This section documents the testing of the film. The work-in-progress exhibition at Brunel Univeristy allowed me to show my film to a mass audience for the first time. To keep noise levels to a minimum during the exhibition (of many students) my work station was set up with two headphones. I played the movie set against a black background programmed in Macromedia Director. The exhibition was open to anyone and I had a range of people from both internal students and external visitors.

I left a feedback sheet next to my work station and asked people to write down what they thought of the film. Obviously with me standing over them the testing is not totally fair so I tended to walk away or turn my back as they wrote their comments. I tried not to force or encourage people to write as it could have affected their comments. I spoke freely and openly about my project and answered both technical questions about the process of creating the film and broader questions. 6 feedback sheets were prepared, below are the 4 feedback sheets that were filled out (I received 33 comments in total).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The overall feedback was positive and I was surprised with the response and the audiences understanding of the story. Although the film wasn’t 100% finished many people liked it the way it was and thought it was complete. So instead of adding scenes I decided to just tighten the video and audio editing and lengthen the end scene. I did receive some weary feedback on the bullet time effect. Leon Cruickshank called the effect ‘cheesy’ and that it ‘made it look like a student film’ and I partially agree with him. The bullet time scene was about me learning how to do the effect and not about its place in the film. I personally think it could have been cut out of the final edit if the film was developed a little further but the positive reaction from the majority of people convinced me to leave it in. Most people liked the effect and more importantly it showed that I could do it which was my main point. The bullet time effect has been done to death so perhaps this will be the last time I use the effect in that context.

The detail of the modelling, lighting and texturing were all commented on by the majority of people so I think my strange ideas paid off. The music was far more successful than I anticipated and many people though it created atmosphere and complimented the film well. The quirkiness of the story and design seems to have established the film as unique so I am very pleased with the feedback.

Observation Testing -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Although my comment sheets worked well and I received a wide range of information I also made notes on the reactions people had when viewing the movie. In essence I watched them watching the film. This allowed me a deeper insight into which scenes worked and which didn’t and the acceptance and believability of the characters and story.

My setup for testing the reactions of the audience was simple; I listened, watched and made notes. I created three questions which I used as the template to form the basis of my notes.

Do they like it? – I found that everyone liked the film and I did not observe any negative feelings towards the film. The bullet-time effect raised interesting reactions, as the majority of people enjoyed the effect and a number made vocal confirmations. As only two pairs of headphones were available, some people hunched up in groups and shared the headphones. This indicated that the music was working and the audience wanted to hear the music. I was worried the music would take second place to the 3D animation but is seems they were both popular.

Do they understand it? – The overall reactions to the film were positive and illustrated that the audience opened their mind and enjoyed it for what it is. I did not see any confused faces although four people did ask questions during the viewing about the characters involvement in the story. However two of these asked about technical approaches to modelling the characters and did not seem too concerned with the story.

At what point is their peak reaction evident? (If any) – This question was set to record the moments where a ‘loud’ reaction is shown from the audience. The point where people may gasp, sigh, make vocal remarks etc… I found there was four points in the film where they was a greater reaction was shown.

i) When the globe in the ocean lights up

ii) When Juniper frees (or kills) the tortured robot

iii) The bullet-time effect

iv) When it is revealed the characters are toys in the child’s bedroom

Online Community Testing ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ideally I would like to put my film online or perhaps on a 3D forum such as cgtalk. This will give me very highly critical feedback as most of the audience or perhaps all will have experience in 3D animation and features that may not have been spotted by the exhibition audience, may well be dwelled upon by the 3D audience. Critical feedback is essential to the development and success of the film, so if I was to extend the production beyond Univeristy, I would need to upload my film online.