Evaluation Question 3: What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?

Evaluation Question 3: What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?Target AudienceThe target audience this promotional package is trying to reach out to is mainly females in the age range of 16-19 because from research of the genre and similar artists, this is the predominant demographic attracted to this music. However, it is not just dedicated to this target audience as it can appeal to a wider range of demographic who have experienced problems in their lives which they cannot change and relate themselves with the characters in my production. I conducted a case study of my target audience which I believe it to be a specific audience to be targeted at with the ability to go further afield. Age - 16-19 because the ages of the actors in the music video are this ageGender - mainly female because the genre is dominated by this gender and there is a female present in the music video who dominates the video. There is also the theme of betrayal which suggests there was love at some point which is a theme which girls enjoy watching and can relate to feeling these emotions more than males and show it clearer. Using the theme of betrayal and regret, it shows the problems represented in the music video which the female audience can identify with.Ethnicity - White British as the two actors are both this ethnic originSexuality - heterosexual because there is a male and a female used in my music video and there are senses that they have had some sort of relationship suggesting they are heterosexual.Media interests - focusing of strong narratives with different interpretations that can be made. Interests in media that makes people think and the sense of mystery is enjoyed by these people. What interests my target audience will have - Favourite music genres of the target audience will be pop, Indie and alternative which is the genre of this song. Romantic films as many females watch love related films but also maybe psychological thrillers as this music video is filled with mystery of what is and isnt real.

Audience FeedbackAudience feedback is essential in identifying loopholes which can alter the audience we are mainly targeting to, or more importantly, support our current demographic which strengthens our points. To get this feedback, questionnaires were used. I handed a questionnaire to other people in my media class and a few others around sixth form and asked them to watch my music video and fill out the questionnaire honestly and accurately to their opinions alone. Then I asked them to take a look at my digipak and magazine advert and fill out another questionnaire. I got a range of males and females to fill out each questionnaire with their age added so that I could compare my findings.Uses And GratificationAccording to Laswell media texts has functions for individuals and society with the use of the genre. There is a correlation with the conventions used in my music video which are addressed to the satisfaction of its primary target demographic which has been identified. There are aspects of entertainment which will engage the audience to the narrative of the music video. This focuses more on the narrative and the visuals linking to the lyrics (Goodwins theory) to create a story of betrayal and loss which is represented through aspects of the mise en scene. There are also aspects of Britishness since it was filmed and produced all in the UK. The actors were also British.Blulmer and Katz developed Laswells ides and stated that personal relationships with the emotions can help audiences identify with artists and see the narratives used as happening in their lives. Lots of people go through traumatic and cruel times and this music video expresses this and it has been seen before that audiences going through these sort of scenes in their lives can relate to the feeling of both actors and gain the emotions we want our audience to feel.Reception TheoryStuart Halls coding and decoding theory suggests that the text is encoded by the producer and then it is decoded by the reader depending on the individuals where there may be two different readings and interpretations of the same code.This music video was encoded for the sake of the audiences decoding to get their own interpretations which will be different depending on how they see it. On one hand, it could be the male has run over the girl and she is stuck in his mind. Another interpretation could be that she is haunting him.Using recognised codes and conventions, along with the primary audience, the producer has encoded a message with a strong narrative and theme to which the audience can decode an interpret in similar but always the same ways. This can differ depending on individuals real life experiences to what they believe the message is which is a positive as they can relate to this music video more.Music VideoThe first four questions:1) How much did you enjoy the music video?2) Did it hold your attention?3) How do you rate the camera work and editing4) How do you rate the standard of mise-en-scene?These questions allowed the reviewer to circle between 1- 5, 5 being the best quality. From both genders, 4 was the most common number circled which is a really positive response considering there was still tweaking needed to be done on the music video. This is why doing this is so important because people can offer constructive criticism so you can make your music video that bit better. In fact, there wasnt any one question which went below 4, for any of the first four questions. However, I did identify from this that some of the ones marked 5 mainly came from the male gender which I didnt think would target them as much as the female. This is a positive as it shows the music video to be quite diverse so both genders are enjoying this. All but 1 of the questionnaires were filled out by 17-18 year olds which was done because our target audience has already been established due to research so it is backing this up which has been done successfully and everybody enjoyed it to a good extent.Most believed the music video was the correct length but some thought it was too short. At the time in was about 15-20 seconds shorter than it is now but thanks to the feedback, I was able to extend to music video to improve it and also add in the titles appropriately. Everyone said that they would watch the music video again which again, is a really positive piece of feedback as it shows that our target audience has been met and they would happily sit down and watch it again.

Music VideoThen the questionnaire moved on to the more critical part which can be the most beneficial, which it was. It asked for suggestions to improve the appeal, if they found anything offensive and if there was anything they didnt understand or found confusing. There was a similar comment from two different females suggesting that the diegetic sound was good, but overlaps the song a little much as it was too noisy. I looked back over my music video and identified which parts this occurred in and so I turned down the volume so the song was the dominant sound. I agreed with the two females about this and was able to edit to adjust this. No one found anything offensive which was a good thing.Some people found a couple of things hard to understand. One comment said the narrative was quite confusing. This was purposely done because mystery is a theme use in my music video which allows audiences to decode the text (Stuart Hall) and come up with their own interpretations. However, as two people said about the narrative, I did go through my music video again and make changes to clearly show the female is haunting the male and the scenes of her are flashbacks. Also the use of the sirens suggests an accident has happened which is now used more frequently for emphasis. The one older person who did a questionnaire said the beginning sounded more like traffic noise than a siren. Taking this into account, I changed the shot and made the siren a recurring sound 3 times in the beginning so it no longer sounded like traffic noise.However the females found the narrative understandable and not confusing so our predominant target audience didnt have to much criticism, just the diegetic sounds which that issue was resolved, like the others.

Music VideoThe final part of the questionnaire is more summing up the overall quality of the music video. It asks:What the best part of the production is, does the video reflect the style of the music, does it successfully promote the band/artist, on overall mark out of 5 for the music video and finally and further comments to help improve the music video.There were a variety of comments for the best part of the production varying form the editing which puts together the video and makes the product a success to the use of camera angles used. Most comments were complimenting our editing techniques which shows the hard work put into the finishing product and the efforts. The majority of the females said the editing was the best part whereas the males were a little more diverse.Only the 71 year old said that she didnt know if the video reflects the style of the music. I thought about how to adjust the edit to make it reflect the music more but she seemed happy with everything else and my main target audience thought it reflected so I was happy that it reflected the style of music.Two people put undecided when answering if the video successfully promotes the artist/band? However I still needed to add the credits and the end a tweak the rest of the edit so afterwards, I believe it promoted the band successfully and the majority of others agreed, especially in the prime demographic. In asking for an overall score out of 5, a couple of people put 5 out of 5 and the rest of the people put 4 out of 5 which is really great. My target audience were satisfied while reaching out to males as well who also enjoyed the music video.There was another improvement stated in the comments part at the bottom which stated the track should be cut to match the edit. After I completed the edit, I made sure the track cut so that it didnt cut off half way through a lyric.Females liked my music video more than the male which is supporting my target audience of female 16-19 because from research, this was the primary demographic established and the feedback from my music video has backed this up. Males enjoyed this as well but it was female who rated it higher due to the good narrative and the overall professional finish of the music video.

Music Video Questionnaires

3 completed questionnairesPrint ProductionsTo collect feedback data for my print productions, I used a questionnaire which other media students in my year filled out to see what they thought of the overall production.The start this questionnaire asked them 5 questions which were:Does the package successfully reflect the genre of music?Does the package successfully promote the band/artist?How do you rate the standard of graphics, text, print finish of digipak?How do you rate the standard of graphics, print finish of advert?How successfully is the Britishness of the package established?Most of the answers provided were very positive from both genders, especially males which is showing the these print productions can widen the audience appeal because before receiving feedback on these, it was females who were my prime target. Females still are but the audience appeal has attracted more males from my print productions which is a positive.The most common circled number for each were 4s, along with quite a few 5s. There were a couple of 5s given for the second question, however, there was a 3 given by a female that was stated for a very good issue. On my poster, the name of the track was not on there which I had missed out. This enabled me to add it on to the poster and hand it in as my completed poster. This is an issue I have talked about to stress the importance of audience feedback because anything vital that has been missed or need improving can be identified which was clearly done in my poster.

Print ProductionsThere was one piece of feedback for the first 5 questions which stood out as an oddity because it was much lower than all of the other pieces of feedback. They gave me two 2s and three 3s. Although it isnt disastrous, it is not particularly the sort feedback I was hoping for. This can be good in improving my production though but there was no indication of what was wrong with it, no comments to suggest so or improvements. This was done by a 17 year old male so as I have identified males were attracted by print productions more, this may not always be the case.It started to become clearer to me from the first 5 questions that my magazine advert was of top quality, whereas my digipak was slightly weaker but still effective. This was then backed up by the next two questions which were:Would the covers encourage you to buy the digipak?Would the advert encourage you to go to an event by this artist?Most people answered yes from both genders which is good feedback. This shows that they are identifying with the music video to the print productions and realising the similarities, thus using genre characteristics of the genre to attract the target audience of females 16-19. Again, the feedback which gained criticism said no to the digipak and undecided for the advert. All females said yes to the poster and most said yes to the digipak so the positives outweighed the negatives well with little revisions needed from feedback. Nobody found aspects which were offensive which is positive in keeping the target audience happy.

Print ProductionsThe next question asked was what were the 3 strongest features of the ancillary tasks?Many comments stated that the positioning of texts and images were the strongest features, my poster is very professional and that my panels were effective in relation to each other. This shows that from feedback, audiences will be attracted to a professional look which will encourage them to listen to Scarlett Parade. My poster has been complimented more than my digipak.Rating the package overall was to be marked out of 5. I received mainly 4s, a 5 and a 3. This rating of feedback shows that my ancillary texts are of good quality and effective to the target audience.The final part asks for any further comments which suggests what can be improved or taken into consideration. One comment said that the front panel should only have the hair in colour, not the scenery behind her. This was in fact looked at and after adding in the tint on green behind her, it looked much better than just the hair as it adds more character to the front panel. A positive said it was appealing and the use of social media was a good promotion for my poster.

Print Production Questionnaires

3 completed:Gender DifferencesMy audience feedback from my questionnaire shows a gender difference to which overall, females would be more attracted to my productions rather than males.Males however, did prefer my print productions, but only by a little which was surprising. Looking at the reasons why from female comments, it was because there was no clear track name on what I was promoting on my poster which I went back and revised.Females rated my music video much higher than males and were more complimentary. This could be because using Stuart Halls theory, they have decoded the texts as individuals and related to it more with the themes and emotions which was an aspect considered when identifying my target audience.