What have you learned from your audience feedback?

To create my music video I first had to look at what type of music members of the public enjoy. To do this the initial idea that came to me would be to create a questionnaire that I could hand out to members of the public. The questions that featured were specifically designed to get a wider range of responses so that we could consider what would be the best choice for our music video. By using this questionnaire it allowed me to obtain extensive research that would be cheap to produce, easily distributed and I would acquire a range of results that would help in the process of targeting the right audience for my products. From having a questionnaire it also allows for a mixture of both quantative and qualative data results that would be useful to explore both data and opinions of the public. From producing a questionnaire I found that this type of audience research allows me to gather a substantial amount of answers in a short period of time. For this reason it is very useful to obtain answers from specific audiences as I could create a questionnaire that would appeal to a broad spectrum of people. This then gave me a lot of material to work with in the planning and construction of my music video. However, although some aspects of handing out a questionnaire, I found that some people became impatient and rushed through the questionnaires making the results unreliable. Considering this I would use a variety of audience feedback, the questionnaire has some strengths but it doesn’t always provide the detail that I was after.

From conducting my questionnaire I obtained answers that would help in the process of creating my music video. I found that, from the audience I asked, folk genre was the most common choice of music that they would listen to with Indie music coming second. From this feedback Ben and I then knew what type of music video to create which would be a were found to be positive by gathering the information very quickly collaboration of both genres to create a new sub-genre of music such as “Mumford and Sons” have done. Also one piece of feedback I received indicated that the sub-genre that was most common was acoustic. This then lead to me and Ben creating a music video that featured aspects of the acoustic genre so that the video met the criteria of the audience feedback. From being able to conduct this research it has structured a pathway for myself and ben to follow so that the product that was created met the expectations of the audience. From gathering this information I then found that the use of feedback that I received was proven very valuable as without this indication the acoustic genre may never have appeared and thus losing some of our audience.

During the process of creating my music video I had the initial idea, along with my fellow partner Ben, to create a narrative music video that would keep the audience focused upon the storyline that progresses between the two brothers and the death of the younger brother. After gathering feedback in the initial production stage one audience member of my product suggested a variety of ways in which I could possibly develop my music video to a greater degree. One feedback suggestion that was made was to include a performance side to the video. That way the audience can then see that the video is not a film but a music video. This changed the planning and construction of our music video immensely meaning that myself and Ben would have to film, and edit-in the performance side to our music video. This was done to a good standard and it did thoroughly improve our music video. By allowing ourselves to film the performance section the audience were able to look upon the singer who was the main characterin the video. This identified that the narrative and performance collaborated together to represent the song as a tribute towards the dead brother. From gathering feedback this early on in the construction of my music video was

excellent as it enabled myself to make significant changes to the video so that the target audience were happy and thus creating a greater audience . Without this feedback I would not have known what the audience want and thus I would have created a poorer music video.

Once the video had been completed I decided to run a test screening to see if including the feedback of performance within the music video would work. The audience were a focus group that I had chosen to get a variety of different comments. This included asking how effective including a performance aspect was, if it had fit in well with the music video and overall did it make the music video better. The information that was gathered demonstrated that the performance aspectsimproved our video a lot by the group stating that the most effective parts of the music video were the performance elements and it lead to an insight to who was singing, meaning that the audience can no look deeper into the emotion that the singer Is portraying. From gaining this knowledge I can state that having this feedback has improved my music video vastly and gained myself and Ben a greater understanding of a music video. From receiving this feedback I have learnt that using test screening made it easier to get a natural response compared to if I were to use a questionnaire where people would rush the answers. This would be great, meaning I would be able to acquire results that are helpful and reliable. The advantages of using this focus group enabled myself to get a range of analytical feedback that I could then take on board and progress from this by making possible edits to the music video. The disadvantages through are that because the focus group set up were people I see on a day to day bases, the feedback that I had received might be bias because the focus group are mine and bens friends and they wanted to say how good it was because of the friendship. To avoid this a focus group of Strangers might possibly be better as the feedback would be honest but at the same time maybe not as analytical as I would like.

From obtaining audience feedback from social networking sites this enabled me to acquire effective constructed feedback on my ancillary texts. This was proven to be a very effective way of gaining my audience feedback but some of the responses wouldn’t be of academic quality due to the quality of the answers revived. One example of helpful feedback would be from one viewer who used social networking to access and view my ancillary texts and music video. Upon looking at the Digipak the viewer stated that in some sections the imagery that was used wasplain. This was the initial idea that Ben and I were aiming for but we, from further inspection, both agreed with the viewer’s comment. In some areas the Digipak was covered in imagery and text that related to our product, the other sections of the DigiPakcontained imagery of secluded fields and dying shrubbery. The reason why we include this would be to relate the imagery that is shown through the DigiPak back to the narrative performance of my music video. Even through this was a good idea as it related back to the conventions of indie music with secluded areas and folk music by having fields the mise en scene of location just wasn’t enough. This is where I suggested, as the audience wanted something else included into the DigiPak, an idea to include an effect of tearing to present ideology that someone had torn away part of the image to reveal words from the song.These words were the most powerfullyrics such as “I’ll pray for you”. This idea came to me as it suggests an inner message that our song is trying to portray. This also enabled Ben and Ito link the lyrics back towards our music video by featuring the words from the song. The Digipak therefore symbolises a greater meaning and synergy is used to link the aspects of the song into the Digipak. From portraying this idea the feedback given was very positive and indicated that the change made produced a greater product that enabled for a greater outcome . The audience, from looking at the updated product said that the tearing effect worked very well and that they could understand why this has been included. This feedback was acquired through the form of, again, putting together a focus group made up from the

students who take media as a subject. The reason for this would be to gain audience responses from people who have more analytical skill regarding media. Comparing this to that of a public audience would mean that the feedback given would be more helpful and thus easier to apply towards my product.

From gathering a range of audience feedback whether this be through the form of social networking sites,YouTube or through focus groups,I have learnt to look more in-depthatthe audience feedback as, after all, the product is for them. Many of the suggestions made by members of the public have been proven effective and upon making these changes either the ancillary texts or the music video itself hassignificantly improved. This was down to good quality feedback. The importance of this would be that it suggests ways to improve my product. For instance if a show were to be put on television station thenthey would need some form of feedback from a pilot to know if this is good or not. This is the same type of situation where I would want to know what I could improve on to make the product stronger. Some feedback that was good but not as helpful would be comments such as “This is great”. It signifies that the audience enjoys the product but doesn’t suggest any ways for improving. This portrays an answer that isn’t relevant for my products. This could be down to the fact that the answer wasn’t from the appropriate audience and thus the answer wasn’tfocused upon in detail. Academically the responses that I would have hoped to acquire would suggest what might need improving to hit the target audience, Suggesting ways in which I could change certain aspects so that the audience are happy. This would then help with the reliably of the responses as I would be able to collect a range of information that would help towards my products. But choosing to listen to the audience would depend on the audience that is presenting their view; I would need to find out if the audience are relevant for my product so that the right responses are coming from my target audience and not just a random person. For this reason I can state that not all feedback that is received through social networking sites can be reliable. Through looking into the range of feedback and applying different techniques and elements I feel that I have used this feedback effective and portrayed this through my music video and ancillary texts. With the feedback that I was given I was able to make these important changes to further greaten both ancillary texts and my music video. Without this feedback then the changes wouldn’t have been possible and thus creating a poorer product. But by allowing myself and Ben to change and use focus groups to gather feedback we have both strengthened not only the video but our creative techniques, to listen to our audience.