In terms of the viewers' first impressions, I feel we have achieved what we set out to. The interviewees mentioned that it was the visuals and the lighting that initially stood out to them, and one said that it was the combination of visual style and the dramatic voiceover that drew them in. In our Research Presentation, I mentioned that, due to the time constraints for our OTS, we would, 'really need to focus in and ensure that almost everything that we do; we put into it, is a signifier.' In using conventional film-noir lighting styles and including a dramatic and mysterious voiceover, I feel we have done exactly as I suggested, and it has paid off; our audience are drawn in to the world we have created.
Drawing the audience into our imagined world is important, but it is no good immersing the audience if you can't follow through and convey the correct ideas and emotions. To see whether we had made people feel the way we intended, we asked questions about the style and tension in the OTS. Our interviewees commented that the sequence had a 'dark atmosphere' which contributed to the mystery of the piece, and one person said that it was clear to them who the protagonist and antagonists were. I am glad that someone felt they benefitted from this clarity, as this is what I was trying to achieve when writing the dialogue; clearly showing the Femme Fatale as the antagonist whilst remaining vague on the subject matter of her speech.
The people we asked rated tension as above 5 on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the most tense), and there was evidence to suggest that the tension did indeed build as we had intended; one person said that the revealing of the Goon (towards the end) made them tense, and another said that the musics helped to build the tension towards the end. We also asked the viewers if they would have wanted to continue watching the film, and all said that they would, but for different reasons. One person mentioned the relationship between the voiceover and the final moments of the OTS, suggesting that this made them curious, and another person said that they were drawn into the story of the Femme Fatale. This is good, because the narrative purpose of the OTS was to introduce the Femme Fatale, and the viewers' recognition of her importance shows that this has worked.
When asked about the power of the characters, most of the interviewees talked about the authoritative nature of the Femme Fatale, but one person did state that they thought the Victim had the most power. Although this means that we failed in conveying our ideas correctly to all of our viewers, the varying interpretation doesn't detract greatly from the OTS; it is intended to be mysterious, and a variety of audience interpretations can only enhance this sense of doubt.
The general opinion of our interviewees was that people above the age of 15, but mainly those of late 30s to early 50s, would enjoy the film most. Some justified this by stating that younger teens and children may be put off by the monochrome visuals, and would most likely be confused by the relatively complex plot. In terms of place of exhibition and genre classification (disregarding film-noir), the general consensus was that, based on the OTS, our film would be shown at an 'art house' cinema and would be classified as a 'thriller' or 'psychological thriller.'
Overall, I feel that these individual sessions worked well, and much of the feedback confirms that we have succeeded in achieving what we originally aimed to. What has been interesting is hearing the in-depth personal feedback that cannot be extracted from large audiences. I feel that listening to the viewers' opinions of the OTS has highlighted the importance of our collegiate method of approach; tackling different factors of the OTS individually and then piecing them together has resulted in an overall high-quality product that meets the standards we set. The result may have been very different if we hadn't clearly distributed the workload and had simply started contructing our piece from all angles.
No comments:
Post a Comment