Audience feedback through construction of my products

Audience Feedback through construction of my productsBy Phoebe Noel

Why did I want audience feedback?Throughout the whole process, from planning to

construction I used audience feedback to guide my decisions, in order to appeal to my target audience.

This is important as my product needs to appeal and therefore the audiences advice is sometimes the best advice. I also gained advice from my teachers as they have experience and know what is best.

By showing what I have done so far to peers and teachers I was able to develop and improve, creating the best product possible.

Music videoWhilst constructing my music video I asked for advice from my teachers, I then made changes and in order to clarify that

this decision was correct, I used audience surveys to ask my target audience.

One example of this was when I was editing the beginning scene , in which the audience are shown Nicks mouth, mouthing the Psycho excerpt whilst a car window shot showing the passing scenery is faded behind the mouth. Whilst in pre- production and during the creation on my storyboard, I had imagined that the mouth would appear in the top left hand corner in order to not block the other shot. When I created this during the editing process I was not happy with how the shot came out, I then asked my teacher Tim for advice:

My question: “I am not happy with this shot, I think it looks silly. I was thinking of making the shot of the mouth cover the screen but I don't know how to make it fade over so you can see the other shot behind?”.

Tim: “Yes I think that is a good idea. Try looking on YouTube for how you can create an overlay”.

I then visited YouTube as my teacher suggested and was able to overlay the shot of Nicks mouth over the car window shot. Here is the change of shot:

I was much happier with this shot and felt that it fit perfectly. In order to make sure I had made the right decision I conducted a survey where I showed both clips to some of my classmates and asked them which one they thought was best.

100% said they preferred shot two with reasons of ; “Clip one doesn't look integrated into the shot right”, “Clip two looks more professional ” and “I like the technique of clip two ”.

This made me feel confident that I had made the right changes to appeal to my audience.

Music videoAnother time during editing I had asked for advice, was when constructing my end scene.

Originally I wanted singular shots travelling back through the house, however during the editing process I found that my shots had come out very blurry and unstable, which meant I could not use these shots. I was now stuck as that was my only Idea for the end shots , so I asked my teacher for advice.

My question: “I cannot use these shots due to the lack of quality and I really wanted to use them to present the idea of travelling back through the house signalling the end of my narrative, I don't know what to do?”.

Tim: “What about filming one continued shot walking through the house then reversing it, which will present the same idea however in a more effective manner. Google ‘reverse shots’ and see what you think”.

I did just this and really liked this effect, I also thought it would look much better than my original idea and it still gives the same effect.

Due to this advice I had to do more filming, however the outcome of my video was much better and therefore it was worth it and I am glad I took this advice.

I brought the shot into editing and applied the reverse effect. I was very happy with the outcome.

Music Video

Another time during the construction of my music video I asked my teacher for advice , I was unsure about. I asked my teacher to watch final draft of my music video and he commented that the scene where the female drives up in the car and gets out with her suitcase was not needed.

I was in conflict with this as I specifically used these shots in order to introduce the audience to this character, and ignite the narrative. However when I explained this to my teacher he stated that another shot of the car window and passing scenery would be more effective and give the same message to the audience.

After college I told my mum and asked her what she thought about this idea, after showing her the two different videos she said “Actually I prefer the car window shot, I think it flows better”.

I decided to look more closely into this and began to understand why my teacher though this switch would be more effective.

I then decided to conduct a survey and find out what my target audience thought. Here were the results:

As you can see more people chose clip 2 which was the car window shot, comments were made such as “It connects to the beginning of the video and makes more sense” and “I believe shot one drags slightly and feels unneeded in comparison to the second shot”. For this reason I knew changing the shot was the right decision and would appeal to my target audience more.

My DigipakIn terms of my digipak the main advice I got was from my teacher.

One thing I needed advice with was with the background of my CD cases, I was unsure whether to have it clear or use a black background.

My Question: “Does my CD look better/Stand out more with the black background or without one?”.

Tim: “I like it with the black and the colour black also links to your other colours used”.

I also asked my teacher for feedback on my final draft of my digipak and if anything was missing.

My question: “Please can I have some critical feedback on my digipak”.

Tim: “I like it, I would just put the same writing on the other spine”.

This I had not realised I hadn't done and I made the changes straight away.

Magazine AdvertAgain for my magazine advert the main advice was from my teacher. I felt they were the best to gain advice

from as they have knowledge and experience in this area, and will therefore know what is most effective.

After I had completed a draft of my magazine advert I asked my teacher for some critical feedback in order to improve.

Tim: “I think the textbox is too high up and you need to add colour to some of the information to make it stand out”.

I completely agreed, as so far all my text was coloured white and nothing stood out, I chose gender neutral colour and put the 1 and the ‘No Angels & Get back’ in orange. This looked much better and made my product also look more authentic.

This was also a good decision as in my audience feedback on my products, my audience picked out that they liked the use of orange as it made these parts stand out.

After making these changes I decided to look at the adverts of my classmates to see if mine looked similar and conformed to conventions. After speaking with classmates and asking them to look at mine, the main line of advice was to add more to the bottom, ie apple store logo.

I took this information on board and added the iTunes store logo and the bands website. These changes finished off my product and made it more similar to existing products, therefore allowing to appeal more to my target audience.

What I learnt from my audience feedback?As you can see, I used advice from my teachers and audience feedback to help shape all of my

three products.

Advice & Feedback on my music video made me:• Adapt my original ideas • Go back to the location and shoot more footage • And find out about different editing techniques

Advice & feedback on my digipak made me:• Add more to my product • Clarified changes I had made

Advice & feedback on my magazine advert made me:• Adjust what I had done ie adding colour • Evaluate what I could do to improve • Add information what was missing

All of these aspects improved my product and I was very grateful for all the feedback I received as it allowed me to create an effective and appealing product for my target audience.