1. What have you learnt from your audience feedback? Cosplay Evaluation

2. Feedback I conduced two feedback sessions Screening of the animatic Screening of the rough cut The feedback following the rough cut was much more detailed than the animatic feedback This was somewhat problematic as the whole point of a feedback session before filming is to get an audience response before anything is committed to tape Nonetheless, my feedback was valuable

3. The Meaning of Life Cosplay I asked questions about science fiction and geek culture during the animatic screening ‘Did you know what cosplay was before watching the animatic?’ I didn’t want to create a film going over people’s heads! Most of my audience reported that while they understood the actual linear structure of the story, they didn’t understand why the characters were doing what they were – it was just an oddity about purple people

4. The Meaning of Life Cosplay I chose to ignore this feedback in the hope the audience would understand it in the finished film It was a risk that paid off! ‘When I first heard your idea I didn’t really understand it but then when I watched it I thought it was really good’

5. Flashbacks and History In the animatic, the woman looks at a DVD cover of the TV show her character is based off and copies the makeup off that Someone suggested I use flashbacks of previous fights to reinforce that it was an established hobby While I didn’t specifically use flashbacks, I changed the idea of a DVD cover

6. Flashbacks and History We pinned up costume drawings on the wall with past photographs – indicating she had done this before – to create a concept board This was much better as it shows that there is forethought, research and planning in cosplaying; which the DVD cover alone did not convey Photographs of previous cosplaying! Costumes based off a specific episode Multiple sketches

7. Emotion Cosplaywas hugely influenced by Alien Especially the emotions – I wanted to create tension and fear in my audience No one reported feeling scared in the animatic so I decided I would wind up the tension in editing, especially the chase scene

8. The Inspiration Scene plays from 3:08 to 3:35

9. Emotion There is a heartbeat sound underpinning the whole sequence – partly inspired by the heartbeat in Alien’s chestburster scene but mostly to go into the character’s head and show her fear There is both panicked breathing and slow, heavy breathing as though she is too scared to make a sound In both Alien and Cosplay, the score stings just as Ripley and Blash look around the corner

10. Emotion However, I decided not to continue with creating an atmospheric, terrifying film such as Alien My reason for this was audience feedback

11. Over The Shoulder Feedback I received a lot of unofficial feedback as I was editing from people who were intrigued by this ‘film with the aliens’ No one was scared – it was a film about two people, painted purple in shiny costumes, hitting each other with sticks in a tiny countryside park! ‘Funny’ ‘I love it, it’s so exaggerated’ ‘Aw, I feel really happy now!’

12. Over The Shoulder Feedback Because of that feedback I decided if I carried on trying to base Cosplay off a scifi horror classic, it was just going to fall flat The worst kind of parody – the parody that doesn’t know it’s a parody and thinks its serious!

13. Over The Shoulder Feedback I decided therefore to make Cosplay really unpredictable and crazy The light saber sound effects and alien planet filter were used for exaggerative effect as well as science fiction convention ‘The dramatic over-the-top face-off between the two characters’ ‘I thought it was very unpredictable and I didn’t know who would win’ However, a lot of people liked how it was both serious and funny

14. Science Fiction In both the animatic and rough cut screenings I asked the audience what similarities they saw between my film and other sci-fi films What references to other films/genres did you notice? What conventions associated with the sci-fi genre did you notice, if any? In the animatic no one really answered this question However, people responded really enthusiastically after the rough cut

15. Alien makeup and costume ‘A LOT of sci-fi memorabilia’ ‘Like in a big film when someone’s coming towards you’ Stand off Light saber sounds Alien handshake

16. The Protagonist The most interesting feedback I received was in answer to ‘How would you describe the protagonist?’ I thought it was intriguing how someone could feel uncomfortable in their own skin so they need to paint it purple to feel confident. ‘I think she might not be very confident in herself because she has an alter-ego.’

17. The Protagonist Equally though, I learnt just how different the director’s intentions could differ from the audience reading Bored Loner

18. The Protagonist It hadn’t occurred to me that the protagonist would be read in relation to the stereotype in society of the socially inept nerd I was thinking how Cosplay would impact on my audience’s perceptions of geeks, whereas it actually happened the other way round – it was interpreted based on the context of current assumptions and stereotypes From my audience feedback I realised just how much of a two-way process reading films is.