Audience Feedback- Our survey

These are the questions we used for our survey, which was to be completed by people once they had seen the final product of Oblivious.

The two main age groups who completed the survey were 15-19, and 24+. This was a positive as both of these age groups fall into our desired target audience. Therefore we knew the right people were watching our product which was great for us, as they will understand it more and can maybe leave back more critical and meaningful feedback. If the survey was completed by people who are younger, as said in the evaluation they may not understand it as much and may not be able to leave as good critical feedback and comments.

It seems the people who answered the survey think that the lighting and camera work fit the conventions of Thrillers the most. This was a relief to us as it means the harder work we put into these two areas has paid off ultimately, due to the fact that people find the lighting and camera work in Oblivious the better features of it. However it seems no people put down Costume for the convention that met Thrillers the most. This wasn't too surprising I thought, as ultimately our costume was fairly standard, if we were to do Oblivious again I think we should do something differently to make the costume more memorable or iconical. I was also happy that people thought the music and plot met the conventions of Thrillers. We thought our plot was Thriller-esque as we included political associations and real life situations that relate to terrorism and radicalism.

10 out of the 10 people who answered the survey said they enjoyed Oblivious. This was very good to hear and it can suggest we did our job when it came to creating a thriller; once the people had watched it they said they enjoyed it. Also suggesting they found some features of it thrilling which led to their enjoyment of the video.

When asked who they think the target audience would be for Oblivious, they said the age groups of 15-19 and 24+, which were the two highest categories. This also was a good sign to us as perhaps the audience noticed the controversial nature of Oblivious, as we did, so they thought the target audience for this product should be more mature. The audience realizing this too makes me feel that Oblivious did its job as being a short, controversial thriller opening that will make the viewer think about what they just saw. Hence as a result, the people who answered the survey assume the target audience for this piece should be a bit older in age so they are fully aware of what it is they are watching.

The people who answered the survey also thought that the sub-genres Oblivious falls into the most is psychological thrillers, and crime thrillers and political thrillers, these were the top three categories. I was quite surprised at how psychological thriller was the most common, along with crime, this is because I don't think Oblivious comes under a psychological thriller, but however a political thriller or crime thriller for definite.  This is because Oblivious has all the features of political and crime thrillers, such as themes of terrorism and mass violence,  however the features of psychological thrillers isn't as much.

Everybody said they want too see more of this film if they could. This was encouraging, which like said before, suggests we did our job well in creating a thriller opening and luring in our audience into the world we created for this product.

One improvement said how if the protagonists face was more clear in the close up shot. However I am unsure whether they are referring to camera quality or the shot itself. If it is the shot itself, it was intended to not fully show Joseph's face as it keeps it ambiguous and so you don't ever fully see his face in the opening bomb assembling scene. This I feel, keeps the tone of the opening more mysterious and unsettling, because if we kept showing his face in screen it will probably take away from the ambiguity of the situation and may make it feel more forced.

The Evaluation

Oblivious- AS Media Coursework- Final Cut

It's finally here! This is our last and final cut of our AS Media coursework, Oblivious.



I can say for sure that I'm really proud of our group. We have bought our initial ideas to life, and have stayed true to our initial desired tone and look of the video. I am also very happy with every new draft we made, there were some improvements to the video such as the editing or camera work. I feel that this means we knew what we were doing wrong and what we needed to do to make it look better, such as incorrectly framing shots or taking the wrong type of shots for certain scenes. Therefore, I am very happy with the footage we have re-shot various times and believe it has all definitely been worth it. We wanted to make our piece the best looking it can be, even if this meant re-doing the smaller details, but in the overall it is worth the extra time and work. Congratulations to the group on making Oblivious!

The 4th Editing session- Benoit's post reflected upon

The following is taken from Benoit's blog, who is our director. 

  As our project is close to complete, it's to to add the final touches to the sequence. Within this session,  I wanted to have a rough look at what the credits would look in there places within the clip; another aspect of the project I had to address was how to cut out the shot of our actor walking to the class door. In order to make up for the seven seconds spared after removing that shot, we have decided to include the production name just before the title appears. This then takes off a few seconds, in order to entirely utilise the remaining couple of seconds, we just prolonged a few shots within the school scene. Fortunately the decision to extend the duration of a few shots allows the audience to view those shots without it either cutting too short or over staying it's welcome.

Another Noticeable difference to the sequence is the finalised edit of the threat message at the start of the clip. Not only by including the 'streaming' icon in the corner of the frame ; but also altering the aspect ratio of the shot. This helps not only indicate the home-made quality of the threat video intending to be off a camcorder; but also to focus the audience's attention on the subject as he is entered and there is minimal view of the room behind him. The reason for this decision what made was due to the frequent comment made by audiences stating the temptation to glare at the space behind the actor instead of the actor himself.

As apart of this edit we have also included the credits of the various crew members. This draft was meant to show how in which they will appear. But soon will finalise the placements of the credits and also the need to possibly add or remove some if need be.

 Updated edit of the shot

Previous edit of the shot

My thoughts: 

I definitely like the new aspect ratio for the opening threat video. Benoit was right to do so, as when I watch this again now I do concentrate more on Aayush's character; as the aspect ratio has changed and the viewer feels more compelled to focus on the subject in the middle. I also really like the 'Streaming' part in the top right, it gives the viewing a more realistic experience, given that the video is supposed to be filmed from Joseph's camera and ready to go on the internet. The audience as a result, should take the threat video more seriously due to these changes.

I also do like the new credits and font. I have talked about this in my previous 3rd editing session blog, but nevertheless I like the credits and think the font is a suitable, more of a thrilling esq type of font. This is because the particular design of the font I feel is suitable for a thriller film like our, the font seems explicit and tense.. 

3rd editing session- Benoit's post- Alterations to shots

3rd Editing Session

Within this session, my goal was to approach the sequence with the teacher's feedbacks as a main target to meet with the new draft of 'Oblivious'; by focusing my full attention towards the last portion of the sequence that is taken within a school.

My main issue was figuring out how I can trim the shot of our actor walking toward the door without much impact on the timing of the project.This was because during the screening,our teachers had a huge complaint with the lighting within the frame but also with the overall necessity to include it; asking us does it add anything? What is the reason for this shot? Our group then collectively realised that there was no real reason to include it.

'Shot of the actor approaching the class door'

Later on I have decided to keep it in the sequence for the sake of this new draft, as our group have not entirely agreed on how we'll make up for the 7 seconds spared if the shot is removed. I then simply focused on replacing the classroom footage with the updated shots. The updated shots consist of a wide view of the class instead of the camera pushing away; as seen in the first and second draft.

This decision was made because the wide shot is far more simple and has the more view within it's frame allowing the action of Joseph walking to his desk and sitting down a lot cleaner and smoother.

Another new alteration made to the edit is changing a shot during the bomb assembly sequence; this close-up shot was of our actor's mouth saying a line of dialogue but due to the poor framing made it difficult for audiences to see what is in the frame, therefore effecting the viewing experience and taking the audience out of the experience.

'Original shot used in the previous drafts'

In this original shot, the subject moved too much and then lead to his mouth appearing out of frame where the audience can't see. This made the clarity of the scene ineffective and drawing the attention of the audience away from the scene.

'Replacement shot of the actor'

During the various shooting sections of the 'bomb assembly' sequence, we had taken many takes of the same shot which in this case was a huge benefactor as we had a range of replacement shots to choose from. Eventually we had chosen to use this shot as the subject's mouth is placed where we wanted it to be; whilst the lighting is still partially lit but just enough for audiences to see without it being a distraction. 

My thoughts:

I agree that we needed to get rid of the pan shot of Aayush walking to his classroom, I realise now it wasn't really needed. It is much more effective to just cut straight to Aayush opening the door handle, because the previous shot was him picking up the bomb. This makes the audience feel more implicit as it suggests the main reason he made the bomb was to do something related to his school, making our video more thrilling and tense. 

Also I really like the new shot, of Aayush delivering his lines when assembling the bomb. Last time the framing was done in a way that when he said his lines, half of his face was off the screen to the delivery of the lines looked poor. Now we re-shot this particular bit, it looks a lot better as you can see his mouth saying the lines; but not his whole face, to keep the tone of the video more mysterious and bleek.

I am happy with the new changes to the editing and camerawork, it is more suitable and the fact that we took out the pan shot of Aayush walking to the classroom, saved us 7 seconds to extend other shots that were more significant, such as the shot of me and Aayush talking. This made the last bit of the video much more eerie, as the stare Aayush does to me gets extended and makes his character seem even more unsettling because the way he acts in school is very unusual. 

A quick update

Here is a quick update of what's happening: 

- We have now got a final cut. Our 4th cut has now got some final changes, one main change being the soundtrack over Aayush's bomb assembling scene. We are also thinking to completely cut out the ending shot of the bag, due to our teacher saying it force feeds information to the audience too much. He also said, to our new music, he didn't realise it as much because it was more ambient, and atmospheric. This is a good thing as it suggests you focus more on our footage rather than the soundtrack; drawing in the audience more to what is on screen.

- I will have the final cut on my blog very soon, assed, evaluated and commented on. 

Oblivious 4th Draft

Here is our 4th cut of Oblivious, which we are fairly confident that this draft is nearly ready to be our final piece. The threat video and the assembling of the bomb is final, however the scene in school isn't final as of yet. This is because most things that need to be improved on have been, such as some camera work and framing. The 3rd draft isn't on my blog yet unfortunately, but it will be up soon.



The main differences between the 3rd draft and our final 4th cut is that the credits for our group members has now been edited it within the video. As you can see, credits are now inserted at the 26 second mark, 47 second mark, 51 seconds, 58 seconds, 1min 04 seconds, 1min 13 seconds, and lastly 1min 49 seconds. We have used the same font throughout this credit process to try and ensure a consistent, regular pattern. The credits are simple and just say who has performed each role of the making of the film.



Another main difference in this final draft is that we have altered the school scene a bit. After some questioning as to why the pan shot of Joseph walking to his classroom door was there, and that his head got cut out of the frame, we took this shot out. Instead we cut straight to Joseph opening the class door, with the shot before this picking up the bomb. We felt these two shots being right next to each other was more effective; as it shows one side of his life dealing with explosives and terror, and then the other side of his life in school and pretending to be someone he's not, as the shots are right next to each other.



Also, in the school part of the scene we have added some ambient, atmospheric horror related music. The idea of this was to add a sense of dread whilst in the school scene, as the scene is building up to what would be a very significant scene it the video was continued.