The Advanced Portfolio Evaluation Question 3-Amie Nelms

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Audience Demographic

• Female


• 16-24


• Lower-Middle class

We decided to collect our data through the social networking site 'Facebook' by creating a public group which invited members can view, and others can join. This enabled people to leave comments on the film via the youtube link and embedded video. Me, Emma and Jo were made admins, so we could control and monitor the group.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=111980338820198

Via 'Facebook', we also sent emails out to our friends and asked them to give feedback on our film.

Here's some comments on our short film from our female, 16-24 target audience...

Feedback 1

squiditch has made a comment on All my love:
Hey guys, first of all well done! (Its Nicole btw)

points i noticed.. I'm not sure if this was on purpose but the first shots of Rich, from what I can see was handheld yeah? Might have been nice to see it completely stationary with a tripod possibly?
Really liked the show of time passing by intergrating the start credits with the picture :)
Dissolves were used very well, specially matching Amies look to POV.
Dont worry about the green screen.. didnt look too bad at all!
The shot with Rich being all ghost like and hugging Amie is so lvoely.. but possibly held for a tad too long,
Rich fading out was so very nice too.
Hope my comments help :)

P.S.. loved the music ;D

Feedback 2

Anita da SilvaMarch 19, 2010 at 5:43pm
Re: Audience feedback
think its brilliant well done i got goose bumps wen she was reading the letter but the green screen with richard is obvious but the one with amy was fab i couldnt eventell....im asuming she laid on green screen too=/ but i love it the story is really moving loved how all of the sudden he wasnt next to her on the bench anymore made it more real and emotional Xx

Comments

• Camera work was mostly handheld due to the tripod being broken, Emma had to hold the camera on the tripod, did try to rectify this problem by bringing in my own tripod, however wasn't strong enough to hold the camera; too heavy! Could have checked the tripod when we got the equipment-however we felt the handheld camerawork gave it an observational point of view for the audience.


• Green screen was obvious in some parts, 'marching ants' were more visible on Rich's scenes on grass than Amie's-if we had enough time we could have rectified this problem by trying to reduce the noise, or even shooting it without green screen and using green screen for only the parts where Rich is 'ghostly'.


• We wanted to draw emphasise to the embrace, longer shot-shows relationship breakdown, emotional connection for audience, perhaps to chance to relate to romance.

Feedback 3

Kirsty Diane19 March 2010 at 18:16
Re: Audience feedback
Hello Emma!
Just watched your film, overall, very good. The sound is a bit patchy in parts and some of the camera work is a bit shaky. If that was tidied up a bit it would be better. Also some of the film was silent, was it supposed to be like that? If so, then maybe having that guitar music during those periods would make it more engaging.
Well Done though, hope this helps xxx

Feedback 4

Sophie Rae Denton March 23 at 11:47pm
hey doll! i shall try my best to get it from a media perspective and give criticism constructively!

Non Diegetic sound - good choice of music

Diegetic sound - okay if you want top marks, it needs to be balanced - it's pretty difficult to get the dialogue the same volume level as you've filmed it from different angles but if you can balance them out then that would be more professional.
The part where the girl goes "you're such an idiot"...maybe emphasise that a little bit more because it's too quiet - get her to re-record that particular line in a similar atmosphere, then overdub the sound so it's more clear.
(This is HARD so don't worry if you don't get it perfect).

Comments

• Rich's voice need to be balanced; was too quiet in some parts and louder in others, could have dubbed over/mix both-could have done this to improve sound quality or turned the diegetic sound levels up and down according to the scene.


• Silent periods in the film-were there to create reflection and to emphasise Amie's loss; we wanted silence to speak for itself and didn't want to over use the soundtrack, people would get bored of the motif, however could have used a different section of the track.

Feedback 5

Sally Piner20 March 2010 at 12:35
Re: Audience feedback
Hey Emma!!
I've just watched your media alevel film, i've also got a male view aswell... just incase you wanted some different feedback(:...
The only bad thing i would say is i don't understand the setting that much, why did she have to go to park/field/ to read the letter? it might of fitted better maybe at home when she recieved the letter through the door and then Rich appearing on her bed.. like the scene on the bench, then her moving to her back garden.. to look at the clouds?

Feedback 6

Now Bryns View...
Well sally pretty much summed it up but like I though it was made really well. It was ambitious but not over the top didnt distract from the story or anything. The emotion was felt throughout using many different effects such as music and editing (with the faded effect) all none of which took away from the story. The only things I felt you could have improved were perhaps the setting as I feel if it was set in a place special to them it would have made more sense. Or if that field was special to them perhaps make it more obvious. With the colour it was perhaps a bit cliche but I understand you havent got a lot of technology to work with. Overall really well made with lots of ambitious ideas most of which are successful.

Comments

• Setting confused some people-could have chosen setting personal to them, would have added more atmosphere, show relationship more clearer perhaps.


• Cliched black and white-wanted to use it to creative emotional atmosphere, to emphasise the end changing to colour-symbolise Amie's moving on.

Feedback 7

Chloe Thomson March 22 at 8:48pm
this is really good !!
i love the way the girl walks in extreme long shot and drops the paper and falls down! also the match on action with the hands is really good!
only negative thing i would say about this is when they are lying down on the grass, it kind of confussed me with like the opacity? but it's a good idea to show that he's a ghost (if that's the storyline lol)
But all together i think it's soooo good!! well done :)
hope you get a good grade aswell :) xx

Feedback 8

Maiken Davidson 21 March at 18:32
I like the opening shot, it's very well framed and how you bring the credits together with that shot to show that time has passed worked really well. I liked the way you experimented with the camera using different shots and different camera techniques, though at some points it was a bit 'bumpy' where it would have been better for a straight zoom and tilt of camera. The camera behind the female character as she walked towards the bench. I liked the reverese shot between both the characters as the letter was read, and that she was mouthing the words along, however i think it would have been best when the guy spoke to make it slightly echo-y to show that he isn't really there - giving it maybe a more emotional effect.

Comments

• Could have made it clearer that Rich was a ghost-use an echo effect on diegetic dialogue of Rich


• Be more careful with the opacity of Rich laying down-could have controlled it better so he looks more there than not, made it look less artificial.

Amie Nelms