Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience Research

Before beginning my product I did some research to find out what my target audience would be looking for in my music video. I did this in two ways, the first being a poll I posted on my blog;

 



Through these polls I was able to determine what was important to my target audience in my music video, specifically noticing that people wanted to see the artist as well as a narrative and performance. One thing my audience wanted to see was the video reflecting the story the lyrics were telling and because of this it was important for me to come up with a concept that would relate to my the lyrics of the song I had chosen. Since I had determined my song was about distraction, I decided to create a video about alcoholism being used as a distraction from the pain of loss.

To make sure I was getting responses from people within my target audience ! posted a link to my blog on social media, specifically Facebook, Twitter and Instagram so that I would get responses from people in this age category as most the people who I have on my various social medias are within this age group. I also asked my media teachers to send my poll over the college email so that I was able to get responses from more people around the college. I also did all this for a survey I created on what people thought my music video should be.

Link to the survey; https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BNSN9MD

Link to survey results; https://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/9j88JL0L2COGCajLr4xJQ8ZT0uTR5EaBV3CsFIF4BwA_3D

As you can see a majority of the people who answered my survey are in the age range I considered my target audience making the responses I got from my survey very helpful in creating my music video.

By looking at the response I got from people when they listened to my song and answered my survey I was able to use this to help me create a concept for my music video and also help me to decided on a few things I should do with my video such as should my video be black and white or not. I created this PowerPoint relating to this earlier in the course;

Looking at this you can see I have considered what people said in terms of what I should include in my video and how I edit it to make it fit with the song.

For the most part I listened to what had been suggested through my survey such as featuring both fast and slow editing, depending on the speed of the song at the time, however, there was one thing that I decided against when creating my video and that's deciding to include both performance and narrative whereas people had suggested to create a video that was solely narrative. There are a few reasons I decided against what my research suggested, one of these being the that I wanted to include lip sync in my music video and the only way to do this would be to include performance in my video. Also due to my genre of alternative rock often including performance I wanted to follow this convention in my video and as such I decided to include performance. Finally, I wanted to create a sense of seclusion with my character and I believe by having my artist perform alone on a mound, I have successfully created a sense of seclusion not only just with my narrative but also through my performance.

Something that wasn't made clear through my audience feedback was whether it would be best to have my video be in black and white or not with all the of the results being rather close with using colour and using both black and white and colour being separated by only one vote. After deliberating for a little while I decided that I would have my entire video be in colour. My main reason for this decision was that I didn't want to be constantly switching between colour and black and white which is what my audience suggested had I not done it in colour. The reason for this is I believe there needs to be an artistic reason for switching between the two or a reason in the video such as flashbacks with the black and white separating the flashback from the present day. I also didn't want my entire video to be in black and white as my audience didn't want to see this and I knew my target audience is less likely to like black and white film meaning I would not have been catering to my target audience.

Other than this I have taken my audience response into consideration when creating my video, looking at what they wanted to see and including this in my video. This includes having a variety of locations and costumes as well as having my artist appear in the video. This also links back to my decision to include performance in my video as many people wanted the artist to make an appearance and the best way to do this was to include performance as I knew I wanted my protagonist to be female and I knew I wanted to artist separated from the narrative.

Video Feedback

After I had completed my video I posted it on social media and asked people to give me some feedback about what they think of my video. This is the response I got from the people who commented;

Looking at these response there was an overall positive reaction to my video. One thing people seemed to like about my video was my use of editing, specifically the use of dissolves throughout my video. Danny, Will, Chloe and Lauren all commented on this and said they liked how it was used and made the video look professional. Chloe also stated that she thought the effect allowed the narrative to flow which is something I am happy about as I wanted it to create the effect of time passing without having to have the movement on the video. I also aimed to capture the depressed nature of my character through this shot something I believe had been managed.

I am happy with how these shots turned out and believe they work well to create the mood I wanted for this the music video. I also believe they add some variety to my video as because I wanted simplicity to be a major part of my product I didn't include many different shots other than jump cuts but I believe this doesn't take away from the simplicity and adds to the effect of the video.

Another thing that was commented on by people who reviewed my video was the quality of the lip sync and how it is in time with the lyrics of the song. This was something I wanted to make sure I got right as I didn't want this to drag down the quality of my song. To make sure I got this right I asked Danny to sing the song as I recorded, something he was nice enough to do. I'm happy that people have pointed this out as something positive with my video as getting the lyrics and lip syncing lined up correctly was difficult to so. Overall, I believe it was a good thing for me to spend time doing as it adds to the professionalism and realism of the video. This has also been commented on by people who reviewed my video which suggests it is something that is important to my audience so I'm glad I was able to get it right.

Something else that people commented on was how the narrative and performance flowed well together making it a complete product. I was happy to receive these comments as I was worried by having the narrative and performance complete separate from each other the flow of the production would be broken. I'm glad this wasn't an issue and the piece appears to flow together correctly as this was a decision I had made to highlight the seclusion of my character and it appears my decision has been proven successful.

One thing that was pointed out that could be improved with my video is the quality of the camera work at points. I was pointed out that some of my shots seemed a little shaky and I agree with what the people have said about this. At points throughout filming I was unable to use a tripod for over the shoulder shots or shots where the ground wasn't flat so the video would have been slanted. I decided it was better to hold the camera in these instances to try and a straight shot but found that the video was shaky. This is something I would like to change about my video and it does appear as a detriment to it because of people commenting on this, suggesting it's something they have taken note of.

Digipak Feedback

To get feedback on my digipak pack I both uploaded my product onto Facebook for people to comment and created a survey for people to answer so I could get some more opinions of what I should do to improve my digipak. This is the link to my survey as well as the responses I got;

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8JGHNFP

https://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/4sHJDA21E_2FSLUGCci37t1YS66gbQrDSCUcuYwnpFQfA_3D

Looking at the responses I got from my survey the majority of people stated that they like my digipak and believed it looked like a digipak. I am happy with this result as it means a majority of people will find my digipak appealing which is important in getting people to buy a CD.

In terms of comments I asked people what they liked about my digipak and most of the responses seemed to like the colour scheme I had chosen and the way I have set out the inside with the song lyrics. These are some of the responses I got;

Looking at this response it appears that the main praise for my digipak is towards the concept and the colour scheme I have featured on the inside of my digipak. Overall, this question was very helpful when reviewing my digipak as it told me that the concept and colour scheme where successful and didn't need changing meaning that my overall design for my digipak could stay in tact throughout.

I also asked people what they thought I should change about my video and here are some of the responses I got;

In general most of the responses I got for this question had the same response being that I should change the inside cover and outside cover so they matched with both have a black or white background. The majority of people who commented this suggested the inside as they like the way I had used the combination of the colours yellow and black on my front and back covers. I considered doing this but after debating with myself I decided against it for the contrast I have talk about previously in question 2.

Another thing that people seemed to comment on was that they found the digipak plain and simple which is something I was aiming for when making this product as I didn't want them to be over the top as that wouldn't work with either my theme or the genre of my song. However, as people have commented that this is a negative thing about my video, it may be worth considering my digipak a little to make it more eye catching and bold.

These are the responses I got from posting my digipak on Facebook;

Looking at these responses I am happy with the general feedback I received for my digipak with the common reaction being they like it. Again by doing this I see that people like the contrast between the black and yellow on the front and back covers and because of this if I was to change something about my video, I wouldn't change this. I am happy that the colour scheme received this reception as I was struggling to choose between using yellow or baby blue for my text but I believed the yellow would stand out more on the black background and that seems to be the common census.

Another thing that has been commented multiple times is that my image appears professional which is something I wanted to accomplish as I wanted my product to be believable as a digipak and it appears I have accomplished this. I am pleased that I have done this and am happy that I have been given this response.

Poster Feedback

I also posted both a survey for my poster and my poster on Facebook to get some responses from people in my target group. This is the link to the survey, as well as the results;

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6N9RGZ3

https://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/MlvKpVl_2FcdcLXdrZeT6OV8eUA0IsJ3K5fhLuQKfZFD4_3D

On this survey I only got two responses meaning it provided me with little help when deciding what I needed to edit about my poster. However, I received two different responses with one saying they like my poster and the other saying they didn't like my poster. Due to this I was able to decide I needed to change my poster as the little positive response I got didn't leave me with a good feeling of my poster.

This is the only comment I got stating what they like about my poster;

This comment praised the colour scheme I had used, something which I was happy about as it continued with colour scheme I had used throughout my product and for this reason I didn't have to change the colour scheme I had used throughout my product.

On the other side I received this comment;

This states that they don't like the colours I have used throughout my product which worried me because I had used these throughout my entire product. Due to this comment I decided to change the tint on my magazine and also to do some moving around because I didn't like how it seemed rather bare and unproportionate at the bottom of the poster. These are my posters side by side;

                                 Old                                       New

I believe I made important improvements to my poster that made it more appealing and professional which was important for my product. I decided to remove the reviews as I found that took up too much space that could be used by things that would make my poster appear more professional.

I posted my new poster on Facebook and received this feedback;

These posts are more positive than the ones I received on my survey showing that my new draft is an improvement over my previous draft. One of the people states that my new draft 'looks much better' which tells me that my edits have improved my poster and made it look more appealing. It also tells me that the person saw my previous draft and is able to make a direct comparison between the two which helps me know that my new draft is better.

A common comment I received is on the professionalism of my products which is something I was aiming for when producing this poster as I knew it needed to look realistic if I wanted it to sell my artist. I am happy with the fact that people have commented on this and that Lauren states that I have followed the conventions of a typical which is something I was aiming for and am happy I have accomplished.

Throughout these comments my colour scheme has again been commented fondly on suggesting it was correct for me not to change it after the previous comment that suggested I change it. I'm happy that I received no negative comments on it as I wanted my colour scheme to remain this way as I believe it helps to grab the attention of my audience and puts across the message I was trying to get across with my digipak.