Construction: Rough Cut Feedback and Evaluation

Today we presented our rough cut to a group of our peers, both media and non-media students. I believe their opinions are valid as they actively consume media products constantly, maybe more than any other age range, so they can judge our film as they would any other media product. Also, the media students can judge more technical aspects of the film and suggest specific improvements. Although this particular audience is not our target audience for the piece, we are not trying to present this to them for them to like it at this stage, we are looking for more constructive criticism for both technical issues and creative decisions. At a later stage, after we have took onboard this initial feedback, we plan to exhibit our piece to a group of our target audience members and take feedback from them. Overall, it is important to show our peers FIRST, since they can help solve general problems that can apply to any product, not just a specific genre. For example, they may point out a bad framing in a shot and therefore it is irrelevant if they are our TARGET audience or not.

First, we played our film to this audience twice for them to watch and then judge. Next, we played the film again but recorded the screen as a screen-cast. If anyone had a comment to make, we could pause the screen and maybe replay the scene as they make their points. This will be particularly helpful whilst reviewing the feedback from this session.


The feedback is in two parts that follow on seamlessly:


Rough Cut Feedback and Analysis Part 1





Rough Cut Feedback and Analysis Part 2






Main points that we plan to take on board from this session include:


PART ONE

• At 1:35, the point is raised that the soundtrack includes foley sound that portrays a busy office, which does not match the image of David alone. 
• At 3:18, the point that the slow-motion replay of David knocking the photograph off the desk is not naturalistic and not in-keeping with the rest of this scene.
• 4:42 - Shaky camera, shot is too long and foley sound is unrealistic. Camera shakes so much, it makes it seem POV.
• 5:00 - Soundtrack is good and effective.
• 7:45 - Foley sounds are unnecessary.

PART TWO

• At 0:44, the crane shot is very effective.
• At 1:00, the foley sounds are too loud and unnecessary - 'less is more'
• At 2:00, the sound doesn't sync with the image and is too loud.
• At 3:42, the camerawoman can be heard saying 'recording'.
• At 5:50, the point is raised that credits should be added at the end that list the crew, scrolling text is ideal. 
• Overall, rating of around 7/10.

We now plan to take onboard these comments and address every one of them to improve our film.