Evaluation: What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?

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By Oliver Fitch, Tim McNiven, Peter McLaughlin & Joe Lawrence

Evaluation: What Have You Learned From Your Audience (The Questionnaire - Part Two)

By Tim McNiven, Oliver Fitch, Peter McLaughlin & Joe Lawrence

Evaluation: What Have You Learned From Your Audience (The Questionnaire - Part One)

After the enlightening response of our first questionnaire, we assessed it would be another effective means of gaining a response. Whilst filming our feedback in groups allows a more personal touch it, however it had the consequence of people feeling under pressure and not giving a whole response. Whilst this is limiting a response it allows for a more honest one.

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The Questionnaire covers all the the topics that a non-experienced viewer would notice. We kept the age range to above 15, because of the dark nature of our film it would be reasonable too assume that this would be the youngest of suitable viewers.

We gave the questionnaire to 30 people (ten more than last time to increase accuracy), mainly within the bottom age range but with at least one of every other category. The results will be shown in Part Two.

By Tim McNiven, Oliver Fitch, Peter McLaughlin & Joe Lawrence

Evaluation: In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

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Timothy McNiven, Peter McLaughlin, Oliver Fitch and Joseph Lawrence

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? from Peter McLaughlin on Vimeo.

Video Presentated by Peter McLaughlin
Presentation planned by Peter McLaughlin, Tim McNiven, Oliver Fitch & Joe Lawrenece

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

- Joseph Lawrence, Tim McNiven, Peter McLaughlin and Oliver Fitch.

Final Product

The Quintessential Guide: To Dispose of a Body from Peter McLaughlin on Vimeo.

Ancillary Task: Promotional Poster

Throughout the planning of our promotional poster we knew that the typeface and colours we employed needed to reflect the content of the film itself. Because the film revolves around the guidebook from which the film takes its name, we chose to use a font that looked as if it had come from a typewriter, looking strikingly similar to that on the front of the guide in the film. We chose a white background to fit with the white paper the guide is made up of.

Before this we created a draft version on a black background. The result was disappointing, with the dark background misrepresenting the themes of the film, leaning more towards an aesthetic associated with horror films. The result was our choice to opt for a white version.


We have included the production company name, "Clandestine Pictures", on the poster as well as a tagline of "from the producers of Regent House". We chose to do this as these are common features on promotional posters for films, drawing in an audience who may already have heard of the company or earlier films they produced with the credibility they provide.

The photograph was selected from a series of 60 different images, shot in RAW rather than JPEG so as to capture the full spectrum of image data. The colour levels were edited with an image converter, and once they were to our taste, were then converted to JPEG make editing easier: RAW is a large filesize and can sometimes make software sluggish when editing. The poster itself was arranged using GIMP. Because we wanted a relatively simple poster we felt the need to keep the software simple: GIMP was perfect for this, being more streamlined and user friendly than other software packages such as Adobe PhotoShop.

by Joseph Lawrence, Peter McLaughlin, Tim McNiven and Oliver Fitch

Influences: True Blood

True Blood came to our attention a fair proportion into production,. Suggested by a member of staff in media, since then all of us have become avid viewers.

True Blood is an American Series with HBO notable for it's graphic depiction of vampires and the prejudices of humanity. The section that has influenced our work is the Emmy Nominated title sequence.

Most of the influences were editorial. In the crosscutting between surreal landscapes (such as the swamp with the alligator eye) with (as seen through the eyes of the traditionalist characters of the series) sinful acts. We allow for wide shots as they give a sense of perspective on what the situation is, allowing the viewer to take time to pause and judge, often leading to a more powerful effect. We have employed this technique throughout the wood and field scenes.

It has also influenced our pace. As we began we were certain that we would have to cut rapidly throughout the piece. We justified this with, whereas a shot in the days of Hitchcock would have lasted around four to five seconds, it presently averages between a second or two. In thrillers such as ‘The Bourne Identity’ it can even be half that.

Yet using quick editing between shots of a slow dragging of a box, clashes visually. The editing should compliment the various story beats. With a programme such as True Blood it would have been obvious to use a fast editing style, but ‘Digital Kitchen’ (the creative team behind the title sequence) had the bravery to allow breathing space to take-in each shot. So we altered are perception, it’s not simply a tone that you are trying to convey but an entire world, this is beneficial in that now our long shots and angst and tension.

Tim McNiven