Prelim Criticism!

I was happy to see that I received 15 comments on my Media Studies prelim film, posted on YouTube, over the past two days. These are even more useful to me as most of my viewers slot into my potential target audience (young females around the ages 16-24 years). The criticism I received was incredibly helpful and encouraging. I now feel more confident than ever about producing this film.

The feedback was mixed. Many people felt that I had used a good variety of camera angles, which is something I would of course emulate in my final piece. However, six viewers suggested that over the shoulder shots would have been a nice addition (I will remember this for my film opening) and that perhaps my close up shots should have been at shoulder level rather than being so close to the face. However, I am a huge fan of close up shots and shallow depth of field so I may continue to do this in my final film.

Another issue that was highlighted by three viewers was a distracting image in the background of my two shot. This is something I should be more careful about when shooting my final film. All irrelevant scenery should not be part of the mise-en-scene. At the time I felt the chosen setting was not relevant enough. The mise-en-scene of a college is not in keeping with the narrative of a job interview. An office and more professional attire would have been more suitable.

A couple of viewers felt the audio was easy to understand and complimented the flow. However, four viewers felt that the actress on the right needed to slow down the delivery of her lines. The girl has a strong Wigan accent that was difficult for my audience (made up of mostly USA females) to understand. Furthermore, it is clear that both girls did not know their lines and were reading from a piece of paper. 

As highlighted in the image above, two viewers felt lighting was an area that needed to be improved upon. However, another two viewers felt that lighting was a positive aspect of the film. In order to make sure my lighting it perfect for the final film I will be sensible about which times of day I choose to shoot (e.g. I will not shoot at night). I may also choose to use my studio lighting. 

Most people were impressed with the editing and continuity, which was the main goal of this task. A final criticism I received from just one viewer was the suggestion of using a tripod throughout, as early shots are unstable. I will keep this in mind when shooting my two-minute film opening and only use handheld shots for suspense. 

I feel like I have learnt a lot from this prelim task. The feedback from my target audience has given me a lot to consider. To further my research, I now plan on creating a survey on the site 'Survey Monkey' to receive further feedback, centred around the horror genre, from my target audience.