Evaluation 3: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback has been a crucial part to the creation and development of my music video. From initial ideas to the final editing stages. In order to receive the most accurate and useful audience feedback I created a target audience and demographic- young women ages 14-25.

Pre-Production

Firstly, audience feedback became important during the pre-production and research stages of creating my media product. In order to gain an understanding on what our target audience expected and wanted to see in our music video I interviewed five members of my target audience. I answered them a series of questions including what there hobbies where, what type/genre of music they currently listen to, and what they would expect to see in our music video. I received contrasting opinions on the colour and tone of the music video. One in particular said they would expect to see bright and vibrant colours to make the video more visually appealing. Contrastingly, others said they would expect to see monotone colour grading and dark backgrounds to amplify the the lyrics of the song.



After carrying out more planning and creating a storyboard for my music video, I showed it to another group of my target audience. The feedback I received was crucial to creating a professional media product. Overwhelmingly, the feedback and criticism I received suggested the narrative and performance was to repetitive and slightly boring therefore the audience would lose interest quickly. Subsequently, I edited the storyboard- adding a larger range of shots from extreme close ups to cross editing.



Furthermore, when watching Rihanna's original music video of 'What Now', I noticed the reoccurring use of the flash edit. I decided to create a similar tone and atmosphere to the original video incorporating an editing technique like 'flash edit' or 'twitch effect' was crucial. Consequently, I presented the idea to my target audience, of five. All loved the idea, saying it added interest to the visuals, made it more tense and dramatic and most importantly heightened the tone and atmosphere of sadness which is present throughout.

Production

Although at pre-production audience feedback was very useful it was at the stage of production that it became fundamental. Regularly, I received audience feedback from my peers whilst creating my media product, however there were two editing stages where I received extremely critical feedback.

Firstly, my first filming session took place in the evening in order to get a sinister and sightly ominous atmosphere. After this filming session I began editing and produced a rough cut to show to my peers. The criticism overall consisted of the lighting- saying it was to 'fuzzy' and 'didn't present the artist in the best light'. Subsequently, I re filmed but filmed during the day instead of an evening. The image was of a much better quality and I was able to capture the tone of the music video whilst not having dark lighting. 

During the editing process I received regular audience feedback. This was mostly when experimenting with editing techniques including overlaying, shadow effect and split screening. The audience feedback I received was mostly positive but some suggested the shadow effect was perhaps not right for my type of video.





 However after completing a rough cut of the music video I received much more critical feedback. The target group said at points the visuals did not match or add anything to the music and at points was too repetitive. 

Post-production

In order to gain a wider understanding and get the most accurate as possible audience feedback I showed my music video to a much larger target group and asked five questions:

'How effective was the music video in terms on entertainment?'

The feedback I received from the audience in this section was average. The feedback suggested although parts were entertaining, including the 'flash edit' many said it became repetitive and slightly boring. 

'How effective is the soundtrack?'

The audience feedback from this section was overwhelmingly positive, saying they enjoyed the song and the visuals presented with it, however at times the visuals could have been made more effective, by adding a greater range of shots and a change in scenery.  

'How likely are you to watch the music video?'

Overall, in terms of this section, the audience feedback continued to be positive. The majority of my target audience gave me a high rating for this section saying they would watch this music video, however would rather if there was a larger variety of visuals to keep them completely interested throughout.

'How effective did you find the colour scheme?'

Again this was an area that my target audience enjoyed about my music video. Most said they liked the monotone and simplistic colour grading of mainly white and black as it added to the dramatic effect and amplified and heightened the lyrics in the song. However one criticism I received again was to perhaps add a change in scenery and shots to contrast to the existing footage and stress the simplicity of it.

Here are our results of my audience feedback presented in a pie chart and bar graph.

As a consequent of receiving a number of criticisms saying the music video was too repetitive I carried out another filming session, however this time I used a drone to capture completely different angels and shots and add a heightened level of drama to my media product. This hugely added to the overall professional and creative look to my music video, but most significantly made the music video much more visually appealing and exciting to watch. Again I showed it to my target audience and was received with much more positive feedback saying it was more interesting and dramatic matching the changed in tone of the music. 

Ancillary Tasks

Throughout the creation of my ancillary tasks audience feedback continued to be great use and significance. 

In terms of my magazine advert, I created multiple prototypes allowing me to later to combine them. I showed two of my prototypes to my target audience. Firstly, my target audience said the black writing didn't stand out enough due to the image being dark itself but they also said the title covered the artists face. I then showed them the second prototype. Although the title in this one stood out, my audience revealed to me the titles and writing did not match the aesthetics of my music video. Subsequently, I combined and edited both music video to create my final product. I then presented this to my target audience who liked the final magazine article.

Final Magazine Advert

Prototype 1

Prototype 2

Furthermore, I then showed my website to my target audience. Fortunately, I received no criticism for the website- all of my target audience said how they really liked the pastel colours scheme, which very much fitted with the synergy of my product. They also liked the interactive elements I had added into the website- which i found during my research was crucial.

Overall, in terms on my ancillary tasks, my target audience said how professional and creative the products were but most importantly the synergy established allowed all my target audience to identify with my brand.