1. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
To create my music video I first had to look at what type of music members of the public enjoy. To
do this the initial idea that came to me would be to create a questionnaire that I could hand out to
members of the public. The questions that featured were specifically designed to get a wider range
of responses so that we could consider what would be the best choice for our music video. By using
this questionnaire it allowed me to obtain extensive research that would be cheap to produce, easily
distributed and I would acquire a range of results that would help in the process of targeting the
right audience for my products. From having a questionnaire it also allows for a mixture of both
quantative and qualative data results that would be useful to explore both data and opinions of the
public. From producing a questionnaire I found that this type of audience research allows me to
gather a substantial amount of answers in a short period of time. For this reason it is very useful to
obtain answers from specific audiences as I could create a questionnaire that would appeal to a
broad spectrum of people. This then gave me a lot of material to work with in the planning and
construction of my music video. However, although some aspects of handing out a questionnaire, I
found that some people became impatient and rushed through the questionnaires making the
results unreliable. Considering this I would use a variety of audience feedback, the questionnaire
has some strengths but it doesn’t always provide the detail that I was after.
From conducting my questionnaire I obtained answers that would help in the process of creating my
music video. I found that, from the audience I asked, folk genre was the most common choice of
music that they would listen to with Indie music coming second. From this feedback Ben and I then
knew what type of music video to create which would be a were found to be positive by gathering
the information very quickly collaboration of both genres to create a new sub-genre of music such as
“Mumford and Sons” have done. Also one piece of feedback I received indicated that the sub-genre
that was most common was acoustic. This then lead to me and Ben creating a music video that
featured aspects of the acoustic genre so that the video met the criteria of the audience feedback.
From being able to conduct this research it has structured a pathway for myself and ben to follow so
that the product that was created met the expectations of the audience. From gathering this
information I then found that the use of feedback that I received was proven very valuable as
without this indication the acoustic genre may never have appeared and thus losing some of our
audience.
During the process of creating my music video I had the initial idea, along with my fellow partner
Ben, to create a narrative music video that would keep the audience focused upon the storyline that
progresses between the two brothers and the death of the younger brother. After gathering
feedback in the initial production stage one audience member of my product suggested a variety of
ways in which I could possibly develop my music video to a greater degree. One feedback suggestion
that was made was to include a performance side to the video. That way the audience can then see
that the video is not a film but a music video. This changed the planning and construction of our
music video immensely meaning that myself and Ben would have to film, and edit-in the
performance side to our music video. This was done to a good standard and it did thoroughly
improve our music video. By allowing ourselves to film the performance section the audience were
able to look upon the singer who was the main characterin the video. This identified that the
narrative and performance collaborated together to represent the song as a tribute towards the
dead brother. From gathering feedback this early on in the construction of my music video was

2. excellent as it enabled myself to make significant changes to the video so that the target audience
were happy and thus creating a greater audience . Without this feedback I would not have known
what the audience want and thus I would have created a poorer music video.
Once the video had been completed I decided to run a test screening to see if including the feedback
of performance within the music video would work. The audience were a focus group that I had
chosen to get a variety of different comments. This included asking how effective including a
performance aspect was, if it had fit in well with the music video and overall did it make the music
video better. The information that was gathered demonstrated that the performance
aspectsimproved our video a lot by the group stating that the most effective parts of the music video
were the performance elements and it lead to an insight to who was singing, meaning that the
audience can no look deeper into the emotion that the singer Is portraying. From gaining this
knowledge I can state that having this feedback has improved my music video vastly and gained
myself and Ben a greater understanding of a music video. From receiving this feedback I have learnt
that using test screening made it easier to get a natural response compared to if I were to use a
questionnaire where people would rush the answers. This would be great, meaning I would be able
to acquire results that are helpful and reliable. The advantages of using this focus group enabled
myself to get a range of analytical feedback that I could then take on board and progress from this
by making possible edits to the music video. The disadvantages through are that because the focus
group set up were people I see on a day to day bases, the feedback that I had received might be bias
because the focus group are mine and bens friends and they wanted to say how good it was because
of the friendship. To avoid this a focus group of Strangers might possibly be better as the feedback
would be honest but at the same time maybe not as analytical as I would like.
From obtaining audience feedback from social networking sites this enabled me to acquire effective
constructed feedback on my ancillary texts. This was proven to be a very effective way of gaining my
audience feedback but some of the responses wouldn’t be of academic quality due to the quality of
the answers revived. One example of helpful feedback would be from one viewer who used social
networking to access and view my ancillary texts and music video. Upon looking at the Digipak the
viewer stated that in some sections the imagery that was used wasplain. This was the initial idea that
Ben and I were aiming for but we, from further inspection, both agreed with the viewer’s comment.
In some areas the Digipak was covered in imagery and text that related to our product, the other
sections of the DigiPakcontained imagery of secluded fields and dying shrubbery. The reason why we
include this would be to relate the imagery that is shown through the DigiPak back to the narrative
performance of my music video. Even through this was a good idea as it related back to the
conventions of indie music with secluded areas and folk music by having fields the mise en scene of
location just wasn’t enough. This is where I suggested, as the audience wanted something else
included into the DigiPak, an idea to include an effect of tearing to present ideology that someone
had torn away part of the image to reveal words from the song.These words were the most
powerfullyrics such as “I’ll pray for you”. This idea came to me as it suggests an inner message that
our song is trying to portray. This also enabled Ben and Ito link the lyrics back towards our music
video by featuring the words from the song. The Digipak therefore symbolises a greater meaning
and synergy is used to link the aspects of the song into the Digipak. From portraying this idea the
feedback given was very positive and indicated that the change made produced a greater product
that enabled for a greater outcome . The audience, from looking at the updated product said that
the tearing effect worked very well and that they could understand why this has been included. This
feedback was acquired through the form of, again, putting together a focus group made up from the

3. students who take media as a subject. The reason for this would be to gain audience responses from
people who have more analytical skill regarding media. Comparing this to that of a public audience
would mean that the feedback given would be more helpful and thus easier to apply towards my
product.
From gathering a range of audience feedback whether this be through the form of social networking
sites,YouTube or through focus groups,I have learnt to look more in-depthatthe audience feedback
as, after all, the product is for them. Many of the suggestions made by members of the public have
been proven effective and upon making these changes either the ancillary texts or the music video
itself hassignificantly improved. This was down to good quality feedback. The importance of this
would be that it suggests ways to improve my product. For instance if a show were to be put on
television station thenthey would need some form of feedback from a pilot to know if this is good or
not. This is the same type of situation where I would want to know what I could improve on to make
the product stronger. Some feedback that was good but not as helpful would be comments such as
“This is great”. It signifies that the audience enjoys the product but doesn’t suggest any ways for
improving. This portrays an answer that isn’t relevant for my products. This could be down to the
fact that the answer wasn’t from the appropriate audience and thus the answer wasn’tfocused upon
in detail. Academically the responses that I would have hoped to acquire would suggest what might
need improving to hit the target audience, Suggesting ways in which I could change certain aspects
so that the audience are happy. This would then help with the reliably of the responses as I would be
able to collect a range of information that would help towards my products. But choosing to listen to
the audience would depend on the audience that is presenting their view; I would need to find out if
the audience are relevant for my product so that the right responses are coming from my target
audience and not just a random person. For this reason I can state that not all feedback that is
received through social networking sites can be reliable. Through looking into the range of feedback
and applying different techniques and elements I feel that I have used this feedback effective and
portrayed this through my music video and ancillary texts. With the feedback that I was given I was
able to make these important changes to further greaten both ancillary texts and my music video.
Without this feedback then the changes wouldn’t have been possible and thus creating a poorer
product. But by allowing myself and Ben to change and use focus groups to gather feedback we have
both strengthened not only the video but our creative techniques, to listen to our audience.