What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation

The first piece of audience feedback I conducted was a open ended questionnaire. At this stage, I was certain about my ideas on forced/arranged marriages and the themes that I want to include such as distress, love, pain and heartbreak. The questionnaire was based on my treatment (please see planning tab) to see what others think of my ideas. I deliberately picked out respondents that are of the same target audience of my short films – teenagers and young adults; I did this because I thought that it will be more useful and beneficial for me because their opinion will matter most as they are my intended target audience.

From this audience feedback, I have learned that some ideas can be seen as offensive to others. For example, the scene where Sofia rips off her headscarf; some respondents saw this as offensive towards the religion Islam and that it portrays Muslims in a negative light. Therefore, I decided to not include this scene in my short film as I did not want to upset any viewers.

The second piece of audience feedback I conducted was a series of interviews regarding my short film. At this stage, I was half way through constructing The Bride, I had already produced effective planning such as a storyboard, scripts etc. (please see planning tab). The interview was to find out if I chose the appropriate target audience for my short film and if those of the intended demographic understood what social realism is.I gathered that every one has a slight understanding of what social realism is and they were able to explain how it is used in The Bride.

From this work and feedback from the respondents, I learned that to be able to reach your target audience, you must include themes and situations that they could be able to relate to. Therefore forced/arranged marriages was a good topic to choose as my target audience felt that there was a gap in the market for this hidden issue that they would be interested in watching.

Moreover, from this audience feedback, I decided to research what social realism is and how it is defined as I thought my definition was not as accurate.One definition of social realism is: Social Realism, an international art movement, refers to the work of painters, printmakers, photographers and filmmakers who draw attention to the everyday conditions of the working classes and the poor, and who are critical of the social structures that maintain these conditions. While the movement's artistic styles vary from nation to nation, it almost always utilizes a form of descriptive or critical realismI made sure that I adhere to these definitions and apply social realism effectively in my short film.

I believe that audience research is essential through out the whole production process and therefore, I decided to gather audience feedback in the post construction stage. I screened my first edit of The Bride to a group of all ages varying between 15-40; I chose a larger age range group because the respondents from my previous audience feedback were all teenagers and young adults as they are my target audience. Although I wanted feedback for my production, I also wanted to test my hypothesis that if an older demographic would be interested in my short film and their views about it.

From this audience feedback, I conducted questionnaires and also unstructured interviews with those who watched my short film. I received positive feedback such as effective cinematography skills and mise-en-scene, however I also gathered a lot of negative and critical feedback.(Please see audience feedback tab) 4/10 respondents said that they thought that the beginning of my short film (where Sofia’s father and her husband to be are having a conversation) was the least appealing. From this, I decided to cut the whole scene off as I thought it was more effective with out it and allowed a sense of enigma in the beginning which was carried out through out the short film.

I believe this audience feedback was very useful as it allowed me to develop my creative thinking further and take on the negative responses and improve my short film. I re-filmed scenes that were least effective such as the park scene making sure that my cinematography skills are up to a high standard; moreover, I technologically advanced my editing skills on Serif Page Plus given the feedback I was given. Also, although the older respondents of this audience feedback were very critical of The Bride, overall they said that they would watch it which implies that I may also have an older demographic.

I had also conducted a focus group in audio format which unfortunately due to technical difficulties is unable to upload on Weebly. However I believe that a focus group is a very effective way in gathering audience feedback. The respondents had a discussion about what went well and what could be improved in my short film and if they would recommend it. As a conclusion, all those involved in the focus group had positive reviews about my short film and all of them rated it above 7 (out of 10).

From the focus group I learnt that females tend to be more sensitive about the topic of forced/arranged marriages than men; this is because more females are victims of crime rather then men. This can have an effect on my target audience as more females may watch The Bride than males.

As you can see on my ancillary task tab, I have conducted many edits of the film poster of The Bride. I conducted audience feedback on what could be improved from the previous edit in which I gained useful ideas (please see audience feedback tab).

From this I learnt, that the more aesthetically pleasing a poster looks, the more viewers I will gain for my short film. I decided to enhance my creativity skills and use Serif Page Plus even more efficiently to produce a excellent film poster. I learnt new techniques on Serif Page Plus such as the cropping of text and how to use margins and guide lines.