Target Audience Feedback: First Edit

I created a survey on survey monkey to ask year 12 and year 13 students in Kettering Buccleuch Academy what their thoughts were on our first edit of the video. I decided to use a survey as it was easy to send to our target audience and get the feedback. This was also beneficial as this was at the end of the term meaning i wouldn't see them for a week making it quite impractical to gain feedback in person.

1- What don't you like about the video? 

These are the responses we gained from this question, we could clearly tell that too many things needed to be corrected therefore changing our decision of the opening scene. Also, due to us filming outside, we couldn't retake some of the shots we would have to redo them all which would have been a waste of time. Most of the comments we got back said how it was confusing and we too found it confusing, this was down to us missing some scenes and having to rush the filming due to our camera battery dying. Someone commented on the resolution of the film, which after we edited it all together noticed some scenes seemed out of focus which we can look out for next time.

2- What do you like about the video?

Some answers commented on the camera angles, we tried to use various angles so these answers were very beneficial to us. Other answers commented on how the video flowed nicely, which helps us for the future when we film the second opening. One answer commented on how they got the sense someone was watching them which was the main point to get across, this shows the techniques we used worked very well. Another comment talked about how we used mise en scene appropriately which is a main focus on our opening and helps the audience to gain information about our characters


3- What do you think we could improve on?

Majority of the answers we gained commented on adding music, at this point in editing we had not done anything that involved music and sound effects. Especially when this wasn't the edit we was moving forward with, there would have been no point in adding music and sound effects as it would have wasted time. Comments such as have something more gripping and make more sense of the plot back up our decision to change this opening drastically as it didn't flow or make sense. Other comments saying about making the plot clearer furthermore prove how this idea wasn't quite working as we would like it to.

4- Do you have any suggestions for new ideas?

Many of the responses i received mentioned about adding music to add tension. As this was a first edit, we hadn't added any music as that would have wasted our time. Someone else also said to make the video darker, which we could have done in editing. As well as that, if it was too dark then that would have affected the quality of the video. The problem with filming when its darker is that the lighting would change constantly and when we go to edit it, it wouldn't flow especially when it gets dark too quickly and early.

5- What would you rate our video?

With this i got them to say how they would rate our video out of 10. The average came out as a 5.53, which isn't too good. This helped us to see where to improve and how to. The mode score was a 6, we got nothing less than a 4 and also gained a 10. This shows how the audience views our opening differently and sees different faults within it.

6- If you had one word to describe this opening, what word would you use?

With the words we chose, we gave a variation of words to make it fair and to not be bias with the choices we give. The most common word we got was average with 40% of our target audience choosing this as their word. Satisfactory and good were tied for our second word. We got no 'poor' and got one outstanding which once again proves how the target audiences feedback differs with each individual.

Alterations To Our Original Idea

After we filmed our first idea, we came to the conclusion that it didn't work as well as we wanted it to and if we wanted to create a good horror film opening, we would have to alternate our idea a bit. We decided to create another initial ideas mind-map so that we could have potential ideas on how to improve our opening and make it much more interesting. 

We have decided to stick with the initial idea of using the woods, however, we have made some crucial changes. Firstly, we have taken the character count down to just one character, Crystal. We're going to start off in Crystal's room as she lays on her bed, scrolling through social media and listening to music. Her room will be feminine to fit her character description and her clothing will be casual but still will look fashionable. She will then receive a (anonymous) text which will tell her to meet someone in the woods by the lake. Apprehensively, she will get changed and make her way out to meet the mystery person. From this point the opening will be the same as originally planned as she will walk through the woods and she will then stop, sitting on the bridge over a stream and will listen to music through her headphones. You'll never find out who the person she is meeting is but, you'll hear a twig snap and her turning around to face that person. It will be left at a cliffhanger to leave suspense. 

We have decided that this idea would work much better than our original idea as it's less complex and focuses on one character rather than 6. This will mean that it'll be easier to get good shots of the character of Crystal and we can get the filming done more efficiently. The opening will be much more interesting now as well since you don't know what is going to happen to Crystal as the scene will end in a cliffhanger and will leave the audience in suspense. 

Filming: Evidence