What have you learned from your audience feedback?
After the conduction of audience research it is clear that many aspects of the film had their intended effect, with audience members understanding the use of features and the message as a whole. It also highlighted some areas I hadn’t considered before and any weaknesses the film may have had.
It was noted that inter-textual inspiration for the film was picked up on by the audience, with one audience member even linking ‘Cracked’ to ‘Alive In Wonderland’ on multiple occasions during the audience feedback. This serves the intended purpose to present these elements of the fantasy genre in the short by using elements from the genre that are familiar to audiences – which was probably aided by the purposeful stylistic similarities to the notes in ‘Cracked’ to those in ‘Alice In Wonderland’.
Audience members also seemed for the most part aware as to what was actually occurring in the narrative, commenting on how this was done effectively through visual storytelling. This was proved as audience members could retell what they had just seen and what was going in in the short film and how the cinematography gave clarity on this.
The audience also stated that the film was visually appealing and professional-looking, giving an indication that the cinematographic elements were used effectively.
Luckily from audience feedback it appeared comedic elements of the short film had the desired effect, with audience members laughing at the key stair-lift and ‘this is an egg’ moments. This helps to shape the identity as the film as involving conventions of the comedy genre, and the audience reaction confirms that this was carried out successfully in the process of creating the film.
Members of the audience feedback group were even providing their own take on ambiguous elements of the film, as was the intention – especially for the ambiguous ending. The result of this was a discussion and the creation of theories, which are often created by independent and ambiguous films. Often with real media products audiences can react by creating communities, often online, to discuss the film and their ideas and concepts which helps to establish a fan base from the audience of the film.
The audience also seemed to view the film as a product that didn’t belong to a specific traditional genre, often seeming confused when asked what genre the film belonged to. This proves the film comes across in the intended way, as an independent film that doesn’t subscribe to any individual traditional genre, by a combination of them. This, in itself, is a feature of the independent or arthouse film category – which clearly worked as when asked about the films genre, the audience described it as both ‘indie’ and ‘arthouse’. Also, features borrowed from genres seemed to be correctly represented as at a point the audience attributed the short film to the mystery genre, a genre that the film did attempt to draw inspiration and replicate conventions from.
Perhaps the main criticism of the film was the ambiguity of the ending, and how the audience would have liked a more definitive climax. I can see how this is a valid criticism with the multiple techniques used in the film to build tension, keeping audiences expectant for a pay-off, although the ambiguity of the ending was an intended feature. It’s possible that audiences are not used to such endings, expecting normalised narratives with resolution as is common place in the media. Due to the standardisation of traditional narratives by media oligopolies, it can be argues that audiences have become conditioned to no understand narratives that deviate from this narrative structure due to lack of exposure to such narratives. Even our intended audience, those interested in independent films, will often not be used to alternative narrative structures as most independent films will provide some form of resolution in an attempt to attract new audience members and maintain popularity by appealing to mass audience interests. For this reason, a media product that deviates from a structure to the extent that ‘Cracked’ does may not be understood due to the lack of prior familiarity with such narratives.
Although commentary on the cinematography was overwhelmingly positive, one audience member commented on the shakiness of the tracking stead-cam shots as a negative aspect of the film. The purpose for the inclusion of such a shot was to represent the disorientation felt by the protagonist at that point in the film, the feeling of being lost. It also intended to encourage greater immersion into the film by the audience as the camera attempts to replicate the movements of the protagonist, and the general movements of moving through the forest. Taking this into account, if I were to redo this perhaps I would try to reduce the shakiness of certain shots to achieve clarity of action, in a way that this could be done whilst still representing the protagonist’s journey.
In summary, I believe ‘Cracked’ achieves its intended effect and portrays its intended message, on the whole. The group in the audience research responded to the film in the ways that were mentioned in the annotations of the short film. Upon cross referencing the annotated shot film with the audience feedback, it seems the features annotated received a successful response, and appealed to the audience. If I were to repeat the project I would possibly add to the ending to create less ambiguity in order to provide the audience with more clarity - perhaps having another character find the egg after the protagonist throws it away. I would also be sure to sharpen up steadi-cam skills to film clear, flowing shots that aid the film’s appealing visual style.
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