Focus Group: Audience Feedback

As part of the development during post-production, it was essential that we attained feedback in order to identify what needed to be improved and then making these amendments. To do this, we gathered a group of volunteers who were of our target market and had them watch our film opening; from this, they then gave their feedback on it to which we made the amendments attached below. 

Editing Titles:

Firstly, it was mentioned that some of the titles were long as they were on one line when the credits appeared on screen; this was commented upon as, at times, the titles would over-lap important footage or be unreadable due to the background colour. For this reason, we cut some of the titles in down by putting them across two lines rather than one. 

Here, we put the production company association across two lines as originally, at certain points, the text covered the protagonists as she walked towards the shack. 

For similar reasons here, we put the names of some of the actors onto two lines as, due to the font colour, at times the text became unreadable. 

Editing Transitions:

Another suggested improvement was to alter some of the cuts between footage in order to improve continuity and avoid having harsh breaks or changes as this can become confusing to the audience. To solve the problem, we decided to add transitions to break the footage apart slightly, as detailed below.

Firstly, I made the clip of the protagonist lighting the match a little shorter to ensure continuity into the following clip.

In the interval between the two clips of footage, I then decided to add a transition, which I dragged from the right hand panel into the gap. I chose the 'Security' transition to coincide with the flashbacks added in the first clip and to also continue with the idea that the protagonist uses her phone (technology) to record her exploration.

To tie in with the beginning flashbacks of the film opening, I also
added the interference sound over this transition.

This shows the two Fade transitions
side by side.

As a group, we then shared this change with the focus group again to determine whether the change was effective. It was said during this meet that the security effect did not tie in as well with this here compared the flashbacks at the start; this was particularly due to the fact that the CCTV effect had not been applied for either clip of footage and thus, the interference effect would not have made sense. For this reason, I decided to amend the transition by using two Fade to Colour transitions side by side to create the illusion that time had passed.

I then used the Precision editor to alter the
lengths of the transitions.





Improving Continuity:

There is a clip in the film opening in which a stedicam long shot of the victim walking around the corner of the building immediately cuts to hand-held camera work from the victim's point of view as she walks around the corner. In our feedback, it was argued that the cut from the stedicam to hand-held was slightly off and thus, affected the continuity. For this reason, I edited the length of the first clip by extending it slightly so that the victim would be in roughly the same place as when the hand-held work then begins.

This screenshot shows the extension of the first clip. 

The footage between the black interval line and the red curser was
length of footage that I added. 

Adding Sound to Build Suspense:

One of the key improvements suggested was to build the sound further to build the tension at the point in which the killer first walks into the room; this is a pivotal point in the film opening and should therefore be emphasised and built up with sound. I chose to add an additional non-diegetic sound track to build suspense rather than any form of diegetic sound as I feel that this is more powerful.

Firstly, I imported the pre-recorded soundtrack into Final Cut and lined it up with the footage. I then cut the clip using the Blade tool after the peak drop. 

This screenshot shows the shortened clip being lined up more accurately; using the peak of the soundtrack, I attempted to line the soundtrack with the point in which the killer walks in. 

This shows the final soundtrack once lined up with the footage. 

Build-up to the Final Title:

Moreover, I also edited the sound for the title as it fades to black as it was mentioned in the feedback that, for the most important aspect of the opening, the build up and fade out was not very climatic. For the first attempt, I incorporated a shrill scream to represent the victim being burnt.

Firstly, I extended the length of the title itself to add
emphasis. This was achieved by simply extended the
length of the video. 

Next, I imported the diegetic Scream sound clip, to which I cut down to the size desired using the Blade tool.  

 

Using the mouse, I moved the clip to the ideal position, which was layered over the title, and enhanced the volume to allow for a jump scare for the audience.

This screenshot shows and enhanced view of the Scream sound effect
layered over the title.

After experimenting with this scream, however, I found that it did not fit in will with the rest of the narrative or at the position that the title was in. For this reason, we decided on a different approach, despite screams being a common convention of the horror genre; we decided to use fire engine sirens in order to tie in better with the narrative of our film opening. 



This screenshot shows the updated sound clip added to the title.



Adding Effects:



 
Additionally, there is a clip in the film opening whereby the protagonist is seen lighting a match and a 'Trails' effect was added to create the distorted or disorientated effect by layering the character. During the feedback session, it was identified that the effect stopped too earlier and made the illusion appear random and amateur looking. To solve this, I extended the effect to cover a greater proportion of the footage, which also helped improved the continuity as the effect was not abruptly stopped.
 

To do this, using the Blade tool, I cut the footage at a later point and added the 'Trails' filter to this clip.



The dotted line represents the cut that I made into the footage in order
to add the filter.

Evaluation:

 

In my opinion, gathering feedback from members of our chosen target market served to be extremely useful as they were able to pick out possible errors which may not have been identified by our group and therefore, suggesting improvements for them. I feel that the feedback gathered was very helpful and allowed us to develop our film opening further in order to better coincide with our narrative and genre choice. Overall, I believe that the improvements which we made compliment our film opening better than the previous draft.