Evaluation 3 What have you

learned from your audience

feedback?
1 RADIO INTERVIEW SCRIPT (A=INTERVIEWER
B=INTERVIEWEE)
(Music plays at introduction)
A) Welcome to the Explore Film section of todays broadcast. With us
today we have Ben Harris; the director that brought us Dependence in
2015 and now we are here to discuss his new short film, Mind Over
Money. So Ben, can you very briefly tell us what the film is about?
B) Sure, Mind Over Money is a social realism and crime thriller hybrid.
Its about a young man in search of work who accidently gets involved
way over his head in a murder clean up job. The film is trying to
represent the dangers of criminal work and how money can tempt
good people into doing bad things.
A) Okay that sounds great, what would you argue helped you to come up
with the story for the film and who are you aiming to reach with it?
B) It took a lot of planning and preparation but the audience feedback
from young adults was crucial when making the final decisions.
A) How did you gather feedback from your audience?
B) I sent out both quantitative and qualitative questionnaires online, as
well as meeting face to face with young adults to ask them about the
kind of short films they had seen and what issues they thought could
be better represented by short films.
A) So did the feedback all point to a want for stories based on crime and
employment issues?
B) There was an overall want for a social realism film that really showed
some of the extreme things that happen to people, without becoming
too unrealistic or Hollywood.

A) I see, so what made you decide to focus on the effect that money has
and unemployment issues among young people today?
B) The audience research showed that people saw unemployment as an
under represented issue in short films. Also I know a lot of young
people struggling to find work so I felt it was an important topic to
highlight in a social realist film.
A) I couldnt agree more! So could you tell us about why you chose to
include the crime/thriller aspect of the film?
B) I wanted to raise the stakes beyond the protagonist not having a job.
The audiences responses showed that they preferred a film that had
tension and thriller is a great genre to create that. It also gave me a
chance to get graphic and show the lengths some people will go to as
a way to earn money.
A) Thats interesting because in the film Jake decides to call the police
and therefore declare the money. As the director, what was your
reason for having him do the right thing and report what had happened
to the police rather than keeping the money to himself?
B) It was to represent all the audience members I had spoken to who
admit having been in a situation where they had thought about doing
something bad to better themselves but chose to do the right thing. It
was a dig to the stereotype of young, unemployed people being seen
in such a negative way when they are trapped in their situation by
their environment and background.

A) Do you ever wonder if a more realistic portrayal would have been to

have him try and keep the money?
B) Unfortunately, yes. In my personal experience and from what the
audience feedback has shown people believe that he would have kept
the money in that scenario however thats what causes people to
question themselves and their motives when watching the film.
A) I see what you mean, and to reach that level of understanding people
really have to analyze the film. To what extent would you argue there is
a macro level meaning to the micro elements within the film?
B) Absolutely, there is almost always meaning to everything included in
each frame. This applies particularly to short films because there is not

much time to establish setting, character, themes, issues and

everything else so each scene must give the audience new
information.
A) As outlined by Marilyn Milgram if Im correct?
B) Yes, I researched some of her theories in the preparation for my short
film to understand how to really engage the audience in the short
form.
A) Can you give us any examples of where you have tried to give the
audience a deeper understanding through the micro elements?
B) Sure, for me it was important to establish character quickly so the
audience could understand his motives for taking the job. To make it
more clear that he didnt have much money I included his empty wallet
in the scene when he gave Mike an excuse for not going out. This tells
the audience that he is actually not going out because he cant afford
to rather than whatever excuse he gives Mike.
A) I see, what can you tell us about props and other forms of mise-enscene and how they helped you give more meaning to the
audience?
B) Yeah theyre very useful tools when directing a scene, for example
I directed Jake to use a roll up cigarette in the film because they are
cheaper and help to show his class and status. The blood used for
the body in the scene was a useful form of mise en scene
because it connotes danger and trouble which the audience can
quickly recognize.
A) Did this help in any way with creating the film poster or review in
terms of reaching the audience?
B) From the audience feedback I learned what themes/issues they
wanted explored as well as the way to demonstrate in the film so
the other tasks were helped by knowing what forms and
conventions the audience wanted to see.
A) Can you give any examples of this?
B) For example when I was working on the page design for the review
I asked the audience for their opinion on different colour schemes

and made several drafts as a result so that it connected the

audience to the film in a more effective way.
A) What can you tell us about the information you learned prior to
production from your audience feedback and how it helped you to
make the film?
B) In the early stages of audience feedback I learned about the
demographics of my target audience and gathered information on
their knowledge of the short film context.
A) What questions were involved in this preliminary research?
B) I was asking how many shorts they`d seen, I was asking for
specific examples of short films theyd watched and about the
themes and issues they felt could be better represented by the
short form. Once I had a sense of that I could do some more
extensive research that helped me to make some final decisions.
A) I see, well its obvious that you have learned a great deal from
your audiences feedback. I encourage all of our listeners to watch
this exciting new short film. Unfortunately thats all we have time
for today, thanks again for coming in to talk to us today here at
Explore Film. Tune in tomorrow for another broadcast, and as
always, thanks for listening.