Reflections on Audience Screening

I am really pleased with the feedback we received and the majority of people seemed to enjoy watching it.

Music, plot and title of the film were amongst the favourite aspects of the opening sequence. I agree with these points as I think the title really ties in with the plot and the music really fits the tone of the film. The plot is also something new and therefore offers something different to the audience.

Out of the 34 respondents, only 3 wouldn’t have liked to watch the film, but this was generally down to those specific people not liking this genre of film. Features that were suggested to be improved on included the location, building more tension, the nightmare sequence not realistic enough and the knife in the back pocket made it slightly comical (people suggested he should have put it in his coat pocket.) I agree with these points; however we wanted to make the house seem as normal as possible to reflect the main characters initial fake persona of being normal. Therefore we chose a house that would be realistic and believable for a young male living home alone.

The genre of the film was easily picked up on as most people classified it as a horror or thriller. Overall I am really happy with the feedback and with the majority of ratings between an 8 or a 9 out of ten it makes me feel more confident about our project.

Audience Screening and Feedback

Today we had our audience screening which was really useful and gave us some good feedback on how our opening film sequence was received. A total of 34 people responded to our questionnaire; giving us a very useful insight into audience tastes and reactions.

The group of people ranged from 15-17 years of age; this was helpful because they were a mixture of our core and secondary audiences.We split the data into two categories, based on gender. We then divided this up further, looking at the different ages in each specific gender. Here is what we found:

FEMALES:

15 years old (4 participated):

• The average rating given was 8/10
• 3 classified it as Thriller, 1 as Horror
• Majority commented on good music, plot, character and title
• They all understood the sequence and picked up the name of the film
• Main areas for improvement were location & building tension throughout the scene
• 3/4 wanted to watch the rest of the film, saying they were interested to find out what happens next

16 years old (11 participated):

• Average score of 8.5/10
• All classified it as either Horror or Thriller (some even put both)
• Again, they most liked the music, plot and also liked the news broadcast
• 10 wanted to watch the rest of the film because "it would be interesting to see the plot develop", "it's creepy" and it "holds in the viewer". The other 1 person didn't want to watch the rest of the film because they are simply "not a big fan of Horror/Thriller"

17 years old (9 participated):

• Average rating of 8/10
• 1 girl didn't understand the significance of the poppy, the rest did
• Again, it was classified as either a Thriller or a Horror
• Music, plot and title were amongst the favourite things in the sequence
• Several commented on the knife in the back pocket; saying it was a little comical and could've been placed inside a jacket pocket instead. Also someone mentioned that the music could have been a bit scarier, and that the pace of the sequence could've been faster, to create more suspense
• 8 of the girls said they would be interested in watching the rest of the film, because of its enigmatic qualities, with an "interesting and intriguing plot". The other girl did not want to watch the rest of the film because she said that she is not interested in the particular genre.

MALES:

16 years old (4 participated)

• Average score 9/10
• 3 classified it as a Thriller, 1 as a Horror
• They mainly like the music and plot
• They would all like to watch the rest of the film
• One area of improvement - acting in the nightmare sequence (not realistic enough)

17 years old (5 participated)

• Rated 9/10
• 4 classified as Thriller, 1 as Horror
• Liked music, character, title and plot
• All 5 want to watch the rest of the film
• Lighting and location are amongst the things to be improved.

Questionnaire for Audience Screening

Age:
Gender:

Please list your 3 favourite films:
1.
2.
3.
What is your favourite genre of film?

Did the sequence make sense? YES / NO If ‘No’ what didn’t make sense? Why?

What was the title of this film?

Which genre would you classify this film as?
Comedy / Horror / Rom-com / Thriller / Action / Adventure / Sci-Fi

What did you like about the film?
Music / Character / Title / Plot / Location / Other (Please specify) __________

Does it remind you of any other films you have watched?

What do you think we can improve on?

Would you be interested in watching the rest of this film? YES / NO Please specify your reason(s):

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the sequence? (Please circle):
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Editing Continued…

Today was our final day of editing and despite the fact that we have a few tiny things to change/add in tomorrow, I am really happy with the sequence. It has all come together well and from the feedback that we received from other students and the teachers; it is more or less finished. Feedback from teachers included changing minor things such as slowing down a shot (where he opens the drawer), removing the first shot from the nightmare sequence (framing wasn’t good) and using the close-up instead, and improving some of the newspaper, photos and headlines shots (pace was too fast etc.) We also had some problems with our Production Company name and logo, it went slightly blurry when played, however we improved this as much as possible and it still works well.

Tomorrow is our final deadline and after a few small tweaks and a test screening tomorrow to receive more feedback, the sequence will be completely finished! I am really happy with how it has turned out.

Editing

It’s the second week back from our break and we’ve been extremely busy with editing. Last week we spent most of our time editing after we captured the footage we took in the holidays. Now we’re on our last few days of editing and the sequence has finally come together. We have edited all shots together, now we just have minor bits and pieces to add and edit in.

Last week we were really busy trying to edit in the shots that we retook on the Friday in the Holidays. These thankfully worked and we had no problems with them. I think the sequence now looks a lot better with these shots. We reshot the whole of the nightmare sequence, the news broadcast on television, the character’s reaction to this and the kitchen shots to get the dialogue right. We also re-recorded the dialogue of Ben whilst we were at school last week. This was put in the shots where he first answers the phone but we don’t see him.

Today we recorded the dialogue of Mr Michael to use as the speech for the news report on the television. This worked much better than expected when we matched it to the news broadcasting. Today we have also been working especially on sound and trying to get our credits to look right. I think the font that we have chosen for our title works really effectively and we have had good feedback about this. We are using the same font for the credits, how these were said to look quite flat so we are going to add an outline around it to improve it.

Last week and today, we have also been working really hard on the newspaper shots, photos and headlines. We have two points in the sequence where these shots fade in. We have finished the first ones where they fade into the sequence, which I think looks really good, but we are struggling a little with the second one. Therefore we have to work really hard tomorrow to finish it. We also have the credits to finish, but these are all in the sequence, so it’s just a matter of making them look good. Finally we have to improve sound by testing out different volumes, speeds etc.

So far I am really happy with the project and hopefully the final piece will be finished by tomorrow.

News Report Script

Below is the script for the dialogue that will take place when the main character turns on the TV to the news. We will use a teacher in our school who we believe will fit the role perfectly as his voice resembles many news reporters.

The body of another ex-soldier was discovered this morning in North London.

The victim, identified as James Palmer, recently served in the Iraq War as part of the 5th Infantry Battalion.

Police believe the murder to be linked to the recent ‘Poppy Killing’ across the area.

Final Shoot

During the two week Christmas holiday, we had a final re-shoot to film a few shots that didn’t work in our sequence due to problems such as lighting, continuity and general mise-en-scene.

Re-shoot List:
-Nightmare Sequence (problem with bed covers, need white plain ones)
-Conversation in the kitchen (problem with sound)
-News broadcast on TV (problem with colour before)
-Reaction shots to the TV
-The stairs shot (we changed the shot)

We managed to shoot all the footage in one filming session so it didn’t take as long as we thought it would. Now we have solved those problems with new shots, we can start capturing and editing these shots in order to make the sequence better.

Things we have to do after we have captured the footage:
-Choose the shots we like and edit these in.
-Add in all the credits with our chosen font.
-Finish all the newspaper shots and photos to help people understand the storyline more.
-Record the newsreaders voice to play over the news broadcasting on TV.
-Work on sound, dialogue etc.
-Finish name and logo for Production Company.
-Put in title of the film.