Evaluation - Question 3

3  What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The positive ways that the film developed was only possible because of the feedback from the audience. From preproduction, when we read the plot to members of the public and then answered questions about the film, we received feedback to consider such as assumed genre, whether the story line made sense etc.

Some of the audience considered the plot line to fit in the genre of crime, drama or plainly thriller. From this we decided that should adapt the film to involved more psychological conventions to ensure our film fits into the psychological thriller genre. The responses from the initial audience feedback was more focused on the violence in the film. This is a main element in the film as it is what ruins the Employers life and inspires his revenge, but I feel it is more important for the audience to focus on the message and the idea of the flashbacks rather than the violence. To tackle this issue we decided that we wouldn't only include shots of physical violence in the flashbacks, but of the setting in which it happened too. This was so that the audience would understand that, although, the violence is a huge indicator in the plot, the we did want them to focus on the meaning behind it and the irony of the setting that it occurred in.

When we decided to film, we kept in mind the non-linear narrative. We had to consider the audience and eliminate any possibilities of the audience becoming easily confused, especially by the flashbacks. Because of this we focused on making the flashbacks as obvious as possible. 
When filming the flashbacks, we wanted to make sure that you could tell that the beating was happening for no reason. It was a mugging and was committed with a purpose and there was a clear motive. When we filmed the scene when Kyle takes the Employer's money, we wanted to make the money the central focus. To do this we make sure that the money being physically taken from the wallet wasn't obstructed in any way so that the motive behind Kyle's attack was clear as this is what would eventually lead to the Employer's revenge plot.
We also had to consider the shots in the confrontation scene. Because the monologue was possibly the most important part of the film itself as it tied up the lose ends of the plot, I believe it was necessary that we use simple shots in the conversation scene. These are shots like shot-reverse-shot, over-the-shoulder-shot and establishing shot. This would mean that because the conversation scene is so simply shot and easy to follow, the important dialog would be easier to follow as the audience's concentration wouldn't be thrown off by any confusing shots.

Once all of the shots were filmed, we created a rough cut of the film to show to audiences and receive some feedback to be considered for the final cut. Responses varied and a main concern was that it was never apparent how Kyle received the box that was so important in the first place. This was something that confused the audience in the feedback and I feel that this scene is particularly important to the narrative. Because of this, in the final film we decided to completely re-shoot the first house scene and have it completely clear that Kyle receives the box and is told to go to another address. 
We also had a lot of respondents claim that they didn't truly understand why Kyle went to the houses in the first place. 

Before the rough cut was actually completed, we did have some class mates view the pre-rough cut. They also claimed that they didn't completely understand why Kyle was going to the houses. This was when we decided to film the scene where Kyle found the note in his pocket. I believe that this is the scene that would establish why Kyle was to go about to different addresses. 

After the rough cut finished, there was still some confusion over the films narrative. After looking further into the audience feedback, I found that a lot of the respondents didn't understand the plot again.

When we edited the very final cut of the film, we decided that instead of having to re-shoot the scene in which Kyle finds the note and have the contents of the note shown to the audience, we would record a voice over of the contents of the letter. I think that this was the element that clarified the beginning of Kyle's journey of why he travels to the houses. The voice over was also used as a sound bridge from one shot to another. I believe that adding the voice over gave the Employer an omnipotent tone, which showed him as powerful and, again, aided the way his character was viewed and went with the atmosphere we wanted to create. 

The responses to the final film were particularly positive. Respondents claimed that they understood the film a lot more now as most of them had actually seen the rough cut so had a clear comparison between the two films, therefore could comment on our development. Although, most of the respondents thought that the film was a psychological drama instead of our intended genre of a psychological thriller. This is something that I feel we would have helped by putting a lot more into the iconography of a thriller, but overall I feel that creating a dramatic effect is still effective. I don't feel that we lost the audience's grip and attention in anyway by this because the respondents still understood the message that we were trying to put across. The respondents still found the message of revenge and people changing that we were trying to portray and personally I feel that this is an achievement.

There are various interpretations of our film, especially when it comes to the final scene. It is down to the discretion of the viewer as to whether they find it appropriate that the Employer killed Kyle or not. We did receive some vast views but overall this is the kind of thing that we wanted to achieve. I think its extremely effective to allow an audience to consider things like morals and human nature, this is something that I consider goes hand in hand with a psychological thriller. This is because it considers elements of the human mind such as deep rooted revenge and allows the audience to consider what they would do in that situation or whether they accept Kyle's death.

Overall, I believe that it is down to the discretion and morals of the audience as to whether they agree with the message that we were putting forward in our film.