1. W H A T H A V E Y O U L E A R N E D F R O M Y O U R
A U D I E N C E F E E D B A C K ?
Evaluation Question 3:
2. Audience Feedback
Audience feedback is an accurate way of seeing what the general public needs and
whether you as a medium are supplying those needs. Audience feedback can
show:
1. An estimate of audience size
2. Audience preferences
We felt that audience feedback was critical to perfecting our own music video as
the audience are our consumers and therefore it is down to them whether our
final cut is successful or not. So we gave out questionnaires to a group of our
fellow pupils during our pre production stage in order to see what their
preferences were and who out target audience will most likely be. We also did a
few focus groups which we filmed in order to get a more detailed view of what are
audiences were looking for in a music video. We did a second focus group post
production to find out what our audience liked and also to see what we could
have done to improve our final media product. We then uploaded our video onto
YouTube and Facebook in order to get a few comments on our video to see what
our audience feedback was like and what people thought we did well and what
people thought we could improve upon.
3. Audience Theories
Audience theory was important when it came to producing our
music video, digipak and album poster. There has been many
different theories on how the audience responds and interacts
with the media they consume. This means that audience feedback
is very important as it allows the researcher see into the minds of
the general viewing audience and how they react and affected by
the media around them. Most theories deal with the question of
whether we feed the media or whether the media feeds us. An
example of this is the ‘Hypodermic Syringe Theory’ which says
the media gives us a message directly and we as an audience are
helpless but to except it, almost like an inoculation. The opposite
side of this argument is the ‘User and Gratification theory’ which
says that the media is created to gratify our own social needs,
such as; entertainment, information, identification, etc. Both of
these theories are important as they give us as the medium an
idea of how to reach out to a wider audience with our product.
4. Questionnaire Results
We carried out a survey on a group of applicants who attended our sixth form. The group was a mix of male and female
applicants. We targeted this age group because this tended to be Eminem's target audience however we did ask survey a
variables in order to get a more rounded result. These are results we got back from our survey
13%
54%
33%
0% 0%
How old are you?
Age-16 Age-17 Age-18 Age-19 Total applicants-15
How old are you?
Age-16 2
Age-17 8
Age-18 5
Age-19 0
Total applicants-15
6. Questionnaire Results
73%
27%
0% 0%
0%
How much of an effect do you think a music video
adds to the music itself?
A great amount A fair amount A very little amount Not at all Total- 15 applicants
A great amount 11
A fair amount 4
A very little amount 0
Not at all 0
Total applicants-15
7. Questionnaire Results
67%
33%
Have you previously heard the song Beautiful
by Eminem?
YES NO 15 applicants
We surveyed 9 boys and 6 girls.
Seven out of the nine boys had
claimed that they had heard this
song before.
Three out the six girls had claimed
that they were familiar with this
song.
YES 10
NO 5
15 applicants
8. Questionnaire Results
13%
40%
7%
27%
13%
What do you find the most appealing about
music videos?
The visual effects A story narrative The art direction
The choreography The video's message 15 applicants
The visual effects 2
A story narrative 6
The art direction 1
The choreography 4
The video's message 2
15 applicants
11. Questionnaire Results
40%
33%
7%
20%
0%
How often do you listen to American
Hip-Hop music?
Everyday Quite frequently A fair amount Not often 15 applicants
Everyday 6
Quite frequently 5
A fair amount 1
Not often 3
15 applicants
12. Questionnaire Results
40%
40%
7%
13%
0%
0%
0% 0%
What is your favourite music genre?
Hip hop R n B Rock Grime Pop Dance Other Total- 15 applicants
Hip hop 6
R n B 6
Rock 1
Grime 2
Pop 0
Dance 0
Other 0
Total- 15 applicants
13. Results
From our questionnaire we were able to really home in on our target audience, we found out that:
Most of our audience were 17 year old males
R n b and Hip-Hop was popular among most of our target audience and Eminem (our artist)
was most of our target audiences favourite Hip-Hop artist
Most people found the story narrative to be the most appealing factor to their music video
We also found out that most of our applicants with familiar with the our chosen song and many
felt that it sent a very good message
We took this audience feedback and tried to apply it to our own music video, we did this by making
our video’s protagonist a young male as we felt that the male audience and even female
audience may be able to sympathize and connect with the video’s protagonist. We also found
out that story narrative was the most appealing factor about a music video and therefore we
decided to make our music video narrative based and focus on the protagonists journey and its
relation to the song rather than focusing on the artist.
14. Focus group
The focus group provided a more detailed analysis of our
target audience and how to cater to the audiences
needs. From this we gained a more varied knowledge
of what people looked forward to in a music video.
We found out that our interviewees looked forward to
art direction and cinematography within a music
video. This prompted us to really focus on the shots we
put within our music video.
Many people felt that the artist drew them to music
videos and that played to our hand as Eminem was
many peoples favourite Hip-Hop artist.
15. Distribution
We used YouTube and Facebook to distribute our
product and to gain audience feedback of our final
production.
16. Posting our Videos
After we finished editing our clip, we made sure that this was our final and completed
music video. Michael uploaded it onto his own YouTube account and me, Shayne and
Tyrell all posted onto our Facebook walls asking for comments and suggestions in
order to get audience feedback and to see how effective our music video was.
18. Feedback for our Video
Positive feedback:-
The fast cutting scene was very popular when looking over our
feedback for the video many people liked the pacing of it and how
we saw the characters life flash before his eyes. They felt it was very
creative and intelligent.
Many people enjoyed the editing and pace of the video they felt that
the video fitted the timing of the music and that all of the clips we
used were paced very well and therefore no scene seemed too long
or too short.
People said that they really enjoyed the concept of the video and its
art direction. They said that they found the topic of mental illness to
be very interesting and unusual for a music video, especially a Hip-
Hop one.
Finally many people enjoyed the videos narrative and empathized
with the protagonist and his struggles. They felt that as an audience
that the narrative was very planned out and was told very well.
19. Feedback for our Video
Negative feedback:-
Some people found that the black box in the corner
was quite distracting at time and drew their
attention away from the video
Some people found that the clown mask was a bit
overstated and could have been done more subtly
however they did say that it also made the video
unique and iconic in it’s own way.
20. Overall
Overall I felt that the audience feedback was critical to helping us
through pre production and post production. We learnt a lot about
what the audience likes to see within a music video and how we can
adhere to this but also put our own creative spin on it and create that
we can really be proud of.
In pre production we learnt what the general audience preferences are
and what our target audience would like to see in a music video and
this is a very important factor when making a music video as success
comes when you know what you target audience likes e.g. you can’t
make a hip-hop video about street life when your target audience is
middle age, middle class men and women. This really helped us as we
knew what to focus on during the production of our music video. We
also gained a lot of positive feedback and also some negative feedback
for our music video. Both are very important, from the positive
feedback we know what we did well and the negative feedback allows
us to reflect upon what we could have done in order to improve our
music video.
