Saturday, 29 March 2014

EVALUATION QUESTION 3 (PART 4) WHAT I HAVE LEARNT

The comments from the overall audience feedback

Looking at the video of my audience feedback from my fellow students, the written responses from various people on Facebook and the other videos of the (general public) I have found that most of their comments were quite positive towards my film, and all the negative comments I got can only be described as constructive criticism, to give me something to think about and look back on for future references, to ameliorate my short film to make it the best it can be.


Positive Comments


Most of the positive comments mentioned were mainly about the flashback scene, and the end scene in the toilets, where Rosalie appears in the mirror. Most of the comments remarked on good visual effects, good transitions and editing. It managed to create thrill and suspense/ atmosphere and this was mostly aided by the non-diegetic sound.



I think putting the one year ago in black just makes it distinctly obvious for the audience to avoid any confusion, just to make it 100% clear in order to not estrange the audience. Most people remarked that they liked the visual and sound affects, I made it look dream-like so the audience know that it is not within that time frame.




They commented on the end scene too, saying that I made a good job with the editing for Paloma to look in the mirror and then for Rosalie to appear as well like that, it was just like straight out of a horror movie. Different people had different answers and different interpretations about the end scene, but most of them really liked the effects I had done with this scene.


Genre

When I asked them to establish a genre, they all managed to mention the genre Thriller, however they all came up with different hybrids within that genre, Horror, Supernatural and Psychological. The fact that only a few people recognised it as a psychological thriller seem to me that I maybe need to look further into the codes and conventions of that particular genre for that to really come across in the short film. One commented acknowledged: ' This short film plays on the mind. It is for you to decipher and determine what is going on'



Narrative

When asked, most people cited that the narrative was easy to understand, however a few people said they were a bit confused, but they managed to understand what was going on by the end of the film. This was due to things like audio, some couldn't really hear what was happening, but mainly most of them understood what was going on and had no problem understanding the narrative.

Enigma

The majority of the people I asked indicated that the flashback and ending scene created more of an enigma than any other part of the short film, but it must have been the way I also worded that particular question: ' Did this short film create an enigma?' Most people became quite confused by the question and some even hesitated before coming up with an answer, so maybe I should have worded it differently and in a simpler way and maybe I would have got different answers.



Negative Comments

When I say negative comments, what I actually mean is comments that I can take as constructive criticism in order to progress with this short film and improve on it.

What needed improving


  • Most people commented on improving the acting. The acting was not the best, even I thought that, watching the short film back, it was a bit too over-zealous and didn't seem real or natural,  some have mentioned that hiring out professional actors. However due to the fact that I couldn't hire and find any professional actors who are willing to work for effectively nothing, I had to rely on fellow students on short notice, which makes the short film less believable.
  •  Some mentioned more character development
  • Making the shots flow a bit more and become less jittery
  • Audio could have been improved with the pitching and volume

Looking at what needs to be improved, I would say that most of this stuff is quite technical, the fact that I didn't have that much filming before shows that I don't have the experience to make that good a short film, however I think taking all these comments on board, I should  be able in the future to make a good short film.

Someone also mentioned character development. ' I didn't feel connected to the characters that much'. Due to the short time I had to make this film, I do agree with that comment about not being able to connect with the characters as much as the audience do in feature-length films, I think in order to improve on this, I would have to look at making the narrative as easy for the audience to understand as possible to not create any confusion and alienate them. 




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