Question Four of Evaluation

Question Three of Evaluation

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Throughout our audience questionnaires we made sure that we had specific questions about the construction of the movie and the way that we produced it. This enables us to break down the film in to the camera angles, music and the feelings of the audience. Overall we had a positive feedback on every aspect of our film and found that the audience enjoyed watching the short film because it has a twist towards the end which surprised them and it was a lot of action within a few minutes.

Although our audience stereotypically on average don't usually watch short films, through our feedback and watching peoples reactions towards our short film, I think we were able to show people the power of short films. Having a meaningful and hard hitting story behind it and creating a tension or strong emotion for the audience creates their involvement. When watching the film with a group of people I heard some saying how they felt sorry for the girl because she was so innocent and kind to the boy. This has taught me that people tend to sympathise with a character if its a realistic setting and story. Which means that the story that we had chosen was a perfect example for these stories.

Camera Angles

Our camera angles were chosen according to the way in which we wanted the audience to see the characters and setting for example we had a range of shots within the meeting scene from the long wide shot showing the natural lighting on the two characters and the contrast of the close up pan of the two characters first look at each other which was put in to connote the romance blossoming between them. The reason that we use these types of shots are to provoke the emotion from the audience.

The image above shows a answer to our forth question that focused on the camera angles. It shows that the audience actually remembered certain shots that were shown through the film, e.g 'the fight scene.' This shows that the audience were effected by the certain shots that we had chosen to show within the scenes that we wanted to effect the audience. The variety of angles used also gives the audience a more entertaining viewing as it creates the tension within the film.

This taught me that the camera angles are also an important component in the production of the short film as they can be used to connote emotions and feelings that they short film is trying to convey, it also shows that a range 0of camera angles grabs viewers attention and by changing the pace and variety you are able to create tension within a film.

Music

Another aspect that we asked our audience about was the music that was added within the film. It was used to enhance the emotions and tension within the film that we were provoking from the audience. The answers that we got in our questionnaires showed us that people felt the music was well timed within the feelings and emotions of the film and that it added to the audiences reaction of sympathising with the young girls character.

Not only was the music well timed throughout the audience also showed that it was extremely effective when it began to crescendo, as it built up the tension within the film and the realisation of the twist within the plot went well with the build up of music. The answer underneath also shows us that the audience felt that even though the music build when you saw the boy it also built the tension on the 'girls bruise' scene and the 'girl crying alone' scene, in turn it provoked the audience to feel more sympathetic towards her.

This taught me that the audience are very effected by the music of a film and that the music can be used to provoke the emotions of the audience for example sympathise with a certain character. It also taught me that within a short film because you only have a little time to convey the emotions and plot of a story the music plays an important role in the development of the film. This in turn creates the atmosphere for the audience and establishes the key themes of the short film.

Impact on Audience

A large part of the development of our film was to create a story that had an important and meaningful message that spoke to our target audience, we wanted people to gain understanding of a 'touchy' issue such as abusive relationships. We wanted the audience to feel the pain of the girls character and the change in the boy.

The above answer shows us the way that the audience have sympathised with the girls character because of the way in which we have portrayed the boy and the way in which we have used the camera angles for example the point of view from the girl so that the audience have taken her perspective of the situation. The answer below however shows that the audience are being challenged about the situation that we have created at Lucy answers the same as everyone else but also shows the different way that the audience could per sieve the situation we have created. She has interpreted the story involving the romantic relationship between the two characters.

This meant that we needed to produce the film in a realistic way to create the best view for the audience and to make sure that the message is sent across properly, it also enables people to relate back to our film as a realistic interpretation of something that happens in real life. The answer below shows that we achieved this by the used of mise en scene, camera angles and music.

This has shown me that when viewing a complex and complicated situation many of the viewers take on the perspective that the directors have wanted them to, for example we wanted the audience to feel sorry for the young naive girl so we showed shots and scenes of her side of the story, as well as showing her weakness against him with scenes such as their argument. A challenging and realistic situation also provokes the audience to feel emotion towards certain characters and with a topic such as 'abusive relationships' it can also grab the audiences attention due to their innocence towards sensitive subjects or issues they have also been apart of.

Criticism

An important part of the development stage is the things that we have done wrong and the way in which we could have improved on the film that we produced. By asking the audience what they thought we would be able to change within the film gives us an outside perspective of the film.

The above answer shows me that one of the key things we could have improved on was the lighting but due to the time of day that we were filming and our inability of professional lighting we were only able to use IMovie to change the lighting on individual shots. Although we tried our harder to created natural looking light with artificial light and when we wanted to use the black and white tint we chose not to do it on the natural bright lighting because it was romantic and connoted the emotions that we wanted to show. We tried to use our lighting to our advantage within the film such as the meeting scenes, but the scene such as the fight scene were very dark because there wasn't a lot of natural light and we were unable, apart from lamp posts, to use artificial lighting.

This criticism focuses on one part of the film, it is about the fight scene which is the most iconic scene throughout the whole film. We wanted to show the fight scene with a variety of shots and angles however its understandable that the fight scene wasn't as fast paced as it should have been however because the music was fitted to compliment the pace of the shots it isn't to obvious that the scene isn't as fast pace as it could have been. The viewer needs to be able to see the detail in the film as well for example Megan in the background when your seeing the film from Luke's perspective and when the close up is on Harrington's hand and the rod slides out, these small details meant that the film couldn't be as fast as maybe we wanted because it would lose its meaning.

We also wanted to know what people felt we had done well within the film to show the aspects that we had excelled through development and hard work. This enabled us to show our strengths and weaknesses through the production of our film and to give us a greater understanding of what worked and what didn't.

The above photo answer shows the reviewer giving specific scenes of the material they thought was good. They stated that the 'love scenes' where the most effective throughout the film, this may be because we decided that with little dialogue we had use other components such as camera angles, setting and music to create the 'romantic' atmosphere and the happy feelings for the audience. However the reviewer below feels that the 'love scenes' are confusing because they don't show a clear change in time and therefore development of the relationship. We could have had added scenes which we filmed that we decided as a group didn't need to be there but now I feel that it may have been a better idea for us to have them to separate the non-dialogue shots.

This has taught me that although our film uses a lot of conventions and is effective we still could have used these conventions to create a better , more effective film which would have been more tense and emotional for example if we had the fight scene at a faster pace, however I feel that although we could have changed parts of the movie overall the audience response was that only a few things could have been done better.

Conclusion

To conclude the audiences response to the film has taught me that the camera angles and music within a film play a large part on influencing the audiences reactions to the film and that although there are times that you may understand whats happening in the film due to knowing the story line it needs to be clear for a fresh audience. The audience reviews have shown me that having a variety of camera angles keeps the audience captured through their viewing, that having a meaningful message makes it easier to provoke the audiences emotions which leads to be able to experiment with music as it can be used in different ways to create different emotions.

Question Two of Evaluation

Question One of Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Mise En Scene

Lighting.

Within the romantics scenes we wanted to keep the natural light, the movie shows the first few scene that we had this bright light this conformed to the stereotypical view of a romantic moment in a film to be bright and 'happy' atmosphere. The bright scenes also connote their youthfulness and develop the idea of a first meeting point as it creates the romantic setting.

However as the film developed we changed our lighting, for example in the above set of scene, the part where Megan goes in to the bathroom shows the dark surrounding and the artificial light only for a few seconds which connotes the change from light to darkness. We used the darkness and outside night light to our advantage within the fight scene, as it conformed to the stereotypical view of a dark and dangerous scene within a movie that also is the height of tension.

Costume.

We focused largely on the males characters costume due to his changing character throughout the movie. His first appearance in the movie is in a suit which connotes the positive view of him and an intelligent view, which means that when we change it to the bedroom scene and he is in a casual view it also conforms more to his angry personality. And then the part where it shows the most change is in his dark hoodie when he is looming over the weaker male.

Setting.

The first location of the whole movie is the canal, which is the natural and romantic location along with the lamp post, these conform to the forms of a romantic film genre. The romantic settings also had the natural bright lighting and the calming atmosphere. The girls bedroom was stereotypical with 'girly' things around the room however the boys bedroom subverts the usual idea of a males bedroom, this challenged the way in which we showed the bedroom and in which scenes as we had to take in to account what the characters were doing. The bridge and the footpath were the darker locations of the film and they conformed to the stereotypical view and genre of a dangerous location with hedges and seclusion.

Props.

Each prop played an important part within the film, for example even the bags connoted the way in which the characters met at first sight, which was a development of the stereotypical view of a 'romantic first meet.' The phone connoted the change in character of Harri from being nice and happy to defensive and controlling. This challenges the way in which we look at the different props and their effect on the characters. Another prop that develops and conforms to making the film realistic is the make up that we used to create the bruise. The main prop was the necklace that she leaves on the pillow at the end of the film, although jewelry is a stereotypical prop for a romantic film and connotes the way their relationship changes which conforms to the conventions we wanted to show.

Conclusion

We could have used mise en scene to enhance the characters even more by introducing more props to them for example Harri could have been involved with darker things and we could have shown his darker character more and we could have focused on Megan's costume to create her as a smarter and innocent person who would 'unexpectedly' fall for the bad guy. If we were able to we could have filmed at different times to improve our lighting in the film.

Music

To begin with we used our music throughout the movie to create the development of story as well as connote the emotions and themes we wanted to portray. The beginning with the first scene of Megan getting in to the bed and falling asleep creates a calming and romantic effect which carries through to the romantic couple scenes, however the music begins to change when the girl is scene in the black and white edits which were connoting the change in theme, when she is in the bathroom the dramatic genre begins and the music conforms to this genre by beginning to crescendo, this creates the tension through out the scene and carries on within the fight scene. The use of music develops our film as it creates the atmosphere and the reactions that we want from our audience. The video above shows the key scenes that the music effects due to its building of tension and suspense, which is a connotation of the change in characters.

We could have used the music differently and when the fight scene happened we could have had it very quite which would have created a disturbing effect on the audience because it would have subvert the stereotype, however we could have also had the romantic scenes having a happier tone to show the clear change in tone and emotion.

Editing

We used the slow edits and transition fades to create a dream like effect which conforms to a romantic genre theme of being 'dream like' and a 'fantasy'. Our edits become faster paced within the tense moments of the film, for example the fight scene, these edits conform to the dramatic genre of film in which it creates tension within the film. We also had edits which looked very professional throughout the movie for example the match on action of the door handle and the phone cut with the ring tone, these added to our development as they kept the editing neat and smooth. We has much difficulty in deciding if we wanted to edit the tone of either the past events or the present to black and white. In the end we decided to have the present clips in black and white to connote the darker which shows our development of adding to the theme of the film. Although this may challenge the typical romantic drama as changing the tint of clips may be risky to make them look grainy and older but we felt that the edit looked clear and effective within our film.

The edits may have been more frequent than they should have been to create the realistic view, the black and white may look odd because its the only change in the film that establishes the past properly. I think during the romantic scene we could have edited it to look more 'dream like' with edits in between so that it established the change in time and the development of the relationship.

Camera Angles

We used a variety of angles within our producing of the film, we wanted to create the emotions and atmosphere we were aiming for through the way in which we filmed the movie. Because our film was mainly focused on the relationship between the characters the camera stayed close to the characters throughout the film with the behind the shoulder angle and the point of view angles from the girl which allowed the audience to feel the girls emotions. Even the behind shot of the girl and boy at the pond side shows the camera staying close to the characters. We used the camera angles to build tension within the film for example the close ups on the girl in bed to connote her weakness and the close ups on the boys to connote his power. We used a lot of long shots within the film to create the realistic view on the film.

However I felt that we could have used a wider variety during the fight scene to enhance the emotions that we were trying to provoke as well as showing the setting a bit more for example a wide shot to show the setting which connoted the danger in the scene. I felt we could have mixed the levels we used throughout the movie to high and low angles instead of the medium levels and the long/wide shots that we used. We also could have used pans across the romantic scenes to create the realistic view as well as showing of the locations that we purposely used.

Audience Feedback Analysis.

After the film was finisehd with all the music added we used the questionnaire method of gathering information from the audience and viewers. This is the information that we found... (by clicking on the photo you can see it enlarged.)

The first question gets the same response every time, the film's title first impression is seen as a romantic comedy or a 'love story' as Guled says. This is partially true for our film however because many people have felt it is a comedy I feel this means that the effect of the drama in the movie will have a bigger effect on the audience and will challenge their views and thoughts on the topic that we have approached.

The second question that approach how realistic our film looked also had a common response, many felt that we portrayed the relationship and its development well within 5 minutes and that specific scenes were also realistic in their actions for example Miss Hawker pointed out the jealousy between the male and the contrast of the beginning is very effective and realistic. The criticism of the realism in the movie is shown by Ashleigh who says 'its slightly surreal at the end when she leaves as that's not always the case.' This is due to how we stereotypically created the characters and the view of innocent naive girls and controlling males however we wanted to send a positive message on the movie by letting her leave.

Question three is an important part of our development as it asks the viewer what part they felt was produced well and what was not so good. Many felt that the music complimented the film well and the choice of location was also well done as it connotes the feelings throughout the movie. Oliver felt that the fight scene could have had faster edits, which when watching back can be agreed with as it would have picked up the pace even more so. Guled also felt that at the start we needed to distinguish between the different days they are together as it can be confusing that their relationship has developed, with these criticism taken in to account there was a lot of positive feedback from the selection that we questioned.

Question four was about the camera angles and shot selection within our film to see how our camera movements influenced the emotions of the film, we found that all five people agreed that we had used a wide variety of camera angles that fitted well with the scenes, we also found that the main scene that was mentioned by Lucy and Ashleigh was the fight scene with its connotations of power within the camera angles and the mixing of all different angles.

One aspect that we felt excelled our film was the music that we had in the background, we wanted it to influence the emotions of the film well and be able to affect the audience. All of our questioned viewers felt that the music fitted the film well and 'was well timed' as Oliver put it. Another scene that was mentioned a lot through the music answers was the build up of tension that the fight scene music created. This was the most important shot for the music due to it being the most emotional provoking scene.

The last question was a personal one towards the audience, we asked this with the idea that the answer would be that the viewer sympathizes with the girl the most out of the characters and it is because of her innocence. Guled wrote 'At the end, I felt relief as she was able to leave him,' this shows that our idea of creating a more positive ending was effected on the audience and that the girls character influenced the audience a lot. Apart from Lucy everyone else felt sorry for the girl because of her innocence that was portrayed and her love for the boy who is abusive towards her. Lucy felt sorry for both of them due to 'the love that they lost, as they used to get on so well and be in love.' This answer from Lucy shows us that we have created the development that we wanted to show within the movie and create a character that they can relate to or sympathize with as well as understand the situation they are in.

Holding shot steady when appropriate

- High angle well held.

Framing a shot including and excluding elements as appropriate

- Pipe in hand – framing of fight scene.

Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate

- Long shots show reality.

Shooting material appropriate to set task

- Shows meaningful story throughout the 5 minutes.

Selecting mise en scene including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting

- Setting is clear for the feeling of the movie.

- Could have had more shots on the necklace to show the visual symbol.

- Lighting on the indoor scenes should be lighter and brighter.

Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer

- Black and white established the change in tone.

- Pace of editing was good throughout the fight scene.

Using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set

- Shot transitions helped establish the changes of time.

Using sound with images and editing appropriate for the task set

- Music changed throughout the film when Megan is in the bed.

Audience Feedback Questionaire

1) Before watching the short film, what is your first impression of the title. 'at first sight'? What sort of genre did you expect from this title?

This question is at the start of the questionnaire because it is snout the persons first impression of the movie, we have done this as one of our main aims throughout the idea was to have a twist throughout the story to show an unexpected message being shown. It will also show us peoples stereotypical view of a romantic drama film, this will help us understand if we have conformed to these stereotypes or not.

2) From watching our short film, how realistically did you think we portrayed the situation of an abusive relationship? Was it believable or was it surreal? And why?

Many short films focus on real life situations in order to pass on an important message to their viewers just like our abusive relationship message. Therefore we wanted to make the film look as realistic as possible, through key features such as lighting and camera angles.

3) What part of the film do you think was done well and what sections did you think could have been improved?

As any project there are always improvements that could have been made, it is a good way of understanding what we did well in and what we were as confident in. This helps for further projects as well as shows us the most popular parts of the movie and what emotions, themes and genres were liked.

4) Do you think our choice of shots and camera angles were affective within the context of the film?

Camera angles play a massive part in the audiences view as it's all about what they are watching, with a variety of shots and angles the film it unlikely to be boring however we had to remain focused on being realistic as well. This meant we used natural shots such as medium length shots as well as the match on action shots, which show development of our skills as well as keep it entertaining. This question will also help us establish if the differences in angles and shots have had an emotional effect on the audience as well. For example the fast pace of the fight scene with quick disorientated shots.

5) Do you think the music used was suitable in the areas is has been used in which it emphasises the certain emotions in each scene.

A lot of our music is mostly used at the tension building parts of the movie when there is more emotion to be portrayed which is why we used crechendos, the music is used mainly to provoke the audiences reaction to the characters feelings.

6) How did you feel towards both the young girl and the boy in this short film? Who did you sympathise with and why?

There are two ways of looking at our movie and it's characters. The boy can be seen as the Gillian due to his abusive behaviour and the girl can be seen as innocent and naive. However some may sympathise with the boys sweetness and argue he only acts violent due to her constant pushing and he is first to hit. This question will give us a greater understanding of how the characters are perceived and if others may feel differently to them after we have pushed them to feel one way through scenes and music.