3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

During the beginning of our research stage, we used Survey monkey to learn about our audience viewing preferences for drama films. Most participants of the questionnaire indicated that they like drama films to follow the conventions and not subvert any traditional drama elements. 'During the Riots' mostly follows the conventions as our audience wanted twists, intense emotions and arguments. Our film is based on conflict and binary opposition. This is especially depicted between the split groups in society – the youth (demographic group E - unemployed, psycho-graphic - Aspirer's and definitely strugglers) and adults/the rich and the poor, including internal conflict and distress within the main character.

However, what the audience least wanted to view was death, and our media product includes the death of Emily (Brad's daughter). This is to exemplify the seriousness of the situation and depict a realistic version of the actual riots where there were a number of deaths and injuries for instance, the three fathers who lost each of their sons in the Birmingham riots. One of the answers in our survey was that people wanted to watch 'thought provoking issues about real life human issues', therefore we decided to build a story regarding a issue faced in real life that caused anarchy all over Britain.

Regarding the opening of our film, our audience wanted the tension to gradually build or begin with flashbacks. We have certainly achieved this as 'During the Riots' begins with a pre-title sequence, which includes a montage of discontinuity showing flashbacks of different shots of Brad in distressed positions and a television shot of David Cameron speaking. We wanted to create an atmosphere of tragedy, isolation and frustration which we wanted the audience to feel. The ambiguity of this montage reeled in the audience as they would question, what is happeneing or why he is in that particular state. After watching the completed film our audience reported that they would like to view more violence and display more of the rowdiness of the rioters. However, this was impossible due to the content they required, we simply would not have been able to carry out such activities. But more importantly, we didn't want to portray the violence of the riots in our film, we wanted to focus more on our political message (two opposing groups in society). In many films, the political message becomes lost in the violence and gore, and we ensured our message was clear throughout the film, expressing it also through the conversation between Brad and the rioters.

Regarding what our audience wanted, they wished to see more scenes of the rioters and Brad arguing, if we were to film again then we would definitely take this on board by creating more deep emotive speech for the actors to say. Also, if we did have a second chance, then we would make sure the scenes filmed in the kitchen and living room  with Brad and Emily is different. This is because when our audience watched it, they pointed out that the camera work was unsteady and the speech could not be heard properly, it was unclear. This is a very important issue as it could possibly affect the audience's viewing of the film, so if we were to film again we would ensure the camera is steady and the voice's are spoken loudly.

Overall, our audience, despite some problems they did enjoy the film, what was common amongst the people who watched our film was that it was very unique in terms of the storyline.