Audience Feedback

After the screening of my horror film opening scene, I gave 10 audience members a questionnaire in order for me to get feedback and honest opinions on it. The audience was a group of 16 and 17 year olds who are my target audience. Audience feedback is really important in order to find out what the audience liked and disliked and to get their opinion about the film.

Here are the questionnaires and responses that I received:

The results show that 90% of the audience said that they enjoyed the film and would watch the rest of the film after seeing the opening scene.

I filmed my opening scene in the day time and 50% said that they thought this was the wrong decision. I agree with them, however if I filmed it in the dark, the finished quality wouldn't be as good because I did not have any professional lighting to use for filming in darkness therefore you wouldn't be able to see the characters on screen.

60% said that they understood the story which is quite a low percentage. To help the audience understand the storyline, I could have maybe added another character for the main character (Emma) to talk to and express what was happening to make it clearer to the audience.

100% of the audience said that the locations were realistic enough, which is good because I spent quite a while thinking about possible locations to film in that would support the story and characters in the film.

90% said that they liked the variety and use of camera angles which i'm pleased with because I tried to include as many various camera angles as I could to make the film more interesting and to keep the audience watching, especially because the storyline was quite simple. However, 50% said that the editing interfered with their enjoyment of the film but the other 50% said that it enhanced it. I could have asked why they thought this in order to help me improve for next time.

Finally, 100% of the audience recognised it as a horror genre film, which is good because my task was to create a horror film opening and the audience recognise it as a horror film, therefore I feel I have succeeded.

Evaluation Q7- Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Through completing my opening scene, I feel like I have learnt quite a lot since doing my preliminary task. However, I feel as though I learnt most of what I know and put into this project before doing my preliminary task because I completed a lot of research before the preliminary task- about camera shots and angles. Since doing the preliminary task, I feel like I have improved my editing/ continuity editing because I watched some demonstration videos on YouTube about the shortcuts and techniques to help improve continuity editing and the general finish quality.

I think that the preliminary task prepared me very well for when I created my opening scene because it provided me with a step by step guide of what to do in the film making process. From doing the preliminary task, I learnt about how much preparation I needed to do before filming began. Preparation such as creating a storyboard, figuring out which camera angles are going to be used when and where and creating a storyline were all key things that needed to be planned ahead of filming. This made me realise how important preparation was because without it, my film wouldn't have been as good or fluid because if filming happened straight away I would have had to make things (such as the storyline) up on the spot and it would not have been as good because it wouldn't have given me anytime to properly research and think about it ahead of filming. If I didn't do any preparation, then I may have just used the first idea that I thought of which may not have been my best idea for the film opening. By doing no preparation ahead of filming, you may forget where you are going with the storyline and the next things you film may not coincide with the previous thing you filmed, meaning that the film wouldn't be fluid or make any sense at all.

I learnt a lot about different technologies from doing the preliminary task. I experimented with programmes including iMovie and Garage Band which gave me an idea of how to use it for when I created my horror film opening scene. After the preliminary task, I realised that I may need to know a bit more about how to use these programmes in order to create an effective film that is edited as professionally as I could. Therefore, I watched many demonstration videos on YouTube to find out about various shortcuts, tools and techniques you can use when editing video footage and sound for the film opening.

Overall, I think the preliminary task was very beneficial when I was preparing to make my film, as it gave me a starting point to work forward from. This meant that I could have a good idea of what I wanted to film and the angles at which I was going to film each shot from and also the storyline of the film and without creating a storyboard, my film wouldn't have looked as professional. Another task I had to carry out was to set a date for filming. Here, the preliminary task was helpful because it means that I could be completely prepared on a day which made the filming process quick and professional as it meant that nothing was missed which may have happened if I didn't set a day to film.