MEDIA STUDIES THE EVALUATIONS WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?
Question 3 What have you learned from your audience feedback?
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The Music Video Having been offered the choice of track to base our music video around, we decided to run by the class, our initial ideas after one listen of the song itself. Because of the track’s fast beat and young, female singers I felt having a primary audience between 15-24years, would make my video more appealing. After the first initial listen to the song, each member of the class wrote down notes of what came into their mind when the track was played. Discussing my group’s idea was helpful as we received both positive and constructive feedback. The first comments were, ‘you’re making the video’s narrative concept relatable to your target audience’ and also, ‘I think you’re clearly highlighting different representations of teenagers’ in society. Our first and most complex idea was to present a young, innocent and vulnerable teenage girl, that finds herself isolated within society’s constraints. Through the video we wanted to
show this character’s inner ‘Demons’ attempting to break out. Here we would be showing the struggles of a teenage girl in society, trying to fit in.
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When dressing this character, we wanted to show her innocence. To do this, I consulted Twitter and two of my follower’s came back with:
So, using this feedback from Twitter, we dressed the girl in a small summer dress, flat shoes and tights. I felt this attire was suitable for attempting to portray the attitude we so desired. Placing books, magazines and photoshoot copies, in front of the shot, was our way of trying to convey her place in society. We intended to show her desire of being beautiful, thin and much like a model or celebrity. Another representation we wanted to show was with the Demons. These characters were intended to look as though
they were inside the vulnerable girl’s head, like the Demons of society. This was our final representation. This feedback was incredibly important as this way, we were able to portray a more relatable character throughout our music video. Moving away from classroom feedback here, was beneficial, as through a social media resource, the feedback from was the general public, rather than a specific target audience; such as the classroom. I believed this would help us to appeal to other audiences rather than just our primary audience. I created video discussions between people of various ages. In these videos, I described our initial plot and asked them questions on whether or not they thought the idea would be entertaining enough or perhaps too complex and finally, their opinion on girl bands. We asked Ellie’s younger sister, Evie, who falls just short of our target audience, what she thought of girl band’s and their conventions, to get a sense of what others would expect from a girl band music video.
“I just don’t find them as relatable, their video’s aren’t as interesting.” Evie explained how she felt girl bands’ videos aren’t typically relatable, so she loses interest because of this. This made me think carefully about our initial plan for the narrative. I felt we would cover this issue, by showing different representations of girls. This video and audience feedback was extremely helpful, as it gave me some insight into other audience’s, appealing to a broader spectrum of ages. The insight from these videos and the information I gained will not only cater to my target audience, but a more diverse and wide variety of audiences. I felt this would make my video more accessible.
Laura claimed she felt girl band’s videos were often more relatable than any other genre. She said she loved the upbeat and young feel of the track and felt that the plot would link it well with the lyrics. Whilst talking about targets for our music video, Laura suggested we think about utilising multiple locations for our video; she said often enough, the locations of videos in other genres didn’t interest her enough. Deciding upon location, was hard for us, as we wanted our video to become more noticeable. Subsequently, this feedback helped us to come to the conclusion of using multiple locations to attract our audience.
Online F eed b a c Receiving feedback on Facebook was particularly helpful, as I was able to get an idea of what different ages would want to find when watching a music video from the pop-punk/rock genre. This subsequently helped me to come to the conclusion of which target audience would be best suited. I had stuck by my original primary target audience being 15-24 years old. Facebook made this decision much clearer. I created a Youtube video, where we were asked some basic questions about the plot of our music video. I felt this would help clarify our story line and this way, we would be able to come to a decision that we felt would aid our video’s progression.
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Putting the evidence of both online and classroom feedback together, we came to a conclusive narrative plot decision. After much deliberation and discussion within the classroom, we found that the majority of the class thought the narrative plot would be too confusing for an audience of first viewing. Getting this feedback was helpful, as this way we were able to focus more on the performance side of the video. We came up with a second idea, which we then promoted to our class-mates. I wanted to create a graph to ensure we were organised in being able to come to a final decision. Here was the graph I created, in which answers were given to which idea, one or two, the audience preferred.
I asked 8 members of my Media Studies class, which idea they preferred the most from our previous feedback sessions. The online evidence was clear, Idea 2, the performance based concept, was evidently the favourite. Pushing idea 1 to the sidelines made our next research much more structured. The combination of online feedback and classroom feedback worked really well, because we were able to quickly gain results from ages within our target audience; this resulted in us knowing exactly what our specific audience wanted. When replaying the graph back to the classroom, I questioned why those 6 people chose idea 2. (About idea 1) To ‘attempt a simpler idea’ ‘look more into the performance side, perhaps with instruments; this would make the plot less complex’. Some said different. ‘I think instruments are too predictable in this genre, it would be nice to see a new, more modern music video that didn’t contain this idea.’
With this feedback in mind, I moved over to YouTube and found that many music videos of the same genre had the inclusion of instruments. I wanted to subvert this convention to ensure my video stood out. Here, both Facebook feedback and YouTube comments came into great use.
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Now that all feedback, from both online and classroom research, I decided to post my first draft online. Uploading this draft to YouTube meant that others could watch and give feedback on my video; including different ages and genders. From this, I could receive a wider range of feedback, because of the diverse audience. I then posted my first draft on Facebook. Here are the comments I received. The comments I received were mostly positive. I had received some constructive criticism, where I was told to edit various transitions and re-do some colour correction on various clips.
This feedback was exactly what I wanted to help me progress with my editing. Without the combination of the two feedback processes; classroom and online, I would have never been able to develop my work to the finished standard it remains in now. Being able to cater to my audience’s requirements, and producing products that would not only appeal to them, but to others outside of my primary target audience, were all made accessible because of the feedback I had gained through both. Receiving both positive and constructive feedback was extremely beneficial, so that I knew exactly where I needed to place more attention and care.
Final Classroom Feedback for my Music video
“I liked that you used all the girls to do the bridge within the song, instead of just one singer. I felt it split the song up and created more interest.” – James Allsopp “I’m loving the final edits and the quick short bursts of clips- It really goes with conventions of the genre.” – Tom Ford “The shots, angles and editing are really good. I really like the jumpy parts and short burst-cut clips.” – Laura Bryan “I like the bits where you’ve layered clips together, it makes the video more entertaining.” – Laura Pye “Love the low key studio shots- Particularly the red lighting.” – Imogen Renshaw This was clear evidence that the previous feedback had been effective. Having changed some of my previous edits, to reform into my new final piece, I believe the feedback before had been extremely beneficial for my video’s progression.
The Digipak
Classroom Feedback
Having looked into some digipak’s, I found that the combination of the two genres; Pop-punk/rock, was a simple, yet colourful production. I knew that I wanted to continue with the colourful theme running through both my music video and website, so I set about creating this. My first sketch up drafts of my digipak was then presented to the classroom, for a discussion.
We recited how the colours would link with our other products, and how each digipak panel would attract our designated audience. The classroom found the sketches insightful and a helpful guide into how our product would be presented. I then posted the images to Twitter, where I gained some feedback on the basic sketches.
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From Twitter, I gained positive comments from friends and some effective targets to set myself when creating the final digipak.
Feedback from our basic sketches helpful, because this way, I now had an idea of what to avoid, whether I was reaching conventions or not and finally, some positive points for a beginning. I now knew where and how I needed to develop these ideas.
Classroom Feedback
My first real draft of the digipak was presented to the class. The feedback we received was interesting and aided my group and I in developing the digipak further. The majority of our feedback said there was too much dead space, particularly with regards to the back panel and the front. Because these were going to be the two panels first seen by potential buyers, I wanted them to stand out more. One suggestion was to move around the images of the eyes, into alternative angles, which would give the audience’s eye’s something to move around. Another suggestion, because of our colour theme, was to match the eyes to the corresponding colour of those in the video; purple, blue and green. From our sketches, the classroom feedback stated they thought more lips needed to be included, as it was a entertaining focal point from the music video. Finally, we were told to change the lips on the inside panel, to again, correspond with the video itself. The audience really liked the inclusion of the band member’s signatures; they said they felt it made the digipak more personal. Gaining this kind of in-depth feedback was what I particularly enjoyed about close-personal classroom comments.
Here is the final digipak and feedback we received.
I wanted to receive feedback from someone outside of our target audience. Going to my Photography teacher, he gave me some inspiring and constructive feedback. “I really love the vibrancy of the overall digipak, it really links in well with the fun, up-beat and modern track. However, I do feel as though the band name could have been in the same font as the rest of text used. The leaves on the back panel could have been kept the same size, as in some ways it distracts the eye. I love the layered effect of the top right panel and the back panel’s lip and logo combination. I think, from my basic research into your genre’s digipaks conventions, you have certainly adhered and developed most conventions to make it your own; which I like very much.”
The Website Classroom Feedback
We created our website using Wix, a well known website creator that was initiated in early 2006. Firstly, we created a basic draft of the conventions we hoped to include within the website. Not wanting to miss anything, I consulted members of the classroom to ensure I hadn’t missed anything of my checklist. To make the website more personal, some suggested we have tabs/drop down menus, where the audience could personally get in contact with each member; a way
of giving feedback, questions concerning tours etc. I thought this was an excellent idea, and after much more research into website conventions of our genre, I found that this was a common feature.
Community Boards
This feedback was very helpful, because I felt this way, we were creating more of a relationship between audience and band; this is a particular convention of not only my genre, but also many others. I believed this made my website more accessible. Because of popular demand, we decided to include the community menu.
Another comment was, that in general, website’s contain an artist/band name and logo. We thought by including the logo on the home page, would make the band name and logo itself, more recognizable for not only the website, but for the digipak and video too. This feedback would help to boost the band’s advertisement and promotion throughout all of our products.
Overall, audience feedback has taught me the importance of using a variety of recourses, both technological and physical. The results I have gained have been the reason for all of my products’ development and diversity. It gave my group and I, people’s insights into their individual thoughts on the genre. For example, if it were just my group and I making the decisions, with no input from anyone else, only having three members makes the idea range far less than having insightful ideas from others, who all have their own opinions. Resulting in our research not being as beneficial or unique enough without feedback.