question 3 requires us to get audience feedback on our production of Synchronicity as this plays a big part of any film and it is vital to found out what the audience likes/dislikes about our film. I found the feedback invaluable as it gave me an insight as to how other people perceived my film.
Below are two videos of my classmates commenting on Synchronicity.
After asking the other groups specific questions about our production, it become very clear to me that there was a trend in the positive aspecst of the film as well as the negative aspects of the film. Both groups said similar things and this proved invaluable to me as I learnt what we had done well and what didn't come out so well. The question exposed floors in our narrative as it become clear to me that many people did not fully understand the story line. This has helped me to understand that my story line should have been clearer as people to not know where the 'Synchronicity' element is, as the idea of me linking the train crashes was not shown that well through our media production. Moreover the child neglect element proved stronger although, comments suggest that this aspect was still difficult to extract from my film and many people were left slightly confused as to what was going on. So to answer the main question: What was the story about, Child neglect mixed with the synchronisation of the girl causing a train crash, making a real train crash happen, baffling her parents. Another question that was brought up was where is she at the end, as the so called establishing shot does not actually establish where she is at all. She was meant to be in the garden shed, but we felt that it added a feeling of suspense, if the audience do not actually know where she is in the last scene.
We had many positive comments regarding my choice of music which i was pleased with as it had taken my many hours searching for the correct music that would suit our film.
If I was to film the whole production again, I would ensure that the message comes across cleaere and I would start by firstly brainstorming and then determining the message first, as I came to the realisation that, myself as the director at points was unclear of my own message and this has then passed into my film production as it is slightly unclear as to what is actually going on.
As the message was the main factor brought up in my feedback, then I believe that if I could change it and create a more distinguishable message, then my overall feedback would improve for the film. I would also work on making it very clear that Isabel is what caused the train crash and I would hope to make the films title of Synchronicity be easily recognisable within the production as this was another comment I have had about the film.
It was equally important for us to get comments from staff outside the media circle as this provided a view that came from outside our media class. Miss Wright, the Key Stage 5 Pastrol Leader kindly agreed to watch our short film and I was very pleased with the set of comments that she gave us. She talked about the use of the clocks to show time passing by and how this added a positive effect. With each different comment we have about the film, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the ending is what needs the most work. I now believe that is i was do do the whole production again, making sure that the ending was very clear and that people understand it could make the narrative easier to understand, and this linked with a less complex story line could be what is needed in order to make this short film a higher calibre.
The point I Would make about all of the feedback that we have received is that our classmates feedback and Miss wrights feedback were very different. As our class is an A2 media studies class, they know what conventions make a good short film as it is part of the course to study this and therefore there feddback and comments reflect on the knowledge they already have about media and they used this knowledge to answer the questions. On the other hand Miss Wrights comments were very different as she states that she fully understood the story line and that the characters were easily distinguishable and she also commented on the clock which no one else had done. Moreover she also talked about our ending and how we should work on that if we were to do this production again.
All of the comments were extremely important for us as a production group as it showed us what an outside perspective of our film was like and what points were good and what was not so good.
Postcard Feedback
Getting the feedback for my post card was extremely important for me as I has given me an outsiders perspective of whether I have followed the traditional form and convention of industry standard post card. The conclusion being yes I have followed the conventions as stated in the video. Moreover I was very pleased to hear my fellow class friend tell me that my final post card design was of a good standard and that elements such as the careful selection of the image, which is of Isabel playing with her train which he says "attracts the viewer". He did not mention my tagline but I believe that it is appropriate for the film and it goes well with the picture. The tagline reads "Why wont they come play with me?". Sohail also talks about the back of my post card, saying that it was "good" but could have used more colour to give the reader an image to play with. I chose to leave the back of the post card white as opposed to adding in a picture or colour as I believe this follows the right forms and conventions.
The final post card looks similar to one of my 6 post card designs I have previously made and with help from my piers I chose post card number 3 for the front and 6 for the back. The feedback that I received from my piers also helped my to determine what to include on the back and in what layout as i had drawn 3 different kinds, all with different layouts.
If I was to do the post cards again, the main thing I would change is the amount of photos I would take on the day of filming, as I only took 3 or 4 good photos, therefore not giving myself much of a variety of images to choose from, which left me not being able to have much choice. But overall I am very happy with my choice of post cards as they follow the correct form and conventions of a short film production.
Short Film Review Feedback
This last video on the audience feedback for my short film review page was extremely important for me as it gave me an outside perspective on my short review and whether I fulfilled the criteria of all the forms and conventions. I gave Sohail, a fellow class mate, a copy of my short film review page 20 minutes before we filmed this clip as I wanted to capture his first initial impression of what he thought about me review. After he had seen and read through the page, we then went and filmed this feedback seen above and I was very pleased with what he said. The fact that he noted that I had followed the forms and conventions of the Empire magazine saying “the contents of what I had written talks in detail about the film” and that the picture described the film and “captured” the audiences imagination very well. He also noted that the picture “helps attract a wider audience”. These comments made me extremely happy about my final result as many of his comments backed up what I had previously said I wanted to achieve in my review. I asked Sohail what could I improve in this review page and he said the best thing would be to add another image. After this clip, I went and added another small image on the bottom right hand side of the review, based upon Sohails comments, and this picture helped to give the audience and establishing shot of the location as well as providing more imagery for the reader to play with and imagine how this train will be incorporated within my film. Something which I did not ask but that I feel should have been noted down was the fact that I had not included a synopsis and character list. The reason behind not including a synopsis was that I was following the forms and conventions to that of Empire magazine and in the reviews I had studied they had not included a synopsis and therefore this is what I believed the forms and conventions of empire was, based on my research. The reason for not including character list is due to the fact that I had completely run out of room on the page and I felt that everything I had already included was very important to the page and therefore I could not afford to substitute anything.
If I was to undergo this task again, the main thing I would change is that I would ensure that the layout I included would allow room for character lists and production company names. I would only add a synopsis if my research showed me that in order to follow to follow the forms and conventions of the Empire industry magazine, I need to include one.
If I was to undergo this task again, the main thing I would change is that I would ensure that the layout I included would allow room for character lists and production company names. I would only add a synopsis if my research showed me that in order to follow to follow the forms and conventions of the Empire industry magazine, I need to include one.
In conclusion to this entire post, I believe that I have learnt a invaluably lesson through asking the questions and gaining the knowledge about the kind of work I have produced. I am very happy with my final short film, my post card design and short film review page and therefore going through all the stages of the audience feedback has proved very effective and without it I would not have been aware of the positive and negative aspects of my three media texts and therefore would not have fulfilled the criteria to the full potential.
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