Additional scenes

Last week after a focus group session, I decided to test some additional scenes in the film. These scenes were flashbacks, and took place in-between scenes on the bench.

The scenes were interesting and they did add some variation to my film in the sense of locations, angles and characters. However I felt, and so did my test audience, that the scenes just did not fit the flow of the film. I think the film works best with what I already had.

Reflective Comment:

I'm glad that I was able to test some additional footage, but it just didn't fit. I didn't want to upset the flow and atmosphere of my film by adding more scenes, but the testing was worth the time.

Creative Careers Fair Feedback

Last week my school hosted a Creative Careers evening. I was tasked to help set up for the night and to make sure things ran smoothly. I also asked if we could show our media productions to gave more audience feedback. We were allowed and Me, Max and Adam had a stall that showed off our posters and our short films.

I also created a short montage of all our productions, which was shown to over 150 people. Afterwards people came over to our stall and offered feedback. I received feedback such as that I need to edit out my wind in the final scene and that the film is severely lacking some music. I was told that my short film was impressive and that many people enjoyed it. I also had some surveys filled out regarding my film and poster.

Reflective Comment:
This feedback was quite unique because it wasn't from people I know. I've showed it too large amount of people in my sixth form and posted it so my social media, but on the night there were people from all different creative backgrounds which gave some very strong and critical feedback.

Magazine Article Survey feedback

Earlier last week I created a survey to get some feedback on my second draft of my magazine article. I posted it on Reddit, Twitter and Facebook. The responses are mostly positive, but with some suggestions on how to improve the magazine articles. With this information I am going to update my Magazine article and hopefully create a better draft.

Reflective Comment:

I was hoping for a bit more feedback from my survey, but that responses I have got have been very helpful. I'm hoping that with this information I am going to create a better draft.

Survey Feedback

So a few weeks ago I created a detailed survey about my poster and my draft. You can find the post about that here. I have now got the results.

Are you male or female?

How old are you?

Are you religious?

Do you like the design poster?

Do you think the poster would catch your eye?

Did you like the short film?

Do you think the poster works well with the short film?

So from my feedback it seems that what I am doing I am doing right. I can make a few changes to what I have. I'm hoping to do some interviews with some more particular audience members and get some more in depth feedback. There were 'Why?' question in the survey but they were quite basic in their responses.

Reflective Comment:
While the feedback I have received isn't too in depth, I still find it useful. Using this information I can adapt my next draft for both the film and poster to better please my audience.

Class Feedback on Poster

I decided to show my poster to my class to receive some feedback. The poster I showed was my sixth draft. I had a few questions on the board to indicate what I was trying to gain from my feedback. I have attached a Vimeo video below of the feedback. With the feedback, I made a few slight changes.



Below is the improved poster with the feedback I received.

The changes that I have made to the poster are only slight but I do think they improve the overall quality of the poster. First I removed the WordUp logo from bottom left corner as it filled too much space and didn't really fit in with the atmosphere on the photo. I also made the block credit bigger and easier to read. The other change I made was the addition of a scythe for the Reaper, making it much clearer who he is and what the film is about.

Reflective Comment:

I'm happy with the changes I have made and feel like with a few small tweaks I'll have a finished poster. I'm planning on showing my poster infront of my entire year in assembly, as they won't know what the film is about like my class do. Their view will be unbiased and much more truthful.

Analysis of Poster Development

Below I have attached a voice thread in which I go through all my different drafts for my posters. I highlight my ideas, whats changed and feedback I have been given. This voicethread is quite useful in observing how my ideas had progressed, and is quite useful when looking back in reflection.




I apologise for the audio quality.

Reflective Comment:
Completing this was actually quite useful in understanding how my ideas have developed. I can clearly see now how my ideas have grown over the past few months and I think this voice thread will be very useful in helping others understand how my ideas have grown. 

Audience feedback survey

I have completed and have just sent out my survey. My survey focuses on both the poster and the short film. Anyone doing the survey looks at the poster first, saying what they like and do not like and what they can infer. Then they watch the short film, and give me feedback on that. Then, they look at the poster again after watching the film and understanding the plot.

I'm putting my survey on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit. I'm hoping to get a lot of responses that are honest. When you show someone in person they're always too nervous to say anything negative, so once they can analyse it without me over their shoulder they're bound to be more honest about it.

Here are some screenshots of my survey.

Reflective Comment:

I am hoping to get real feedback which is critical and helpful. Hopefully with the feedback I receive I can better improve my short film in it's third draft, and the poster if need be. 

Questionaire results

So two weeks ago I completed a survey about my short film. While I would of hoped for more responses I only received 17. However this data has still been very helpful for understanding what my potential audience think of my idea and what the characters will look like.

Here are some screenshots from the data I collected.

Overall this feedback is going to quite helpful for when it comes to creating my depiction of the Grim Reaper. Also it seems that I have got enough of an audience to continue with my idea as it is. 

Reflective Comment:

This questionnaire has been quite helpful however I do feel I missed out a crucial question, which is what can I do to improve my idea. However I feel that I can do this when I show people my script.

Related products target audiences

As mentioned in my previous blog post, I have finally found out what genre my short movie falls into. The philosophical genre is not an overly well known genre, however there are still other films that I can use to investigate the genre's main target audience.

Unfortunately,  YouGov has no data on either Waking Life or MindWalk. However it does for Solaris. As I had hoped, it would seem that Solaris has a very similar target audience to my short film.

This target audience is almost identical to one half of my target audience for my short film. While I am leaning more towards a male, 18-24, Social grade ABC1 target audience, I still also want to attempt to attract the target audience above.

I think having one young character and one older character, both target audiences will be able to relate to the short film and should enjoy it. Both of my target audiences enjoy similar works and have similar few, the only difference is the age gap.

Also worth noting that both target audiences use Twitter and Facebook daily. This will be extremely helpful as when it comes to distribution, all advertising will have to be done online.

Reflective Comment: While it is annoying that YouGov doesn't have all the data I need, I'm sure with further research I'll be able to find out some useful information. Also knowing that Solaris has a similar target audience shows that I do have the right idea. 

Genre

Genre - a style or category of art, music, or literature.

As I have mentioned several other times on my blog, I have struggled greatly with trying to find a genre that my short film fits in with. However, after some research I think I have found a genre my film fits in with.

The first genre I believe that my film fits in with is philosophical. A film that belongs to the philosophical genre questions normally addressed in discursive philosophy. The role of society, the purpose of life, ethics or morals, the role of art in human lives, and the role of experience or reason in the development of knowledge.

The basis of my film is quite simple, a character who has died has a lot of questions about life and the meaning of it. Religion, war and purpose of life are all going to be talked about in my film. My film clearly falls into the philosophical genre.

Some other philosophical films -

• Waking Life (2001)
• Mindwalk (1990)
• Solaris (1972)

               

Reflective Comment: It's taken me a while but I have finally found what genre my film falls into. Now that I know this, I can find other films that are similar in style, learning from them and even learning what target audience they have. This is going to be a massive help to me.

Target Audience Vlog

Above is a video where I go through who I think my target audience is. I still however feel that I need to be going into more detail still. Once I can finally figure out what genre my film falls under, I'll be able to find films with similar target audiences.

Reflective Comment: While I still feel I need to go into more detail, I'm glad that I'm making progress with identifying my target audience.

Target Audiences Prezi

I've created a short prezi about the three briefs I'm still to decide on. The documentary, teaser trailer and the short film. I have attached the prezi below.



Reflection: This little piece of research was actually very helpful. I didn't realise that the average age of a gamer was so high and I didn't know the zombie genre was enjoyed by older audiences also. Without this, I would've create either of the products without the correct target audience in mind.