First draft filming questionnaire analysis

Our first question consists of well rounded responses with only a few minor responses for improvements. One of the improvements that we could do for out film was that some of the effects for some scenes were missing such as the red masks over Keighley's hair and some of the camera flashes. Some of the other responses said that the story was a bit dry, however we can fix this by adding more editing effects and transitions during the end scene to fasten the pace and to give it a more disorienting effect.

The next question we asked was did you understand the story from the first draft of the film. The responses we received from this were 100% for yes which was excellent for our feedback as it meant we did not have to alter the story at all for the film.

The third question that we got people to answer was did you enjoy our film. We also received exceptional responses from this as well with 100% of the responses being yes to the answer. This was good as it meant again that we did not have to alter the story or editing for the film for the enjoyment of our audience.

The fourth question that we had people answer was, what do you think was particularly good about our film. The responses ranged from the use of editing in the film, the stylistic choice to highlight specific colours. But also the black and white aesthetic as it is a contextual reference to Sin City. Overall the our audience feedback enjoyed the editing and stylistic choices the most so this gives us insight into us not having to focus on these elements and now try to improve other elements such as the overall story and camera work.

The fifth question that we asked our audience was, what could of been improved within our film. One of these were to use a cut between the photos being hung up and moving to being still, so for this we could use a transition such as a fade or dissolve. Another improvement that we received was that there are many basic edits and cuts, for this we could use more transitions and makes to make some of the transitions look more unique and different from others. Finally another improvement that we could make was that some of the flashes were refined, so for this we can tinker with them and try to refine the look of them.

The fifth question that we asked our audience was, who do you think the film is aimed towards. The general response that we received for this was that it was aimed at teenagers and the certificate would be 12A. This was good as this was the certificate and age that we wished to target. So we did not need to alter our film to so that it would target the audience.

The final question that we asked our audience was, where would you expect to see the film. For this we received varied responses with the majority being for other, which was 50%. For this people said that it would be either on a short film website or an evening television slot. The other 50% of responses said they would expect to see the film on an online streaming site or an independent movie site. None of the responses said they would expect to see the film In cinemas which was a response we expected to receive due to it being a short film.

Overall our responses were extremely useful as they gave us insight into the things our audience enjoy about our film but also what improvements we can make for out film as well. We will now go back to our film draft and make some of these improvements and then upload our final draft of the film.

Viral Marketing research

Viral marketing from ThemSlater

Films that are similar to ours

"The Man Who Wasn't There" and "Sin City"

• Two Separate stories, one involving a laconic, chain-smoking barber, and the other explores the dark and miserable town, Basin City, and tells the story of three different people, all caught up in violent corruption. Both films use the lack of colour to their advantage and work around using shadows and lighting to illustrate characters in different sides of the story. This kind of technique sets characters under the same radar of morality, making them more human than on a coloured screen, each with their own flaws and positive characteristics.

"Shutter" and "Polaroid"

• Horror films that revolve around the use of a supernatural entity and cameras, the first one following a Japanese photographer tracking down a ghost found in pictures that kill anyone inside the pictures, and another about a college student taking photos soon marked for death by a spirit inside the camera.

Post Filming Questionnaire (Click Here to view questionnaire)

After creating a first cut/virtually finished version of our film, we decided It was appropriate to ask our audience what they felt about our film, this led to the creation of a new survey in which we ask what the audience feel of the current version of the film and what they feel could be improved upon the film.
Below shows this question, in which you are able to answer it based upon the first draft YouTube clip post or the hyperlink supplied below:
First draft:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8AoKJUM0HE

Questionnaire:

Group Distributor

After careful consideration and individual research  we, as a collective, have decided that the distributor that would suit our film well would be Warp Films, this is because they provide many quirky qualities in their films that we feel is similar to ours.

Due to their independent status, they are perfect for a small film like ours and provide the many assets of an already established film company such as Warner brothers but on a smaller scale.

Warp films itself work particularly well in entertaining the audience and viewers of may films through their "Thought-provoking content" and their ability to win awards and cause controversy yet still entertain the viewers with funny, serious but "deeply human stories".

This uniqueness and oddity can be used advantageously with our film as it is based upon the disappearance of people with a weird narrative plot, that being the Camera we have. We feel as though this difference could provide a unique selling point to our film, that warp films could manipulate or use successfully.

In a distribution partnership with Warp films, we would also be able to reap the benefits of potential TV prestige and adaptations of our story. Due to their international ambitions, we are also able to reap the benefits of their partnerships with ITV Global allowing our film to be recognised in a global scale and not just here in the UK.
They also have partnerships that are able to produce films on DVD as well as being recognised due to their many successful films such as "Four Lions" and "This is England", which supplies them with a unique reputation that would aid a small film like ours.

Changes and new ideas

Upon completing the script and starting to film the first sections of the film, we realised it was heading to being over the target of 5 minutes this led to our group meeting together and discussing the many aspects of the film.

Changes discussed or implemented

• Due to the time restraints, we decided it was important to cut certain aspects of the film, this led to the following scenes being cut:
  - Photo of the cat/ disappearance scenes
  - Removal of the canvas disappearance scene
• Potential removal of Toms scenes within the dark room
• Potential removal of the mask of photos as it is proving difficult

These changes were discussed to ensure the films quality and story were not affected whilst also playing to that of the needed time frame.

Pre Filming Questionnaire Results

Our group decided it was important to gain some audience and film research to determine what we could base our film on. This led us to the creation of out survey questionnaires that were answered by a small community of people, they were all random people around our building to ensure there was no biased results within the questionnaire. Below shows the results gained in a summarised graph form or short answers.

This was the first question we asked our potential audience, this was used to help gain information about our audience and to help to target our film toward the audience. This shows that the main audience is of a young teen to young adult ranging from 12-24, this suggests that our target audience will be more tuned toward action or adventure whilst having interesting moments throughout the film.

The second question we asked, this furthered our audience investigation. This resulted in our audience being majority male, suggesting our questionnaire needed to be targeted toward them. This will probably result in the use of a main male actor rather than a female one or it will feature predominantly male characters around the audiences age.

 Question three delved deeper into the audience research asking what film the target audience were into. This stood out to us as even though action and comedy were the highest, mystery was also fairly high in the results. This was quite a shock as we had thought that the horror genre would be a higher choice. The selection of mystery also support our choice of story as our script considers the mystery and thriller genres.

 To conclude the audience part of the research we asked how the audience prefer to view their media, this showed that Cinema and DVD, although old, were still prominent forms of viewing the media. we also saw the more recent entry of media, with online streaming showing a predominant choice in our audiences viewing experience.
One odd choice however was the selection of viewers who said they preferred to pirate or illegally watch films. This suggested that if we were to publish our film DVD and theatres were still a form of exhibition that our viewers would be interested in, this suggests we should look into distributors whom are able to distribute films via DVD as well as online streaming due to its ever increasing prevalence of how we view media in today's modern age.

Question five starts to ask the potential viewers about what they think of our script, this question ask them what they particularly enjoyed about the pre-release script we supplied to the interviewees.
This shows that they particularly enjoyed the idea of our film idea and featuring a plot around people disappearing, they also suggested improvements to help aid the viewers experience allowing them to feel as though they were in a thrilling environment, they also compliment the importance of its "rising action" and "giving audiences breaks between events of climax. whilst steadily escalating the impact of said events." This suggests that the audience were interested in a new mystery thriller story in which this satisfys quite well.

The next question was a clarification question asking the audience what they thought the genre was, this would also help us to determine what direction the story should go, we personally want the story to be a mystery thriller with elements of neo-noir. The question reveals that our interviewees feel as though the story is of a thriller or mystery nature, confirming we are creating the desired effects needed with our ideas to make people think that the genre is mystery thriller.

Question seven was an important one for us as it determined what the ending of the story was. This asked the interviewee: "Which ending they preferred" out of "The main character exiting out of the dark room and fading to black" or "The main character taking a photo of himself and then stumbling about and disappearing"
The ending that was chosen was the photo one as it creates a more climactic ending suggesting that you must be careful with the power you have as the person himself unaware of the cameras mysterious power has himself disappeared due to its effects.

Question eight asked if the inclusion of a black and white effect that will make the film feel very mysterious and fit in with the neo-noir idea we had when creating the script. The interviewees are shown to be in support of this and the inclusion of highlighted colours that provide narrative plot points. This also provides a unique selling point to the story and film itself that many films do not have. This also makes our film unique to those within its classification and providing something different for people to watch.

Question nine asks what kind of certificate the audience would expect this to have, this was equally based at around 12/12A-15. However due to our research into BBFC film certificates our film is closer to a 12/12A due to its lack of harsh language and darker themes, however, due to the ideas of going missing it provides a darker twist of views in which many younger audiences may disturbing.

Question ten asked the audience their opinion of our suggested name for the film. after a vote this decided to be "Dark Room" and thus we put this to the interviewees opinion. Many of the interviewees agreed that based on the use of photographs and the settings the name "Dark Room" would be suitable for the film, suggesting it was important the film be named something along these lines

Question eleven and twelve were follow up questions that were provided in another survey as the creation method of the survey left 2 questions being unable to be added to the original survey. Question eleven asked the interviewees what kind of sound would be expected in a thriller film. Many options were suggested including: "eerie", "ominous" and "tension building" these are very specific as they are key concepts and conventions that provide a thriller genre of successfully meeting the standards that a thriller genre should have. 

Finally,Question twelve asks the audience what settings would be expected from a film of this genre, these answers were supported by the interviewees reading the script prior to the questions. The responses we gained included "Ordinary settings" as to provide an "inconspicuous feeling where something unusual happens" and "A house/simple street" to provide a realistic feel and provide the more suspense building atmosphere.

Overall I feel the questionnaire has helped to help us discover and decide aspects of our film and what may have more of an overall audience attraction to the film. This has helped us to improve our film and tailor it toward the audience and what they expect to see within our film for it to be successful.

Locations

This is one of the first locations that we will use in our film. It is our main protagonists house and is where he finds the camera. We will be using both the interior and the exterior of the house as our main protagonist goes outside after he finds the camera to practise taking photos.









This is the second location that we will be using in our film which is the cemetery/Park. This will feature one of the main characters Rose who will disappear when our character Roman takes a picture of them.





The third location is another park that we will use in the centre of the town. This will be where Roman sees the missing poster of Rose and then will rip it down and walk off confused.










This is the last location that we will use for our film which is the Dark Room in which Roman will develop the photos that he has taken with the camera and then seems to disappear when the camera flashes in his face.