1. QUESTION 3: WHAT HAVE YOU
LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE
FEEDBACK?
Victoria Norton
2. INTRO
During the production of my music video and print products I gained audience feedback throughout the
process so I knew what needed improving or changing. Due to my audience having knowledge on the
indie rock genre, they were using their cultural capital in order to assess whether my products were
professional and like existing products of the same genre. They also used their cultural capital in order to
figure out what needed improving on my products. I gained audience feedback throughout the course
because I needed an insight on what needed improving and what changes I could do to make my products
look more professional. When choosing people to take part in giving me audience feedback I chose
people who fitted the target audience age range and I made sure that they had some insight into the indie
rock genre.
In the following slides I have listed the techniques I used to gain audience feedback throughout the
production stages of my print products and my music video and I will talk about their pros and cons along
with feedback analysis…
3. AUDIENCE FEEDBACK ON THE PITCH
FOR MY MUSIC VIDEO…
Before my group started production of our music video we created a pitch to show the audience our ideas to see if
they feel it would be suitable.
Link to music video pitch
After our presentation, our audience then gave us feedback on our initial ideas. Our audience didn’t want to be
filmed so we just recorded their voices.
My audience felt like the target audience age range of 15 was too young
for the themes and storyline we were trying to put across within our music
video. So after this we slightly lifted the target age to around 17+. So our
themes are more suitable for that age group. My audience also felt that
using the band My Chemical Romance as an influence was slightly
contrasting off what we were trying to set out to achieve so instead we
started using Maroon 5, Florence + The Machine, The Killers, etc. As
influences. But they loved the concept of our narrative.
A downside to using voice recording to gain audience feedback would be that my audience might not feel like they’re
able to express their thoughts and opinions freely due to the pressure of being recorded. So the feedback we gained
might not have been what they were truly thinking… So perhaps using Facebook or some other form of gaining
feedback might have benefited us more. However using voice recording to gain feedback meant we had a constant,
more realistic version of what our audience had to say.
4. AUDIENCE FEEDBACK ON THE ROUGH
CUT OF MY MUSIC VIDEO…
I gained feedback on the rough cut of my music video by thinking of
some suitable questions to ask and then I asked my audience to write
their responses on sticky notes…
From the feedback I gathered, my group could improve on the lip singing as
my audience would like to see more of it instead of more narrative, my
audience would also like to see more close-ups of the lead singer as he isn't
given enough stardom and also my audience felt like some of the shots used
within the rough cut were too dark and they were unable to clearly see what
was happening. So my group might have to re-film these shots, make them
lighter or just take them out completely. However my audience felt like the
plot was easy to follow and had clear themes, but they felt it did get a little
bit confusing at times. They also enjoyed how our themes slightly challenged
the conventions of the Indie rock genre but we could have a bit more of a
build up to the suicide at the end as it took my audience by surprise.
A downside to using sticky notes to gain feedback would be, at times we
found it hard to read our audience’s handwriting which lead to
misunderstanding on what our audience was trying to say. If we used
video or voice recording to gain feedback, at least we wouldn’t of had
troubles trying to understand what our audience was trying to say.
5. AUDIENCE FEEDBACK ON DRAFT OF
PRINT PRODUCTS…
Link to post on my blog
I decided to use Facebook to gain audience feedback on the draft of my print products because I felt that Facebook
is a good platform for people to freely express their opinion on my work and everyone has Facebook, so I wouldn’t
have an issue gaining lots of feedback on my work. I was able to gain feedback from 7 people on Facebook but I
invited more than 7 people to the group. I did ask everyone who wanted to take part in giving me feedback whether
or not they wanted to give me feedback. They agreed to giving me feedback. But only 7 out of the 20 people I
added to the group took part. This was a downfall to using Facebook to gain feedback as people who said they
would take part didn’t actually take part in the end. However, If I used another method of gaining feedback, I might
not have gained as much feedback as I did on Facebook.
I created a Facebook group to gain feedback on the drafts of my print products…
My audience felt like there wasn’t any major improvements I could make to my products in order to make them
look more professional. However, they mentioned small improvements such as making the lead singer blend in
more with the background on my digipak, I was told that the front pane of my digipak was too bright and my
audience couldn’t see the text, and finally someone mentioned that the tree on the front pane didn’t really fit in
well with my theme and I could of added more social media links on the advert. I did follow some audience
feedback suggestions such as: I decided to darken the front pane of my digipak in order the make the text easier
to read and I also managed to make the lead singer blend in more with the background on my digipak. I decided
that my front pane image was perfectly fine and I felt like I didn’t need to change it.
6. AUDIENCE FEEDBACK ON FINAL
PRODUCTS…
I filmed my audience giving me feedback on my final
products…
From the feedback I collected from this, I feel that I have
achieved what I had set out to achieve which was to
produce a professional looking promo package. There
wasn't any real improvements I could make to my digipak
from what my audience said. However, I could of made the
ending to my music video less morbid as it took my
audience by surprise and they kind of felt like it was a little
too much. I could also improve on the lip singing in my
music video as my audience did notice that it looked off at
times but they said it was nothing really major. Apart from
those small changes, my audience felt like I had achieved
what I had set out to achieve.
Like voice recording my audience, a downside to video recording my audience would be that my audience might not
feel like they’re able to express their thoughts and opinions freely due to the pressure of being recorded. So the
feedback we gained might not have been what they were truly thinking… So again, perhaps using Facebook or some
other form of gaining feedback might have benefited us more. However using video recording to gain feedback
meant we had a constant, more realistic version of what our audience had to say.
7. IN CONCLUSION…
In conclusion I needed audience feedback in order to improve my products to make them look more professional
and like existing products. Without their input, I wouldn’t of been able to see the flaws in my work and therefore I
might not have produced professional looking products and I wouldn’t of been able to of learned from my
mistakes.
When I produced my finished products my audience again felt like I couldn’t of made any major improvements
and my products looked like they belonged together and fitted in with my genre. Therefore, I had achieved what I
had set out to achieve and that was to produce a professional looking promo package for an unsigned artist.
When gaining audience feedback I was sure to ask them questions which gave me broad answers and it also gave
the audience an opportunity to tell me what I could improve on. I was able to gain these broad answers by
including the words “why?”, “why not?”, “if not then what could I do to improve?”, etc. I felt like asking simple yes
or no questions wouldn’t get me very far with making my products look professional and like existing products
from the same genre.
