Target Audience:
Gender: Male
Age: 18-25
Ethnicity: White Britsh.
Sexuality: Unspecified.
Genre of music: Alternative/Rock/Indie
Clothing brands: Topman, Shuch, H & M.
Festival of choice: Reading/Latitude.
The feedback for my music video came through questionairres I have given my target audience.
Question One - How much did you enjoy the music video (1-5)
This questions enables me to see on a whole whether people enjoyed my music video or not. This is a good starting question as it does not have any specific details to my music video. On average the score for this question was 4. This reflects positively on my music video as it suggests that my audience enjoyed my music video.
Question Two - Did it hold your attention? (1-5)
This question is really important as the answer people give me will allow me to see whether my music video captures the audience's attention. The average score for this question was 4-5. This suggests to me that I have captivated my audience and made my music video interesting enough for them to enjoy the whole product and not get bored. I believe the strongest feature for this was the beginning as a lot of my audience commented that they found the start captured their interest the most with the quick shots and editing.
Question Three - How do you rate the camera work and editing? (1-5)
For this question I was given on average 5. This suggests that the audience thought my music video was smooth with the editing and the camera work was up to a high standard. This question would help me improve my editing if I were to shoot another production. By getting the audience to rate my camera work, I can get an outside input to the standard of my music video which allows me to see what worked and what didn't.
Question Four - How do you rate the standard of mise-en-scene? (1-5)
On average this question was rated 5. This suggests that the audience can relate to my location. I tried to use locations that were related to the genre of my song - alternative rock. I wanted to place the artist in an industralised location. (City Centre) With the theme of my music video being quite dark and depressing, the lighting was going along with this theme to create shadows and the rating of 5 shows that I have achieved this with my audience feedback.
I wasn't sure whether the mise-en-scene would compare to the theme of my music video as some of the shots are very bright and distant but I have learnt from this question that the contrast has worked within my production.
Question Five - Was the music video too short/correct length/too long/don't know.
My music video was the correct length according to my audience feedback. One of my main worries was that the music video dragged on and bored my audience to the ending of the video, however this question shows that it was the correct length and kept the audience's interest till the end. I was going to cut my song down as it is quite long, but as my audience said it was the correct length, I am glad that I haven't cut it down as this would have made it too short for the audience. This question responds to question two and reinforces what they said about holding their attention throughout.
Question Six - Would you watch the music video again?
All my audience's answered this question - Yes. This was a positive answer as it showed me that my music video was captivating to watch and wasn't too generic which would maybe bore the audience and make the video dull. The main reason as to why they would watch the music video again was that there was a lot of action within the production. It was also slightly confusing and had a deep plot to it which would suggest that the audience would watch it a few times to achieve the full meaning behind the video.
Question Seven - Can you suggest anything that could improve the appeal?
From this question I could see that the audience got what they wanted from the video and that it did not lack any features that they were expecting to see. This shows that I have achieved all the generic conventions of that genre within my music video and also highlighted some conventions that you wouldn't normally see in an alternative rock music video. This would link to the Reception Theory. That the audience act as decoders towards a production and the producer is an encoder, putting in what they think to be generic aspects of that genre. The decoders (the audience) then pull apart the production and analyse whether the production fulfilled their expectations of what that genre should entail. By everyone answering No to this question, I can see that my music video decodes correctly to what the audience think and I have encoded it to the right expectations of that genre.
Question Eight - Were there any aspects that you find offensive? i.e representation of race, gender etc.
Again my audience answered this question with No. Suggesting to me that my music video was not offensive to any aspects of culture or race etc. I did not want to include any sensitive issues within my video in case some audience's did find it offensive which would rule out that certain group of people. Therefore by answering No it shows that my music video would appeal to anyone who would like that genre. If a participant answered Yes to this question it would show that I have wrongly used a convention of that genre and in doing so I have narrowed down my audience.
Question Nine - Was there any part you found confusing or hard to understand?
Some of my audience feedback answered yes to this question. This was because of the girl plot within the male lead. Linking back to Question Six, I would advise audience's to watch my music video a few times to get into the plot line and understand the underlining meanings. Ideally I would have liked my audience to answer Yes, which most did, however by answering No its highlighted that if I were to make another music video I would simplify the plot line or go at it from a different angle and show the plot through a different way.
Question Ten - What is the best part of the production?
The main answer was my editing. I think this is a great strength to have as within my genre the editing has to be quick and smooth and go along with the song, which is what I wanted to achieve. By the audience saying my editing was very good, It has been highlighted to me that I have achieved the quick editing that I wanted and that it goes along with the song and the beat and is not out of time.
Question Eleven - Does the video reflect the style of the music? Yes/No/Undecided.
Everyone answered Yes to this evaluation question which reflects positively on my music video. Within my genre, the generic conventions are fast flowing editing, performance based shots, deep plot line, dark lighting etc. This questions shows I have achieved the generic aspects of the genre and delivered a music video which greatly shows the genre of the music it belongs too. For example if you take a look at this music video which links to my genre you can see the same aspects in that, and in my music video.
Question Twelve - Does the video successfully promote the artist/band/group? Yes/No/Undecided.
My audience all answered Yes to this question. This was because my whole music video was shots of the leading artist. He wasn't singing but through the close up shots of him you could see that he was the main front for the band. I had short clips of the girl within my music video who was not part of the band but she was only shown when the male was in the shot too, or if he wasn't she would only be edited in for a few seconds to highlight that the male was the main important character within the video. By promoting my band I have shown the influence of the record label as they would want as much footage of the band as possible to act as an advert for them.
Question Thirteen - On a sale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest how do you rank the music video?
The majority of my feedback put a 4 for this question. This would relate back to the very first question which again got a average of 4, reinforcing that my music video was interesting to watch and captured my audiences attention throughout.
For evaluating my print productions, the questionairres were a lot similar with the questions being related to one another. Therefore the answers will be a lot of the same for both productions. The questions that did not relate to the evaluation of my music video are:
Question Three & Four - How do you rate the standard of graphics, text and finish of the digipack and avert? (1-5)
This was on average given a 4-5 showing that I have used the correct layout to advertise my band. I asked my audience - "If you saw this advert in the street would you want to go out and buy that album" The question was nearly the same for the print productions. They all answered Yes, showing me that I have created a print production that would capture someones eye, and stands out from the rest of albums being presented. This is what I wanted to achieve, by using graphics that isn't normally seen on an album cover, I have challenged the conventions of that genre and stood out. I also did not want to use my artists on the print productions as I wanted them to remain slightly unknown as they are a new band and I wanted the audience to imagine what they would be represented like.
Question Five - How successfully is the Britishness of the package established?
From this question my package was given on average a 4. I found this to be quite high for my print productions as I did not want too in corporate a high amount of Britishness in my package as the band do not seem to have many politcal messages about Britian and they do not relate their songs to aspects of this culture. However some bands in this genre do relate to a political message, and if my artist had, then I would have created a much more British cover. For example "The Sex Pistols" - "God Save The Queen" album cover has a very hard hitting message within it. The use of the Queens face and the flag could be seen as offensive. However by using her face, it has a very sharp link to British culture.
Question Six and Seven - Would the covers and advert encourage you to buy/go to an event by this artist?
Both of these questions were answered Yes, showing that I have created interest through my advert and digipack within my audience. Suggesting that I have marketed the artist well and created a bigger audience for the band as they would go see them live and not just by their album. By answering Yes it has been noted that If I were to advertise the poster in the city centre, I might be able to create a bigger audience as most say that this would encourage them to go to their gig.
MY IDEAL TARGET AUDIENCE:
- Age = 16-25.
- Gender = Male.
- Ethnicity = British
- Media Interests = Independent films, alternative rock music, indie music.
- Hobbies = Creativity - e.g. arts.
Another way I have recieved audience feedback is through youtube and the comment box. All together I have gotten 53 views at the moment and had one person like my video which indicates to me that they find the music video interesting to watch and enjoyed it throughly.
From YouTube you can get a different kind of audience viewing your video rather than just your friends and families who would fill out the questionairres.
One flaw of just using questionairres for audience feedback is having bias opinions of your music video as the participants are mainly going to be people you know and your relatives, therefore they would not like to give much negative feedback to not hurt your feelings. Therefore by getting feedback from YouTube too, they can remain anonymous and give a proper representative comment to you. Also you are not selecting a certain age group or culture from YouTube, therefore getting a more collective opinion.
Male Feedback
Most of my feedback was from a male audience, as my music video is more directed to a masculine audience. I could see slight differences in the genders when I recieved feedback. I found that males enjoyed the music video more, which could be because they can identify with the music video more than a female audience could. The song is also directed more to a male audience as the band consists of an all male cast.
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| Dora Nadine |
Female Feedback
However, as my female in the music video is a stronger representative of females than many music videos e.g. - Beyonce. It may attract a wider female audience than if I had made the girl look weak and dependant as its desired for women to be represented as independent for themselves.
Audience Theory
Linking feedback to Stuart Halls Theory of Audience, when getting feedback from friends and family members. By using the recognized codes and conventions and by drawing upon audience expectations relating to aspects such as genre, I have positioned the audience and therefore created a certain amount of agreement on what the codes mean. Meaning the outcome was of the preferred reading.
Another theory that was proposed was the "Users and Gratifications" theory. Quite the opposite of the hyperdermic needle theory, where the audience do not act passive but rather view media for different personal reasons. My music video was viewed for entertainment and feedback from most of my audience. Bulmer and Katz extended this theory and suggested that the audience chose a certain media text for either diversion - escape from daily routine and struggles, personal relationships (emotional distraction), personal identity (reflecting yourself within the media text) and surveillance - extract information from the media, most commonly this would be the news. Therefore my audience may enjoy the music video due to diversion from their daily routine, due to my music video being a contrast to everyday normal life, with dream like effect. The escape of the audience into my music video takes them into another dimension per say and it is not a reflection of everyday life, for example the most exciting element to my music video was the character of the girl. She created a nightmare effect for the music video and added an element of chaos and fear, without the girl in the music video I believe it would be boring to watch.
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