Animatic Feedback

To collect feedback on our film concept we screened an animatic storyboard composed of photos and sound bites of audio and dialogue to convey the idea for our short film. To collect feedback from the audience we gave out questionnaires which we had viewers complete to collect qualitative and quantitate data regarding their opinions about the film and if they enjoyed it.

Transcript

1. Animatic Feedback To collect feedback on our film concept we screened an animatic storyboard composed of photos and sound bites of audio and dialogue to convey the idea for our short film. To collect feedback from the audience we gave out questionnaires which we had viewers complete to collect qualitative and quantitate data regarding their opinions about the film and if they enjoyed it
2. Animatic Feedback We collected feedback from the storyboard based on the first draft of our script. It received a wide variety of feedback and we believed that in order to compromise and cater for the opinions of our target audience we needed to change the plot of the short film. We made sure however that the structure and necessary scenes in the film were included in order to maximize the films popularity.
3. “Did you find that the film idea was easy to follow?” The quirky nature of our film shown via the animatic presented the common complaint that we needed to properly clarify why the two characters living in the house never came into contact with each other and the time of day also needed to be made clearer. Thus we have decided to alter the characters in the story to make the plot easier to follow and debatably more ‘realistic’. As opposed to having the paranoid man and anonymous old lady we have the man an his girlfriend living in the house. We also think it makes the film more accessible to our young target audience and more interesting as it addresses a real world problem of people who suffer from schizophrenia.
4. “What would you suggest doing to make the film comprehensible/easier to follow?” The general theme of answers we received were generally suggesting that we needed more detail and clarity within the story line as mentioned in the last question with the need to clarify how the two characters didn’t come into contact and what the main character is going through. We have taken into consideration the advice and comments made when producing our final script.
5. “Is the location fitting for the film?” We generally received good feedback regarding this question and we believe highly that we chose good locations to film. For our final script we actually decided to cut the work scenes keeping only the scenes in the house to give the film a more isolated feel, this also simplified filming of the film. However a number of people complained that the office scenes could have been filmed in a more realistic location and this has encouraged us to focus more on mise-en- scène and the stage dress of the location during the office scenes of our final production. This was to be expected though as we were just using our Media Studies classroom for the animatic as it was readily available to us but would not do this in the final film.
6. “What was the best part of the animatic?” A lot of people we screened the animatic to enjoyed the split screen montage at the start of our film. We recognise that this was an integral part of our film and this is a skillful technique that we took great care in creating and editing should also carry over to the final film and make it stand out. We also got a lot of people saying they enjoyed the excerpts of dialogue featured in the animatic which was very encouraging with regard to the quality of the dialogue in our script.
7. “What would you change about the film idea?” We got similar responses to earlier questions saying the clarity of the storyline and plot needed to be improved. The fact these comments regarding clarity were so prominent encouraged us to change the plot to create an understanding and captivating script for our final product.
8. “Do you think the split screen concept worked?” People loved the split screen idea as it made our film very unique and allowed us to introduce the two characters in an impressive way which was also time efficient compared to introducing both characters individually. We will definitely include this feature in the final product as it is distinctive and people really appeared to enjoy it.
9. “What would you rate the animatic out of 10 (10 being the highest)?” Overall we were given a 7 out of 10 (on average) by viewers. We think this is a positive average mark. Many people have brought up the idea the films clarity was not good enough, considering this 7 out of 10 average on marks is promising as people clearly enjoyed watching the animatic the plot just needed to be more relatable. 7
10. “Would you say our film has a suited amount of characters? If not what other characters would you add?” Nearly all participants of the questionnaire have said that they thought the number of characters and the characters personalities were all vital to the plot of the story. It was also suggested that adding characters to the plot could make it more confusing and we have very much taken this into consideration. This is also good as it conforms to the conventions of short film where films will only feature a limited cast to keep the narrative simple.
11. “Are there any other scenes you would include?” The main theme of answers we received for this particular question were centered around the elderly woman’s character and a large number of people thought that we should include more scenes with her in, in order to develop and explain her character in the story. This has led us heavily to the path that we are now taking with the final altered plot, placing a greater focus on the other character of the girlfriend at the start and end of the film to develop the character.
12. “Do you feel we used enough shots and angles?” We consistently got a similar response to this question. People were very impressed with our large variety of shots used. Many of which were also in favor of our split screen montage. This also demonstrated to us that the use of interesting camera techniques added to peoples enjoyment of them film, this was a large influence in planning are final shot list for the film which included more experimental camera techniques such as focus pulls, reverse tracking shots etc.