WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?BY SORREL GRUNDY

AUDIENCE PROFILE The age range of my primary target audience is16-18 as this is the age group that the performers in the music video are

in and so they will be able to relate to them more.

The gender of my target audience will be mainly female as main performer in the music video and on the digipak is female and so they will be able to relate to them more.

The ethnicity of my target audience will be mainly white British as both of the performers are this ethnicity and so they will be able to relate to them more.

The sexuality of my target audience will most probably be heterosexual as the two performers are male and female and so the relationship shown is heterosexual.

The media interest of my target audience will most likely be independent or underground bands which are not mainstream due to the nature of the artist. For example Benjamin Francis Leftwich

The films and TV shows that my target audience would be watching are films such as ‘Another Earth’ and TV shows such as Ashes to Ashes, they are more likely to watch show and films with a strong female lead.

My target audience will be mainly British and also local to Norwich as the music video was shot in Norwich and so all of the locations used are recognisable to people who live in or frequently visit Norwich. But it is also a music video which represents Britain and this is shown through the mise-en-scene.

The social class of my target audience probably be between B and C1. This is because of the genre of the music and the locations used. The genre of this song is Indie-Rock which will appeal to the target audience as it is currently a very popular genre. Artists such as Ed Sheeran and John Legend have popularised this genre and made it accessible to the masses.

I have a more detailed version of this on my blog called ‘Audience’.

ONGOING FEEDBACK

When both shooting and editing my main product I was getting feedback from my tutor and peers which helped me to make revisions and ensure that my music video met the aims in wanted it to. Most of the feedback given at this stage was verbal but it helped me significantly throughout the shooting and editing processes. I also got feedback when designing my print productions with each design I made I asked the opinions of my peers and my tutor so that I could create print productions which were appealing and linked well to my music video. Below is some feedback I got for my final print productions draft design after which I started to create them with help from this feedback.

LOCATIONS

From my feedback I have learnt that the locations I have used were effective and recognisable for people who live locally to Norwich. The locations I used in my music video were conventional for the genre of music. I mainly used a city locations but had bursts of nature throughout out. The locations I used were all in the local area of Norwich which means that audience members from this local area will identify these locations and could relate to the music video more because of this connection. Using both a city and natural location gave variety to the mise-en-scene created by these locations which could interest the viewer further. My ambitions for my music video if for it first to gain a local and national audience to spread the word. As my music video will be available on YouTube it will be accessible to a large range of potential audience and the use of social media for my promotional campaign for the album will be essential for gaining a large audience.

COSTUMES The costumes used in this music video were

representative of modern high street fashion. I chose this because of the target audience for my music video as they will most probably to between the ages of 16-21 and so will have some interest in fashion and will also be able to relate to the performers more if they can see some part of themselves in the performers. The blues in the males costume were used to represent water and sadness which are both repeatedly references throughout the music video both in visuals and lyrics.

The black and grey used in the females costumes was to represent death and depression. The same costumes were used throughout to ensure continuity and simplicity for the audience. The original costume for the female performer was changed due to feedback we were given by our tutor, she commented that it was not bold or glamourous enough, it was just a bit plain. I agreed with this comment and so changed the costume to make it more effective and fashionable. This did mean that we had to reshoot quite a lot of footage but the extra time put in was worth it as the new costume made both the character and music video as a whole better and look more professional.

In the music video "You" by One Direction the performers costumes are simplistic and high street, the costumes used in this music video influenced the male performers costumes in my music video. The costumes are uniform but with each performer having their personal style being shown through their specific costume.

Original Costume

New Costume

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

Getting audience feedback is essential for all media productions as it can help to shine a light on the strengths and weaknesses of the production. It can also help you to see how your target audience decode the productions is this is key to the success of any media production. I got my audience feedback through doing questionnaires, for my music video 10 media students filled in a questionnaire (5 male, 1 female). I also had an interview with a non-media student who fits into my primary demographic. For my digipak I also carried out a questionnaire which 8 media students (6 female, 3 male) participated in. I also did an interview with the same non-media student as the music video about my ancillary productions.

As my music video relies on the concept of relationships the uses and gratifications for my music video would most likely be ‘personal relationship’ which is about using the media for emotional and other interaction for example identifying with artists. My music video could be used for other uses and gratifications such as ‘diversion’ and ‘personal identity’ but would not be used for ‘surveillance’ as it does not give information which is useful for living.

QUESTIONNAIRE

QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS – MUSIC VIDEO

I collected my questionnaire results and I calculated the percentages from my female and male participants for my questionnaire to my surprise they were very similar. Although there were 5 male media student participants and 1 female media student participant the average score for both genders was the same, 21 out of 25 which is 84% this means that 84% of my feedback was positive. If I was to do this again I would have a wider ranging questionnaire which included more people and non-media students. Some of the questions on my questionnaire required personal responses. On one of the questionnaires a male student answered the question ‘Was there any part you found confusing or hard to understand?’ he put “storyline” and so something which I could improve on is making sure that the storyline is clearer and possibly having a larger distinction between real time and the past. Some of the positive feedback I got from the questionnaires about what they linked best about my production was “Transitions between shots”, “Overlays” and “Shocking images of car accident – locations standing in road is nice, use of colour/mise-en-scene is good”, this feedback tells me that the editing of my music video and the effects I used worked well and it also helped me when designing my print productions as I wanted to take the strongest elements of my music video into my print productions. I also asked in my questionnaire “Can you suggest anything that could improve the appeal?” the answers were “Shorter shots – cuts, fade to blacks” and “try to make the storyline easier to follow”. These answers helped when doing the final bits of editing on my music video as I was able to maximise the appeal of it to my primary target audience.

QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS – PRINT PRODUCTIONS

I collected the results from my questionnaire and calculated the percentages from the female and male participants to see how positive they were. On average the females gave 76% which averages as 23 out of 30 and the males gave 71% which averages as 21 out of 30. What this initially tells me is that my music video was more successful than my print productions as it got an average of 84% for both genders. The participants were asked what they thought the strongest features of my ancillary tasks were many answers included “The font, layout, images”, “Use of colour, reflects genre” and “Editing, composition, flow of all panels”. This feedback tells me that I have been successful in creating a digipak and magazine poster which do have good aesthetics and promote the band. One of my male participants had an additional comment on my print productions he said “The other panels looked too messy with so many filters added to them”, this tells me that if I was to do this task again that I should edit more subtle. This notion was seconded by and extra comment by one of my female participants they wrote “Over-edited?”. From this feedback I have learnt that my two central panels could have used some more understated editing which would have increased the appeal of them to my primary target audience.

RECEPTION THEORY

Stuart Hall’s theory of encoding and decoding can be applied to my productions as seen through my questionnaire results as different demographics will decode my productions in different ways. Most of the readings have been either preferred or negotiated which is a positive thing as I currently have not had an oppositional reading of any of my productions. As the producer of these productions I encoded the text but the audience may decode them in a different way.