Evaulation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?



2. How Effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?



3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

To get a final better focused opinion on my film I asked some people from my target audience to give their opinion on the film, I focused on teenage girls as they were more prone to romance and open to the homosexual elements of the film and I asked them do it online so that I could get opinions from a range of people on an international level including:
Katy, 15, England
Florencia, 16, Argentina
Jordyn, 17, US
Claudia, 19, Spain
Nicole, 14, US
Frances, 16, US

What are your instant thoughts having watched the film?

The response was pretty much the same here ranging from Katy’s ‘really sweet, cute’ to Florencia’s stronger response ‘love can be possible, no matter if you’re a boy or girl’ I was really flattered she felt she connected so strongly with the issue and that made me feel that alone made me feel I must have done something right. And incredibly Frances said ‘I really really loved the film actually I showed it to some of my friends’

Are you satisfied with the ending?

Again the general response was yes. Jordyn and Nicole both said they saw it coming although they sort of like that, both felt it was ‘heart-warming’. Claudia said she was delighted because ‘to [her] it was unexpected’ although afterwards she felt she should have expected it.

Throughout the production people have said they could see the ending coming, it is one of the films weaknesses as it’s supposed to be a twist really. I think by cutting out the middle scene that helped put a bit more pace in it making it harder to predict but it was never going to be perfect. I also cut off the lenghy slightly anti-climatic scene on the end in which Joe and Michael work out their relationship and almost everyone was happier with this. People liked the idea of them staying together or being able to invent their own version of what happened next. Although Jordan said she would have liked more of a definite conclusion.

What genre would say it fits into?

Everyone instantly responded ‘romance’ whilst two added that it could have also been drama. I was surprised that they were able to be so definite as I’d steered away from any obviousn genre conventions but I was also pleased they saw the film as a love story and a connection between Joe and Michael.

How do you think it could have been improved?

A mixed response here. Katy noticed a couple of shakey camera shots but she said these were barely noticeable, I’m personally happy with the camerawork. Florencia and Nicole said the sound was difficult to understand in places and this has been a worry throughout my production. I’ve responded to past feedback by tweaking the sound levels but the low guitar notes still resonate uncomfortably in places and this seems to be unfixable. If I was doing it again I’d experiment with the distance of the microphone from the guitar.

What are your feelings towards the characters?

The characters for me are the most important part of the film. A couple of people, in particular Jordyn, felt the acting wasn’t up to standard and I was aware of this. Matt and Bobby were both unexpirienced and had to be pushed a lot when filming. Especially since Matt had difficulty learning lines.

Some of the feedback here however was fantastic. I learned that my target audience were mostly introvert and socially awkward and so related very well to Matt. Claudia ‘[felt] sorry for’ Joe and Frances was ‘able to identify with’ the characters ‘right off the bat’. From their apparent response to the ending it seems they grew to care for the charectors which was of course very flattering and I was quite honoured.

Do you feel this poster and film review are in keeping with the spirit of the film?

I initially forgot to link my test audience to the poster and review so many of them did not answer this one, however Nicole, Claudia and Frances all said they felt the poster had a very professional look and reflected the film well. Nicole in particular said she liked the original look of it. Although Frances said if she’d seen it in isolation she would have thought the boys would be fighting over a girl, I didn’t mind this, I preferred that the poster didn’t give everything away but the feel of the film and aroused curiosity.

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?