Teacher/Audience Feedback

Teacher's Feedback


Before creating our video, we wanted to gain feedback on the direction that we were taking. We thought that getting feedback now would be a good idea as it allows us to get another perspective and we get to see what possible audience members think of our concept with time to alter bits which can be made better.

The first people we wanted feedback from where our teachers. Both teachers gave positive feedback on our idea saying that the "abstract ideas were synchronous with the lyrics." The teachers were also excited about the stop motion aspect of the idea as, if done successfully; it will be an extremely effective technique to use to get the message of the video across. They gave us a quick tutorial on stop motion and the best way to achieve the effect we wanted; including working out the number of shots we would need to take to make the stop motion look as professional as possible. Another aspect that was liked in our idea was its link to postmodern society today and the message that it carries with it. They stated that the video would be easy for a teenager to relate to and so we would successfully attract our target audience if we stick to our current concept.


To help us, they took us through aspects of the mark scheme which could help us get the top grades and gave us something to strive for. The main aspect that they told us to concentrate on was the editing. As our piece is heavily reliant on the editing process to be fluent, they gave us some tips on how we could alter certain aspects of the video to make the editing stage slightly easier but equally as effective, for instance the way we shoot some of our footage.


They set us various targets to achieve in order to get a higher grade. These were:


• To look into the copyright on the various cartoon clips which we want to feature in our video.


• To use a more varied selection of shot compositions to gain a better overall perspective of the meanings we are attempting to portray.


• To think about our mise-en-scene in a more detail.


• To not be too ambitious with what we were trying to achieve.


After the meeting with our teachers, we looked into the various copyrights on the clips and on the song. However, we found it hard to locate the correct adresses and with the majority of companies being based in the USA, it would be time consuming to contact all of the parties with an official letter. We did however send various emails and are awaiting replies.


We also took the shot compositions into account as we did want to try and include more complex shots into our piece. We altered some of the shot types and added in extra compositions such as graphic matches. This improved the idea as we could use these technical aspects to create a deeper, more emotive meaning to the video.


We also considered the amount of mise-en-scene we had included and decided to make a more detailed plan on how we could use the mise-en-scene to aid in the creation of the messages we wish to portray.


We thought about the amount of ambition in our idea, and do realise that we are trying to achieve something that will be complex to create. But we believe that if we stick to our plan and complete each stage with a certain amount of precision, we should be able to accomplish our concept in a successful way.


Audience Feedback


As well as feedback from our teachers, we wanted feedback of someone who was part of our target audience, and so we asked a fellow group in our class to look at our ideas. We pitched them our concept and asked for their views. We got positive feedback off the group who complimented the amount of research we had done into the band and the song. We believed this was important as it helped us gain an understanding of the messages in the song and what the band were trying to achieve from the song. This then helped to influence us. They also liked how we had taken aspects which had been successful in our AS portfolio and incorporated them into this as it shows how eager we are to improve. For example, the use of a flashback at the very beginning stemmed from the success we had with the flashbacks in our AS piece.


The group also stated that or song choice was extremely fitting for what we wanted to portray. They also noted how the song and it's lyrics would appeal to people of our age and help them to relate to the video, even without previous media knowledge.


We asked the group to provide us with some constructive criticism and ways in which we could improve our idea. Like our teachers, they said that we needed to improve the shots we plan on including and make them more complex to fit with the complicated structure we plan on having in our video. They also stated that this would improve the deeper meaning we are striving to achieve. They also worried that the complexity of our idea would be off-putting for people as it could be quite confusing with only having one actor.


From gaining feedback, we can improve the idea to gain better marks and to get our meaning across more accurately. We are slightly worried with the complex nature of our ideas, as we understand them clearly but other people may not understand the concept behind the piece. We have decided to use the filming and editing process to make our meaning clearer to the audience.