tape ripped off as she did not find it believable enough. If possible we should do another long re-shoot and get it all done perfect but if that is not possible she says most of the footage we have now is alright except for the tape being ripped off, the killers entrance and the first shot of the killers exit.
Shaun

THR Feedback

Work is coming on well however we can not use some of the footage is blurred due to the flicker of the light. Another problem with the flickering light is that it is too rhythmic so looks really unbelievable. Another problem is the light on each of the character varies so when we've edited the conversation it looks strange. So instead we are going to re-shoot again with a dim light but just constant instead of flickering. Next tuesday we are go9ing to re-shoot the conversation again.

Shaun

BLK feedback

pleased it went well today, looking forward to seeing the footage
:-)

can you change your colour scheme slightly? - the text doesn't stand out enough against the background . . .

BLK feedback

Wow! Nice work boys! Interesting idea, although my concerns are:
1. Very complicated, with several scenes and the confusion for the audience over time frames. Perhaps it could be scaled down a bit? It's too much for only 2 mins of screen time; you will need to build up the mood/mise-en-scene slowly and introduce your characters and there's no point rushing that in order to get in lots of action.
2. the caretaker may be ok with one filming session but I'm not convinced they'll let you complete an entire shoot down there. Great photos though and the location is perfect for what you need.