Evaluation Activity 3: Audience Feedback

Here is the video of our group evaluation, where we took a sample of media students and asked them to comment on our film, each person looking at a different area. This evaluation was useful in discovering what people thought of our film. It gave us an outside perspective, that we couldn't get, as we'd seen it slowly progress.
One of the first questions that came up regarded the role of Agent Davidson in our film, as he was seen in some of the earlier trailers for the film. This is part of our advertising campaign; Agent Davidson is a character from our last film Sins of the Martyr, so by using him it gives the audience someone to connect to, before introducing them to more unfamiliar characters. The earlier trailer was also more of a character trailer for Lee's character, this is similar to the advertising campaign for Les Miserables in which there was a special character trailer for the character of Eponine. On a more practical side, we hadn't filmed as much with me in it at that point, so we only really had footage with Lee in. Another question in regards to narrative was whether the trailer was chronological or if the clips were completely random. The trailer begins chronologically, showing first my character in exile, followed by his kidnapping, then his rescue, and then the rest of the trailer is an epic mashup of action sequences building towards the climax. Towards the end the clips are more random, but this is simply to reflect the non-stop action nature of our film.
Our evaluators were very impressed with our use of mise-en-scene, especially with our use of costumes to reflect the characters' emotions at certain times. An aspect that they found particularly impressive was our decision to use smaller weapons, rather than big machine guns, which made our film stand out from the generic Hollywood thriller. The smaller guns made it seem like more of a gritty British film, making it more believable. Another aspect of mise-en-scene that was commented on was our use of high-budget locations. Our trailer was filmed across three countries - England, France and Australia, so this gives it a very high production value. In the first 40 seconds of the trailer, there are multiple shots from 14 locations across two of these countries - England and Australia. Famous locations that we used included London, Brighton, the Isle of Wight, Paris, Perth (Australia), Waverley Abbey, Heathrow Airport and Ashtead - to name but a few. This wide range of locations made our trailer look as if it was taken from a full film that crosses many locations. These shots were collected over the course of a year, and there was over 3 hours of footage to select from, meaning that the shots that were included were the very best. This is similar to the way that it would be to create a trailer from a real film.
The amount of footage that we had also helped us to pick good camera shots, which is another aspect that was highly praised. I particularly like the shots that we filmed at Brighton, with the burnt down pier and Agent Davidson's silhouette framing the sunset over the sea. We waited in a cafe until sunset to achieve this shot, and it was worth the wait, as the shots came out extremely well. We were especially praised for our sweeping panoramic shots, such as the shot of the beach in Australia. Additionally, they were impressed by the way the screen flashes to white with the gunshots at the beginning, instead of using a conventional muzzle flash. This was a conscious decision we made to speed up the pace of the trailer.
Something that was questioned was the use of sound effects in the car crash at the beginning; it was asked whether there should be a sound effect of the bullet smashing the glass. This was an interesting comment, as we hadn't really thought about this before, however the bullet could have just as easily gone through the car tire, so we don't think it necessary to add the sound effect specifying where the bullet hit. Also, the only way the bullet going through the windshield would have stopped the car would have been to kill the driver, however in the succeeding shots Richard opens the door and kills the driver close up, so this can't have been the case. Therefore the bullet must have either hit the engine or the tires, and judging from the fact that the car had been going straight before the bullet hit, it must have hit the tires in order to make it swerve off the road. So we don't need a sound effect of the bullet going through the glass.
The evaluation was useful in seeing what we had done well and what still needed work. It raised some questions that we had previously not thought about, and helped us to reassess the effectiveness of our trailer from a different angle. We will have another of these evaluation sessions once the trailer is fully complete; this one was simply to help us see what we could adjust.