What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Q3

IntroductionFor the third question of my evaluation, I will analyse in detail every piece of feedback I collected from my target audience during the process of planning and producing my music video as well as explaining how this feedback affected my artistic choices. I will split this feedback into two categories: quantitative data and qualitative data. Quantitative applies to any collected data that is measured on a numerical scale. It can be analysed by using statistical methods and the results can be interpreted using charts. On the other hand, qualitative is opinionated data that approximates or characterizes but does not measure the attributes, characteristics and properties of a thing or phenomenon. Qualitative data is usually extracted from an open question, wherein the participant is asked to state their opinion.

I will discuss the feedback I received in chronological order, starting with the questionnaire I distributed in October up to the recent feedback I’ve received on my finished music video.

QUANTITATITIVE DATA

Audience Research - Questionnaire Back in October, I wanted to get an idea of which audience in particular I want to target

for the focus of my music video, so I designed a questionnaire for 15 people to answer. These answers aimed to determine the not only my target audience (gender and age group), but also other aspects of the music video, including the style, narrative, the content of it and how it will be promoted once complete. I handed it out to people who weren't Media studies students, as I feel Media students emboss some bias towards music videos as they have been studying it, whereas the people who don't only watch music videos for enjoyment. Once I got these answers, I interpreted this quantitative data into some pie charts in order to see the results.

Audience ExpectationsWhile I was waiting for the results of the blog poll and questionnaire that determined my target audience, I decided to make my own prediction on the gender, age, ethnicity and social class of my pending target audience. In order to make the prediction more credible and to back it up extensively, I referred to Tessa Perkins' theory of stereotypes by discussing the common stereotypes of country music fans. I also mentioned that if my prediction was correct, the reliability of stereotypes will have been proved. I expressed my ideas in a Prezi format as it made it much more presentable. After much discussion, I came to a conclusion that my target audience will be female, aged 15 to 20, middle class and Caucasian/White. Ironically, these predictions actually ended up being correct, as seen in the final results.

What is your gender?This area of my questionnaire aimed to determine which gender I should use for my target audience. The results showed that more females than males filled in my questionnaire but at the same time, it shows that females are much more interested in music videos than males. This chart also helped me determine which genre I should focus on for my music video as I was able to see which genders

like which genre of music. By looking into my other results, I saw that the females preferred much more mainstream music than males, which includes pop, R&B and country. Whereas males prefer niche music such as alternative and indie. I took these thoughts into account while tailoring the results to my own music interests, which is country. After noticing that the prime target audience for country is female, I made that part of mine.

Favourite genre of music?While I had already determined what genre my music video was going to country due to my personal music interests. I still deemed it appropriate to find out what genres of music are popular, because the more popular it is, the more recognition the music video will get. Indie was found to be the most popular genre which is no surprise due to the old and

alternative music taste that is taking the world by storm due to the postmodern and nostalgic movement. Country was found to be the second most popular which determines that this genre is perfect to make a music video for as it is placed right in the middle of mainstream and niche music. Pop was in third place due to its mainstream impact in pop culture, especially since the music charts are dominated by this genre. Rock and R&B were popular too due to their impact in the mainstream music charts. Finally, classical was the least popular with no one choosing it in the questionnaire. It is ironic that classical music is still not popular despite the nostalgic postmodern movement that is present in the 21st century.

Most important convention?This area of my questionnaire

aimed to determine which area of my music video I should focus on in order to receive the best result. While all of these elements are important in a music video, there always has to be one that stands out in order to give the music video a special quality that makes it look very professional. From these results, I found out that mise-en-scene

is considered the most important in a music video. I agree with this answer as I feel it’s the mise en scene that gives the music video its tone and atmosphere. For example, filming a music video in a wood rather than a house will add a mystic quality and message that will make the audience think and keep them interested. This also applies to lighting and costume as well as location so I made this my priority when planning and producing my music video.

Which type of music video?There are four types of narratives

or forms a music video can take; performance, narrative, abstract and animated. When creating this music video, this was one of the most important elements I had to take into account, especially as music videos revolve around these narratives. Abstract was found to be the most popular choice in my questionnaire, which I agree with thoroughly as abstract music

videos really get the audience thinking as the meaning is ambiguous. But on the other hand, performance and narrative-style music videos are easier to watch for the audience as they wonder what is going to happen next. Before I made my choice, I studied some music videos of my chosen genre, country. I noticed that country music videos tend to use all three of these narratives in order to entertain the audience while still getting them thinking, there is also a strong performance element that takes place too. With this in mind, I decided I would use a combination of all three narratives.

Where do you watch music videos?

This area of my questionnaire aimed to find out how people watch music videos so I can upload my finished video into a place that will attract some buzz. The most popular answer of course was the website YouTube which wasn’t a surprise. Since YouTube was founded in 2005 and has become an important part of social working and communication today.

also, it is found that the most viewed YouTube videos are nearly always music videos. This demonstrates that YouTube is the prime place to watch music videos. For example, the K-pop artist, PSY, released a music video for his song ‘Gangnam style’ and it is the most viewed on the site, with over a billion views. From this information I plan to upload my music video to YouTube to make it conventional.

Audience Research – Blog PollAs the questionnaire I’d previously conducted had only been for non-media students. I

decided to do another form of research catered towards media students. Because despite the bias, they do have some valid opinions and views. I did these research in the form of a poll on my blog, using similar questions as my questionnaire. I found participants through email, as I emailed all the media students with a link to my blog. Over 30 people did it, which was a good number for my study to be successful. I incorporated all of the results into my pie charts along with the quantitative data received from my questionnaire.

Chosen Target Audience

“The primary gender of my target audience is female, as my results showed that 86% of the people who answered the questions were female, while only 14% were male. This is typical of a country music audience in real life which makes my results very true to life and valid. The age of my target audience will be between 16 and 19 as my results show that 95% of the people who answered the questions were aged between 16 and 19. This is also typical of a country music audience as they are usually teens to young adults. My results also found that Indie and Country were the most popular genres with this gender and age group, while I have already chosen the country genre for my music video, these validates the fact that country is most popular with female teens. Finally, my results showed that my audience watch music videos on YouTube (82%), the easy access to music videos also establishes my audience as in the ABC demographic or ‘middle class.’ Plus, some country songs have mainstream appeal”

With these results, I have fulfilled all of the predictions I made earlier about my target audience, which makes my questionnaire/poll successful in establishing my target audience.”

- Declared on my blog in November 2013

This final declaration indicates the success of my research in finding out which target audience I should cater my music video for. It also demonstrates that the predictions I made were in fact correct.

After interpreting the results I collected from the questionnaires, I came to this conclusion:

Audience Profile

Shortly after declaring my target audience for my music vide. I created an audience profile using all of the data gained from my research. This way all of the data is compact and all in one place so its easier to clarify my target audience. I also added images with the data to help me visualise my target audience.

My audience profile is definitely a good representation of this social group, or country music fans. It shows that is has successfully attracted females and some males as well as sticking to the target audience of ages 16 to 24.

Audience Feedback - QuestionnaireAfter I had completed my music video to a standard

that both my teachers and I were happy with, I decided to conduct an anonymous questionnaire that would help me gain honest feedback from my target audience. I gave the questionnaire and my ancillary texts to one of my teachers, and got him to show the video to one of his classes and they filled in the questionnaire as they watched it. I felt this method was very effective in receiving non-biased feedback from my target audience, as I was not in the room when it took place and I wasn’t familiar with any of the 16 participants that took part. These questions were very well rounded as they were both open and closed, so the participant could state yes/no as well as their opinions. This way I could extract both quantitative and qualitative data from the answers for further analysis.I counted the answers by tallying them on a sheet of paper (right). This made it easier for me to interpret them into a pie chart for further analysis. I also noted down any extra comments for later use.

What do you think the genre is for my music video?

CountryCountry-PopPop-Indie

From these answers I discovered that the majority of my participants knew the music video was country. This demonstrates that I succeeded in creating a mise-en-scene and atmosphere that was conventional to the genre. The one answer that I was surprised at was that one person thought the video was Pop-Indie. But

after I looked back at the questionnaires, I discovered that the person who said this was male. This isn’t surprising as according to my target audience, females are more likely to know and like country music than boys, and because it isn’t a very mainstream genre, especially in the UK, he may not have been aware of it.

Do you think my ancillary texts link in well with the video?

YesNo

This is very self-explanatory as you can see, but my results showed that all 16 of my participants agreed that my ancillary texts linked in well with the music video. This demonstrates that I succeeded in creating perfect continuity between the three products by using the same colour palette, location, costume and overall theme.

In order to improve the video, what alterations would you make?

YesNo

I was very pleased to discover that all but two of my participants decided that my music video didn’t need any changes in order to improve it. So in other words, most of them didn’t think it needed improving at all. This shows that doing multiple edits and practices of my music video paid off, and with I was able to notice any mistakes and improve them before any of my target audience saw it.

In order to improve the ancillary texts, what alterations would you make?

YesNo

Again, I was pleased to discover that all but two of my participants decided that my ancillary didn’t need any alterations in order to improve it. This demonstrates the effectiveness of doing multiple drafts of my ancillary texts. Also, all of these drafts were completely different, which gave a lot of variety. This way I was able to see which design worked and which one didn’t. I was also able to notice any mistakes and improve them before any of my target audience saw it.

Are you male or female?

MaleFemale

Despite my target audience being mostly made up of girls, I decided to let males complete this questionnaire anyhow. Despite the music video not appealing to them, I deemed it important to receive any honest feedback from them, especially for any appropriate improvements.

What is your age?

16-1718-1920+

The ages of my participants were also incredibly important as I wanted to see what my specific target audience thought of my music video. Fortunately all of the participants were of the perfect age to fit into my target audience (16 to 24). So I was able to analyse all of their feedback knowing that they were of an age that my music video would appeal to them.

Rate my texts out of 10?

1 to 34 to 67 to 910

As a final question on the back of the questionnaire, I asked the participants to rate my three texts out of ten, based on how good they thought it was. I was very pleased when I saw that all of them had rated it between 7 and 10. This, along with the previous pie charts and improvements, show that I was successful in making my music video and ancillary texts appeal to my target audience, and doing multiple drafts of them really paid off.

YouTube Discovery DemographicsI also took the demographics from the YouTube views of my music video, as I

thought it would be interesting to see the demographics of my anonymous viewing audience. 70% of this audience discovered my music video on the YouTube watch page while 30% found it on other websites like my blog. I also found that and 75% of my audience watched via a mobile app or direct traffic. Although unable to see the proportion of males and females and the ages of those who watched my video due to the lack of views, I feel this demonstrates the connection my audience has with media technologies with how easily my video was available to them, possibly through social networking websites and sharing etc.

QUALITATIVE DATA

Audience Research - Focus GroupTo give my audience research more credibility on top of the questionnaire and blog poll, back in October I decided to get three people together who fitted the bill for my pending target audience, and I asked them seven questions regarding my upcoming music video. This gave me the opportunity to address my audience personally and hear their opinions. This was my first type of research that included qualitative data, so any personal views or opinions. They’re responses heavily affected the decisions I made regarding my music video so I deem it very important and useful.

Emily Vicky Nahida

1. What do you think is the most important element of a music video and why?Nahida: It needs to have a good start and a good finish in order to keep the audience engrossedVicky: The mise-en-scene and the costumeEmily: The cinematography and editing has to go with the beat of the song in order to keep the audience interested

2. Do you prefer a narrative video without lip-sync or an abstract video with lip-sync? Why?Nahida: Narrative because you have to interpret abstracts in your own wayVicky: It depends on the speed of the song, a slow song will be narrative and a fast song will be abstract Emily: A narrative video with a storyline that the audience can follow

3. Give an example of how a music video has grabbed your attention and influenced you to buy the album.Nahida: I think the song is more important than the music video, but The Saturdays’ music videos always interest meVicky: Lady Gaga, she always grabs attention through her memorable and unique music videosEmily: I agree with Nahida about how its more about the song, but as long as it is upbeat and has a storyline it grabs my attention

Continued on next slide

Focus Group - Continued4. Do you prefer music videos shot inside, outside, or a combination of both?Nahida: It don’t think it matters as long as it relates to the songVicky: It really depends on the genre, for example pop music videos look better inside because they can make use of the space Emily: I reckon both because it makes the music video more diverse and interesting

5. How many different settings/filming locations should a video have in your opinion? Why?Nahida: Any as long as it goes with the song, for example Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball is all in one location is looks goodVicky: I think 2 or 3 locations are enough for one music videoEmily: I’d say only a few locations are necessary so it doesn’t get confusing

6. Do you prefer a more cinematic and smooth style of cinematography or a more unsteady and documentary feel?Nahida: I think smooth cinematography looks better but it depends on the songVicky: I don’t think it matters as long as it follows the song’s narrative, the movement has to reflect the moodEmily: I like the smooth/movie style cinematography as it makes it look more professional

7. What conventions would you associate with the country genre of music? Mise-en scene, cinematography, editing etcNahida: This might sound stereotypical but locations like fields and woods and cowboy bootsVicky: I agree with Nahida, anything stereotypical like woods will be conventionalEmily: As well as the stereotypes I think it needs to include locations that the target audience can relate to, like a school for example

What I’ve learnt from this feedback:I took a lot of the girls’ responses into account later on when I was planning my video. For example, I took Nahida’s comment about a good start and finish into account my starting my music video with a candle being lit and ending it with the candle being blown out. I also decided to combine all three types of narrative,; story, abstract and performance, this way my video will connect with a wider variety of people. I also decided to use a smooth style of cinematography as the girls stated it would look more professional. Finally, I made sure to include any stereotypes associated with country as they stated like the boots and outdoor locations

Audience Feedback – InterviewsBefore proceeding to the next slide, PLEASE WATCH THE FOUR VIDEOS BELOW

Four of my friends who conveniently finish the criteria of my target audience kindly offered to be interviewed and give some feedback on my texts.

I sat them down in an empty classroom and they watched my music video with the lights down so they could see it better. After they watched it, I gave them my ancillary texts to look at and I asked them various questions regarding their fondness of the texts and if they needed any improvements. I also asked them questions based on the anonymous questionnaire I did recently.

Please watch these four videos and there will be some slides following it which sum up all of my ideas and thoughts given from this audience feedback and how my three texts attract and address my target audience.

The questions I asked them were:

1. Does the video fit the conventions of a country music video?

2. What do you think the music video is trying to portray?

3. What would you change to improve it?

4. Do the ancillary texts look effective and relate to music video

5. Do you think the texts and the music fit with each other

5. Would you change the ancillary texts?

What have I learned?From this feedback, I have learned that to the majority of my audience, my video fits the conventions of a country music video with its mysterious and dark feel; established with the strong narrative element and slow abstract action. I learned that the majority of the people I asked thought my video was trying to portray the feelings one has when they’ve lost a loved one, which is what I wanted to hear. The title of the song (‘Girl On Fire') also portrays death as it is an association, plus they noticed that it was used as a motif/theme throughout with the candle, fireplace and actress’ red hair. I also learned that the majority of the people I asked felt the ancillary texts looked effective and linked to the music video with the same female featured on the advert as in the video, and the pose being typical to advertise a country artist – the use of the silhouette in the texts linked with the video as well as making the female look elegant which is expected from the country genre.

ImprovementsFortunately, my four interviewees all really enjoyed the video and thought it didn’t need any improvements, only a couple of them gave me some constructive criticism.

To improve my video, I have learned that I should have tried to film the video all in one day because some of the shots affected the continuity. It was obvious that some shots had been re-filmed due to the change in the weather. To fix this, I would’ve used some effects/filters on these shots to give the video more continuity. Also, one of my interviewees felt like I should’ve filmed more shots of fire to give the video more variety instead of repeating the shot over and over again. I do agree with this comment as I feel if I filmed different shots of fire it would give the video more depth. Adding to this, I personally think that my video could’ve had another location. While outdoor locations are conventional to my genre, I felt I should of used one indoor location to give the video more variety.

To improve my ancillary texts, from the audience feedback I have learned that I could possibly improve my choice of images - particularly on my digipak - as one comment from the feedback was that I had two many medium close up images of the artist in my digipak and I should’ve taken a picture from a different angle. This could be something I could reconsider to improve my digipak so that it is able to connect with my target audience more effectively.

I received only one short comment on my poster that regarded the font. My interviewee felt like the font didn’t reflect the genre of country well enough and it looked unconventional. This is something I am tempted to change as I deem correct conventions very important for my texts. Additionally, I feel I could have also included more web addresses or social network connections on my advert that my target audience are aware of (such as Facebook and Twitter) as this would have given my artist and new album more publicity by establishing connections with different forms of media. However, I was conscious of over-crowding my advert, as I thought it looking simple and clean was effective in making it stand out to the audience and easy to read. I thought if too many images or text were present, it may look cluttered and not fulfil its purpose in advertising the artist's new album effectively.

But overall, I didn’t receive many comments from my interviewees about possible improvements. I think this is because I knew the interviewees personally and they might have been afraid to reveal their honest opinion. Fortunately, I have some feedback from an anonymous questionnaire I did. This way, they won’t be afraid to be honest about what the really think.

Audience Feedback - QuestionnaireThis slide links back to the feedback I

collected from the anonymous questionnaire (on 14th slide). I’ve previously analysed all of the quantitative data I collected by interpreting them into pie charts ad discussing their significance. In this slide, I will be discussing the qualitative data I managed to extract from these completed questionnaires. As a reminder, qualitative data is based on an individuals opinion, so while it is subjective, the anonymity of the questionnaire makes it valid. I used both open and closed questions in this questionnaire which enabled me to extract both quantitative data and qualitative data for analysis. The open questions allow the participant to state their own opinion on the subject matter, and this is useful. This feedback was collected in the same way as the quantitative data, with some anonymous participants that I didn’t know personally, watched my video in a classroom and filled in the questionnaire based on their thoughts.

What have I learned?From this feedback, I have learned that to the majority of my audience, my video doesn’t need any improvements and it is as good as it is. Regarding the ancillary texts, the majority of my audience agreed that my ancillary texts link in well with the video perfectly. Mainly because there is a strong sense of continuity between them with the scenery, colours and landscape. They also agreed that the digipak and poster match well with the same mise-en-scene and elements from the video. I also learned from the final comments section of my questionnaire that my target audience really enjoyed the video. I know this from receiving encouraging comments like: “Great work!”“It is good and fits the song”“Nice one!”“It was actually really good”“Was good ”“Good overall products, continuity throughout”“Your music video was great!”“Well done ”

I’d consider this feedback incredibly useful in learning what my target audience really think of my music video in a non-biased way due the anonymity of the questionnaire.

ImprovementsFortunately, most of my sixteen participants all really enjoyed the video and thought it didn’t need any improvements, but there were some minor improvements that they did suggest.

To improve my video, I have learned that I should used more transitions, preferably fades/dissolves to break up the video. A couple of people agreed that the music was too slow and flowy to have straight cuts. To fix this, I plan to apply a few more transitions to make the video flow better. Another comment stated that there should be more locations to add to the mise-en-scene of the video, as well as more costumes. I personally agree with this statement as I think using at least one indoor location would have given the video more variety. Finally, there was a comment concerning the video’s narrative. The participant stated that there should have been more of a reference to why she was in the graveyard. Despite this point, I don’t intend to change this aspect as the whole point of this abstract element is to let the audience interpret it in their own way.

To improve my ancillary texts, I have learned that I should have incorporated the theme of fire into them. Some of my participants felt that the lack of fire didn’t follow the continuity of the video because it’s a major symbol in it. I personally agree with this comment, and I did attempt to incorporate some images of flames into my ancillary texts but I struggled to do this as it made them look unconventional and more suitable the rock genre, and not country. But I did try to incorporate the lighting of a fire into my ancillary texts with the use of the sun, and I thought this looked more effective and conventional. I also learned that I could have used some different fonts for my poster as some participants felt that it didn’t stand out well enough. Another comment stated that the text should’ve been incorporated into the image more opposed to being all in one place at the bottom. While I agree with these comments, I have to disagree because I did many drafts where I incorporated the text into the image and it didn’t look very effective, all it did was make the image look very busy and hard to read. My teacher suggested it should be in a box at the bottom so the image doesn’t lose any of its focus. I feel having the test all in one place keeps the poster organised and more readable.

Social Media FeedbackThe last bit of audience feedback I collected was from the social networking site, Facebook. Since the majority of my target audience are most likely to have a Facebook account of their own, I felt this was the easiest way to reach out to them. I posted a status with a link to my video and stated that any views or feedback would be much appreciated. I received an overwhelming amount of praise for it through the amount of likes and the comments. 14+ people ‘liked’ the video which means they enjoyed it, I interpreted this as positive feedback.

Social Media FeedbackI also received an overwhelming amount of praise for my music video in the comments. All of the feedback was positive with people saying that they thoroughly enjoyed it and they could clearly see that I had taken a lot of time to “perfect” it, I really appreciated this. Comments like “Good job, Louise!”, “Well done!” and “This is SO good!” demonstrate further that my target audience enjoyed the music video to their full capacity. I also received some comments stating that I should be proud of myself for making such a good video. Aside for these comments I also received some personal messages on Facebook from old acquaintances who said they thought it was fantastic and they thought I should be proud of what I’ve created.

As for things I’ve learned, my audience loved the use of fire in the appropriate places as well as the contrast between the actress and the scenery, which made her stand out because of her hair colour. They also said they loved the lighting, camera angles and the silhouettes at dusk were “beautiful.” The only suggestion for improvement I received was concerning the repeated use of the fireplace., as one person thought I should’ve used more examples of fire. This comment is something I’ve heard a lot from audience feedback and I agree with it all the way. If I were make this video again I would try to film different kinds of fire, like a bonfire etc. The reason for not doing this in the first place was because I didn’t have the space to build a bonfire in my garden.

ConclusionOverall, I feel that I have learned a lot from my audience feedback and it has helped me substantially in making a lot of important decisions concerning my target audience. Furthermore, receiving feedback from both my peers and people I don’t know allowed me to collect both biased and non-biased opinions and views from my target audience. It also helped me clarify any possible alterations that could be made in order to improve the video is I ever were to go through this process again. Now I know that receiving feedback is probably the most important thing someone can collect during post-production because it lets them know if they really are catering it towards their specific target audience. And if it isn’t, their discovery of this will allow them to improve it in time in order for it to appeal to their target audience as much as possible.