Audience Feedback

This post details that use of, focus groups, audience panels, trialling and testing, reviews, complaints and how they would affect the media product.

Now in the case of Unwind, comments on Youtube could help shape the look and feel of the up-and-coming film, the feedback for those who watch this and comment can tell the film-makers what the audience like about this short so that they can replicate this in the theatrical adaptation.

Now I would go into this in more detail but as I am not an expert on the book and the film I cannot (as the film has not been released and production note and test screening documentation have not been realeased as well). But I do have a perfect example of how audience feedback can affect a film, whether making it better or in some cases worst. This example was improving the script of a film but in other cases ruins it.

This example is "Thomas and the Magic Railroad"

The film was written, directed and co-produced by Britt Alcroft, (the woman who created the original television programme). Her original script was rather different.

In the movie the main villain is the character Diesel 10, who was done by model effects, but in the original script the villain a human called PT Boomer, in the script he is the adversary of Burnett Stone (played by Pete Fonda).

After test screenings Boomer was removed for being too scary, same with the original voice for Diesel 10 (provided by Keith Scott), which sounded like the Big Bad Wolf in Disney's "The Three Little Pigs". Both Boomer and Keith Scott's performance were in the original theatrical trailer as well as Boomer appearing another trailers, this meant that these changes were made only a few months before the film was realised. Due to this scenes within the films still have Boomer within them, cut down or left by mistake. There is a scene set in the Indian Valley were Burnett Stone is giving a motorcyclist directions, in the original script, the motorcyclist was Boomer and he and Stone were having an argument. Also in the climatic chase-scene Boomer is seen clinging onto the back of Diesel 10.

In my view the exclusion of Boomer was an improvement, due to a fact that one of my favourite reviews Doug Walker for his internet review show "Nostalgia Critic" noted that a problem with the movie is the lack of screen time of Thomas the Tank Engine, due to the plot involving Shining Time Station (set in the Indian Valley) and Burnett Stone, with the PT Boomer character we would have meant more time in the Shining Time subplot. However all that the test screening did to the film was to remove Boomer from it, as far as I know, no-one noted that Thomas had little screen time, all that removing Boomer did was shorten the length of the film.

That is an element of story removed that help the overall story somewhat, overall the story seems confusing, both Walker and Roger Ebert mentioned this, removing Boomer made that story less complicate, but as the Sodor Island Forum site (where I am getting the majority of this information from) mentions lines and story elements that involved Boomer still remained making the realised film more confusing.

Other elements that were removed due to test audience reactions (in this case mostly American audiences), the original voice for Thomas, John Bellis was removed due to his Liverpudlian accent making Thomas sound too old (side note- I would like to mention that the original narrator of the series in both the UK and USA was Richard Starkey aka Ringo Starr, who being a member of the Beatles was Liverpudlian). Also Michael Angelis the UK narrator from 1991-2012 was to play Percy and James but the same test audiences that hated Bellis hated Angelis, Thomas, Percy and James would be replaced by Canadian voice actors.

In the end due to the changes made the film became heavily Americanised, far removed from the British version of the TV programme (before the films release), and the Railway Series written by the late Reverend Wilbert Awdry OBE of which the original TV programme was based on.

This post could be called a review of both the final movie and the original script, but in response to the two reviewers, and the questions in their reviews I will give the reasons why: 

•Both Walker and Ebert asked why Alec Bladwin was in the film as Mr Conductor, my answer will also explain Walker's question about the Shining Time elements, Britt Alcroft made the series Shining Time Station, so to get Thomas into the USA. Three episodes of the UK series would be played in one episode of Shining Time as an anthology, Ringo Starr being the UK narrator at the time played Mr Conductor as a way to get round re-dubbing, when Starr left in 1991 he was replaced by Michael Angelis for the UK series and American comedian George Carlin replaced Starr as Mr Conductor, meaning that Carlin would have to re-dub episodes, Carlin left in 1995 and Shining Time ended, in 1998 Thomas and Friends would start in the USA in the same format as the UK series and Alec Bladwin was the narrator for the US version until 2003, so as the previous narrators played Mr Conductor on Shining Time it would make perfect sense that Bladwin would play Mr Conductor in the movie. Alcroft I think was probably wanted to honour her previous work and get people into the film thorough the nostlagia of watching it, so the Shining Time element was to the American audience who watch Shining Time Station.

•Both Walker and  Ebert mentioned that the mouths of the engines don't move, but we hear the separate voices of each character, this complaint is invalid as the models used in the movies were almost exactly the same as those used on the TV programme which were roughly G-scale in sizes, due to this the room behind the faces were occupied by the complex eye-mecanism, also adding a moving mouth may effect the changing faces, possibly meaning the the expressions would stay the same and the mouth moving to lip-sync make these character act on similar principles to ventriloquist dummies , personnally as a fan of the original series I don't mind that the mouths do not move, it gives it a stylised look, also another television programme direceted by the late David Mitton (the direcetor of the television version of Thomas) known as "TUGS" had sperate voices actors for the characters and it proved that the fomula worked.

In the end I give the film credit for trying to get Thomas to the Big Screen, but I have to deduct points for the rather slopy execution, if was able to remake the film I would cut out most of the Shining Time parts and have it set more on the Island of Sodor and actually give Thomas the screentime he disreves being the title character.

Infomation from: http://www.sodor-island.net/themagicrailroadminisite/mrrevealed.html

Nostaglia Critic Review: http://blip.tv/nostalgiacritic/nostalgia-critic-thomas-and-the-magic-railroad-6006535 Note -  This video contains swearing.

Roger Ebert's review: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20000726/REVIEWS/7260301/1023