Audience Feedback on my Final Cut

The target audience feedback was positive and I'm really happy with it. They said that they understood the plot and managed to relate to the protagonist because she is the same age as them. They also said it was incredibly tense and this atmosphere was created by the building 'franticness' of the scenes and the soundtrack. I put a lot of thought and effort into this so I am thrilled that they picked up on it. I did get more interest in the story when I showed the opening to girls and, although there may have been other reasons I believe this is because the opening is tailored to appeal to a female target audience.

They also said that it was good at foreshadowing the later action through the build up of flashbacks leading to the modern day moment.
One person said that they really enjoyed the clever use of media technologies to get information across to the audience (news report as Emma walks into the room). They said this meant they understood the plot and what was going on in the town without being overwhelmed or bored with information. They also really liked how it was still in the story so didn't break the bubble of the film world with an outside voiceover or information to read on the screen. They said it made it feel real and like they could've been there.
I was also told that my opening engages the audience through the use of the narrative enigma. After they'd watched the opening, every single person turned to me and said, "Well what happens?!" This is really encouraging as they were drawn into Emma's world and engaged with the characters so much they wanted to know what happened to them in the rest of my film.

I showed the finished opening to an audience member who'd watched one of the earlier rough cuts and said that they weren't sure when it was a flashback and when it was modern day. They suggested I maybe added transitions to show when we were moving between the two. On seeing the final cut they said it was much better and that the transitions I'd added really improved their understanding of the piece. They also said that they loved the filters I'd put on the flashbacks which helped to differentiate them even more from the real time action. I was really happy that they could see an improvement in my opening an that it helped their understanding of my plot.