Evaluation Question 3

3  What have you learned from your audience feedback? 

In order to get the best out of our story line, we highly relied on audience feedback throughout the whole process of creating our end product. During the production, we were sure to show members of our class rough cuts and ask for advice on certain aspects of our film, and the feed back we gained from our video questionnaire was taken on board as soon as we received it. Having this feedback allowed us to work closely with the audience we were aiming our film towards, and get the best outcome possible.

Using BBFC, we quickly set upon finding a suitable classification to fit out storyline and any initial ideas we had discussed during lesson. Having a basic idea of who our film should be aimed towards meant we could set upon making ideas written on paper come to life, and scrap any inappropriate scenes. After looking at the middle age restrictions, 12, 12A and 15, which were the most suggested in our video questionnaire, we felt our story line would fit most comfortably under a 12A. Here is what we would need to keep in mind during the creation of our film, according to the BBFC official website:

- Moderate violence

- No emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted

- Action sequences and weapons may be present at 12A or 12, and there may be long fight scenes or similar. 

- Weapons which might be easily accessible to 12 year olds (such as knives) should not be glamorised.

- Sexual violence, such as scenes of rape or assault, may only be implied and must also have a strong contextual justification.

- Moderate physical and psychological threat is permitted as long as horror sequences are not too frequent or sustained and the overall tone is not disturbing.

- Dangerous behaviour (for example hanging and suicide) may be present lacking details which could be copied or present those activities in a manner that children are likely to copy.

- Anti-social behaviour should not be endorsed.

- There may be infrequent sight of drugs misuse in a 12A or a 12 but the portrayal should not be glamorised or provide instructional detail.

- Sex may be briefly and discreetly portrayed

- Verbal sex references should not go beyond what is suitable for young teenagers. 

- Comedy may lessen the impact of some moderate sex references or innuendo but frequent crude sex references are unlikely to be accepted at this category. There may be nudity in 12A films but nudity in a sexual context should only be brief and discreet.

- Sex and sex references are treated the same irrespective of sexuality

- Any discriminatory language or behaviour will not be endorsed by the work as a whole. Aggressive discriminatory language (for example homophobic or racist terms) is unlikely to be passed at 12A or - - 12 unless it is clearly condemned.

- The BBFC's Guidelines state that strong language (e.g. 'f***') may be passed at 12 or 12A, depending on the manner in which it is used, who is using the language, its frequency and any special contextual justification.

Overall our film gained positive feedback. No one found any major faults with our films, and any criticism we gained was given constructively and was easily justified. We were very pleased with how our film was received, and found that our thoughts were conveyed effectively. Many people agreed with out certification being 12A, and although there was a mixture of genre suggestions, we gained many Psychological Thriller/Drama answers, which is the genre we hoped people would identify the film as. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the film, however very few though it would suit a mainstream cinema, only online download and streaming, however we did have one or two local cinema propositions. Our main aim was to entertain our audience, and from the results of our final questionnaire I am confident in saying we achieved that.