Question 3

Audience Feedback

I’ve decided to look at feedback from my media class 1st then compare it to my target audience to fully see how my piece can be read and what things are picked up upon.

From this I will then appeal the different theories and approaches of audiences on my piece.

So to do this I showed my class my piece and write down any comments they may have unanimously, so they wouldn’t hold back on criticism etc. I also didn’t give any questions for them to answer as I wanted them to make comments on issues that I may have not necessarily considered before.

Here they have picked up on the point I made that people outside the target audience will see the video as quite entropic, but people within the target audience will find it redundant. I thought this might happen as I went for a theme that would relate to the music and thereby the audience(urban). I also then tried to the audience with the narrative within the video. However because the whole theme all together, to the target audience it won’t seem anything new as there use to it. Thereby making my video a safe idea and not breaking boundaries within the target audience.

This was a relief as I was worried that due to the fast-paced editing and changes in time and place audiences wouldn’t get it and lose interest as they can’t understand it. Also with rapid editing and flashing lights and all the effects included I was worried that it would be hard on the eye to watch. With this comment coming from someone typically outside my target audience I am very happy as they wouldn’t be used to this fast paced music or viewing.

Clear narrative, not complicated or hard to watch

This could been seen as a problem in most music video’s, but for mine its not really. This is because I wanted it not to be to clear in places exactly what was happening as I wanted it to become so fast paced people get lost within the piece. As it wouldn’t be clear to the character within the video what was happening so I wanted the audience to feel the same way.

Also I think this person picked up on the reverse action near the end of the video to symbolise the end to the video. Which is good as I didn’t want o just end the video suddenly and just dropped the audience, as the pleasures gained in the piece could have been lost. So I wanted to end it neatly so the pleasure would remain satisfied to the audience watching.

I set out to not make my video “look” professional as I wanted it to look home made. As I didn’t want to intimidate the target audience as push them away, as I didn’t want the piece to look mainstream as I’m aiming at a niche audience and market. However I feel that with the digipack as well I could be accused of the pieces looking slightly professional. However only parts of the digipack and video do look professional so I feel it will still be ok and fit in with my target audience on the whole.

I liked how they realised the watch clip and saw it as an original idea. As I felt it was fairly original too.

If we look back at the samples I collected from my media classes answers. I managed to draw a lot of positive things from it:-

As their media students I realised that if anything they would pick up on more of the technical elements of the piece. They picked on a lot of the things I thought they would such as the rapid editing, the watch scene, and I had a lot of comments on the lighting of the piece.

I was also very pleased as they realised the narrative of the piece very easily which was a massive worry for me. Its also quite surprising as there not my target audience as I really didn’t expect them to get it.

Also I was surprised that they all took the same reading of the piece and didn’t have views of it being right or wrong. They realised that the piece was just showing this happening and not saying if it was right or wrong. Which is a massive achievement as its what I set out to do. This makes sure that my piece is defiantly not aberrant

Now I will look at the feedback on facebook, youtube etc on my project from the target audience. I decided to give them a set of questions to answer hoping to would start of a discussion and make them know what to say.Obviously for this I had to construct the questions in away the audience would understand, but that I could take meaning and qualitative research from.

As you can see the questions are pretty simple. However for some questions, (3, 4 and 6) I will draw a different meaning from. This is because the questions are really asking. “Through your own cultural capital how could the piece be improved”, “ How have you been affected, expected ways, unexpected ways?” And,” what pleasures if any, have you gained from the piece.”

Feedback from target audienceFeedback from target audience This member of the audience as you can see has picked up that there the target audience. And took pleasures that my typical target audience would like and find amusing. However they defiantly took an oppositional view on the actual narrative of the video. Which is understandable as there the target audience so they could find it offensive. However I still think they liked the video overall.

As we can see this person also enjoyed the video. They picked up upon the way the video is shot not to look mainstream and took a pleasure from that. It was unexpected however to get an intrigued idea for the rapid montage as I wasn’t expected that reaction. However once again more shots at the party are requested, but this time they wanted the character to be shown within the party to.

This person instantly recognised the music and there target audience. This person also established that they don’t really care about the video as interested in music. I’ve managed to take from this that they related to the piece as the style and theme they recognised as there own and familiar to them in particular. I think they also used there cultural capital to realise the effects within the piece were he effects of the drugs on the character.

I found this comment very helpful when reflecting on my piece. They realised the correct genre and audience. Again the whole scene and narrative of the party itself was brought up, with this many people bringing it up its defiantly a problem. It showed my correct decision of not glamorising the video as because of it not being glamorised this audience member actually took pleasure from it. However this pleasure had not been thought of before, so it was unexpected. This person also realised that the narrative was there because of the gritty urban style and theme of the video I was going for. Another unexpected reaction was what they thought of the ending sequence as I had put it there and done it that way for a totally different reason to what this audience member said.

After looking at the sample and other feedback from the target audience I’ve managed to pick up the main issues.

One of the main issues was the party shots and scenes, as most of the audience wanted to actually see the character at the party and made clear that it was in the future and that was what he was walking towards in the video. I feel this should have been done as if the audience saw him at a rave(much to the likes of one they would attend), they would have related more to the character. Also this would have gave me a chance for the piece to be self-referential, as I could have had some shots of DJ CRETIN playing the music in the video.

One positive I can take which comes from both different audiences I asked to comment. That is that the video has many meanings to people as its seen in many different ways not just one, showing the “openness” of right and wrong I tried worked with the video well. However some people did find the actual narrative of taking drugs abit stereotypical

Also the idea of it being entropic for outside audience but redundant for my target audience was also picked up upon from both audiences.

I also found that a lot of the pleasures that I aimed for, weren't felt or needed, but new ones which I haven't have thought of before were.

One thing for sure a both audiences both took many different views making my piece defiantly not aberrant

So if my piece wasn’t aberrant what view points were took?

Because its obviously that the direct effect and hypodermic needle theory didn’t work here as the whole point of the piece was for audiences to draw there own views from it. So the effects theory doesn't work with my piece as I wanted the audience to be active to gain pleasures from the piece. However by doing this I think I might have accidentally made them draw there own different pleasures from it too.

This shows my audience to be achieve and not passive. Supporting the use’s and gratifications theory. As people may have drawn new pleasures from the piece but they still felt the piece fulfilled them. So in a way the audience has made the video have a new meaning to the original, a meaning which is persificly suited to the individual. This shows signs of “what the audience does to the text”. As it encourages them to adapt the text to there needs and uses that need gratifying. But is this theory out of date???

The different views could have been to do with different social backgrounds as the media class drew different ideas from the target audience and the same for each person from both audiences who watched it. Supporting the cultural studies approach. As there were no persific readings as everyone created there own, however this is based on there social background. For example a high class person could see it as bad drugs are took, but someone low class could accept it, as the video itself isn’t saying its wrong or right, forcing the audience to decide.

So what have I learnt?

I learnt that a lot of the ideas I set out to achieved worked, such as giving an open-mindness to the video. However this also sparked off new pleasures which weren't thought of before.

Also I learnt that in areas the video could be improved such as the party scene etc, thereby making it clearer what's going on.

I also learnt that my idea to create a text where the audience is active worked. I think from feed back as well it shows that I effectively managed to create a style

which was recognisable to my target audience and those outside it. I was also surprised to find that a lot of the things I thought only my target audience

would recognise and understand, other audiences picked up upon also, this shows that my connotations really must have been simple and easy to get as people outside that normal genre with not much cultural capital of it, understood it.

I think a lot of ideas that I had not discovered or thought of before were brought up which I would aim to appeal to more next time and work around.

I also think that next time I should try not make it out to be stereotypical of a particular audience when it comes to the narrative and make it clear that its not targeting to stereotype, its trying to show the gritty urban style.