Question 3 - Final Draft

3.What have you learnt from audience feedback?

Audience feedback has proved to be an essential part of pre-production, production itself and post production. During the initial stages of pre-production we received feedback on our pitch, which was the starting point of our films. After pitching our first ideas for a story we were informed there was a lack of logical causality, character development/motivation and there were a lot of random elements within the story. We were also told that our film needed young cast members as opposed to our original cast who were sixth formers as we were dealing with fantasy and imagination which is usually targeted at young children. There were also issues with the length of our pitch, the story was far too long and there were a lot of complications within the storyline which prevented any narrative development. However we were told that the idea of a genie was quite interesting and different and it related to our colour, gold. After listening and considering all of the feedback we were presented we realised that we were creating our story without contemplating what it will involve to make the film. We were creating a lot of work for ourselves and our story was missing essential components so we decided to approach the pitch quite differently compared to our original idea.
- We stuck to the idea of a genie as people said our story had a "fairy-tale feel" and felt almost like "Cinderella" which we thought effective. However we tried to create a simpler story and we finally agreed on the simple idea of - Boy likes girl - Genie appears and helps - He ends up falling for genie. We then built the details around this simple idea and eventually arrived at the pitch we used for the film. We minimised the cast by removing the bullies and teachers as we were told during feedback that it will become difficult trying to manage large numbers of cast. We also found younger actors to suit the target audience of our film. Since there was a lot of people informing us that there was "excessive randomness" within our story we aimed to cut this down by finding a way to bring in the gold lamp that wasn't random. This is where the idea of the poster "Aladdin rehearsals" was introduced and it was a way that allowed us to bring in the genie action to our film without it being random. We also created a relationship between Luke and Genie because feedback told us that "it's random why she decides to grant him the final wish, why does she care?". Therefore by creating a relationship we were able to create a lot of emotions and feelings within our story which then determined what the themes of our film were. This relationship also meant there was character motivation and development apparent within our film as the characters were in a different position at the end compared with the beginning. This was quite popular with the audience as they liked the fact that the two characters got together. We also changed Luke having 3 wishes to him only having 1, which meant we could cut down the length of the film and also meant we had something to base the action around - the climax of the film would be when he makes his wish. By changing the narrative, according to audience feedback, we were able to create a story with emotion and one that would have the audience emotionally engaged. Audience feedback proved to be vital as we would have created a less effective story that would have been extremely long and complicated, creating problems for us during filming with the constant setting changes, and ultimately causing a negative response from our audience.
Once we confirmed our pitch we moved on to the storyboard and script. Again, we received numerous amounts of feedback before we finally settled on our final paperwork. The storyboard was almost fine except for the important fact that it was lacking in cutaway shots. Cutaway shots are used to show the audience what is going on around the action rather than staying focused on one part of the action which would eventually become boring and long winded. This was an issue with many people's storyboard's so before we asked for feedback we went back and reviewed ours and inserted a number of cutaway shots that we thought were neccessary.
Once the storyboard was confirmed we moved on to write the script which was a very similar process to the storyboard. We were told there was "too much dialogue" and that we could tell our story through actions rather than dialogue, so we reviewed the script and attempted to cut down the dialogue as much as we could. Excessive dialogue would result in a bored audience and a lack of concentration as a lot of speech would eventually become long winded and hard to keep up with. If we had left the script as we had done it there would have been a lot more shots, to display conversations and pieces of dialogue, and this would have ulimately meant more work which meant a higher risk of rushed and poor quality filming. Therefore feedback allowed us to re-do our work so that it'll advantage us during production rather than disadvantage us, through time etc.
Once we had filmed we started editing which was a stage of post production that also required feedback. While editing scene 1 we were told that shots such as shot 4 and 5 were too long and we didn't need to see an empty frame, there was uneccessary shots that didn't need to be included as they just made the sequence too long when it needed to be more "choppy" and use quick cuts. This would prevent boredem or a loss of concentration. We also had to rearrange some of the first few shots because the opening sequence didn't look very effective as there "wasn't enough of his feet" so we took out the shot of 'Luke's' feet walking and repeated the shot of him playing the psp. We were told that our genie's appearances work very well and everyone took a liking to that part of the scene creating a good reaction within our audience. One bit of feedback we got from the first scene was that part of the body language 'Genie' does doesn't look right because it hadn't been directed properly. So unfortunately we had to reshoot a part of the first scene due to the directing at the time not being effective enough and the acting wasn't how it needed to be. Once we had done the shot again and inserted it into our sequence we received feedback that "you can't even tell it was filmed at a different time" and that it looked much better than the original shot. The second shot that we needed film during the reshoot was the shot of 'Genie' asking 'Luke' not to walk away, as we had issues with the transition from inside the building to outside. We initially ended the shot of 'Luke' turning around to 'Genie' with a black fade and then the next shot was him coming out of the door. Although we thought the fade looked okay, when we received feedback people questioned why this was there and that it was quite confusing. So during the reshoot we also took a shot of 'Genie' saying "Don't walk away!" which meant we were able to change the end of the sequence to a shot of 'Luke' walking away. So rather than make our film look bad and save time we decided to reshoot the two shots which in the end proved very beneficial to the final look of our film. Other parts of the first scene were quite confusing as it wasn't clear what was happening, feedback told us that "it doesn't appear clear enough" what we were trying to show. As we knew what was going on we assumed that the audience would also be aware but this is not the case. We realised that we were ignoring our audience and the fact that they don't know the background story or what we were showing and that we needed to make this clear to them. Without this our audience wouldn't enjoy or understand the film. The feedback from scene 2 was that we had shots that consisted of empty screens, there was no action taking place yet we showed this part of the shot. This wasn't needed and just made the film longer and created boring parts. Therefore we took these out and realised that shots like these are irrelevant, they don't move the story along or create any effect so they're not needed at all. There was also the issue that the 180 degree rule is completely disregarded within one of the shots. The camera flips completely and films from the opposite side which isn't acceptable within filming. However there were too many problems with refilming so it had to be left as it was which affected the film and made us realise that we need to be more careful and aware of filming rules while shooting. There was also a lot of background noise as we were filming in a busy part of the school but these were covered up by music and other sounds so became less noticeable. Scene 3 is the makeover scene and feedback told us that "the shots need to be choppy" and that we needed to "flip between shots of Genie and shots of Luke". This was to create a fast, choppy sequence with action reaction shots. We were also told that we needed fast, upbeat music to match the scene. We decided to go with the parallel sound because it would add to the fun, fast atmosphere of the scene. We also interpreted transitions into scene 3 which people said "added fun" to the sequence and also helped to show a pass in time.
All in all we realised that audience feedback is vital to film making because as makers of the film we don't realise that we aren't always thinking of our audience. It's easy to disregard the audiences feelings and thoughts because you forget that they don't know the basis of the story and they only know what we show/tell them. Without audience feedback we would have failed to realise this and therefore produced a less effective film.
After editing it was time to create the posters/reviews. These also required feedback for improvements and suggestions. Since the posters are the first thing that audiences see before the film they need to address the genre and ideas within the film, attracting the audience to want to watch your film. Feedback told me that I needed to "highlight the magic in the genie" and use "glitter and sparkles to reveal the magical aspects" of the film. This would help to deliver to the audience the basic ideas that are within the film, in this sense relating to characters. After hearing this I added more effects to her image which made her stand out and look more 'magical.' There were also people who suggested that on maybe one or two posters I should "reveal there is a relationship between Genie and Luke" so when creating the second and third poster I took this into consideration.
Feedback informed me of what was missing from my poster that needed to be included to sell my film effectively.