Audience Evaluation

After the creation of my first draft I felt that it was necessary to ask an audience what they felt about the film, as well as asking my teacher his opinion.

Mr Richard Turner (My AS Media Teacher) gave this response:

"An excellent first draft, wonderfully planned & very well executed, great music, shots & titles.

I agree with your suggestions for improvement on your blog.

Other suggestions: all moon shots should be rock-steady unless it is a p-of-v shot? Why is Katie standing in the road? Should there be CUs of Katie’s face when she is running to show fear/tension etc? Do we need a badge/gun something that identifies Sophie as police or PI? Can we read the notes on her car seat (do you want us to)?"

In response to the suggestions I believe that:

• The moon shots should not be perfectly steady purely because it is a point of view shot to some degree as the audience does see Lynette James standing in the middle of the road looking up at the moon.
• The reason that the character of Lynette James is standing in the road is something that would be explained at a later point in the film as it would link into how Midnight murders his victims.
• During the running sequence I did try to get a shot of Katie's face and I believe I marginally succeeded in this. However, I do not think that I need to put extra close ups into the sequence as that would require a definite re-film and would be hellish to edit together with the continuity I have now.
• Sophie's character is in fact a journalism graduate, although, at this point in the film it is not necessary to know her occupation. It is only necessary to know that the character is investigating the case.
• When the video is of a high enough quality the notes on the character's car seat are readable and I would like the audience to be able to read them, however, they are not that important as the key information is revealed subtly throughout the rest of the sequence.

James Thompstone (A fellow AS Media Student) stated:

"Watching Richards film he has a very good use of sound, the music to the film is very appropriate for the story line and does not overpower the film’s sound effects or the visual. His title sequence is very effective and introduces the main point of the film without ruining any story line. His use of camera angles and straight edits give it a very edgy feel and build in suspense. If  I was to criticise the film in one way it would be the shaky camera for filming the moon on the title sequence however I understand the difficulty of doing this. My second point to improve would be to make the investigator look a bit more professional in the car and some sort of way to introduce who she is and what she is trying to achieve which does become more clear towards the end of the clip."

I accept these criticisms readily and I am able to fix one of them easily. The second point is harder to fix as I cannot re-shoot that scene due to the location. However, as previously mentioned, the character's occupation is not important at the time of the opening sequence and it is something that would be developed in the 10 minutes after the opening sequence.

Zoe Cumberpatch (A fellow student who is not studying Media) gave this feedback:

"First of all wow!

I think the music was great and really suited the mood, I would however suggest a slightly different piece of music when it changes to the scene with your sister in. Maybe a few more sound effects to add drama and tension.

I loved the lighting and variation of shots, they were really effective, overall I can't find anything that drastically needs changing, the moon shots at the beginning are quite blurred and unstable, and I think the credits last a tiny bit too long compared to the length of the opening. "

I am incredibly pleased that Zoe really liked my Thriller and I'm glad that she said that nothing drastically needed changing it was just the Moon shots and maybe the length of the credits. The suggestion about the music will definitely be too difficult to carry out as the artist, James Cooper, is in his final year at the University of Glamorgan like my sister and he will be incredibly busy at present with his work. Ergo, I think I will stick with the music I have because it is still perfectly effective and I do not want to make James do anymore work than he already has. I also do not think that I will shorten the credits purely because I have to include so many names that in relation to what would be the rest of the film the 30 seconds would seem largely inconsequential.

Sophie Kish (Actress in the piece and final year Media and Performance student at the University of Glamorgan) said:

"Shaky Moon at 26seconds, needs to be stabled!

POP when Martin steps into frame - need to sort that out, dub the sound with a stock sound of a foot. Love the effect to make it look like night =)! Try it a little bit darker, still a little bit too light..... more close ups! 

You need more footage of running I think, make it look like she is panicking more.... dunno if you should borrow a skateboard, orrrrrrrr  get dad to drive up the street and film with the window open in the back of the car??? obviously replace the sound! 

Then there is me..... LMAO! URGH!!!!!!!!!!!! I think you need to try and tidy up that last sequence a little bit.. it's not as quick and DUH DUH DUUUUHHHHH as it should be.... hmm.... not really sure what I could suggest with that though...."

From this Sophie has brought up a lot of things that I have already noted as needing to be fixed. I am not going to fix the "pop" when Martin steps into the frame purely because that is a foot step and it does sound like a foot step. With the sound effects in the running I think that I might just be able to get rid of the final traces of the wind with a bit more editing. With the suggestion of getting more footage for the running, I also think that I might ignore that purely because I do not have the time to include more footage within the opening and making sure everything was continuous would suddenly become incredibly tedious and wasteful.

After all of this feedback I think that I have a slightly more focused idea of what I need to improve in my Thriller and hopefully this will make my final edit so much more successful.