Question Three.

What have you learnt from audience feedback?

Immediately after being put into groups we sat down and discussed ideas for the short film project so as a group we had a common ground on which sort of narrative we wanted to portray. We come up with two reasonable strong ideas. Abigal & Sienna’s idea of two Asian girls, living in London, as orphan as their mother had been killed in the terrorist attacks that took place on the London underground. We then had my own idea of a women losing her mother through cancer, and not being able to look after her child properly. We sat down to brainstorm ideas getting different feedback of each other. Both feedbacks where good however it was made clear within the group the story that focused on terrorism was a narrative best for a feature length film however the narrative that revolved around lost lacked narrative in a sense. However instead of immediately scrapping ideas we went away to focus on was we could alter the narrative in which they would suit a short film.

After a few days of discussing in which direction we wanted to take our piece, we as a group decided we would like to get feedback for both narratives as we believed we was in a sense being biased towards our own. We sat down and come up with a pitch for both ideas and we decided to link this to a PowerPoint, including images and videos to show our audience what our film would look like and what emotions we wanted to portray, and to simply just give them a better understanding of the piece and its characters. Both pitches went well and we believed that it was up to those who had seen the presentation to judge the pieces and decide which one would be successful. However the majority of feedback was linked to the story that focused around terrorism, one student began saying, “I like the idea but will it be portrayed well within a five minute film?” And the instant reply was, “No”. It was then made clear to us we could not successfully portray such emotions within such short time to work with. However, our teacher, described the idea as “Well worked” and she would watch a project because it related to so many people as terrorism had effected so many families.

Due to the feedback we got, we realised that although one narrative may be stronger in a sense however it would be incredibly hard to show, and with a more simple narrative t would clearly be easier to focus on such things as camera work, language, sound and would be easier to portray. So we began writing a treatment to present to the class focusing on the narrative that revolved around the subject of loss. The treatment was successful as we received good feedback, “It seems you have worked hard on this and I could see it working”. However feedback occurred such as “I am let down that you did not go for the other narrative as I believed it would have worked well, but this sounds great too”, which was understandable.

I then began writing ideas, brainstorming and scripting the piece, making sure I focussed on a mass audience rather than a niece one. Allowing us to connect with everyone who had lost someone they loved, through this short piece of film. It was then clear to me, a simple idea can be made brilliant through the hard work you put into it and how it is portrayed. The assistant director of the piece, asked me to create the storyboard as the director, and as it was my original idea so I could pitch to my group how I truly wanted it to be portrayed to our target audience. The story board had around sixty shots on its first draft, “The perfect amount” according to our teacher. This gave us a great deal of confidence that we was on the right track in pre-production.

When filming I sat down the cast and crew to discuss how I would like to portray this film. “I don’t want to create a piece like any other, I want to create a piece of film that will shock our audience and not just surprise them, I believe that hear we have great talent and creating just a ‘good piece’ would be not just a waste of our time, but our ability”. I believe by me saying this to the group and cast could clearly understand I wanted this film to ‘powerful’ and different to other pieces.

As a director I believe you should be organised and prepared however you should be spontaneous when necessary. This allowed us to have a great connection with the actors and the crew, allowing us to talk on set and allowing us to be open and discuss certain scenes. Actors such as Michael Sams on one scene spoke openly saying, “Sorry I don’t think this will work as well”, allowing us to look over the scene and try it from different angles and perspectives. Louise Hewison, actress, on set would constantly give feedback saying whether or not she would agree or disagree with certain shots and certain codes and conventions. 

After filming we come to editing, however we did not allow anyone to see our piece until it was finished as we did not want to reveal any twists within the narrative which now I do not regret. However Stuart Cohen, who helped us on editing would give us feedback and certain shots and was also there with us on set. When the post-production editing was finally complete, we sat down at the premier of our film to around ten students and a few teachers. Our teacher claimed that “This is a beautiful film, I am so surprised, and this is within the top three films this school has ever produced”. One student called the piece “Flawless” and another described as “Un-believable”. However certain students did point out if there was anything they could change they would change the actor of the son and have him at a younger age, as at the beginning it almost appears they are a couple.

Overall the feedback was fantastic to say the least. However one student also brought up the fact the mother and son looked like a couple and we was ‘lucky’ we had the voice over to clear that up.

The next lot of feedback was just after the first draft after editing, we screen it to around five people aged ranging from thirteen to sixteen. All of the students agreed the overall production was  well portrayed however it soon become apparent that the choice of actors where a mistake. The character of the boy was seen as ‘too old’ and during the beginning scene it was thought that the characters where ‘a couple’ rather than son and mother. Due to there being nothing we could do we just had to make the voice over as clear as possible so the audience could fully understand the narrative and the relationships between the characters, this was all in order to redeem our casting mistake in the early stages of pre-production.

The ancillary tasks were so important in my eyes. This is because of our professional attitude, in the majority of cases when a film is realised advertisements take place and this is vital to attract an audience to watch our film. This is the first thing my audience is going to see so it must attract them in order for people to want to watch our project. Blogger allowed me after creating both my posters and film review, to post it online in order for such people as my class mates and fans of the project to comment in order to create hype. This created the atmosphere around the project I wanted. Those who commented said such things as, ‘Looks great, can’t wait’ and ‘Wow’. However there were a few negative comments on Facebook of people saying the posters lacked colour, however I wanted to portray the emotions of the character onto the poster, so I could understand where this one individual was coming from. Overall I was very happy with the feedback I received as I found that it was mostly positive towards the magazine review and the posters, which put me in good stead for the up and coming project, giving me confidence that the audience would enjoy my film.

The original idea changed a great amount, changing the narrative to the father that had died instead of the mother of the women, and also the changing of the narrative completely when we believe it should focus more around the son than the mother character. As a film maker this project has made me grow, it has made me believe that within film, something as simple as character choice can change your how outlook and your whole target audience. It has made me realise a target audience is the most important aspect within a piece and organisation, preparation and a good attitude is key when on set.