After my first rough cut I organised two small screenings of my documentary; one for my fellow media students, and the other for some members of staff at my place of work. I decided on these two groups of people, as fellow students understand the project that I have undertaken and what the documentary should include, whereas the people at my place of work are of an elder generation, which would probably be an age more suited to the documentary. Through organising these two showings, I was able to get a vast range of opinions from people of different age, gender and social class. I then asked them the questions: *What are your initial thoughts on the documentary? *What elements did you like about the documentary? *Was there anything in the documentary that you did not like? *Are there any improvements that you think could be made to the documentary? After seeing the first five minutes, would you watch the rest of the documentary if it were feature length?
The feedback from my screening for classmates was generally positive. One element particularly praised was the cutaways during the interview. One classmate said ‘I felt that the use of the cutaways helped me to remain focused through the documentary.’ Another added ‘I really liked the cutaways, but I think you should use more, it would help make it more interesting.’ The mood lighting was also praised, one student mentioned ‘I think the lighting was good, it helped create an impression that the bookshop was really old.’ All had positive feedback about my choice of music too. They felt ‘it really suited the style of the documentary’. The feedback from my work colleagues was also very positive. This was the group that I expected to impact more, they were all aged over 40. One colleague said ‘I really liked the music; I could really see this being a real documentary.’ Another mentioned the reference to the fly fishing joke saying ‘It really made me laugh, added a bit of humour if you understood it.’ When asked the question about watching the remainder of the documentary if it were feature length, an important question given my brief, all of the viewers said that they would.
This was all very positive feedback however there were some constructive criticisms from both groups, which proved very helpful in editing my final cut. As I have already mentioned, one student thought that more cutaways should be added, which I took into account. Another said that one of the shots, of the staff members, was too shaky. It was one of my cutaways however this criticism made me decide to change it for another. I did feel that a few of my shots were a bit shaky; however I did not have enough footage to edit them out completely, and felt they were passable. The final criticism which was also made by my tutor was that ‘The interview audio isn’t loud enough.’ This urged me to boost the sound levels. In conclusion to the feedback of my rough cut I found the comments extremely helpful and they lead me to make much needed changes to my work.
On completion of my final cut I posted a link onto social networking site Facebook. I felt that this would be a way to reach a wide audience, and gain vast feedback on my work. Social networking sites have become very important in the media industry and advertising. So I felt that it was a fitting way to gain feedback.
After posting the link I received very positive comments. One read ‘Congratulations, really good work, I can imagine it being a real documentary.’ I was particularly pleased with this comment as it proved that my work had gained credibility and could be an aired documentary. Another comment read ‘I’m impressed. The cutaways were really nice, and I liked the choice of music.’ From this feedback I am confident that I have created a credible documentary extract.
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