Teacher Feedback
Throughout the course of this project my two mentors have given me their thoughts and ideas about how we could improve our production. The advice was given throughout the whole production, even when we were brainstorming ideas and developing storyboards. Showing the hand-drawn storyboard to my teachers resulted in advice given, some of which we took on board, others we discarded. Upon showing the first draft of the film to my teachers, Mr. Cunningham suggested that we deleted the shot of Sophie walking to the ballet studio as it was unnecessary and had no impact on the narrative. When we looked at the revised footage without the clip, we noticed that it flowed more smoothly and had more of an impact, so the clip remained out of our production. However, other pieces of advice that were given were not followed. An example of this is when Mr. Cunningham suggested that we made the ending of our film more finalised and less ambiguous. However, as a group we decided that we preferred our film with an ambiguous ending. Also, our audience research suggested that ambiguous endings were effective, as it gave them something to ponder on after the film had ended. Due to those reasons, we decided to keep the final sequence of 'Flight' open-ended. Another piece of criticism mentioned by our teachers was that the narrative seemed to be in two segments - one where Sophie is a failing dancer, and the other when she turns to drug use. The drug-taking scene located at the end of our narrative seemed to be separate from the rest of our film. Due to this criticism, we decided to add a flashback sequence where it shows Sophie handling cocaine. This adds a sense of distortion and enigma to the film, yet it also links it effectively. Without this audience feedback it is unlikely that my group and I would have realised that the film did not flow effectively. This shows just how beneficial audience feedback was to the production.
Feedback from our teachers has been impacted the way in which 'Flight' has progressed due to the fact that other opinions and views were given. This allowed myself and my group to decide on important decisions that we faced with a wider range of opinions from audience members. Although not all advice was followed, we still had a larger view on how our film could be changed.
Tumblr Feedback
Tumblr is a social networking site centred around uploading photos and videos to a selection of 'followers' who can follow your progress. As our film and poster fitted nicely into these two categories, I decided to use this website to gain opinions on 'Flight' and its ancillary products. Many of my followers fitted into the target audience of our film - teenagers and young adults - so I felt that it was crucial to gain their opinions on our film. I continuously updated my followers with the progress of 'Flight', which kept them interested with the progress of our film and resulted in the audience giving more relevant opinions. This communication with the audience also meant that later in the production, when I began to ask questions about our film and ancillary products, they would be more likely to engage.
Above is my Tumblr page where I updated my followers with 'Flight's' progress.
Gaining audience feedback on Tumblr was crucial to the success of the production. I communicated with my audience frequently, asking their opinion on certain aspects of our film, poster and magazine review page. Over the course of the production, I gained many different views and opinions on the products, mainly when I asked direct questions to the audience. Many people chose to leave feedback anonymously, which meant that they could truly express how they felt about our film.
Using Tumblr was beneficial to 'Flight' as it was used when problems rose within our production that we were unsure of how to rectify. An example of this is the use of StopMotion. As a group, we were unsure as to keep the alternative ending which used StopMotion technology or to keep with the style of our original ending. I received many different views and opinions on the matter, some responding positively to the idea, others more critical. I showed my audience the two endings and then asked them which one they preferred. The main opinion which I received was that the use of StopMotion felt out of place in our film, and that perhaps if we used it earlier in the production it would link more effectively. Due to this feedback, we decided not to use the StopMotion ending. I feel that using Tumblr to reach this decision greatly helped our production, as if we did not gain opinions from our audience we may not have created a production which they thought was effective or professional.
The image above shows some of the feedback which I received on the first draft of 'Flight'. Some of the feedback was positive, whereas others was negative. We took all pieces of feedback on board which greatly helped our production look professional and fit comfortably within the social realist genre.
Facebook is the largest social networking site on the planet, used primarily by teenagers and young adults. Due to the fact that it is used by such a substantial amount of teenagers and young adults, we decided to update Facebook users with the progress of 'Flight' and it's ancillary products. Facebook allowed text, photos, links and videos to be uploaded, meaning that we could upload our film, poster and magazine review page with ease. In turn, this meant that opinions could be given about every aspect of our film, and that our audience could follow our progress.
Above is a screenshot of me communicating with my target audience.
I began by asking my target audience about the name of our production, as shown above. We gained an overwhelming positive response to the name 'Flight' for our production, with many people saying that it suited the themes which resided within the production. Doing this meant that we were able to decide on a name for our production more quickly, and that our previously halted production could go ahead.
Using Facebook granted a wide range of opinions, as some people had different ideas to others. This widened choice for 'Flight', as it allowed us to see what different members of our target audience wanted. However, this resulted in a large amount of differing opinions on the website, which was difficult to manage and decide upon. Although most of the advice given by our target audience was beneficial, some opinions differed too wildly, resulting in conflicting views and ideas. Despite this, we harnessed the information given to use by our target audience as best as we could, collecting opinions on the first draft of our film to improve it when we reshot certain sequences. Contacting our target audience allowed us to discover problems within our first draft that would have been left un-thought of by myself and my team.
Above is a screenshot of Hannah, our editor, consulting our target audience directly to gain views and opinions which helped the development of our magazine review page. Many people pointed out the strong aspects of the magazine which we kept, to make it appeal to our target audience as effectively as possible.
Youtube Feedback
The free video hosting website Youtube was where we uploaded all of the footage of our film. Youtube is used by many different film-makers, so we thought it would be beneficial to use to upload our footage onto the site. From Youtube, we could then share it on websites like Facebook and Tumblr with the hit of a button. We mainly used Youtube to host the first and final drafts of our film, the proposed different types of music and sound used, and the experimental footage which we shot. However, although we were only using Youtube to host our footage, we also gained some feedback from Youtube users.
Above is a screenshot of a response on our first draft. The criticism which was received was implemented into our second draft, meaning that the audience feedback here was extremely helpful. It allowed an insight into ideas that we did not previously consider.
Twitter Feedback
My group also used the social networking site 'Twitter' to track the progress of 'Flight'. This allowed for an easy way to track our progress, showing different shots within our film. Twitter was also used to communicate with viewers audience. However, users of Twitter tend to have a wider age grouping than Tumblr and Facebook, meaning that we were not hitting our target audience directly. Due to the change in audience, it meant that we were able to gain differing opinions, views and criticisms to those offered through Facebook and Tumblr. The new feedback was beneficial to our film and ancillary products as it gave us a fresh way to look at our film. An example of this is the flashback sequence. it was suggested to us to use bright colours to show a sense of distortion. We followed this advice and found that it greatly benefited our production. The way in which Twitter can be used makes it easy to communicate with your followers. This meant that as our progress continued, we were able to continuously question our followers and ask for feedback and advice. This was done at each stage of production, whilst creating our short film, poster and magazine review page. The quick responses given meant that we were quickly able to alter any issues that users spotted. A suggestion made on Twitter was that our original logo, whilst it matched our poster, did not fit in with the background of our film. We reviewed the logo on the footage and soon realised that they were correct. Without advice like this we may not have had as a professional-looking film as possible. From reviewing the feedback given on Twitter I have learnt that I need to cast a more critical eye over my products to ensure that they are all professional and convey meaning.
Above is a screenshot of Hannah sharing our film and updating our followers on Twitter. The link given meant that users could click on it and then respond with feedback. From this feedback we learnt of some issues which we quickly corrected.
Above is some feedback which we received on our Twitter site. The advice given to 'add more key information' was implemented to give audiences more of an idea as to what our film was about. Receiving feedback on Twitter like the example given above greatly helped our production.
Above is some feedback which we received on our Twitter site. The advice given to 'add more key information' was implemented to give audiences more of an idea as to what our film was about. Receiving feedback on Twitter like the example given above greatly helped our production.
In conclusion, the feedback which has been given to us has been extremely useful for our production. I am pleased that we decided to use many different websites to communicate with audiences and users as it meant that we got as many opinions on our film and other products as possible. Many scenes and shots within our film have been changed due to the feedback which we received, which was extremely helpful. I ensured that all feedback given was explored effectively, until my team and I made a final decision on how to change our film. The changes which we made include: changing the logo in our second draft, changing the sound so it did not become repetitive, removing the sequence where Sophie is walking to the dance studio, cutting down the nature sequence, choosing not the use the StopMotion sequence, and choosing the alternative ending for our film. Without contacting our audience through these social networking sites, our film and ancillary products would not look as professional as they do now, meaning that they each had a huge impact on our production.
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