What have I learned from my audience feedback? - Evaluation task 3

GEOR G I N A B I T M EA D

M E TH O D S• To gain audience feedback that would actually be

useful to make changes to our product we had to come up with certain methods.

• For instance, we filmed a focus group for audience feedback for all three of our individual products. It was important to pick our audience members so that they would fit our target market. For example, it was pointless to pick 60 year old men to give us constructive feedback because they are not our potential target market. Instead, we picked lots of girls aged 17-18 and had some boys to gain a vast range of feedback.

• We used important stat’s from Youtube to see how our video effected the audience. A particularly important and helpful chart that was created on these stat’s was where people watched the video the most, what were the best bits of our video? This showed us that the girly (floral) setting and the UV set was the most popular. This then helped us with the rest of our feedback because we knew what favourite images to add to our digipak design and website so that all three elements linked together.

• We created a questionnaire summary so that we could gain quick answers about all three of our creations. This helped us see whether our products linked together well as a brand of artist and portrayed a ‘pop’ genre in music.

DE MO GRAPH I C AU D I ENC E PR OF I L E• When it came to our audience feedback from our

focus groups we made sure that we picked a majority of 17 year old females because this was our target audience from the very start of the creation of these products. This allowed us to get feedback that women would usually only make. For instance they talked about the colours, the template and art that was collaborated thought all of our products, which are mostly ‘girly’ or female orientated so they appealed to this audience more than our previous focus group which included men.

• Our youtube stats, however, were random and were not picked to be presented to our target audience. Instead, we were surprised to find out that men were watching our video and that they were older then our target age. All this did not give us immediate feedback we could find out the areas of popularity of our music video and see to involve the floral aspect of our set into our digipak and website design.

• The questionnaire survey was randomly handed out so we didn’t know whether it was from a male audience member or a female audience member. It was also sent out to our teachers so that we could gain feedback from older audience members, as this was useful in seeing whether we could bring in audiences that weren’t our original target.

SO U RC E S :

• By using people and the ‘word of mouth’ technique with our focus group videos we were able to get truthful feedback because we were there to witness these people view our products and give initial feedback from it. The disadvantage to this was that we only got feedback from the people we chose, there people were close to our target market, meaning that we didn’t get any feedback from any male audience members or people that we would not expect to see enjoying our music video.

• The advantages in creating a survey for anyone to fill out is that we could get feedback from anybody, whether they were male, old, young, or female. This meant that when we made these changes to our product, we might broaden our target market and create a demand for audience members that we did not initially expect would be interested in our products or our artist. However, because we were not there to witness these people fill out our survey it makes the feedback less reliable because we are not aware if they actually spent time looking at our products thoroughly.

THE STR ENGT HS IN O U R MU S IC V I DE O - FE E DB AC K

• Our music video feedback focus groups and videos told us that when we were initially editing our music video it was not fast paced or cut fast enough to match the beat of the music. To change this we added more of the UV videos and cross cute them with other bits that weren't as dynamic or fun as this particular set. The UV set portrayed this ‘fun’ and ‘girly’ atmosphere that we wanted to portray for our artist. This ‘UV’ set was indicated as ‘popular’ in the stats feedback from youtube so it helped that we used so much of it. It brought in audience members, both men and female, that were not expected. This is clearly a strength in our music video because it creates a demand from audience members that are not our target, therefore broadens our music videos popularity.

• The survey told us that lots of people enjoyed the variety of different sets in our music video and because we used lots of floral examples in the sets in our music videos, a floral image could work and be used throughout our various products in our campaign as this would link them together.

WE AKNE SSE S I N OU R MU S I C V IDEO- FE E DB AC K

• The weakness in our music video was that a majority of the people stated from the youtube stats that our music video is not watched all the way through and that maybe people get bored towards the end and switch off. This is shown from this particular youtube stat because the line is degrading towards the end of the music video which indicates that people stop watching the music video after a certain point.

• This was somewhat expected because the general techniques used in a pop music video are always repeated and the imagery is the same throughout. This is probably why audience members have stopped watching the music video.

E N C O D I N G A N D D E C O D I N G M O D E L

• This particular model is how we were able to encode and apply conventions form a ‘pop’ genre into our music video, digipak and website. Where as the decoding part is how the audience are able to interact, understand and read these encoded signs.

• When it comes to our products we were able to encode pop music video conventions, like our fast paced cutting, closeups and lip-sync techniques. This makes the music come to life and appeal to the right target audience. The song is upbeat and fun and so we tried to create this atmosphere and portray the artist in a fun way by involving choreography.

• A majority of our feedback suggests that audience members were able to easily decode these conventions because in our focus groups they said that ‘they wanted to get up and dance because she is portrayed in such a fun way’. When it comes to our digipak they said that all of the images were fun and linked to the music video but there is just too much going on.

TH E U SE A N D G RAT I F I C AT I O N TH E O RY.

The use and gratification theory believes and follows two particular reasons that people watch music videos:

1) Diversion- which is almost a way to escape from a 'mundane reality'. This can be used in a music video when a celebrity lifestyle is used to represent what the audience member could have, which is a more glamorous and exciting world. We have created this in our music video because we have used glamorous clothing, expensive and almost ‘hollywood; blinder lights to create a a posters world.

2) Personal relations- describes the relationships which are built between the artist and the audience. This can be shown with the use of backstage footage to make us feel as if we are invited in and are allowed to be apart of their true self and life. We used lots of closeups to to create this relationship between the audience member and the audience. We also created a relationship between the dancers and the artist by using them in the music video. This makes her appear as a likeable person and will make viewers want to create a relationship between them and the artist.

G E N E RA L R E A D I N G S PR O D U C E D BY O U R A U D I E N C E

• General feedback that we had that opposed each other was that a large majority of people said that our website was easy to navigate but then others said that it wasn’t. This makes it complicated as we don’t know whether to make it more simple or leave it as it is. Either way we decided that we are going to change the font and the template and make it more graphic so that it is simple to read and view.

• A view that was preferred and expressed by a majority of people was that or music video was ‘fun’ and we have portrayed the artist in a fun way, so much that it makes them want to move to the music.

C O N C LUS I O N

• Overall, I think that we have been able to create three products that individually stand out and also link together.

• I think that there are still some small changes that can be made to the digipak and the website because the website had a number of people on the survey that stated it is not easy to navigate. The digipak should be more simple because people have stated that there is too much going on with the glitter and the floral images. This can be toned down by only involving floral images and making it simpler and more graphic.

• What i have learnt from this feedback is that releasing a product on to an online platform like youtube allows other people (not in our target audience) to watch our video. This expands our popular demand for our music video.