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1. EVALUATION 3: What have you learned from
your audience feedback
Prior to any of the production processes, one of the first decisions that
had to made was who our target audience was going to be. Having
picked a specific song and therefore had a specific idea of the genre and
style of our music video, we knew the group from the quadrant that our
products would most likely appeal to. Due to the nature of the song and
the image and story that the lyrics created, we knew we would be
looking at a much younger audience being of a younger audience
ourselves, we also know we would have a more developed knowledge of
the trends in our culture and what we would look to see I a music video.
This is how we came to the decision to target a predominantly female
(30% to 60%) audience of the ages 15-30. To gather a more in depth
knowledge of what our audience’s interests and aspiration is, we took to
the website Uk tribes, which would confine our audience into a specific
group and give us a detailed explanation of their traits. This would
further improve our knowledge of the audience and really help us to
target our audience to ensure our product will be most successful upon
release.

2. Pitch Feedback
After having conducted in-depth research and planning into the production
of our final products, we created a short iMovie click which briefly
summarised our ideas and intentions. This was presented in front of my
media class and my teacher, which was then open to feedback and
criticism. It was also uploaded onto my blog to improve the availability and
allow our audience to easily access and comment on the video. After
posting the video, we received a total of 7 comments. The feedback was
predominantly very positive however it did pose some questions which was
answered in a blog post nearer to the time.
I found that all the feedback was very credible as it came from an audience
who had an in depth knowledge for media studies and knew what made a
good video. Additionally, the majority of the audience had an interest in my
genre of video and could therefore give productive feedback. However, in
addition there were other participants who perhaps did not have a
particular interest in my genre and therefore gave advice that would give
technical feedback to improve the technicalities of the video (concerning
camera shots, editing, sound and mise-en-scene).

3. Prior to starting the planning and production process of my music video, I wanted to gather in-depth audience research
form my target audience to further ensure I am catering to their needs to the best of my ability. I did this in the form of a
small quiz to make it more enjoyable, where I asked them as a series of questions enquiring their favourite song choice and
music videos were. I also asked what genre of music video they enjoyed consuming the most. The majority answered with
more narrative styled videos where the visuals correlated with the lyrics and demonstrated the deeper meaning behind the
song. Additionally, others were more concerned about the artistic composition of the shots and how this worked with the
beat of the music. Therefore, catering for a more artistic and visual aesthetic. From these results, I decided to gear my
music video toward my audience’s requirements and combine the narrative influence with the aesthetic montage of artistic
shots to tell a story. Many of the audience said they appreciated watching a role model they admire in their videos and they
enjoyed watching what creative styles and trends they would be advocating. This demonstrated to me that my audience
valued a person’s style and outward appearance therefore I took this into consideration when styling my model for the
music video. Finally, we asked our audience whether they felt there was a great importance of performance in a music
video. They expressed the necessity in this otherwise the video would not communicate the emotion and energy intended.
They said it would make the video boring and unentertaining. This re-confirmed how vital it was to select an actress that
would be able portray the emotion needed as I wanted to demonstrate some more emotional scenes in my video.
MUSIC
VIDEO

4. After completing our draft music video, we handed it out to
another small group of people who met the requirement of our
target audience. The feedback we received was extremely
positive which boosted our satisfaction of our draft product.
They commented that the video looked very professional due
to the high quality of camera used and the transitions between
shots. This was good because it meant we achieved our aims
presented in our brief. A point we received, to perhaps improve
on, was the shots with the male and female together having an
argument. We found these shots difficult to film realistic as the
male actor was perhaps not as developed as the female
actress, therefore they found it difficult to work together. We
initially overcame this problem by excluding the male face to
therefore make the acting look more convincing however our
audience still commented on the awkwardness on the shot. We
agreed with the comment therefore we decided to shorten the
shot and extend other shots surrounding this. For us, this
further solidified the importance of having quality acting when
creating a narrative video for our target audience.

5. As with my other products, I handed my draft music video into my teacher to
receive productive feedback from a professional perspective. Once again I
was very pleased with the feedback I received as he seemed impressed with
our efforts. He gave us small points to improve such as making the shot
where the artist immersed from the bath water, we cut the shot and an
awkward time therefore he advised us to elongate the shot. We found this
advice very helpful as it improved the overall look of our video. Additionally,
he also gave us feedback to further develop the narrative side to our video
by suggesting we ensure the establishing shot is free of by standers to push
the representation of isolation. We took this idea on board but unfortunately
we were unable to act on this as we could not organise another date for
filming. Additionally, we decided we enjoyed the public being a part of the
shot as it did not take away the attention from our artist. He also
commented that the exterior shots look a little more awkward and
uncomfortable which subtracts the realism and professionalism of our video.
We agreed with this feedback as we found even during filming it was
awkward as there were people watching our production process and it made
our actress feel intimidated. In order to act on this feedback we shortened
the shots to increase the energy and swapped the more static shots where
there was less motion in the shot and this was often evident in long/wide
shots to more close-up shots where there is more movement as this seemed
more interesting and captivating for the audience.

6. ANCILLARY
TEXTSBefore starting the production process of my ancillary products, I wanted to gain
audience feedback from my target audience to ensure that my product would
cater specifically to them. Therefore, I created a questionnaire which asked the
audience what they would like to see most in a magazine advert. I composed a
questionnaire which contained images of magazine adverts and Digipacks of
variety of different genres which would cater to different audiences. I found that
much of my audience chose a design with a more individual, innovative and
original design, often more minimalistic and aesthetically pleasing. My audience
stated that they enjoyed simplistic designs as it was more visually digestible
however, many also commented how they sometimes liked a busier design as it
was interesting to look at and stood out from many designs on the alternative pop
scene. Additionally, I also looked at the colour pallet of the designs that appeared
more favourable and found that the predominantly featured minimalistic and
monochromatic pallet with the occasional statement colour to compliment the
modernistic designs. I chose to follow these results by creating my products to be
black and white with the pop of colour posing as orange.

7. After completing my first draft, I once again reached out
to a group of people that I selected to be a part of my
target audience to evaluate and criticize my design
enabling me to make further improvements. This was a
very rewarding experience as I was given many positives
and was continuously told that they were incredibly fond
of my design. When looking at the magazine advert, they
commented on how they loved alternative style and
made my product stand out from others they had scene.
This effectively met the requirements of my brief and
successfully worked as promotional product for my music
video as it would grab the audience’s attention. A few
participants commented on how I should perhaps
consider enlarging the text for practical reasons. I agreed
with this comment and decided to increase the font size
to make it easier to read.

8. As well as gathering specific audience feedback, I also handed my draft Digipack into my teachers as they are knowledgeable in the field of media.
This would ensure that my product would be produced to the highest degree of professionalism. I was advised to make the size of my text smaller
in order to fully achieve the ‘handwriting’ effect. This was more specifically applicable on the back cover of my digipack with the list of songs
featured on the album. I agreed with this feedback as I did not like the overall look of the back cover, however after experimenting with different
sizes and positions of the text, I could not find one I liked. Therefore, I decided to change the font of the text, and I found this worked much better
together with the image. Additionally, my teacher recommended I add the legal information onto the digipack in order to increase the
verisimilitude. They additionally advised that I place this adjacent to the bar code to follow common conventions of digipacks therefore increasing
the professionalism and making the product easily recognisable by my audience. The CD design of my digipack was not well thought out and
looked plain and too simplistic in comparison to the rest of my digipack design, I was aware of this prior to handing it in. My teacher suggested I
come up with a more creative line of thought to improve the overall quality of my product. I followed this advice and decided to continue with my
more unconventional style by using a brush tool in Photoshop and to further develop the colour theme of orange, I believed this worked much
better. Overall the feedback from my digipack was very positive and my teacher said I had brilliant images and a bold, creative idea. This boosted
my confidence a great deal and encouraged me to push forward with my project.
I was very pleased with my innovative and original design idea for my magazine advert design. Therefore, I was pleased when my teacher did not
have a lot deal of criticism as it meant I had successfully created professional looking piece. However, my teacher did recommend that I try a
different image on the magazine opposed the one I have. He suggested this would form a greater link between my magazine advert, digipack and
music video and make the combination of the three more effective. I did listen to this recommendation, despite the fact that I was not convinced,
and experimented with a variety of different images that were feature on my digipack. I discovered that I liked the monochromatic colour palette
of the poster and therefore did not want to change this. And I did not find an image where the eyes looked quite as alluring in order to captivate
the audience, therefore I decided to keep the same image. Whilst producing the poster in Photoshop, I had forgotten to add my CD name and my
record labels logo therefore my teacher reminded me I needed to add them in order to make my product look most realistic.