Evaluation Q3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback has given me a better base for my product and has definitely improved the quality of my product. Audience feedback gave me an insight in what other people think about my product without any bias. If I was to look at the strengths and weaknesses of what I would like to improve I would be more likely to be bias with what I would like to change therefore audience feedback is very important. Many people that I got audience feedback from helped me decide where I wanted my documentary to actually go. Since I only had a 5 minute opening sequence to showcase all my filming and editing skills, I had to specific in what I wanted to show and in what way I will show it. I had decided to do an expository documentary, having researched beforehand I found through my audience feedback I had not followed the codes and conventions correctly but had in fact done my documentary very differently from which is evident from my first draft. I eventually realised my product was not meeting the codes and conventions accurately, which audience feedback helped me see, helping me improve the quality of my product. I made a major change during making my product. I decided to make my 5 minute sequence somewhere in the middle of the documentary making it a part of a segment rather than doing the sequence at the start.

This was due to what I had filmed suited somewhere in the middle of the documentary than in the beginning. I had to look at many aspects when making my product. Documentaries show ‘reality’ so things have to be what they seem so I had to be careful when planning things out. Comments such as ‘Your interviews could be conducted like this’ or ‘add filler shots here’ made me think of how I wanted my product to look like and what I wanted to change.

From feedback I picked up on several important aspects which have helped me overcome my fear of filming and putting my documentary together correctly. I have found that constructive criticism has improved my product allowing me to manipulate and add things that I previously was oblivious to all due to audience feedback allowing this for me. I feel this was a crucial step for me in changing and improving things with my product. The fact I managed to change my documentary from 5 minutes in the beginning to 5 minutes in the middle shows me the power and influence of my audience feedback giving me a positive push in the right direction.