Evaluation Task 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

There was a variety of feedback given to me about my production, the majority of which was positive. This was very pleasing because I felt I had been rewarded for the hard work and time we had invested and acted as motivation for completing my blog. However, we also received a lot of critical feedback on our trailer and blogs. This was crucial in the development of our blogs because we had the ability to make adjustments and change parts of our trailers and blogs to ensure they were completed to the best possible standard, utilising conventions when necessary. This feedback was gained from my classmates, parents and also teachers from our school, gained when we showed them our second draft.

Film trailer

Positive feedback

The layout and pacing of our trailer - The audience could establish that our antagonist would play a key role in the production and gave character insight while still masking his identity.

Continuation of thunder sound - The audience felt the impact of the knife drop was emphasised by the continuation of the thunder sound into the next shot.

Choice of camera shot - Wide variety of camera shots throughout our film to express a variety of effects successfully. Specifically use of a canted shot during the kidnapping scene.

Ending of the trailer - Sudden scream after Rosey was dragged away was a good way to maintain audience suspense and anxiety.

Professionalism of editing - The use of effects such as the dream and black and white effects as well as good allocation of shots gave our production a professional appearance.

Background music - The music in the second half of the trailer worked correctly with the storyline to contribute to the intensity and highlight the kidnapping.

Antagonist voiceover - The used of a deepening effect was enjoyed by the audience because the manipulation of his voice symbolised the corruption of his mind.

Negative feedback/possible additions

Lack of visual effects - Our original production was very one dimension in terms of the effects we used, we were told to include additional effects using our iMovie software.

Too much continuity - Our first draft gave too much of the storyline away and did not fit the discontinuous structure of a film trailer.

Antagonist introduction - We did not give enough insight into the introduction of the antagonist and his motives, meaning the plot was confusing in the trailer.

Addition of Daniella voice over - Rosey's friend had very little involvement in the trailer.

Lack of suspense in ending - The final shot and titles in our trailer didn't leave enough impact on the audience.

Not enough sound - Early parts of the trailer lacked atmosphere.

Changing of subtitles - The titles did not have desired impacts or were too long to read.

Change of characters - Aaron did not fit the role of detective because he did not look old enough.

Stage 1

Our second draft was presented to our teachers and they immediately identified the lack of visual effects in the opening section of the film. It was also the case that some of the editing did not appear fluent, leading to the overall appearance of the first section of our trailer appearing unprofessional and lacking intensity. Our initial edit involved an abrupt edit away from a zoom shot of the church that we included to show the transfer from the establishing shot of the church to the antagonist inside, giving information of setting. This shot was criticised for being too sudden and had negative impacts on the quality of our trailer. We then substituted this shot for a longer zoom into the clock on the church, still providing the information on setting but appearing more fluid. Furthermore, we also added an increased amount of effects, such as “dream” when introducing the protagonist to distort the shot, representing the distortion of the antagonist’s mind and providing more character development within the opening section.

Stage 2

The second stage in our production involved making key changes to our production. The first change involved the replacement of Aaron as the detective un our film because he did not look old enough to play the role. This lead to problems with realism and crime thriller conventions because Aaron did not represent a detective with experience, giving implications that the case is not significant because of using an inexperienced detective and reducing the impact of the kidnapping. Aaron also did not appear old enough to be a detective, meaning presenting his character was difficult because he did not conform to stereotype and the challenge to stereotype was not a useful one. To change this problem, we replaced Aaron as a character with George, a much older man who fitted the detective stereotype more, looking like a more experienced and a better fit to the role of detective. We then converted Aaron’s dialogue to a voice over with a clip of George looking at missing boards with s black and white font, symbolising that the voice over resembled the flashback of George talking to Rosey’s family.

Stage 3

Thirdly, we made changes to the titles used in our film after we showed the first draft to our classmates because they felt some did not make sense or were wasted by introducing the cast members. We changed “Some are not destined to be” and “For others there is no choice” to “Love may be for some…” and “But not for all”. This was much more easy to read for the audience as well as presenting more suspense by building anticipation between titles. These titles also make sense by clearly referring to love in the titles, giving the audience insight to the plot and showing that the reason behind the kidnapping is because the antagonist wants to be loved. Furthermore, the previous titles were not understood by some audience members and were used to introduce the stars of the film, meaning they were wasted because the stars appear in the ending title causing others to be unnecessary.

After showing these updated titles to the teachers they agreed on the improvements, agreeing they fitted the narrative better in maintaining the focus on love without typical stereotypical love-related connotations manipulating the plot and weakening the intensity.

Stage 4

The penultimate change we made to our production was in relation to the ending of our trailer. The ending of a trailer is a key part because it is the last thing that happens and can be the part that audiences remember most recent in their memories. After showing our parents the production, they believed the ending title did not create enough suspense and did not generate enough atmosphere to maintain interest in the production. This meant we had to make the decision to add effects or change the ending to the production to create the desired impact to maintain interest. The first change we made was to include a voiceover of the antagonist saying “love me” with a deepening effect on his voice. This connotes that the antagonist is speaking to Rosey and is demanding that he loves her, this closely follows Rosey’s scream and is effective in asserting the antagonist’s dominance and portraying the battle between antagonist and victim, creating the desired suspense.

Furthermore, we also included a shot of an empty swing at the end of the production. This symbolises Rosey’s disappearance and presents her playful and harmless nature. In contrast, the swing closely follows the antagonist saying “love me”, connoting that the antagonist was not loved as a child and the empty swing could represent the antagonist’s shortage of enjoyment in early life.

Stage 5

The final changes we made were the addition of discontinuity to our production. Upon showing our class, some students felt the trailer gave too much of the story to the audience, this meant the whole meaning of “teaser” trailer was lost because the entirety of the plot was given away, preventing the ability for plot twists and further introduction of characters. To counter this, we filmed footage using Aaron’s car that appeared to be in the antagonist’s point of view, this meant we had footage of after the kidnapping that created discontinuity, as well as George’s flashback that introduced the audience to the idea of the kidnapping without them knowing about the situation.

This discontinuity meant the plot could be manipulated in the main production and left the audience unaware about how the trailer would grow into the main film, allowing audience interest to be maintained and increasing opportunity for changes to narrative in the main production.

Film poster

Positive feedback

Continuation of font - Created synergy throughout advertisement campaign

Layout - Gave plenty of room for the main image while successfully promoting the film

Colour scheme - Connoted to crime genre with dark visual effects and red writing

Negative feedback/possible additions


Reviews - Guardian review does not fit colour scheme of poster, "Gripping" is difficult to read with branches in the background.


Visual effects - The filter originally used was too vibrant and did not represent the connotations of a thriller.

Lack of content - The first draft of my film poster was minimalist and did not include enough information.

Stage 1

The first change made to my film poster came when I showed my first draft to my teachers. They said that the colours in the photo were too vibrant and did not represent the antagonist enough. This was because the main image was reserved to ensure the antagonist's identity was masked, making effects and filters on the image crucial. I darkened the colour and added a high pass overlay filter to the image, this meant the lack of colour resembled the lack of love and compassion the antagonist has and the high pass filter makes the image appear higher quality.

Stage 2

My first draft was also criticised because there was a lack of content. This meant the poster did not provide sufficient information to attract an audience to my film as well as making the poster appear empty and less eye catching. To combat this I included the names of the two main characters above "Love Me", this introduced the audience to the two main characters, meaning they could be attracted to the film to see the characters perform. I also included a large amount of small print at the bottom of the poster, this allowed audiences to read other information about the film, including other cast members.

Stage 3

The final change made to my magazine poster was potentially the most significant. This included the removal of the second review from The Guardian. The reason for its' removal was because the blue writing did not match the rest of the poster and the light colours damaged the poster's connotations. The writing in my second review was also difficult to read and obstructed the main image of the tree, meaning the connotations from the tree of entanglement of Rosey were lost. In conclusion, my feedback suggested I remove one of the reviews in favour of having one review for my poster.

Magazine cover

Positive feedback

Background - Synergy between magazine cover and film titles

Other films - Good use of original images taken throughout the year

Banner - Bonus poster acts as additional purchase content

Negative feedback/possible additions

Too much empty space - Not enough information on the cover

Main image - Doesn't stand out enough from masthead

Lacking realism - Does not look like an authentic magazine cover

Stage 1

There was too much empty space in the middle of the magazine front cover and when the class was shown our cover they said it was lacking detail. To combat this we included advertisement of the films our classmates had created, such as Delerium and Here I Come, giving audiences more reason to buy the magazine and promoting films of similar genre and budget. We also included the academy awards logo for our antagonist, Henry. This presented Henry as a well known, successful actor and presented him as being worthwhile watching, as well as creating synergy with our film poster by his name being clearly recognisable.

Stage 2

Secondly, after showing my peers the magazine cover they said the main image was not distinctive enough on the magazine cover. This is because Henry is wearing dark clothes and has his face covered, meaning he does not have many distinctive features and is not a key part of the cover. To combat this we gave Henry's image a white drop shadow, this made him clearly stand out in the cover and emphasised him as the centre of attention within the magazine, emphasising the importance of Love Me.

Stage 3

The final criticism from my teachers was that my magazine cover did not have enough features to make the magazine cover seem authentic, in a way that it could be seen on shelves. To combat this, we included some key magazine cover conventions that we were missing. The first addition was the state when the magazine was published as well as the price, this informs audiences of when the magazine is from and how much it costs, key parts in consumer valuations of products. Furthermore, we also included a bar code to the magazine cover. This made the magazine appear more purchasable because it could be scanned at a till, promoting realism and making it appear available to consumers.