3) What have you learnt from your audience feedback.
Survey Feedback
Feedback
- When initially planning for our media products, we conducted a survey in order to help us make some important decisions about the production process.
- For instance, we asked our target audience: "would it be effective to use two cameras to achieve multiple angles?". Over 80% of responses claimed that, "Yes," it would be effective to make use of different cameras, and that it would not be too complicated.
Development
- Therefore we implemented this during our storyboarding stages. We took this into consideration in the scene where the protagonist stalks the victim via webcam by utilising the digital camera and the webcam camera to get a variation in shots and angles.
- This meant that we had a wider variation of shots and angles to use in the post-production stage, leading to a more professional overall product which really shows off our skills. We also developed this idea by adding in an overlay of a recording symbol on the footage recorded by a webcam. This emphasised the fact that it had been recorded by the protagonist and so have a creepy twist.
Mise en Scene
Feedback
- As well as this, we asked our target audience about the costumes for both the actors, asking "what style would be best for our character?"
- The majority of respondents answered, ’Grungy look’, which we took into consideration when deciding on costume choices for our protagonist, which we documented thoroughly.
- From this feedback, we went away and created, 'wardrobes,' for each of our characters.
- This was due to our trailer form, which meant that we would include various scenes from across the timescale of the film and so the characters would not be wearing the same costume throughout.
- When filming our scenes, we had a collection of costumes which we could go to easily which we knew suited our character profiles. This made the production stage of the process a lot easier.
- From the feedback we received about the styles of our key characters, we were able to make 'character profiles' to help us get a clear idea of what they were like and what mise en scene we wanted to surround them with. For our victim, we decided to make them have a mainstream style and typically 'girly.' We kept this mind when choosing the bedroom for this character.
Development
- Once we had chosen the bedroom for the character, it was imperative that we changed the mise en scene. One of our main issues whilst filming was our location of the bedroom as the mise en Scene of the room was not suitable for the character that we wanted to convey.
- We immediately decided that major changes would need to take place within the room to make it suit the character, primarily by removing various items which clashes with the personality of the victim. This included all of the books on the bookshelf as we didn't perceive the character to be very interested in reading fictional works, the guitars in the corner of the room as we thought although she could be musical, these would distract from the main points we wanted to put across about her character.
- Then we went about adding in items that we thought portrayed our chosen character. We printed off posters of mainstream musicians and actors and stuck them over the walls and wardrobes. We wanted to give the room a cluttered effect and so we asked everyone in the group to bring round pink objects, makeup and shoes which we scattered around the room. We put beauty products on the shelves and threw different types of shoe on the floor in a random order so that it did not look too meticulously placed.
Title
- We also utilised audience feedback when considering the name of our film. We initially had a long list of film title choices which we were deliberating.
- We cut this list down to 6 options and then conducted an informal survey by asking around and creating a tally for the number of support for each name.
- Finally, I created a pie chart which showed explicitly the popularity of each potential title. This helped us considerably when choosing the name as it meant we got an unbiased view, and we eventually settled on the most popular name which was, ‘Unhinged.’
Feedback: draft trailer
Narrative
Feedback
After we completed our trailer, we wanted to receive feedback to know what tweaks to make. - We uploaded the trailer onto youtube with a list of questions in the description, to help us get an idea of what we needed to change.
- One thing that became obvious to us straight away was the unclarity of the narrative, as many comments expressed uncertainty for instance, "Something about a girl who is haunted by someone...?"
Changes- Therefore, we decided to make the title slides longer and edited them so that they were 2 seconds each, as they were originally too fast to be able to read as we did not want to go over 60 seconds. However, we decided that we were more focused on the audience understanding the narrative and made some essential changes.
- These allowed the audience to read the titles clearly, which meant they could absorb what the narrative is.
- This also allows them to understand the initial equilibrium shown through the title, 'The medicine worked', which is lost in the middle, explained via the title, 'Then she was haunted by someone's thoughts.'
Feedback
- Linking in to the unclarity of narrative, we received a lot of comments about one scene in particular. This was the scene where the protagonist is seen scrolling down the Facebook page of her stalking victim, and witnessing many malicious comments - which appear in the background via chroma keying.
- Many people did not think that the malicious comment which upsets the protagonist is clear enough, suggesting, "The narrative would make a lot more sense if the facebook status was longer and larger."
- Before the feedback, the comment was zoomed in a little bit and stayed on the screen for about 1 second. On top of this, the protagonist's head was directly in front of the wording. This meant that an essential part of the narrative was unclear as the audience could not understand what discrimination pushed the protagonist over the edge.
Changes - Therefore, we made some vital changes. I utilised photoshop to create a close-up of the comment as a large image.
- Then, I imported it into Final Cut Pro and edited the scene so that the protagonist would disappear from the foreground so that the audience could clearly read what the comment said.
- I also made this shot much longer than it was originally, to give time for the audience to read as it. It was important to ensure that effective transitions were used either side of this shot to make it fit in smoothly, and so I used ‘Static’ transition, ‘Style B’.
Sound
Feedback
- We also received a lot of feedback about the sound, such "sound needs to be tweaked" and the sound, "needs cleaning up as at certain points the layering was a bit off." Therefore, we thought it important to focus on the soundtrack when changing things around.
Before this feedback, the transition from the previous scene into the montage was a bit unprofessional and rigid. The non-diegetic soundtrack before the montage consisted of a soft, melodic piano track which very abruptly changed into fast-paced 'boom' sounds. Looking back, we did not think this was a very effective transition.
Changes- Therefore, we made use of the ‘boom’ sound effect leading up to the montage, layered over the piano soundtrack. This prepared the audience for the change in tone, rather than surprising them all at once and created a gradual sense of anticipation.
- We also added a ‘woosh’ sound effect just before the montage, to add to the suspense and prepare the audience for a distinct change. We also faded out the piano soundtrack rather than end it abruptly, so that it would a more subtle change in sound.
- This meant that the sound of the overall product seemed more professional and intricately layered so that although the change in tone at the montage still had a major impact and created tension, it did not seem out of place and transitioned smoothly.
Feedback: draft poster and website
Typography
Feedback
We also received some feedback concerning our poster and website, which we took into careful consideration. Our audience was concerned that the title of our poster was not large enough, making it not conventional of a film poster and also making it not very noticeable. - Originally, the title was laid out along one line, which meant that it was squashed up in order to fit into the available space. This did not make use of the space on the poster and made the overall poster seem a bit empty and unprofessional.
- Therefore, I duplicated the file and changed it by making the title ‘Unhinged’ on three lines rather than one, and manipulating it so that it was slightly crooked. This made much better use of the space on the poster and conformed to the conventions of a psychological thriller much more.
- However, we also then had the problem of the website, as the layout was then different to the poster which didn't create an effective promotional package combined.
- Therefore, we had to make sure it was also the same style on the website, creating a transparent image of the title on photoshop which we could import onto Wix.
- This made our products combine effectively as a cohesive promotional package which was also more conventional of the psychological genre.
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