Evaluation: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After exporting our film during editing, we screened our rough cut to a small audience of people our own age who would be a large part of our target market and asked for their feedback. They commented on how the message of our film and the sole intention of it was well and strongly conveyed. The mise-en-scene was praised for portraying Amelia in the intended light; they remarked how her costume made her appear frail and depressed as she is clad in dark colours and large, unfitting clothes. They commented that the mise-en-scene of Amelia's bedroom was effective in portraying an average teenage girl, and also how her pyjamas conveyed innocence in their child-like fashion. This was the desired reaction, as I wanted her pyjamas to portray her innocence and femininity and create sympathy for her, as the pyjamas highlight how she is really very young yet dealing with stress and pressures which are really too much for her own age. They also remarked on how her make-up portrayed her as washed out and "ill looking" which again, was the desired effect.
On a more negative note, they said that the sound levels needed adjusting, especially in the canteen scene in which the background noise is too loud, drowning out Amelia's voice. Also, there was some confusion about this scene, and we noticed for the first time that Amelia actually walks out of the canteen with the items she says she can't pay for. We attempted to fix the sound levels by lowering them, but when we did this, Amelia's dialogue was lowered as well. To make our film better, our only option is to either cut the scene completely or re-film it, perhaps removing the dialogue from Amelia, and just portraying the fact that she has no money with images alone, rather than words.
Overall, the comments we received were positive, the main issue being the canteen scene, which hoards most of the problems.

Once we finished editing the film, I screened it to an audience in order to collect feedback. In order to do this, I created a questionnaire asking questions about the film;

• How effectively do you feel the overall message of the film is conveyed?
• What are your thoughts on costume and set design?
• Did you understand the films meaning and purpose?
• Did you find the film entertaining? Please explain why.
• Do you have any feedback about sound and lighting (including the soundtrack)?

From this questionnaire, I found that in general, the overall message was conveyed effectively, and each person we screened the film to understood the story and the messages and themes. In general, the collective response regarding costume and set was positive, and several people commented on how the costumes of Amelia and Hilary especially, created the desired effect; noting the distinct contrast between the two. Several people commented on how the film was entertaining because it drew them in and they were constantly questioning what was going to happen, and the final scene gained a positive response, and generally was found to be moving. Sound gained a positive response, and ths soundtrack was said to be "fitting" and "not too upbeat, yet not too sad" and that it "fits in with the pace of the film." However, again the sound in the canteen scene was said to be "too loud." The lighting in the final scene was praised for its "dramatic effect" however the lighting in the second shot where Amelia gets out of bed was said to be "too bright."