P4 Present short film and obtain audience feedback

In this document I'll be checking out on the audience feedback that has been placed for us. The reason why we needed the feedback is so that we can see what type of mistakes we could avoid doing and things that we could improve in future film making. The forum contains 11 questions about the film which is more than enough for a short film and for there to be mostly positive feedback there needs to be at least 62,5% of people saying yes, if it's the opposite then that means the feedback was mostly negative.

The first question in the forum asks the audience if the target audience is clear throughout the film. This question was set so that we could later on know if there are scenes that we have to change to suit that audience. The response from this question is mostly positive but with a portion of the people saying no shows us that we have to work on making it more clear for the audience.

For the second question we asked about the editing, since we're doing a film noir styled film this question is one of the most important one of all. This question lets us know if there are some issues that we've missed or any weird cuts that we've made in the editing. By the response of the audience, it seems that there is no work needed on the editing and that everything seems to be good.

This question is all about us understanding if we found the right audio track for the film. Audio plays a big role in any film or video as it lets the audience know and get a feel of the story, genre or the current mood in the scene and since our film was all about a detective investigating a murder mystery, we set in for a jazzy soundtrack. By looking at the response it looks like we made the right call with using a copyright free jazz soundtrack playing throughout the film.

Another important question is to know if the audience was able to understand the story itself. To sum up the story it's all about a so-called detective investigating a crime scene only to turn out to be the murderer himself right in the end. Even though there are some things that we could improve on the story, it seems that the audience has understanded the storyline of the film which means that our script writer did a good job.

The next question for the audience is to know if it was clear on who the protagonist and antagonist are. Since our film includes the plot twist of the suspect being innocent while the detective was the killer all along, we would need to know if it was clear for the viewer. It seems that for a big portion of the audience it was clear for them while a small portion didn't get it. This tells us that in future filmmaking we'll need to look into adding a scene of showing how the protagonist and antagonist met only later on to slowly switch those roles throughout the film.

Coming to the last few questions, one of them is understanding if the audience saw any variety in camera shots and movement throughout the short film. This is asked so that it makes the film more interesting with different movements and experiencing POV shots on some of the scenes in the film. By the responses of the film, it seems like there isn't much work needed and the only thing we can do for future films is experiment with different camera shots so that we know which ones to use.

The next question that was asked is about the mise en scene and if it reflected on the storyline well. Mise en scene is one of the important parts of making a good short film as it lets the audience know more about the location and what is currently happening in the scene. Looking at the feedback it seems that majority of the audience thinks that the storyline was reflected well through mise en scene and the only thing that we need to do for future films is to experiment with the props more to give an even better feel of the current scene.

Going to the last four questions are mostly open feedback by the audience giving us a more in-depth explanation of the said question and let us know of the improvements. Speaking of such the first question is about any improvements with the audio. Most of the feedback seems to be about minor issues such as the audio being quiet, hearing any background noise or the actors making some mistakes on lines during the shooting. Two responses however let us know to add more ambience in some scenes and sound effects for phone ringing etc.  

For the next open question is about any improvements in the editing. With this question we'll be able to know if there are some scenes that we're able to make them more interesting or just some improvements in the editing in cuts or effects. Most of the response seem to let us know that there isn't any work that needs to be done but there are two responses that lets us know of some minor mistakes we've made and a little touch in the film that can be done. One of the responses is about how some cuts are a bit harsh and perhaps add more contrast to make the film look more film noir ish. The other response let us know to tie the newspapers better since they were the clue for the murderer all along. This could be done with coloring the letters on the newspapers with red to catch the eye of the audience more and make them think throughout the film on who the murderer could be.

This next question is about the general opinion of the film by them scaling it from 1-5. Even though the previous questions are mostly positive, this lets us know if perhaps they enjoyed the film as a whole. On the rating scale it seems that there aren't any people rating the film very low on 1 and 2, but 50% of the audience have rated the film a 3-5 which shows us that the audience enjoyed it, but it could use some work. The other ratings were mostly at 4 and one of them is at 5. With this the general rating of the film would be 3.6/5 which is a high number rating for a first time making short films.

For the last question we left the audience leave any comments that they would like to leave about the film which could also give us more insight on what we could add in later short films. Most of the comments are all positive but there is one response that gave us some feedback that we could work on. The beginning dragged on for too long - This is probably because of the scene where the detective is tidying his desk which was meant to condone that the detective is a perfectionist and likes things sorted out.

Could add voice effects over phone call - This can be easily achieved by recording sounds of a phone ringing, accepting the call and ending the call.

Some camera shots were shaky - This can be fixed easily when we record multiple recording on the same shot and compare them until we see which one stands out the best.

Feedback from Keyhole

After the audience feedback, two filming professionals working at Keyhole Doncaster arrived at the UTC to introduce us to some new equipment and review our short films giving us more feedback to reflect on. Each group had a quick presentation as an introduction to the synopsis of the film, some inspirations for making and coming up with the idea of the 

film, equipment used and storyboards. At the final each group put up questions for the cameramen to obtain their feedback.

This is the contents of our group's presentation in which we've included everything that needs to be known about the film from the brief to the questions. We also included not only a slide with the questions for the Keyhole filmers, but also a slide to let them know what to look out for. We made it since these are the more important bits that need to be looked out by them and get a a response in case one of the listed things needed some working.

Another thing that we included is how we came up with the idea of the film. For that we watched three short films that revolve around the murder mystery genre of film with two of them being in the style of film noir.

We also included a slide that contains some parts of the storyboards to give a quick idea of how some of the shots in the film will be and perhaps for them to notice some changes that we've made during filming that is different from the storyboard.

These are the things listed that we let the people from keyhole know what to look out for throughout the film. They are all important aspects of a film noir styled film since they are the things that make the film stand out.

We were recorded by our teacher while we were presenting to keyhole with Arsentijs Sulga doing the talking while keyhole were watching and making notes. 

When the film ended the responses were mostly positive as a lot of the aspects that we've worked on such as script, camera angles/shots and acting. They also gave some good feedback on the film with one of them is adding flashbacks of the suspects on what they have done and how they got into this situation. I agree with this statement since it gives a backstory of the characters and give introduction to the said characters without them coming out of nowhere. Another feedback to reflect on is how long the scenes continue on. They suggested to shorten the length of some clips such as the starting clip goes on to long and can get boring for some viewers. 

Here is the Link to the Finished Short Film

What I've learned from the Unit

As this project has come to an end, I have left with new knowledge about filmmaking and everything the Unit had to offer. I have learned new things about myself that before I doubted myself of even managing to pull these things off. One of the things is that I have decent acting skills and good camerawork. 

Since my main role was to act in the film, I had to meet a few criteria to give the audience an understanding on what and who the character is with one of the criteria being able to talk in a Russian accent. This wasn't as hard to pull off than the next criteria of acting tough. I attempted to express that through the language spoken and the posing like I own the place with having my arms crossed and putting one leg over the other. As of what I've learned from it is that my posing and expressions are pretty good for acting, but the accent is what I need to work on if I'm ever going to make future short films. For what I could improve is perhaps wear different clothing to suit the character more.

For the next role I had is by using the camera. That role was pretty small since Faith was the lead camera man and because my main role was for acting so most of the time was spent there. But nonetheless the scenes where I've been behind the camerawork is the entirety of the murder scene and the ending scene starting from the bin and to the detective blocking the camera. The strong point of my camerawork is the creative type of shots that have been used with the best one being a POV of the inside of the bin. But one of the negatives of being behind camera is that I can't hold the camera steady and that can somewhat be seen on the scene with the detective investigating the newspapers as the camera goes up and shows both the detective and the newspapers. There isn't much of improvement here except of practicing to hold the camera steady and use zooms and the settings of the camera.