Daniel Hopkins

Final Major Project Audience Feedback

Daniel Hopkins

For the first question in my survey, I asked what the respondent’s gender was. I mainly did this in order to gain an insight into what females thought of the short film (you can view individual responses), as it was generally aimed at male audiences due to its content and themes. However, I also asked it as I just wanted to document what the genders were of the people who viewed the film. Of the nine respondents, three were female (33.33%) and six were male (66.67%). This is slightly biased in favour of males, but I do not think that this affects my results as the short film was mostly aimed at a male audience.

For the second question I asked how old the respondent was. I did this as I wanted to see how age affected the opinions on my short film. This is because the short film is generally aimed at a younger audience, due to its story and themes. Of the nine respondents, four were aged between eighteen and twenty-five (44.44%), three were aged between thirty six and forty five (33.33%) and two were aged between forty six and fifty five (22.22%). I think that this is a good varied amount of ages. I am glad that the majority of people who responded were young, as my film is aimed at younger people. However, I wanted to see if my comedy attracted older people and so I am glad people in older age groups completed the survey.

Daniel Hopkins

The third question I asked was an outright and simple question: Did you enjoy the short film? I gave options of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’, as well as ‘Unsure’. I think I should have given the respondents more options, as they may have been stuck somewhere in the middle of unsure and yes/no. However, the results were still overwhelmingly positive, with all nine respondents selecting ‘Yes’ (100%). I am extremely pleased with these results, as it shows that all of the people who viewed my short film enjoyed it. Though they may not be fully enthusiastic about it due to my mere three answer option, the results are still very positive. I think this shows that my short film was a good, solid piece of work and wasn’t bad or unwatchable.

For the fourth question, I asked the respondents who their favourite character was in the short film. I listed all of the characters except the teenage boy, the girl character and femininity, because none had a major comedic input. Of the nine respondents to my survey, four selected ‘Libido’ as their favourite character (44.44%), three selected ‘Intelligence’ (33.33%) and two selected ‘Common Sense’ (22.22%). These were definitely the strongest characters in my short film and I personally thought they had the best jokes, lines and interactions with other characters. Libido is quite a sexually driven character who alludes to ‘love making’ and other things, which is what I think made him a funny character. I also think that in this instance the costume and music played a big part as well, as they add an extra level of depth and zaniness to the character. Intelligence is also quite a funny character and

I think his deadpan approach to everything is what is attractive about him. I think that his interaction with Common Sense and his lash out at Sloth are also what makes him a good character. Common Sense is the main character and he has the most lines of anyone in the short film. He is the orchestrator of what is

Daniel Hopkinsgoing on around him and I think his various interactions with the different characters is what makes him funny. A lot of his humour comes from his responses to other characters. Overall, I am very glad that the respondents preferred a select amount of characters instead of it being a liberal spread. This is because it shows I have created good, solid characters who are liked by many people.

For the fifth question, I asked the respondents to rate the short film out of 10. I am very pleased with these results, as they are very positive. One person rated it seven (11.11%), two people rated it eight (22.22%), two people rated it nine (22.22%) and four people rated it ten (44.44%). The average rating is subsequently just over nine. I am very happy with these positive ratings as it shows that that the general consensus amongst the respondents is that my short film is very good. I am extremely happy about four people rating my film ten out of ten, as it shows how much people enjoyed it. I did not expect for my film to receive such high ratings and for it to exceed my expectations in such a fashion was fantastic.

For the sixth question in my survey, I asked the respondents what they enjoyed the most. I did this in order to get a more detailed insight into what people enjoyed. As can be seen, there are many different reasons as to why people enjoyed my short film. Many people cited the humour, jokes and comedy as the primary reason as to why they enjoyed it. Others also enjoyed the way the film had been edited, such as the way it had been put together and the various camera angles. Some respondents also enjoyed the general concept and one person also wanted a follow up. Other reasons people enjoyed it include the portrayal of different emotions and the interaction between the characters. I am very pleased with some of the reasons why people enjoyed it, including the

Daniel Hopkinsinteraction between characters and the comedy. These were two of the main things I hoped to achieve when creating my short film. The responses also allow me to see what things people enjoyed in particular- which would enable me to cater for more people and expand on their preferences if I was to do a similar project in the future.

For my final question, I asked the respondents what they didn’t enjoy about the short film. Of the nine who took the survey, two skipped this question, for an unknown reason. Of the seven, four answered with variations of ‘Nothing’, including ‘N/A’, ‘Nothing of Note’ and ‘Enjoyed it all’. I am very pleased that people responded in such a way but, I feel that this may be down to sentiment rather than completely ‘honest’ feedback. However, I may be wrong, with those particular respondents actually not being able to find any flaws. One response to the survey was ‘Would have been nice to perhaps include the female character or include her in a further storyline’. This shows that the person wants to see the female character more but, I do not think that it would be appropriate for her to

appear more, as she is not needed for anything else other than being a plot device. Another suggestion was that the editing could have ‘maybe been a bit better’. I agree with this and understand the feedback. I think that certain elements of my short film had slightly lacklustre editing and so I think that there could be improvements in that area. Another person says that ‘the sound at the end needed some improvement’. As I mentioned in the main evaluation, I had trouble with the female character’s audio for the final scene, as I had to cut and piece it together as well as speed it up. It definitely needed improvement but with the time and resources I had, it was the best I could do. Overall, I am pleased with the answers for this question.

The questions in this survey have allowed me to gain an insight into different opinions on my short film. The mass majority of the answers have been extremely positive and I am very grateful and proud for this. The feedback I have received will help me during any similar projects in the future, as I now know various things that people do and don’t like in the genre.