What have you learned from your audience feedback?

These are the feedback forms I received following the first showing of my final cut of my film. The reception is generally positive, with the editing being effective, particularly in the flashback scenes. This suggested, the audience enjoys creativity in films and the way new shots are introduced into the frame. 

Few did not understand the significance of the walking away scene, however a majority did.

Another use of symbolism that the audience picked up on, was the cut aways featuring the dog. Used as a tool to show isolation of the character, Anthony, the dog has been interpreted as the spirit of the Grandfather character due to the graphic matching of the eyes and the owl's eyes in the grandfather's house. Another interpretation from the audience was that the dog knew all along about the power of the marbles and by running away did not want to be a part of it. Hearing these different breakdowns made me feel happy about my work as it proved I had made a piece of work that people could debate about, a feature that many blockbusters of this day and age do not have. 

Following my second cut, my media teacher had shown my film to an actual film maker. I compared his comments with that of a self-confessed 'film-aholic':

• Cameron
  Cool
• looks good
• but at 1:30, its mainly arm in the shot(address that in editing)
• and that little thunder crackle when the marbles drop doesn't sound too good (audio) 
• and when the marble is held up to the light
  yeah I like that (song at the end and credits)

  
  

  An actual film maker:
  Dog overused.
  Sounds coule be better (effects)

It was a positive for me that the film maker had less to comment on then the consumer. Whereas the consumer had an idea of what he wanted, the film-maker went into the film open minded and saw the product from a director's point of view.

 I have to bear in mind that people aim to get different results from films and have an idea of what they want to see, perhaps they do not want to do so much work whilst watching and simply relax and be absorbed. However, those that enjoyed the piece spoke of its mise-en-scene, quality plot and acting to portray the tale. This goes to show that amateur films can be thought provoking and have symbolism much like professionally made films and provoke a response. In future however, I would try to make my films more accessible to all manner of audience to a degree but do not spoon feed the audience.

This small control group represents a variety of different people with different tastes and can only be considered and to draw specific conclusions from these is not advised. 

 The feedback I received for my ancillary tasks were also generally positive, averaging scores of 7/10 and 8/10. The review gained marks as it was 'different from a conventional review' whilst the poster was 'simple and to the point'. The negative feedback was that the poster may of been 'too simple', whereas I had envisioned a provoking poster leaving the audience asking for more, they had received it as never having enough to have an interest in the first place. In future I will use a still image from the film itself to help relate to the motion picture enough. The review was favoured over the poster for its stylish fonts, I learnt that in production of this piece, rather than attempt to replicate an existing magazine page, I'd create my own, giving an original and modern look to my layout. 

Feedback

• 'Colour of marble, good choice! Stands out!'
• 'Font! :)'
• 'The light around the marble makes it obvious that it's a significant part of the film.'
• 'Light and shadow adds a good atmosphere.
• 'Eerie!'
• 'Like looking through a marble. (font)'
• 'Black, like the humour'.
• 'Like.'