Evaluation

Question three: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

I was given some professional audience feedback by John, who creates music videos and Nikki, who studied media. Below is the feedback they gave me which includes strengths and elements I could improve on. 

The first strength that I was given by John Howe was the match on actions I have used and that the editing was well done. Especially the match on action at the start where the character reaches to knock on a door. I was told that he thought that it was a very smooth match on action. John also said that I set an eerie tone well in my short film, this was because of the time period, setting etc, I used an old house and old clothing to set this eerie tone. He also said the cinematography was very good and the I used 'well composed shots', I chose these shots specifically that I thought would suit the eerie tone I wanted to achieve and to get the right response from my audience. He also said my wide range of shots was good, I've used a variety, for example a close up shot to show a facial expression or a long distance shot to show someone walking or their outfit. He then also mentioned my use of after effects. I used after effects to mask a radiator and phone as they were out of the time period. He said that he 'couldn't notice it had been done'. Finally, he said he liked our establishing shot at the very start of the short film because it shows you the kind of place that the film is set in and very first sets the mood and tone that I wanted. 

The first improvement I was given was that its slightly jarring at the very start of the conversation, he then gave me a 'solution' of how I can fix this. His solution was to have a reaction shot before she speaks in reply. I intend to take his advice to improve my short film.

Another improvement he gave me was to put the outside start of my film in colour then once in the house to switch to black and white, in order to reinforce the eery feel. I'm considering this idea and how I can do it without it looking jarring. Maybe an effect such as 'sepia'. 

The first strength that Nikki Williams gave me was that I used a 'good variety of shots' which is the same as John. I used this variety intentionally for different aspects I want the audience to focus on such as a facial expression or a setting etc. Next she said that I used steady camera work, I mostly use a tripod to keep the camera steady. She also said that the dialogue is convincing. I split the sound from the clip and put it over the top of the clip, this makes it a little louder as well and more clear. She similarly to John liked my 'awesome use of after effects.' 

The first improvement that Nikki gave me was that I need a smoother transition at the start between the silent clip to having sound. Here I intend to put eery music over it to set the tone and so there isn't jarring sound. 

Also she said that the colours in the lighting don't 'flow together'. I can resolve this by using the effects of black and white or sepia. John also gave me an idea to this previously. 

From this task, I have learnt where I have faults in my short film. From having these faults pointed out I can now look for ways and ideas to address these issues. I have also been given some ideas from this feedback which I can take into consideration. From being given some strengths I can now continue trying to work like that and I know what is preferred to other ideas I may have used.