I used various sources to gather feedback on the various strands of our project. I asked some relatives - it was interesting to have a variety of ages and their opinions. Similarly, I asked some friends on Facebook and sent links out to the project on YouTube.
I've used Wordle to put together some of the keywords I picked up for our reviews:
The film
We received mixed feedback about our film itself. Fundamentally, though, the responses were positive - above are a few keywords contributed by those we asked for opinions. Thankfully, we were told we matcher our ideal gritty, British feel which apparently reflected well - something to be highly pleased with. We learnt that this effect really worked well, and we would certainly use this style in future projects as it was so well-received. Similarly, it was described as 'inspirational' which is truly a confidence boost for our group. We interpreted 'complicated' and 'thoughtful' as positive points, as a strand of complication is something we were aiming for. However, it could be said that this could be interpreted in a negative away - it entirely depends on who you ask, so we are not too worried about this.
However we also had a few negative points raised. We took these well and agreed with many of the negative criticisms raised. The idea that the fights were awkward took us by surprise a bit actually - we were personally really pleased with the ways the fights turned out, but I suppose everyone sees theses differently. 'Surreal', 'unclear' and 'cryptic' were not surprising - because of the deliberately-confusing narrative, we expected this from some - however for others an element of surrealism and confusion is very much appealing. We went for a very modernistic approach, whereas some may appeal to the 19th century literature of simple narrative structure and tied-up endings. The idea that it was 'too yellow' is interesting as someone actually saw this as a positive, stated in the positives section above! I think fundamentally we learnt that the 'complicated' narrative was a risky path to take - people either love it or hate it - so in future projects we would have to be very careful with the clarity of our narrative.
The magazine review
Our magazine received positive reviews about both the design and the content itself. On the design side, the main positive was that it was professional, which inevitably meant it must resemble a real film magazine; very much the desire of our own magazine. We used an effective colour scheme apparently which was great to hear too. On the review side, it was 'concise' and had 'detailed-criticism', which meant the content was obviously received well by many. Similarly, the idea that it was well-rated suggests that our content was clearly researched and concluded in an appropriate manner, clearly a reflection of our hard work.
We didn't receive much negative-criticism, thankfully - we were enlightened to the things stated above. Some sentences were a bit confusing, apparently, and could've been structured a bit more clearly. For example, someone picked up on 'Except for a slightly surreal cross-over between between reality and Wesley's imagined world at the end, this is most of the film.' The structure is a bit odd, and could be confusing to understand. Another point was that the statement claiming Wesley's acting could've been better was wrong - many thought his acting was very effective in the finished product. We've learnt to be careful on the criticism side - we shouldn't generalise too much. On the design side, we were told that the glass-image was a bit confusing without any context, so if you read the review before watching the film you would be confused as to the relevance of the glass.
The poster
The poster was mainly seen as a positive - it was highly 'visually-attractive' and stood out well. The symmetry was a prominent appeal for many - it contrasted the difference in time. Furthermore, the characters-in-text style was popular as a stylistic choice. Overall, the design side was highly praised. The tagline was pretty popular and reflected the film well, stated in general, and we've learnt that the punchier the better, according to our reviews.
Barely any problems with the poster - the only real three are stated above. Some didn't like the black background, which was praise by others, as it was a little dull and could've had a diversity in colours to draw the eye in further. Some didn't like the colour lines on the main image too - this was a deliberate choice which could be interpreted as an error in rendering of the image or a cheap filter, so we have learnt to be careful with the grading and colours in the future.
