Rough Cut- Miss Miller

As a group we created and presented a rough cut of our thriller sequence to our peers. The point of doing this was so that our peers could give us constructive criticism and feedback on our work so, we could then undergo further editing and make changes to our thriller for the better. Our rough copy included credits, the scenes themselves, minor editing techniques and sounds. Our groups rough copy was significantly different to the other groups as we had not finished filming, meaning our rough copy was not a clear interpretation of our ideas. However, for other groups, their rough copy displayed their idea to the viewers and a clear outline of what the final piece will be like.

In order to receive feedback we exported our video on to youtube and created a presentation on PowerPoint for our classmates to view. The presentation consisted of slides explaining our narrative, how we created our video, our inspirations and what we are trying to achieve as well as a slide explaining our further filming to be taken out. It was important we got feedback from our audience on the presentation and the video as our audience will be the ones who will be viewing our final piece so, it is important we have a criteria that fits them. As a group we would then look at the feedback and take all the points into consideration for our filming that was to take place the week after. This meant we could really take the feedback and put it into action.

In order to collect feedback, sheets were handed to the class that consisted of a grade they would give it, what went well and ultimately even better if. The class would fill these sheets out within their groups, coming up with the answers as a team and then would give them to our teacher who would, hand back all our feedbacks to us at the end. The sheets were anonymous meaning that the group could give honest feedback, which will really help us in the long run. Overall the feedback we were given, was expected as we knew we had a lot to improve; hence the planning to film again. We received some positive feedback also, which we found really refreshing and the positives were all things we were intending on keeping when we filmed again, so, it was good to have had our ideas confirmed and to know our audience were behind us.

After collecting our feedback and reading through the sheets with great care as a group, we were then able to discuss how we were going to make these improvements. For example one improvement we found was to incorporate more sound for suspense and enigma. Straight after hearing this, we took out research of sounds we could use in our thriller, and placed them into our rough copy. We then asked a member from another group what they thought of the additional sound we had incorporated in order to check that we were fulfilling our audiences needs correctly. By doing this, we are really reaching out to our target audience and always keeping in mind that they are the people we are aiming to please within this whole creation. As a group we are really strong at baring this in mind and it is always a question when deciding on new ideas.

Overall the activity was a really effective one that we took out as a class as, it allowed us to improve and tweet our thrillers to make them as effective as possible to the viewer. The improvements allowed our group to know what to do within our further filming and to understand exactly what needed to be done and for what purpose, where as, the positive feedback gave our group the real confidence boost we needed that our filming had real potential. By having this confidence boost it will mirror within our work as we will now know, that everything we are doing has been confirmed and backed up. The task ultimately was a success and will help us greatly.