Question 3 (unfinished)

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

It was essential to determine my exact audience for my products as I would have to base material around this audience as a result. They act as a target in which I need to aim for with my products to achieve successful responses. After thorough research into what I considered, similar artists, I named my audience as 'indie'. I searched bands that I felt replicated the musical influences heard in my chosen band's music and then looked at bands that are considered by the public as similar to them. I did this by looking at the section 'customers also bought' on popular website www.amazon.co.uk. All of the bands that were suggested here come under the category of the 'indie' genre, whether it be indie/rock, indie/pop, indie/electro etc. This confirmed to me, both the genre of my music video and the audience I will be targeting.

This audience is almost impossible to describe exactly as it is so widely varied in modern day society. The indie subculture has become victim to a bricolage effect in society and now contains aspects of many other subcultures. As a result it is difficult to pinpoint any specific characteristics of the genre that make it stand out. As well as targeting an 'indie' audience, I also included aspects of pop culture into my products as I was aware that the music is edging on the pop genre - I named this as a secondary audience.

It was important to avoid narcissism in the music video and print productions. The audience I intended to target are a demographic who share my cultural view on both the world and more specifically, the music industry. I was made sure of this when looking at the 'similar artists' suggested in my research and realising that each artist put forward, I have listened to and enjoyed their music.The aspirations and appreciation of art, drama and literature are also similar, meaning that I would potentially create a project that appeals to me rather than focusing on my audience specifically. This is not such a negative thing in my case as the audience, as stated, have similar interests to my own; however there are bound to be differential interests and as a result I needed to consider a wider audience throughout the productions of both my music video and print productions in order to avoid this narcissism.

Music Video

Feedback Method 1
Teacher Feedback:

With the blogs being the set up for our coursework, we are able to receive constant feedback via the blogs themselves. Our teachers have constant access to the blogs and each post we upload. This enables them to view and comment on our posts instantly rather than having to wait until we see them to receive constructive help. We are also given the opportunity to reply to these comments should there be anything within the comment that we are unsure of. As well as this we are able to e-mail teachers if easier and they have been responding as quickly as possible to provide us with sufficient feedback.

As well as being given advice on how to improve our posts, it is also nice to read compliments on work when given by a teacher. This increases confidence and allows us to see what we are doing well so that we can continue to do this and achieve as good a grade as possible.

The teachers are without a doubt the most knowledgeable of everyone involved in this course and to have them at hand to provide you with instant feedback has been extremely useful.

Strengths of research:

• Teachers are knowledgable on the subject at hand and can provide sufficient, general help as a result.
• Teachers have been present throughout entire project and so are aware of individual progress.
• Swift responses.

Weaknesses of research:

• Quantitative data cannot be recorded.
• Teachers are unlikely to belong to the target audience and so some feedback and suggestions could be invalid.
• Sample size is obviously small so only a select opinion is being given rather than a varied one.

Feedback method 2
Peer Assessment:

I questioned my peers (fellow students) regarding my video. This was not only very easy and accessible as the students were almost always with me during the process of constructing and finalising the music video, but it was also very useful: The students are able to compare the video to their own where necessary and suggest improvements and they can also explain to me how I should altar my material to make it more appealing to them as many belong to the audience I am specifically targeting.
I carried out this method of research by presenting the assessors with a paper questionnaire. This questionnaire contains a range of questions that I feel will provide me with valid feedback in order to aid the success of future projects.

Question 1 - How much did you enjoy the video? (Scale of 1 to 5)

The answers to this question would vary depending on the individual. Unlike many later questions, the answer to this will depend entirely on the opinion of the individual. Should the individual belong to the subculture I am targeting then I would hope that the enjoyment rating would be at least 4 or 5. On the other hand, if the person assessing does not enjoy the genre of which the music video is based upon and they belong to a completely contrasting culture, I would expect the enjoyment rating to be quite low. Because the questionnaire is anonymous and the person is not required to give details of their lifestyle, it would be hard for me to respond to the answers to this question.

The responses to this question were very pleasing. I received 100% positive feedback with all of the people questioned answering with either a 4 or a 5. As previously stated, because of the people remaining anonymous, it was difficult for me to determine their cultural choices as individuals. Therefore I concluded that my video was edging towards a pop genre, which attracts a much wider audience and can often be associable to many people across different subcultures rather than an individual one.

Question 2  - Did it hold your attention? (Scale of 1 to 5)
Although the answer to this question could again arguably be based around whether or not you like the genre of music in which the video comes under; a video can still hold your attention regardless of this. For example, an individual who considers themselves as a follower of the folk genre could still be very intrigued into a hard-hitting, heavy metal song with a peculiar music video to accompany it and might watch the video to the very end. With this in mind, I was hoping for a high score on this question from most of the people answering the questionnaire as one thing I was hoping to achieve with my music video is an interesting narrative in which two people fight the constraints of love - a popular theme in both modern day society and more specifically the music industry itself.

I was again very happy with the answers to this question. The feedback was again 100% positive with no scores lower than 4. I was not surprised by the feedback despite how happy I was - I worked extremely hard on creating a narrative structure that an audience could relate to. No matter what genre you are interested in or what subculture you belong to, love will always take place in your life and this is the exact theme that my entire video surrounds. Therefore, the story told in my video is one all can associate with.

Question 3 - How do you rate the camera work and editing? (Scale of 1 to 5)
This question is not supplied with a comment box and therefore should a low score occur it will be hard for me to understand what it is that the person feels I need to improve on. Therefore I took the responses as a general and as a result I hoped for more positive feedback. With the research done throughout this media course - both AS and A2 - I feel I have gained a good knowledge and understanding of camera angles and techniques and this being my final production I had hoped that I had enforced my skills accordingly.

Feedback for this question was yet again positive which pleased me greatly. One thing learnt over the course of the last two years is the ultimate importance of camera work and editing techniques in order to portray a message. I focused on detail with my shots and the editing process afterwards in order to attempt to achieve a successful video and my feedback makes me believe that I achieved this goal.

Question 4 - How do you rate the standard of mis-en-scene? (Scale of 1 to 5)
This again was a question that I hoped would receive a positive response. I had researched and planned a lot in the lead up to the music video regarding mis-en-scene e.g. costume, location etc. I feel that the amount of research and planning I did on these aspects should credit success in these areas.

My feedback was as I hoped, positive. I was pleased that my hard work in the research and planning stages of my production paid off. I carefully constructed every minute detail, whether it be the costume on each character, or the location in which the video was set, or even the very few props used in the video. Each detail that was used in the video was used for a specific purpose in order to represent different things. I feel that this is the makings of a truly successful music video and to know that the symbolism and representation is showing in my work feels very rewarding.

Question 5 - Was the music video... too short, correct length, too long, don't know ?
I feel that this question is not entirely applicable to my music video. The story has a narrative structure and I used Andrew Goodwin's theory of 'link between lyrics and visuals' in my video. This meant that I needed the entire song to play in my video so that I could use each lyric in order to tell the story I intended to. Nonetheless it would be interesting to see whether people think the length is either too short or too long as I could possibly consider cutting the music in future projects.

Luckily, all feedback suggested that my music video was the correct length and so I did not have to take this into consideration. I feel that the narrative structure is the main focus in my video and the length is slightly irrelevant - it depends entirely on the narrative.

Question 6 - Would you listen to it again? (Yes, No, Undecided)
This question, alike question 1, depends mostly on the individual and whether or not my music video is of interest to them. At the same time, if my music video was really successful, it could potentially interest an audience from a range of subcultures. This would suggest that my music video belongs perhaps to the pop genre as well as approaching an individual audience.

All people questioned except one noted that they would listen to my music video again. Even the person who did not answer with 'yes' circled 'undecided' - This makes me confident that my video was intriguing enough to interest people in order to watch it again. A reason for these answers is not recorded in this questionnaire, neither an individual profile - it is therefore difficult to evaluate feedback. Nonetheless, positive feedback speaks for itself and I feel confident enough with the answers given here that my music video was interesting.

Question 11 - Does the video reflect the style of music?
This question is arguably the most important of the questionnaire. It is all well and good for someone to enjoy the music video, but for the project to be a true success and the criteria be met, it is vitally important to attract the target audience - in order to do this, the video has to reflect the genre of music in question.

The feedback for this question was 83% positive. Only one person was undecided as to whether the music video reflected the genre of music. I am happy with this feedback. As previously mentioned, a lot of time and effort was put into the research of generic conventions for the genre and planning was carried out accordingly. The fact that I have both developed and in some cases challenged the conventions of the genre could be the reason that the one exception was unsure of the reflection to the style of music.

Question 12 - Does the video successfully promote the artist/band/group? (Yes, No, Undecided)
This question, although relevant and important, I did not consider as essential for my feedback compared to the others. This is mainly because I focused more on promoting the band in my digipak and magazine advert production. Although I believe I promoted the band to an extent in my video, I chose a narrative structure over a performance based video and therefore I feel I had less chance to promote the band and therefore focused on doing this in my print productions instead.

Surprisingly, the feedback was almost entirely positive. 5 out of 6 respondents felt that the band was successfully promoted in the video. I assume that this response is based on the majority shots of the lead singer and they have based this response on this performer individually rather than the band as a whole. I can understand these answers as in modern day music industry we are more familiar with the lead singers of bands over the other band members.


Strengths of research:

• Paper based feedback pushes for more complex answers.

Weaknesses of research:

• Anonymous evaluation meaning audience demographic is not recorded.
• Time consuming.
• Analysis of feedback takes time to calculate.

Feedback Method 3
Online Survey:

I created an online survey using the website www.surveymonkey.com. The website was easy to follow and this meant that a structured and complex survey could be produced quickly, enabling me to receive constructive feedback that could be considered when editing my video or for future projects.
View and take the survey here: http://charlieclarkea2mediablog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/survey.html
I chose not to post and publicise my video on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook and consequently, the amount of people who knew about my video was limited. The respondents to my survey remained low and valid feedback was not gained as a result.
In future projects I will be sure to post my work across as many sites as possible in order to 'spread the word' and ensure that the maximum amount of people are viewing and commenting on my video as possible.
Nonetheless, the very little feedback that I did receive was entirely positive which gives me the confidence that the skills shown in my video successfully achieved a positive response from an audience.

Strengths of research:

• Accessible to anybody who has access to the internet (almost everybody these days)
• Answers can be given quickly and easily. Time consumption is not an issue.
• Analysis of results is recorded automatically.

Weaknesses of research:

• Sample size is small unless material is publicised.
• The quick and easy method can sometimes result in complex answers being avoided.

Feedback Method 4
Communal Viewing:

As a class, we watched each video together and provided each other with verbal feedback.

The feedback from my group was mostly positive although some areas for improvement were suggested. I recorded notes for each of these suggestions in order to consider improvements for my video. I also asked the people who did have something to comment, their age and also their musical interests so that I could perhaps understand why they said what they did about my music video and whether or not I should incorporate their suggestions into the edit of my video.

I noticed that the only female respondent really liked the video. She specifically mentioned her appreciation towards the representation of gender which explained the reason why she perhaps liked the video so much. My primary audience was not female and to have somebody from the opposite sex to which I was targeting comment on how much they enjoyed my video made me very pleased. As well as this, it confirmed to me that my challenging of representation of gender was successful.

This respondent addressed individual aspects of the video, particularly location and transitions. I assume that this is mostly because of the fact he is a fellow media student and therefore is aware of the effort put into the details. When asked, he noted that he loves the pop genre and rarely enjoys any other music. This could suggest two things to me: either that my video was so appealing that it reaches a wider audience and is liked by many; or the video is edging towards the pop genre as well as indie.

This comment was the most interesting for me and also most helpful in summing up audience feedback. at first glimpse, the comments seemed contradictory. The respondent claims to be part of the indie culture and love indie music, although he did not like my video that targets this specific audience and at the same time he believed that the music and visuals complimented each other well. When reading more deeply into the comment I was again hinted towards the fact that the genre of my music video is slightly 'pop' and this could be the reason for the dislike towards the project from this person.

Strengths of research:

• Audience demographic was recorded.
• Respondents were at hand to confer with.

Weaknesses of research:

• Small sample size.
• Class mates = bias responses?

Print productions







Conclusion

Male and female differentiation:

I expected a male audience to enjoy my music video and appreciate my artwork more than a female audience. This assumption is for two main reasons:
1) I used different techniques in my video in order to gain sympathy towards the male lead singer and as a result I would naturally suggest that a male audience can associate with this character more so than a female audience. My print productions are also dominated by photos of the artists - of which are all male.
2) The audience in which I am targeting is arguably male dominated; a key connection with my audience demographic would be 'skaters' and this hobby specifically is highly male dominated. As well as this, the music industry itself is male dominated - for example the 'similar artists' recommended to me on amazon (mentioned earlier in the post) are 100% male artists.
As a result, I targeted a male demographic with my feedback methods in order to gain useful and valid feedback from an audience that I believe to be the target for my video.
My expectations were somewhat correct as the male audience that reviewed my video responded positively. However, the female audience also seemed to enjoy my video based on feedback. Although a small sample was questioned, the feedback from these was almost entirely positive.
This suggests to me that my video is edging on the pop genre as this is slightly more female orientated with artists such as Nicki Minaj, Beyonce and Rihanna all targeting an audience, hugely female dominated.
I have concluded that the reason for my positive feedback from a female audience is because of the conventional representation challenges I made in my video. The female gender was not objectified or sexualised in my video and I believe that a more mature, female audience will respect this aspect of my video and enjoy the content as a result. On top of this, in my video the female character rejects the male lead singer which goes entirely against the norms in both the music industry and modern day society. It is stereotyped that males dominate females when it comes to relationships and the challenge that I have made to this stereotype, I believe will again be respected from my female audience members.

Demographic alteration:

After thoroughly analysing all feedback I have recorder, I became aware of the fact that perhaps the pop genre applies to my music video and print productions more that first thought.
Audience members who have proven to enjoy my productions have been identified as having interests into the pop genre. As well as this, my productions reached out to a much wider female audience than I first expected. The pop genre is dominated by a female demographic whereas my original genre is not and this adds to the suggestion that the demographic for my audience should perhaps be altered.
My reasoning for this is mostly because of the challenges I have shown regarding stereotypical representation and conventional features of the genre. This was purposely done in order to gain a reaction and I with the feedback received i believe i have been successful in doing this. I intend to remain with the audience I originally named but add a sub-audience to this description.
My new genre and target audience would be: indie/pop.