Which scene to remove?

As my final part of my audience research I asked people which scene they thought I should remove from my short film in order to keep it within the time limit of 5 minutes. I asked them to rank the scenes in order of preference, 1 being the best 8 being the poorest.

Working on averages over the all of the responses, here is what the results were:

1.    The sign communication
2.    Running in the park, the male falls over
3/4. Spinning, male gets hit by a car & Having dinner
5/6. Playing on the Wii & Walking the dog
7.    Watching the film
8.    Feeding the ducks


These confirms what I thought. The duck scene is clearly quite weak, it doesn't particularly add to the narrative or play on any romantic-comedy conventions. I thought so and so does my audience. For these reasons I will be removing it for my final edit.

If I still need to remove another scene it will be the couple watching the film. I am reluctant to remove it as several audience members responded really positively. Plus on the recommendation of the people I asked in my video feedback I have shortened several shots during various scenes within the dream sequence. This includes the complete removal of one shot during the dinner scene where the couple are just unwrapping their chips.


So, in conclusion: