The document discusses the target audience research conducted for a music video project. The initial target audience of 16-25 year olds from various backgrounds was found to be too broad. The age range was narrowed to 16-19 to focus on the students accessible to the researchers. Various research methods were used including questionnaires, focus groups, and gathering feedback on rough cuts of the video. The research helped shape the music video to better appeal to the target audience by clarifying concepts and addressing issues raised in oppositional feedback.

1. EVALUATION Q3 Greta M

2. WHO ANSWERED OUR
QUESTIONNAIRES?
Originally, our TA was planned to be 16-25 year olds, middle
class, aspirers, blue collar workers. Our product was going to
be presented to both genders and reflect their own possible
issues, making the audience connect with the star on a deeper
level.
After completing the first TA research, we came to a realisation
that we will not be able to access such a wide TA when needed,
therefore we decided to reduce the age gap to 16-19.
Upon reflection, I feel if we included a more adult TA research,
our outcome would be completely different, as I believe that
both of these age groups expect to see something completely
different in the music videos that they watch.

3. CONTINUED
In order to gain accurate answers from our audience,
we asked late teens, aged 16-19, as they were most
available; those are the ages of the people who
attended to our college.
Therefore, I feel that changing our TA from 17-24 to
16-19 was a wise choice, as the audiences aged
higher than that would want to see something
different and have different demands, creating a less
focused star image, which would harm the product.

4. WAYS IN WHICH WE ADDRESSED
OUR TA
We addressed our audience by creating questionnaires
and working with focus groups.
Because our intended audience were late teens/ young
adults, I noticed that during the focus groups some of
the answers were identical, which made me believe
that the individuals did not answer truthfully. Thus, I
found the questionnaire handouts a much more
effective way in which we gathered our data.

5. Our very first questionnaire was before we started to show our music
video to our intended target audience.
It was simply to see what the audience find important about the star.
For example:
This really helped us see what type of details should go on our
ancillaries in order to sell the star better for the audience of our
choice.
In this TA research, I only asked 10 people, aged 16-23 (which was
when I first realised our TA age range was way too broad) about the
things that they would like to see in a music video in order for them to
find it appealing.
EVALUATNG TARGET AUDIENCE
RESEARCH 1

6. EVALUATING TA
RESEARCH 1
After gathering all of their answers, I put
them into categories and charts to
compare what percentage of the
audience want to see what.
For example, I asked them about how
much of the video should be of the
singer, and the audience wanted to see
the star 30/40% of the time in the music
video.
I think this was the most important
question in this research, as this heavily
influenced our first roughcuts and the
amount of shots that had the star in
them.

7. EVALUATING TA RESEARCH 1
However, upon reflection, I feel that although these
questions were useful, I could’ve shaped them and
used a vocabulary that was more precise, in order to
get results that the audience want to see, and also the
results that adhere to some of the conventions. (For
example, looking at how much the audience wanted to
see the male star is too small in comparison to debut
videos percentages.)

8. REFLECTING ON THE
ERRORS IN TA
RESEARCH 1
Looking at the questions that we
asked about the star image
before we created Chase, I feel
that the questions were not all
related to our products and the
star directly. For example, I felt
that Q2 was useless in
comparison to the rest of the
questions, as we already knew
what ancillaries we were going to
do, so asking about anything
extra was unnecessary.

9. IF I WERE TO IMPROVE THIS
RESEARCH…
I would ask very precise questions which would be
all to do with the star’s appearance, the audience’s
knowledge of the genre, more detailed questions
about the music video (for example whether they
like instrumentals, urban, rural settings, whether
they would like to see more actors in the music
video, as we did not ask these important questions
the first time.)

10. CONTINUED
I would also ask a larger number of people, which is
how I improved my further research, by asking 15-20
people at times.
Not only that, but by the end of this analysis I felt that
I needed to target not only just the young audience,
but also those who listen to this genre and would
enjoy this type of music, thus answering the questions
would be easier for them.

11. EVALUATING TA
RESEARCH 2
For our second TA research, we decided to give each one of our
audience members their own say by uploading photos of
principle photography to Flickr and using the comment section
as our medium of gathering data.
After collecting all of these comments on our photography of
props, locations and stars we compared the positives and
negatives in order to evaluate what shots the audience would
like to see in the music video, and what type of mise-en-scene
appears to be most acceptable to them in a music video of this
nature.

12. EVALUATING TA RESEARCH 2
Although this was a good way to
see what each individual would
like to see in the music video,
upon reflection I feel that there
were more drawbacks in
collecting data in this way than
the questionnaires.

13. CONTINUED
Because we gave our audience
the freedom to say what they
want, on whichever photo they
want, we were left with
photographs that we felt were
very interesting that had no
comments on them, and some
photographs that were
uploaded only to show a prop
were confused for actual shots
that would appear in the
music video.

14. IF I WERE TO REDO THIS
RESEARCH…
I would create separate photo boards for each sections
of the music video and gather a focus group of our
niche audience.
Instead of giving them boxed questionnaires, I would
ask them in person as a group and record my findings,
as I feel this method gives the audience complete
freedom of speech and opinion, but also helps me as I
would be able to ask them about specific details that I
felt were crucial to discuss, which failed in this TA
research.

15. CONTINUED
As there were no questions that we asked the
audience directly, there is no way to measure the
success of our research, apart from the method and
how it affected the data collected.
Although this itself was an easy research task to set
up, it created difficulties when it came to the analysis
part of the research, as there was no way to measure
or compare opinions of these individuals.

16. TA RESEARCH 3
ANALYSIS
This research was carried
our in a way which we
felt was much more
flexible and interesting
than the second
research. We recorded
our focus group
discussion and uploaded
it to Chirbit, creating an
audio file which was
available to us to use on
blogger at any time.

17. HOW IT WAS CARRIED OUT
Gathering audio data was a much easier way to carry out
research (in my opinion) and was much easier to analyse.
For this research, we presented a small group of 4 a photo
board of our principle photography and discussed the
ideas we had for our music video, which were inspired by
all of the similar product research we did.
I feel that this was a much easier way to explain to our
audience our intentions with the music video before we
started to shoot it, as we vocally expressed our ideas.

18. WHY THIS WAS A SUCCESSFUL
RESEARCH
After looking back at this data, I came to a
realisation that this was a successful research
task because we explained our ideas and what
type of star image we wanted to create in
great detail, which cannot be done in a
questionnaire.
By describing our ideas first, we let the
audience think of anything that was unclear in
the narrative or the concept of the music
video, then letting them ask any questions
about any parts of the plan that they did not
understand.

19. IF I WERE TO IMPROVE THIS
RESEARCH…
I would describe one aspect of the music video (e.g the
costumes we intend on using) and then ask the audience if
there was anything that they thought was unclear. In my
opinion this would make the whole process go much smoother
and faster in comparison to how it was.
Also, I would formulate an order in which I should describe
parts of the music video before presenting the project. Without
a thorough plan by my side I found myself bouncing back and
forth between sections of the preparation which left me and the
audience a little confused.

20. EVALUATING TA RESEARCH 4
By the time we carried out our fourth TA research, we created two
rough cuts, so we presented a larger focus group ( 17 ) with the
rough cut and asked them questions which would help us improve
the quality of the video, and create a realistic music star.
We asked more intricate questions than in the first TA research (e.g
Q2: Do you understand the relationship between the two characters
and how it changes? ) which I felt was much more useful to our
development of the music video than before, as now the questions
can all be separated into different readings ( Preferred, Negotiated
and Oppositional) which allowed us to see how many of the 17 people
understood and liked our product so far.

21. WHY SOME QUESTIONS WORKED
BETTER THAN OTHERES
Out of the 10 Questions, the majority of them were
asked to help us find out whether shots/concepts,
costume changes that we felt were too unclear were
understandable to the audience.
For example, we used the symbolism theory to
represent alcoholism as an issue in today’s youth
through the frequent imagery of bottles, however, we
were not sure whether this worked in the music video
and if the audience understood the meaning behind
the bottles.

22. DID THE QUESTIONS WORK?
Q9: What representations have been created?
As we were not sure whether the audience understood the
representations created in the music video, we asked whether they
noticed any, and our relief three out of four representations were
clear to the audience. (Alcoholism, Red shoes, Anger, Unstable
relationship) and the only representation that was not clear enough to
the audience was the gambling concept.
After analysing this data, we came to a conclusion that we would
create more imagery of the cards and the representations not only in
the music video, but also throughout the ancillaries as well (hence the
album’s name is The Gambler, and some decorative details are card
signs.)

23. WHICH QUESTIONS DIDN’T HELP?
Q10: Does this music video launch the male singer as a new
star? Would this video make you look online for more
information about him?
I personally thought that this question was not necessary at this
point in production, as we have not yet created the ancillary
products alongside the music video, let alone finish the music
video.
Upon reflection, this could be a perfect question on the final TA
research, when the music video was complete.

24. EVALUATIN
G THE
FINAL TA
RESEARCH
For our final TA research, we decided to do
another focus group, as we felt it was the
easiest way to gather a lot of data, helping
point out anomalies and seeing what the
majority of the audience wants.

25. EVALUATING THE FINAL TA
RESEARCH
During this final TA research, we showed a
focus group of 14 our final video, and handed
them a copy of a questionnaire which asked
detailed questions regarding all of the things
that we found difficult to present to the
audience in a clear/ desirable way.

26. CONTINUED
By asking focused questions we found that we got more
accurate results ,which was exactly what we wanted from
the first TA research.
I feel that the only way we could learn that this was the
best way for us to gather and analyse data (focus groups/
questionnaires) is through trial and error of all of the
previous TA researches.
However, the process of improving each one helped us
realise what are the flaws in our original intended audience
and how broad it was, which then lead us to improve the
age group to a more accessible one.

27. IF I WERE TO IMPROVE THIS
RESEARCH I WOULD…
The only improvement for this final TA research that I
can think of is that I could’ve asked a larger group to
get more accurate results, as I felt that the questions
provided were good, and all were relevant to our
product and it’s success.

28. Without this criticism from our audience, we would have
created a wrong star image for Chase, and completely
missing out the things that our audience want to see in a
star.
I feel like a lot of the oppositional readings that we got in
further focus groups and questionnaires helped us shape
Chase into a stronger image that was much more
successful.
OPPOSITIONAL READING:
DID IT HELP?

29. IMPACT OF OPPOSITIONAL
READING
From our focus groups, we found it very useful when the
audience told us what they didn’t like about the roughcuts.
For example, we had a question asking which shots they
didn’t like. The red shoes repetition was not something
that the audience disliked, so we replaced the shots with
something new.
This oppositional reading really helped us, as we removed
the reoccurring shots of the red heels and replaced them
with something involving more action, creating more
tension and interest for the audience, as requested.

30. THE DEEPER/INTERTEXTUAL
REPRESENTATIONS
Some parts of our music video had intertextual links or indirect
references to things/issues that the star was facing in the music
video, for example, the alcohol issue with the female, and the
gambling that the male was trying to tame.
After showing the first roughcut to our audiences, it became
apparent that the cards especially were confusing the audience
as it was not very clear what they represented.

31. CONTINUED
With this feedback, we went back to our music video
and made the meaning more clear. When presenting
this improvement to our audience, they seemed to
understand it better.
This really shows that oppositional readings helped us
shape our music video into something that makes
sense to our audience.

32. IMPROVING THE INTERTEXTUAL
REFERENCES
By trying to show the audience that these were the
issues that both of the people were facing, we asked
them in focus groups whether they understood that
these factors were affecting and damaging their
relationship, as we felt that we didn’t make it obvious
enough in the first few roughcuts.
Each time we asked our TA whether something was
unclear, they helped us make the music video more to
their taste and more appealing.

33. HOW POSITIVE FEEDBACK HELPED
SHAPE THE MV
We weren’t sure whether our audience wanted to see actors
breaking down stereotypes, but when asked, they responded
positively.
If we were creating this music video to a different audience, who
considered social issues such as women being aggressive taboo,
most of our questionnaires would revolve around the break of the
gender stereotype.

34. CONTINUED
When creating modern representations of the star we
felt unsure at times, for example in a few shots we
wanted to portray a male star as someone vulnerable
(running towards the camera in tears) .
We also wanted to show that males aren’t the only
ones who can be aggressive and have issues with
substance abuse, therefore we added shots of the
female kicking doors down, laying on the floor with
alcohol, and bottles being thrown and being broken.

35. HAVE WE REACHED OUR INTENDED
TA?
During the process of creating the music video, our
target audience changed a lot. The age group became
more narrow and the audience went from us trying to
appeal to female to a very gender neutral product, as
our colours aim at both genders, are neutral, and mainly
try to appeal to those who like indie/indie rock.
I feel that this change in our audience was an important
step in developing our product, as without this change,
we could have possibly ended up with something
completely different.