LO4: Evaluation of feedback to improve the soundtrack

Feedback via Survey

Positive feedback

In the survey I put out to gain feedback on my short film sound track, a piece of positive feedback I gained was how the 'rising tension' effect was effective at creating tension and a build up to the fake out, as well as allowing me to conform to genre conventions much more.

Gaining feedback like this whilst working on my edit was very effective in helping me improve my short film as it allows me to understand what edit changes work well, allowing me to incorporate it more into my work. For example, now that I knew the sound effect delivered the right impression I was trying to create (a build of tension), I was able to implement it more into a a previous scene where I was also trying to build a similar sense of tension into a fake out/release of tension. This was in the tracking shot scene where Quinn opens a bedroom door after it closes by itself, revealing to be just the wind from an open window that caused this. As there is no payoff after this scene happens of any type of scare, it puts the audience in a false sense of security the next time the sound effect plays, which happens in the kitchen scene itself that was originally praised for its use. This therefore enhances the kitchen scene as after the sound effect is used to create a fake out that leads into a jump scare, which the audience wont be expecting because nothing happened the previous time. This makes the overall sound track conform to the conventions of my genre in creating a scare typical of a horror movie. 

However it was important that I didn't over use this, as there were much more instances where the sound effect would've been useful, such as the reveal of the dead hand in the final scene. Doing this would've caused the soundtrack to become more tedious overall as audiences would become tired of the reuse of the same effect over and over. This would be the objectively worst possible thing I could do to my sound track, causing it to fail as a media product; make the audience annoyed/not entertained. 

Constructive criticism

Whilst the positive feedback was very helpful, the audience feedback I gained in terms of constructive criticism is much more effective at helping me improve my final edit than the positive feedback as it allowed me to directly improve any faults/things I've missed as my peers have areas of expertise that I do not. For example, the very effective piece of feedback that told me: 

This meant that I could easily improve one of the faults in my editing knowledge that I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. This specific piece of feedback was very effective as it was simple, direct and easy to implement, whilst still having a huge impact on the overall quality of the sound track itself. 

I did this by searching for the effect in the effects window, then dragging and dropping it to each sound clip recorded from the shots themselves. This is because this background noise specifically came from my on-set recordings with the camera and not the extra sound I recorded in the sound studio with the microphone.

This made the product much more enjoyable as it meant that the audience weren't getting distracted by the buzzing, which took them out of the immersion the sound track was creating with its intricate and layered detail. It also allows me to conform to my horror genre conventions as the completely silent atmosphere in the house now created with this effect means that the audience hang on every sound that happens, waiting for something to break the silence and tension felt in the air of the agonisingly drawn out shots. 

Another piece of constructive criticism I gained that was extremely effective at helping me improve my sound track was; 

This improvement that I made helps to deliver the overall scene better as, when planning the short film itself, I needed a way to create a sense of urgency that will have my character run upstairs and burst into their parents room into then realising that their mother is dead and has been the whole time. I did this by having the door the hand was reaching out of burst open, however when filming the scene I wasn't able to make it look as if the door bursts open by itself with as much emphasis as I had envisioned, making the scene overall a little more awkward which is something my audience who answered the survey picked up on. 

However this piece of feedback demonstrates a way in which I can fix that scene to be much more effective at delivering on the sense of urgency I wanted to originally create. As suggested, I added a cinematic boom sound effect the the door opens, this makes it seem as more as if the door slammed open by itself, making the response from our character much more feasible and realistic.

 

It also allows my sound track to work in synergy much more with my actual short film component as it works to greatly improve and even fix an issue that was previously present, making it less noticeable. This is important as it means the audience wont be broken out of the immersion of the film.