Audience Feedback from Final Cut

Audience Feedback 

Throughout the process of production, we have asked our audience and target audience what they thought, recording their feedback and analysing it. We asked them a questionnaire pre production after being read the synopsis, we asked them a questionnaire after showing them a rough cut of the film, and this post is an analysis of the feedback from the audience after watching our finished short film, Saving Grace. 

We asked the audience questions not only about the film that they watched, however we asked them questions about themselves, this is in order for us to distinguish what an audience of different Ages, Genders and Occupations think about our film and their honest opinion of it as a whole. This would also tell us if our expected target audience had positive reactions to our film rather than the survey being completely anonymous. The survey was created on SurveyMonkey and shared on different types of social media as well as word of mouth, ensuring that the audience wasn't biased in any way in order for our results to be completely valid in terms of participants. The questions that were asked are as followed: 

This questionnaire was shown to people via social media and the audience, without being spoken to by one of the members of our group, filled in the questionnaire after watching the whole short film. The questionnaire includes questions with multi choice for quantitative information and comment boxes for qualitative information, this allows us to gain more information from the audience and allows us to analyse further what they believe about the film. We included simplistic questions such as "What rating would you give our film?" and also included more intricate questions such as "What was your favourite part of the film?" which requires the audience to think about the short film and what happened, which raises more awareness of the topic issue of dangerous drinking. 

Over the hours that we gave the audience to complete the questionnaire, we collected 32 samples of survey answers, with an audience of different ages, genders and occupations, this gave us a variety of different results. Due to the questionnaire being anonymous and the survey being posted on social media, we understood that not all answers are guaranteed to true or accurately present how they felt about the film, we recognised this within the results. The results were as followed. 

 The first question that we included in the questionnaire was "What is your age?". Our questionnaire is anonymous however we thought in order to gain an idea of our audience and what specific people thought we should ask the audience key factors such as age. Our film has a certificate of 12A, meaning nobody under the age of 12 should be viewing the film unless accompanied by an adult. Our film also had a target audience of people aged 15-25, as we assumed a younger audience would enjoy the film more, which was proven as the majority of the audience were aged 18-24, however we also had a varied audience of different ages.

 We also asked the audience about their gender, which wouldn't reveal too much about the audience however tells us wether our audience was predominantly male or female, when planning the audience research we said our film wouldn't be favourable over genders and didn't predict a larger audience of either gender, however it is evidenced that there is a much larger audience of the female gender, and a smaller audience of other genders. 

The final question which was personal to the audience asked them about their occupation, this could potentially tell us how much free time that person has, and could tell us wether they watch films often and if their opinions are from an experienced film watcher. We predicted that the majority of the audience would be students as our target audience was of ages 15-25 and a large amount of people this age are students. The questionnaire revealed to us that the majority of our audience and participants are in fact students, as we predicted.

After we had gathered general information about the audience, we decided to ask a simple question first of all to the audience and ask them if overall they understood the film. We decided to ask the audience this as our film isn't of linear structure, therefore some of our audience may be confused about what is happening in the film. The results displayed that the majority of the audience understood the film which is very positive feedback and tells us that our film was edited well and made easy to understand, for the majority of our audience. 

 In pre production of the film, we conducted research into genre and while writing the synopsis of the film we decided that our film was of the Thriller genre, and realised that it had aspects of a Drama. From the audience's feedback we found that the majority of the audience believed that the film was a Drama, and around 2/5 of the audience believed that the film was a Thriller, this told us that the codes and conventions that we included in our film were more suited to a Drama genre than a Thriller, for example setting and mood of the overall film.

We asked the audience if they overall enjoyed our short film, the majority of the audience said that they enjoyed it, however we had some of the audience saying they were unsure. We also had an audience member which said they didn't enjoy our film. Within the questionnaire we had inappropriate comments, which we understood might happen due to the questionnaire being posted for anonymous comments on social media, however we also took into consideration that there might be a reason for an audience member to genuinely dislike our short film.

We also asked the audience what they would rate our film out of five, similar to a star rating. A very large amount of the audience gave the film 5/5, and the majority of the audience gave a positive feedback number which we were pleased with, however there was an extraneous result of 1/5 which we questioned if this was a real result. However we looked further into the questionnaire to look for negative as well as positive feedback as we understood that the concept might not attract every single person in the audience.

After gaining some potential negative feedback we analysed a question which allowed the audience to give criticisms to us, the majority of our audience told us that there was nothing specific within the film they would change. However minor comments told us that we should've been more accurate within filming which was useful criticisms. We also gained feedback which told us the audience member didn't quite understand what was happening in the film as we didn't make it obvious, this criticism helped us thoroughly. 

Gaining negative feedback helped us understand why our audience might not have liked our short film, however asking the audience gave us a chance to understand what the positive comments were from the audience. The majority of the audience claimed that their favourite parts were "The nightclub scene"'s, and "The ending", which is where most of our editing and techniques were, which told us that our film displayed shots and different types of editing well, especially towards the end where the scenes begin getting increasingly intense and high energy.

The final question again asked the audience wether they understood the film, but also asked them if they understood the message of the film, this is in reference to our group wanting to raise awareness of safe drinking and the risks of drugs. The feedback told us that the majority of the audience understood what the film was about and the message that the film had with it. However it also told us that some of our audience didn't understand or so much, which made us understand that in order to get a message across to an audience we must be more straight forward with our storyline rather than being non linear.

After analysing the questionnaire results from the 32 audience members, we gathered that the majority of the audience enjoyed our film, understood it and had overall general positive feedback for our group. We gained feedback that told us that the way our short film was shot and edited was very good overall, also from the feedback we can assume that our film made an impact on the majority of the viewers and hopefully we raised awareness of the topic involved. 

Online Rough Cut Questionnaire.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/F3V79TX

Online Survey. 

This is an online questionnaire created in order for us to know what our demographic like/ dislike about our club scene example. This will enable us to make necessary adjustments to make our short film more appealing. 

Online Rough Cut Questionnaire analysis.

As a group we had hoped to get more responses with our online questionnaire, however we believed that after analysing the results we did not need to accumulate any more as we had a substantial amount of information about what individuals liked and disliked about our club scene example.

Firstly we asked our demographic "Within the club scene what did you particularly like?" From the results we received we found that 63% (7 people) liked the editing the most. Because of this, within the final editing of our final film we will use the same methods we used within the editing process for this extract. Along with this, 27% (3 people) said that they liked the lighting, luckily for us we already had a generous amount of shots of the lighting. This was helpful to us as we did not need to do any re-shoots. Sadly, 0% of people we asked liked the music used within the club scene example, from this we decided to change the music used in order to fit to the demographics preferences. Finally, one person said that they liked the shots, although this is only one persons personal opinion we understand that people who are not familiar with the subject do not know the correct terms for the shots used, due to this we eliminated this question and focused more upon the other responses.

After this we asked our demographic what they think we could change. These results enabled us to understand that in order to please our audience we need to focus on changing the music used, this is shown in the results as 5 people said they thought we should change the music. Aside from this, 3 people thought that we should change the lighting within our club scene, this result we discussed wether or not we should change the lighting however thought that it portrayed nightlife well and decided to keep it in our scenes. Finally due to the low number of people wishing we could change the editing and the shots, we decided that within the editing process we should only make subtle changes.

Because nightclubs tend to have upbeat music on, we felt it was necessary to include music within this aspect of the film. The only question was, should the shots be edited to the music. From our results we found that 10 people believed it should be, and we agree. Editing the scenes to the music will make the club scene more realistic. 

After this we asked the demographic "Should we add more music effects in the editing process?" From this survey 8 people said no. We believe this is because doing this will mean that too much is occurring at once within the scene, keeping it to a minimum will allow our audience to focus more on the drama occurring on screen. 

From the question below we understood that everyone whom watched the club scene extract liked the fast paced editing. Due to this we are going to keep it within the scenes occurring within the club.

Here below are our responses for the questions "What was your favourite part of the clip?" and "Why was this your favourite scene?" These responses allowed us to know what different individuals liked within our scenes and also what we should consider adding into the final editing process.

Finally we asked our demographic how long THEY thought we should have the scenes in the nightclub for. By asking this, we knew that 1 minute - 1 minute 30 seconds was the most popular. This could possibly be because the audience was getting bored after a long time or they were too anticipated to know what happens next.

As in all questionnaires, we asked if the respondents were male or female and which age group they sit in. This is done to see who our film will interest most.

Another Rough Cut of our Film

Another Rough Cut of our Film 

Editing process is underway. This is a rough cut of what our film will look like, minus a few shots. I hope for the final film to look better and achieve more of a 'film' look as i believe we have a high potential to create a good film. 
 

A Rough Cut of Our Film.

Radio Advertisement Idea.

Radio Advertisement Idea

The Radio Trailer for our film Saving Grace would begin with the main character Grace saying a quote from the film itself (included at the very beginning and the very end of the short film, making it very significant), with no music or sound effects in the background in order for the audience to pay full attention on her, making them question why she says it, she says "Have you ever woken up not knowing where you are? ... Have you ever woken up with no memories from the night before? ... Have you ever woken up with no emotion? ..." 

All of a sudden the Narrator (Male, deep & masculine voice) says "A Hadelliotte Production", followed by reviews from critics, such as "A must see", by The Guardian. Whilst this is being said by the narrator, music is slowly being introduced, from the soundtrack of the short film. The pitch of the music slowly increases, being slow paced however slowly increasing, as clips from the film are used when dialogue in the film is used. When the music has increased to a normal pitch a clip from the film is used where the other main character Becky says to Grace "Let's get another drink", a faded 'boom' sound is used to separate the bits of dialogue, as another line is said by Grace (to the Bar Man, without the audience knowing) "Long time no see..", and another sound separating dialogue, and the final line is Becky shouting "Grace", really loudly in a loud pitch (making it obvious to the audience that Grace is in trouble and her friend becky is scared, louder than the background music, cutting it off, allowing the narrator to finally say, "In cinemas,  April 2017". 

The Music towards the beginning of the Radio Advertisement will Juxtapose with the dialogue added and the final scream of Becky, making sure the audience knows there is a twist in the film, and making the audience question what the film is about. The music will be higher pitch and of a happy tone, which will be pulled from the scene where the girls are getting ready. The end of the Radio Advertisement includes the shouting of Becky, which cuts the happy tone music off and creating a silent scene allowing the Narrator to speak, making the audience question what is to follow after the situation of panic, making them want to watch the film. 

Radio Advert idea.

Radio Advertisement Idea.

Radio Advertisement Research

Radio Advertisement Research

A radio advertisement is a short auditory clip that is usually broadcasted on various radio stations depending on the subject of the trailer/advertisement. They're very similar to Television Adverts however without picture and more detail is included on the sound.  All Advertisements are played through a particular radio station due to their demographic (assuming the majority). Conventions of a Radio Advertisement Include:

• Voice Over, including sounds and speech in the film.
• Information at the end of the trailer, of viewing and certificate. 
• The Slogan to the film.
• Music in the background, which suits the genre of the film.
• Sound Effects when appropriate.
• The overall purpose of a Radio Trailer is to persuade various audiences to watch the programme/film. 

Music

In a Radio Trailer, the music sets the scene for it, often representing the film with it's tone, lyrics, familiarity and how appropritate it is. For example an action film would typically include Rock Genre music, and Romantic films would typically include slow and romantic songs. In many cases the music is the soundtrack to the film. 

Voice Over  

The Voice over is typically the narrator of the trailer and explains key parts of the film such as a brief storyline, reviews, nominations for awards and the release date, which is usually towards the end of the advertisement. The voice over has to be memorable but also needs to be able to relate to the audience, for example for a Horror / Action film a deep masculine voice would be suited however a romance / comedy would have a person with a softer voice, the majority of the time it is a male. 

Layout of Radio Trailer

Radio Trailers all have a similar layout in the way they are set out and what is included them. The voice over usually begins by setting the scene and sometimes 
including a review about the film. It would then usually include scenes from the actual film between the voice over's commentsl, during the voice over there would be sound effects included and music in background, the majority of the time the voice over would include the release date at the end of the Advert to make sure this is the last thing the audience hears, making it have an effect on them and persuade them to see the film.

Examples of Radio Advertisements: 

The following clip includes three radio advertisements which include Gravity, Pacific Rim, The Conjuring and The Great Gatsby. These films are of different genres, which makes it the perfect to conduct research on. The Radio Advertisements were all found on the website Vimeo, which was very convenient and easy to find.

Film Radio Spots 2013 - Gravity, Pacific Rim, The Conjuring & The Great Gatsby from Angell Sound Studios on Vimeo.

Gravity

The Radio Advertisement for the film Gravity begins with the Narrator reading reviews, which appeals to the audience, while in the background is music from the film and sound effects and scenes from the actual film. The Ad includes sound effects that you would typically hear in space, (the technical sounds of equipment however a silent background) this is to make the audience feel almost as if they are a part of the film itself. The Narrator takes it in turn with the films sound effects to include something the audience would pay attention to, for example "Film of the Year", then action from the film will be included to catch the audiences attention. Towards the end of the Trailer the Narrator includes the main characters film, this is a technique of celebrity endorcement, which attracts the fan base of the celebrity and uses the celebrity's fame to promote the film itself. Throughout the Radio Ad it includes many different types of sound effects and is rather busy with sounds, however towards the end of the Radio Advertisement it thins out to only the Narrator's voice, focusing all the audiences attention on him/her, in order to make sure they're aware of the date of release of the film. The different tones and pitches of music and sound effects in the Advertisement would have attracted people of different audiences. 

Pacific Rim

The Radio Advertisement for the film Pacific Rim is rather similar to the one for Gravity, for example it begins with short clips from the film intertwinding with the Narrator. The clips from the film include quotes such as 'To fight monsters, we had created monsters of our own.' from this quote itself you can gather that the film is of the thriller genre, possibly with horror / action aspects. The clips grab the audiences attention as it makes them want to see the whole film by including short bits of it in the Advertisement. The music behind the Narrators voice is very dramatic and leads up to the film's name, creating tension as it gets louder. The Narrator includes the Conglomerate 'Warner Brothers Pictures' in the Ad, this would grab the attention of particularly adults as they may be more aware of how popular the conglomerate's distributions are, this is also a selling technique as some people may be more eager to see a Warner Bro's film. Like many Radio Advertisements the sound effects and clips stop to reveal the title, and the date it will be released in cinemas. The Ad then includes a separate media marketing technique called Synergy. For example this particular Advertisement uses the Social Media Website Facebook, to advertise the film and persuading listeners to watch the film and participate in the activity mentioned over the radio. After the marketing technique the Narrator repeats the name of the film and the date of the release of the film specifically to remind the audience in hope they will remember and be persuaded to watch the film, as repetition persuades. However before the marketing technique is used another clip from the film is used, which appears to be one of the 'monsters' screaming, this could possibly create fear in the audience and persuade viewers that are favourable of scary movies. 

The Conjuring

The Conjuring has a slightly different Radio Advertisement, it begins by mentioning that it by the director that created 'Saw' and 'Insidious', this attracts the attention of the fan bases of those two films previously released, meaning that the fan bases of those films will want to watch the film in the Radio Advertisement as it was directed by the same person, suggesting it will be equally as good or possibly better. After the narrator first speaks, there is a woman which uses third person language, making the audience feel as if they are included. The Narrator includes reviews from critics and says 'Absolute terror', this insinuates that the film advertised is a horror film, and the review from the critics will catch the attention of people that like horror/scary films. Due to the genre, the Radio Advertisement doesn't include any particular music, however does include constant spooky music in the background designed to create tension and make the audience curious as to what the film is about, as it gets louder every time the Narrator speaks. While there is no music or sound effects the Narrator Says 'Stomach knottingly tense', focusing all the attention on the Narrators voice which is designed to create tension and persuade the audience to watch the film. The Radio Advertisement also includes a clip of the film towards the end, including a girls voice whispering 'Look what she made me do'. This makes the audience ask themselves the following questions: Who is 'she'? and 'What did she do?'. This technique will most likely persuade the audience to see the film. In addition the Narrator says 'Rated 15' at the very end of the Advertisement, this is to warn the audience that children under the age of 15 should not watch the film, this would make people over the age of 15 eager to watch it, as they would also ask themselves why it is rated such an age. The layout of the Radio Ad is very similar to the other Advertisements, however slightly different due to the Genre. 

The Great Gatsby

The Radio Advertisement for The Great Gatsby differs significantly from the other Radio Ad's featured in this research, mainly due to the Genre of the film. The layout is also slightly different. The Ad begins with a clip from the film, mentioning a question for the main character, Mr.Gatsby, this will make the audience feel as if they are him and possibly make them ask themselves questions being curious as to 'Who is Mr.Gatsby?'. The Narrator has a higher toned voice than the other films, suggesting that it has a happier story line than the other films do. The Narrator says the name of the film, then 'Featuring music from Jay Z, Beyonce, Lana Del Ray and Florence & the Machine'. This is featuring celebrity endorsement, using the celebrity's fame to advertise the film. This statement will also attract the fan bases from those particular celebrities, making them want to see the film, creating a bigger audience. After mentioning those celebrities names, in the background of the Narrator talking and the clips of the films, it features music of those celebrities, this could possibly encourage the audience even more, this was also the reason for adding the main character Leonardo DiCaprio into the Radio Advertisement, to gain a bigger demographic. The music included in the background is of a dramatic type, insinuating the film is a drama, possibly with other sub-genres. Shortly after there is another clip from the film, including a quote from 'Mr.Gatsby', this will make the audience want to see the film as they've gotten a taste of a scene that may interest them. The main Technique in this Radio Advertisement is the celebrity inclusion and the music of the artists, possibly meaning that the film is very celebrity-orientated, or suggesting that the characters are famous/rich and live the lifestyles that the celebrities mentioned do.

Comparison

The Radio Advertisement's mentioned are all different in various ways. For example simple things such has having different genres, e.g. The Conjuring is a horror/thriller, and The Great Gatsby is a Drama. This meant that they both had a different style of music in the background, for example The Great Gatsby radio ad included happier music written by famous celebrities, whereas the radio ad for Gravity didn't include music to give the audience the feel that they were in space with the characters. In addition, the Narrators are rather different in terms of the pitch of their voice, for example the Narrator in the radio ad for Pacific Rim has a deeper voice, which creates tension, however in The Great Gatsby the Narrator has a slightly Higher pitched voice, connoting a less serious Advertisement. However, there are some similarities. For example, all the films have a very similar Layout, they all begin with Mixed clips from the film including the Narrator talking and taking turns with the clip for the audience to pay attention to. Also, the Radio Advertisements all finished similarly, either finishing with the title of the film or the release date, which is the last thing that the audience will remember, (marketing technique). 

Radio Advertisement Research.

Advertising is an important market as it constitutes one of the major means of funding for the media industry. The advertising industry also plays an important role in the economy, as it provides one of the means for companies in different sectors to compete with each other for consumer spend. 

In its submissions to the OFT in relation to recent radio mergers, Ofcom has defined separate relevant product markets for direct and indirect radio advertising. Ofcom’s discussions with stakeholders in the past have indicated that the types of advertising bought under each of these two routes to market have separate and distinct product characteristics and different costs, and that switching between both routes would be costly. 


The characteristics of indirect and direct advertising include: 

Direct Advertisers

a) Typically buy a more sophisticated product.

b) Buy radio advertising as part of nationwide cross-media campaigns which typically cover many stations, with radio in some cases being used to complement the messages delivered by other media.

c) Buy airtime through media buying agencies and radio group advertising sales houses; agencies and national sales houses provide a cost-effective way of purchasing across numerous stations, providing a number of value added services to indirect advertisers; the extensive use of annual contracts gives a degree of buying power to the indirect advertisers/media buying agencies relative to radio advertising sales houses/radio stations.

d) The prices they pay are typically based on commercial impacts delivered, i.e. a

CPT basis.

Indirect Advertises

e) Do not normally run sophisticated cross-media campaigns, therefore using agencies is unlikely to be cost-effective for direct advertisers; agencies are typically not interested in providing services to such local advertisers either as it is not cost-effective. 

f) Typically target a relatively small geographic area using one or a small number of stations only. 

g) Buy spots of airtime rather than commercial impacts; and do not generally make use of annual contracts with radio stations.