Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 3,

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The views of the target audience are important, in order to make quality products for them to either watch, listen to or read. By considering the views of the target audience, I could appeal directly to their expectations, desires and probably, most importantly, discover their dislikes. Thus, I would have more chance of making a successful product, if all views were taken into account and where possible acted upon.

Firstly, I had to establish who my target was. This was achieved through secondary research. I found that my target audience was young females and through psychographic information discovered that they like popular brands and use technologies and the internet. I looked deeper into my target audience by using primary research such as questionnaires and interviews to get a more detailed outlook of the things that they like and dislike.

There were a range of ways, I used to get feedback from my target audience for the progression of my media texts, the music video, digipak and advert.

Questionnaires

I used a primary research method of questionnaires to achieve more information on music videos and the genre that I am doing, which is pop. I sent this questionnaire to a range of different people as I tried to get a balanced mixture of boys and girls from a range of age groups, so that I could see what they had in common. I sent out 14 questionnaires. This would give me some reliable data as the participant could answer questions anonymously. I based the questions on music videos to find the common things that my target audience liked to see included in music videos.

These are the questions that I asked:

The results I received were:

Results showed, overall more people liked a narrative based music video than a performance or a concept video. However, more females prefer the narrative based video whereas more males prefer

the performance based video. For this question they were allowed to tick more than one box.

The common things that my audience liked was good editing techniques, a narrative, costumes and dance pieces. Other people also strongly liked colours and settings. Females, most favoured

inclusion was a dance piece – females being my target audience. However, I didn’t use a dance piece within my music video due to it not being practical to organise. Also, I did not feel a dance

piece would fit with the theme of the lyrics.

I asked a question, in the questionnaire, about the things that they may dislike in music videos and why. The main dislikes that were frequently mentioned were the visuals don’t match the lyrics, the

music video is over edited, there is too much colour and that women were seen as sex objects. Within my music video, I have tried to match the lyrics with the visuals - so that it matches Andrew Goodwin’s theory of matching the visuals with the lyrics so that it can either link to amplification,

illustrate or disjuncture.I avoided using the disliked features so that my target audience are not drawn away from my music

video.

Another question I asked was ‘Why music videos are important?’ and their response was: Shows the artist

Entertaining when bored Shows the visuals behind the song – understand what the song means

Good ones sell the song and are memorable Understand the song better

They are not important

This shows that they like seeing the artist within the music video and for the visuals to match the lyrics of the song.

The results that I received helped me know what to include and what not to include in my music

video. I used in my music video some of the features specified from these questionnaires - such as showing the artist, using a narrative and including good editing techniques. I also have the visuals

matching the lyrics.

Narrative Editing

Colours Narrative

Narrative Promotes the artist

Target Audience Interviews

I continued my primary research by doing interviews with my target audience and other demographic groups, to see what they liked and disliked about music videos. This was a great way to develop my ideas for my music video - such as finding out if they liked performance, narrative or a concept based music videos. I could then go onto create the storyboard and the idea/theme of the music video.

Due to my target audience being young, I asked some of my class mates in school who both fit and challenge the demographic of gender. I asked in each interview questions on the genre of pop - and music videos in general to get the best results. I also asked follow up questions, if I found the answers they gave were interesting or lacked detail.

These are the questions I asked them generally:

1. Are there any artists that you like, or any music videos and why?2. What are the common things that come up in pop music videos that you like, e.g.

Colours, setting, a dance piece, editing techniques, costume?3. Why are music videos important to you?4. Are there any things that you dislike in pop music videos?5. Do you prefer a narrative - personal or out of the ordinary - a performance or a concept

piece? (story, performance of the artist or a single idea)

I did one focus group interview with my target audience of young females to see what they liked or disliked.

I got some interesting results as this interview matches my target audience demographics. Their favourite artists are Bruno Mars, Maroon 5 and Ed Sheeran as they have catchy songs. The conventions that they like were a signature dance - like in Bruno Mars's 'Uptown Funk' with acting and dancing included so that they are not bored. They like more bright colours, however, this depends on the song and the mood being portrayed. They would also like different editing - like the 360 camera turn in 'Uptown Funk' and slow motion. They watch music videos as a 'relief' and like visuals creating a story from the lyrics. They dislike when it is just the artist singing or the editing being bad. They like a mixture of concept and narrative, which can be personal or different.

I also had another interview with young males to see if they liked the same features and qualities as my target audience. This was a secondary audience that I could aim for.

This interview challenges my demographics for my target audience. The artists that they like were Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, Avicii and One Direction. They like bright, vibrant colours, catchy dancing and quick paced editing in music videos - and dislike repetitive videos that are set in one place. They like a mixture of a performance and a narrative that is personal to

them depending on the lyrics. The reason they watch music videos is that it brings an image to the lyrics so that they can visualise the song. This has helped shape my ideas, as in both interviews they like bright colours, a narrative that is personal to them, depending on the lyrics, and different editing. I can use these in my own music video as I want to use a variety of camera and editing techniques and develop a narrative that can be personally related. As the first focus group is my target audience, it has given me an insight and in depth knowledge of my target audience and what they would like to see in my music video.

The ideas that I have got from this was to use a variety of settings so that the video was not ‘repetitive,’ I used a variety of colours, but didn’t include a dance piece. I used a narrative - compared to a mixture of a narrative and performance as I didn’t want the focus to be off the narrative. They said they liked watching videos ‘as it brings an image to the lyrics so that they can visualise the song’ – so I thought of visuals that can be linked to the lyrics.

This has shaped my ideas as I included a narrative that has visuals made from the lyrics. I used editing like slow motion. I edited to the best of my ability and I made the narrative different.

Range of different settings within my music video

Help visualise the song by matching the lyrics to the visuals

Pitches

At the beginning of the project, I had chosen a different song to produce a music video for, which was ‘Eternal Flame’ by The Bangles. Although I was presenting ideas about a different song at the time, I received results that were relevant to the making of a pop video, so were useful to me.

I presented two ideas for my music video. My first idea was a narrative based video about a love story with cutaways of a performance and my second idea was an all performance based video in a studio with a guitar and drums.

The feedback and ideas that I received was:

Use a young cast Using the artist as the main character in the narrative as well as the artist in the studio so

that the audience can easily establish them. Try to break the conventions of the pop genre as I spoke about using clichéd settings for love Using creative editing techniques such as the time lapse idea that I suggested The idea of showing the cast, in the beginning, as young people and then show them at the

end as older people. The character lip synchs the song Use colour filters such as sepia

The feedback from this research has shown that they all liked the idea of the narrative and performance base music video which has helped me form the ideas for my music video. I took on board the feedback that was suggested and mainly used them all, such as the young cast, creative editing techniques and using the artist as the protagonist in the narrative. I could then organise the Mise en Scene and ideas for the storyboard. The feedback that I received I have taken into consideration as I have met, developed and challenged the conventions in the pop genre.

Young Cast Artist is the protagonist in the narrative

Feedback from storyboards

After making the storyboards, describing the camera shots and the narrative of the music video I showed the idea to my class. I presented this to my class for a group discussion on what was good and what was needed to improve the storyboard. This helped me as my class know about media language, so knowledgeably recognised the improvements that could be made. They critically analysed the storyboard, compared to someone who is not media literate. Also, as my target audience are young females, half my class met this criteria, so this further helped me meet the requirements for my target audience. I received some positive feedback about my storyboard.

The results I got from my feedback were:

Positive

They liked the concept They liked the camera angles mentionned Some good editing techniques described

Constructive Criticism

There were some questions asked about the making of my music video

Casting – who’s involved?/ You have a big cast – do you have ideas of who you’ll choose? At the time of the feedback session, I didn’t know who I was going to cast apart from the fact that the I was going to play the main character/artist. For my music video, I was the main character/artist, Calum was the inner conscience character and I used some students in school to film the disagreement scene. These are all young cast members that I wanted to use as this is a convention in pop music videos.

Editing of the TV to woods section how?/How will she get through TV?/How are you going to do the jumping out of TV scene?/How will you go through TV?At the time, I was going to use clever camera techniques and editing techniques to show the character entering the TV screen. During editing, I used transitions to show this effect. This wasn’t what I thought of, as the idea I had was difficult to execute. The effect used still works in the same way.

Where are you going to film in order to get so many people to do the fast editing people

scene?I filmed the fast editing people scene on Lincoln High Street on a Saturday as this was where lots of people were walking around. The shot worked well in the music video.

Can you cast the sped up high street shot?As the above shot is just of everyday life, this shot could not be cast.

Where will it be shot?I used a range of settings to make the music video interesting. I used the scenes that I specified at the feedback session such as the woods, high street and church with graveyard, but I filmed in some other places such as in a school setting and the living room scenes.

Any close ups?I used the close up shots that I specified at the feedback session as I wanted to show the detail of the subjects. I did a close up shot of the TV remote to show the movement of the character turning on the TV. The close up of the eyes shows the focus is on the eyes as they close and open again.

You will have to get cutaways if you’re going to time the shots.

At the time, this was a good point as I hadn’t fully organised the timings of the shots. When I had all the shots filmed that I had on my storyboard in place in editing so that it matched the lyrics, there were some gaps in the video that I didn’t mean to leave - so I filmed some cutaways when I was at the settings for this purpose.

Enough narrative to stay fresh/interesting?

The narrative contains some sub narratives to show the common theme of peace.

Maybe rather than ‘fixing’ things she just looks and things change for better?

I took on board this feedback, as I just showed the main character’s eyes closing and the sub narrative changes. This was easier and better for the narrative as it makes the narrative more mystical.

Feedback from editing so far

At some point in my editing, the whole of my class got together for a class discussion to see how the videos were looking so far - and to see what could be done to improve the music videos. As this was with media students, I could get detailed results regarding my music video - and be provided with feedback for improvements for the video.

The feedback that I received was that:

Positive

Amazing cinematography Good Mise en Scene Good concept for the music video Lots of good cutaways The shots fitted to the music

Constructive Criticism

Some members of my class think that I may need to include filters to make the shots seem more interesting.

Use a variety of transitions The argument scene had bad composition and acting - as one of the actors was smiling in

one of the shots. They thought that I may need to either redo; or improve the shots that I currently had.

As I hadn’t finished the video yet there was still some gaps within it; so they could not get a full idea of what the finished music video would be like.

To separate the different worlds I made the living room scene black and white. I only used a 75% black and white filter – but my class thought that it needed to be 100% black and white to tell the difference between the two worlds.

In the woods scene, I have a peace symbol on a tree and my class thought of the idea of using the peace symbol repeatedly – so that it is a common theme throughout the music video.

On my storyboard, I included a performance piece that I didn’t include within my music video. I felt that the music video was strong enough with just a narrative – once I had started shooting these scenes. My class wasn’t sure if the music video needed the performance piece when I brought up the question about its omission.

This has given me feedback in order to improve my music video, so that I can engage my target audience as much as possible. I have improved all of the criticism specified, with the exception of including a performance piece.

Adding more peace symbols to the music video to get a common theme.

Using filters on some of the shots.

I re-filmed the disagreement scene due to the previous filming had bad composition and mise en scene.

Feedback from ancillary tasks

For the ideas of my digipak and advert, I created three ideas that would be for my artist, Emeli Sandé that I presented to my class to find out others’ opinions on the ideas. This also helped see if what I had produced suited my genre. Each of our groups presented at least 3 drafts of digipak covers and adverts to see what was good and what was bad about each of the designs. I presented 3 different designs, each trying to meet the conventions of adverts, digipaks and the generic conventions of pop. I also took inspiration from the style of the artist. This helped me to improve my work and see what features from the digipaks and magazine adverts were best.

The feedback that I received was interesting, as there were mixed opinions on each design. The ideas

I Idea 3

Idea 2

Idea 1

The group liked ideas 2 and 3 the best as it linked best to the music video that I made. I didn’t use the idea- or any of the features shown from idea 1 - as my group didn’t like the idea as they felt it didn’t suit the music video. This was because the music video was set in the daytime and the digipak and advert was set on the theme of night time, so I took this suggestion on board. The idea for (1) was of the artist with her head in her hands with a thought bubble with the word ‘Imagine’ within it. It included stars and a moon against a black sky. The idea didn’t grab the attention of my target audience so I didn’t use any of the features.

The second idea was the one I based most of the final digipak and advert on; as the main image is of the artist in black and white tones. This was inspired by looking at Emeli Sandé’s past album covers as she uses black and white images created within a studio. I used a similar font style and my group thought that this was best suited to my music video - and the genre of pop.

The third idea was of the artist with her head in her hands, as if she was in thought. From her head is an explosion of small images that resemble the theme of ‘Imagine’ - which is the song title for my

music video. My class thought this was a good idea but they thought that it may be time consuming for me to complete. They liked some of the features, which I used, such as the back cover with the border and the peace symbol on the CD.

The final piece is a mixture of some of these features from (2) and (3) as suggested by the group.

This group discussion has helped me develop the visual look of the digipak and advert and has helped me rule out what is not considered worthy for the end product.

Front Cover from Idea 2

Border from idea 3 on back cover

Idea for CD suggested from idea 3 from

audience feedback

Based on idea 2

Post Production

Once the video was completed, I shared my video on many sources and sites to get as much feedback as I could to see what I could have done better and to share the video with my target audience.

YouTube

YouTube is a site that my demographic use in their spare time so I shared this online to see the comments that I would receive. As videos can be distributed globally, I can share my music video with a wide variety of people to get their feedback. This can help, in the future, to improve my music video as they would give both positive and negative feedback.

I received a comment from Billy who fits my demographic of being young that he liked the iconography of lost soldiers, editing that fits the pace of the music and the graphics. He thought to improve the music video was to have more colour. This is helpful information as it states both positive and negative feedback about the video. The comment about the editing staying with the pace of the song fits the music convention that I was hoping for.

Facebook

Social media sites are another source that my demographic would use in their spare time, so is a great way to share my music video and get constructive feedback about it.

His response has given feedback that the video provides positive feedback and he is part of my target demographic of young so his response is worth noting.

Email friend

I also shared the video that I uploaded to YouTube to members of my target audience so that I can get an honest opinion on my music video.

I sent an email to Chloe who fits my target audience demographic and her response was mainly positive. She said it was enjoyable to watch. She liked:

Different shots Editing techniques, for example the black and white filters Time lapses – to keep the audience entertained Slow motion

One thing to improve

Maybe including a performance to break up the narrative and to see the artist herself which may appeal to some target audience members such as herself

This has given me inspirational ideas for the future with regard to positive feedback and also with regard to constructive criticism. The recurring theme throughout my feedback was the lack of a performance piece, so I think this is the strongest piece of advice which has been fed back to me. I have learned that my target audience like to see the artist performing and would strongly consider this - if I were to make another music video. The positive feedback has been taken on board but I realise that I must always strive to improve on the points that were raised.

Final Product with class

29.1.2016

Today we viewed each other’s music videos for the final time to see what was good or bad about them in order to improve on them in the future. This is audience feedback that would benefit me in the future if I were to improve this video again.

The response I got from my video was -

Good features of my music video:

Timelapse of people and lake The Mise en Scene – all white clothing Connects with song – poppy Range of Shots Black and White filters to colour The graphics Range of settings Actors Diegetic sound at the beginning

Improve:

The jump cut of the inner conscience character is a bit out of time Transitions to black and to white More colour/filters As the clothing is white, the colours make the shot bright and high key The transitions are a bit abrupt.

This is more feedback from my target audience where they have provided their input into what needs to be improved for the music video. The improvements are not major things such as some shots need to be redone or the shots are in the wrong order - but the improvements are minor things which would make a quality music video.

Conclusion

I believe that if conducted correctly, target audience research allows the artist to connect with their audience. The results you are fed back allows you to tap into their dreams, discover the way they wish the artist to present themselves and therefore allow them to be delivered a product which appeals to them both auditory and visually.

I have come to the conclusion, I would have made products of an inferior quality if I hadn’t had feedback as I would have been following my own ideas and would have not taken into account the ideas of the very people who I needed to target. This would have resulted in me wasting my time in targeting the wrong people and not delivering products with a wide appeal.