question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Before the production of my music video I created a pitch, which explained everything I wanted to do in my music video and how I was going to do it. I think it is really important to to get feedback on this before starting as this gives me a rough idea on what will work and what won't when making the music video and will help me form a more coherent plan. I was able to gain feedback by asking the audience to fill in a feedback form. Here are some of the questions/comments that were asked to be filled in:-

In order to find out whether my music video was successful I decided record people In my class as they watched the video, and then I asked them questions on what they thought of it afterwards. I thought it would be a good idea to ask them specific questions as this shows me how I could have changed my video to create more successful media product. 

Here are some of the questions I asked my audience:-

Did the narrative suit the genre?

I think this Is a fairly important question as I wanted my audience to be able to identify the video as 'indie folk'. On the other hand, as it is a love story I was slightly worried that the video would be too generic and fit into a more pop-like genre.

Did you find the music video boring/entertaining?

I decided to ask this question as it is very straight forward, and as my video is quite redundant and long I wanted to know whether my audience started to get bored while watching the video, which I hoped wouldn't happen. I also wanted to know whether it would allow the audience to escape from something unpleasant, like coursework/exams or whether they felt like it was something to watch if they had nothing else to do.

Uses and gratification – what did you gain from it?

I believe this is a very important question as business models have now changed from a push to a pull model, meaning they are having to subdue to the demands of their audience in order to keep them engaged. This means that audiences are now listening and watching music videos for their own uses and gratification, which is significant as I want my audience to enjoy the representations/messages and values and hopefully gain something from watching the music video.

Is the Mis En Scene realistic?

I thought this would be a good question to ask as I wanted my audience to see my video as very realistic and down to earth as it is indie folk, and therefore has quite an authentic home-made feel. I think it is important that the locations I used are realistic as I want the narrative to look believable, so my audience are able to watch the video and relate to it.

Do you think it's redundant or entropic?

This question lets me find out whether my I was successful in trying to make my video quite redundant, as genre is dependant on a high degree of redundancy, and I think it is important that my video isn't too entropic as this might steer my audiences away from the product.

Conclusion of initial audience feedback:

Evaluation powerpoint from Abbie Care

Overall I am very pleased with the feedback I received, as this shows that my audience have taken a preferred reading of the text. On the other hand, not all of the audience listen to indie folk music and so they may not have had enough cultural capital to understand the genre and intertextual references in my product. This lead me to ask a friend of mine who is very much into the indie folk genre to take a look at my video on Facebook and give me some feedback.

I asked him what he liked/disliked about the video, what I should perhaps change and whether he enjoyed the video or found it boring.

I'm really happy that he liked he the close ups and the silhouette shots as these were a very important factor of my video in order to create a bond between the audience and the singer. Andrew Goodwin also suggests that the demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist to develop motifs which recur across their work.

Tom also stated that if he had to change something he would have probably picked more interesting locations, but he said they worked really well regardless. This suggests that tom might have taken a negotiated reading, as Hall suggests we do not passively receive texts and are much more active.  I agree with this as the music video is quite long, and so using locations that aren't particularly interesting may steer the viewer away and they might find the video quite boring to watch. If I could do it again I'd still stick to the landscape shots as this is important in my genre, however I'd choose places which are bit more eye catching, such as areas with beautiful sceneries or interesting buildings. This would also give more contrast in the different locations the 'singer' would pass in the video, which I think would keep the viewer engaged and interested.

On the other hand when I asked Tom whether he found it the video enjoyable or boring to watch he said he felt it was “really professional” and the “constant changing of shots made it enjoyable to watch”. I am very pleased with this as although the locations weren't particularly eye catching he still found it enjoyable to watch as the locations are always changing in the video, keeping him engaged. 

Magazine advert/Digipak

This is the feedback I received when deciding what font to use for my magazine Advert/Digipak. I wanted my products to have quite an artistic and authentic feel, however I wanted to use a font which is quite sophisticated and serious to match the narrative of the music video. I wasn't quite sure which one to use so I decided to post a picture on Facebook to get some feedback from my focus group. All of my focus group agreed on the top one as as they believed the top one looked the most professional and a font that would be used by an established, yet alternative artist which I have chosen. I very much agree with this point of view and so I decided to use this font in my products. I also think it is important to take advice from your audience as they the ones who you are selling to.