Friday 8 April 2011
Evaluation - What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Audience feedback is crucial in determining if a product has been targeted successfully at its audience. It highlights what factors are interesting and engaging and what features could be developed in order to make the product more focused and improved in their opinion. One of the most important factors to take into consideration is interpretation. Interpretation is what makes a product. The product should aim to convey a director’s viewpoint but should offer room for the audience to develop their own ideas. This is crucial to a short film in which moral messages and artistic license are key factors of its construction. Audience feedback may not always be constructive; although this may not necessarily be a good and useful form of feedback any discussion is good for advertising a film. Debates are an integral part of an audience’s opinion and finding out if there is controversy or elements that the audience don’t agree with the director on, helps to make the film engaging for its audience.
The majority of the comments I received on my short film poster were positive. The use of the bold colours on the black background was popular as it allowed the images as the focal point to stand out from the rest of the information. The font that makes up the film’s title “two” was also viewed highly by the audience as it gave a unique style that could be associated with the film, but is still legible from a distance. The constructive criticism I received on this product was consistent. The main suggestion was the information at the top of the poster should me made smaller as in people’s opinion it is detracting away from the main images. Another person suggested that the filter on Kathy (Saskia) was too bright and that it would be more effective if the edges were feathered more and the vibrant red was toned down. Everyone that took part in my feedback was aware that these ideas are their own opinion and that others may not agree. I felt it highlighted the emotional contrast between both Kathy and Rhys and the danger that Kathy is in. Overall, the audience liked the poster design I had created. When analysing these results it is important to take into consideration that this is my personal Facebook page and that my friends and family are going to be bias and therefore these results are not conclusive.
The audience feedback for my Short film was undertaken on wall wisher. Wall Wisher offers a visual representation of people’s reactions and opinions. It helps to convey both positive and negative comments. It is also a good place conduct feedback questions as it is an online survey. One of the most important features of Web 2.0 is interactivity and this website allows people to comment freely. It is also a relatively new site and as the internet is constantly developing just like my target audience, this modern method should convey my audience’s passion and knowledge. The comments on my short film are mostly positive and this reinforces the decisions I made during the planning stage of my product. The only improvement that makes a common appearance is removing the jittery action of the camera and the occasional tilt. Although some of the shaking during the shots is intentional in order to represent the danger and claustrophobic conditions they are in the majority is due to a broken clip on the tripod that despite my best attempt could not be rectified. I shared this point with the speaker and they recognised that this element was beyond my control.
The comments I received for my project were mostly positive. The feedback informed me that I had achieved my aim of producing a successful short film, review and poster. It also proved that the link between my three products was strong and that the theme of two is an important concept for the project. My questionnaire gave me the view of my target audience and the perception they have on these pieces. From the audience feedback I have also received some constructive criticism that if I were to produce these products again I would take into consideration. Some of the feedback I have received may incline in my favour but overall the audience feedback has shown that my products have been designed and marketed for the correct social group.
Thursday 7 April 2011
Final Product- Short Film
This is my final short film. Throughout the filming and editing process my original idea has been developed in an attempt to make a fluid and effective piece. My plan for this production has been changed repeatedly due to problems with the location, equipment and the time I had with my actors. Even though this is the case I attempted to keep the content and message of my piece consistent. The short film was edited using Sony’s Vegas Pro programme in order to make the cuts and transitions effective and to produce a high quality final product.
Tuesday 5 April 2011
Final Ancillary Task - Review
Above is the final design for my short film review. The design is based strongly upon the conventions of professional film review articles. The design on this poster was considered in order to make an effective as well as aesthetically pleasing design. The short film review exists in order to advertise the film and entice new members of the target audience to the production. Reviews also aid the debate and discussion of the product which helps the audience engage with the moral message fully. The colours and tone of the article are used in order to connect the three products together. This design was produced using a combination of Photoshop CS4 and Microsoft publisher. These programmes were used in order to make a professional, aesthetic and legible product.
Sunday 3 April 2011
Final Ancillary Task - Poster
This is the final design for my short film poster. Through the construction and research phase this design has been edited and then altered in order to try and make it the most effective method of advertising as well as an aesthetically pleasing design that the audience will react to. The design used on this poster was not one of my original ideas but was developed in order to symbolize the strong theme that runs throughout the films narrative. It was constructed using Photoshop CS4, in order to produce an accurate and professional piece. I am pleased with the final outcome of this design as in my personal opinion it represents important emotions from the piece such as danger, fear and love accurately.
Development on the Poster
During the production of my original design it became apparent that the design wasn’t going to create a poster of high quality and an accurate representation of my short film. The images were of low quality which meant that that placing filters and effects on the pictures was ultimately in some locations degrading them. This was the main reason behind the idea was changed from the images of Kathy and Lucy to Kathy and Rhys. It also showed that this idea worked better as a concept rather than an actual production in the style I had planned. To make this idea effective I would have needed to show the two characters of Kathy and Rhys accurately as a background shot before the superimposition of the two together. This idea although feasible I felt was not an accurate representation of my short film and its content. As the basis of only two images was important to me as it is theme of the entire narrative of the film. I also felt if this idea was carried out it would need a different image in the background instead of using the same image as foreground. The change to the design although it continues to show images of both Kathy and Rhys but they are not superimposed but are faded and edited to show the weight of the decisions and the danger they are in.
Saturday 2 April 2011
Filming/Editing Issues
During the editing process it became apparent that there were flaws and problems with the footage I had shot. Due to the time constraints placed on the recording, the actors did not have time to learn the script fully which ultimately lead to the issues I uncovered. In order to combat this, their lines were prompted. As a result it made the edited footage jumpy and uncomfortable for the audience to watch, because of the removed images and dialogue. The camera shots also suffered due to the previously stated problems. To remedy this, the entire content of the film will have to be reshot; this time giving the actors of my piece time to learn the lines or at least the emotion and reasons behind them.
Poster Idea Clarification
Colour is an important feature to consider when producing a poster that in an effective representation of the films narrative and themes. The audience’s perception of colour is vital to consider as different colours symbolise different emotions. By asking members of my target audience as well as members of my media group it gave me an example of colours and the emotions that they create. Putting them into a wordle (http://www.wordle.net/) shows a visual representation of the results I uncovered. With this information in mind it reinforced the colour choices made about my poster.
Colour and Font are also important to take into consideration on a poster. Both of these play a crucial role in the advertising of a film but also of its representation. Another factor that is important is the central image. The idea has changed from my first design of both Kathy and Lucy to Rhys and Kathy in order to convey the ambiguity of the film and the tough relationship that the two characters face. It was also edited because of the higher quality editing that was afforded by the appearance of both Kathy and Rhys.
Distribution of my Short Film
Correctly determining the best form of distribution for a product is important. Without an accurate method of distributing a product to its audience, the short film in this case will not be successful and its aims will not be met. Taking into account the research from my audience questionnaire it highlighted that the most popular method of consumption of shot films was online using web 2.0. The age of the target audience and the fact that internet viewing goes hand in hand with it reinforces that this is the correct method distributing a short film. The audience are constantly developing their relationship with the new media and continuing to distribute products in this format will allow it to be constantly viewed and keeps up to date with new designs and features that interest them.
Through this information this is the format I have chosen to distribute my short film. By placing video’s online it also creates a response mechanism for the audience to share their views and input about the films content. This is important as discussion about the film and their moral messages are crucial to a short films success. Online the video also has the opportunity to be seen globally due to the ease of linking videos onto a variety of social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook etc), Websites, Blogs and Forums; therefore raising the popularity of the film amongst its target audience.
Uploading and distribution can be undertaken by a variety of sites. The most commonly used are Youtube (www.youtube.com) for any form of video footage and Vimeo (vimeo.com) a community designed for the sharing of creative work. As well as these general sites specific websites for short films are in use such as http://www.indiefilmpage.com/short.html where short films can be shared by those with a strong passion and knowledge for films of this style. Futureshorts.com is another example of a short film distributer within a creative community. Both of these websites would also be a successful method of distributing a short film to its target audience.
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