Give Feedback on a Rough Cut

Media producers of all levels, from students to professionals, rely on feedback from their peers to help guide the post production process. It helps to have a perspective on your project from someone who can watch it with fresh eyes.

Here are a few guidelines for the audience and the media maker to adhere to in order to give effective and focused feedback.

Step 1: Praise

First, the audience should share positive feedback. What did you like about the piece? What worked? What do you remember most? Share at least one thing you liked about the work. For the media creator, it is just as helpful to know what really worked about the film (so they can keep it!) as it is to know what to reconsider.

Step 2: Questions

Next, the audience asks questions. You might have wondered why the creator made a particular decision, whether or not it worked for you. It helps to get “inside the head” of the creator before sharing critical feedback.

• “What did you mean by…?”
• “What was the reasoning behind…?”
• “Why did the main character do…?”

The media creator should ask questions of the audience, too!

• “Did you notice…”
• “What did you think of the…”
• “How did you feel during…”

Step 3: Critical Feedback

Now that the audience has understood the motivations of the creator, it’s time to provide suggestions for how to improve the piece. The media creator does not have to respond to each piece of feedback given, but should listen to each suggestion and meet with the production team later to decide which pieces of feedback they will act upon.

Audience, remember to thank the creator for sharing their work! Creator, thank your audience for sharing feedback!

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