Leah Aston created a questionnaire to gather feedback on a music video and ancillary tasks from their A2 course. They found that an online questionnaire distributed via social media was an effective way to easily share the survey and collect qualitative and quantitative data. The questionnaire included nine questions about various aspects of the music video and ancillary tasks like the digipak and album advert. Based on the results, most respondents had positive impressions of the music video and felt it adhered to pop genre characteristics. They also felt the editing and ancillary tasks were successful matches for the genre. However, some noted the locations in the video were confusing and the white color of the ancillary tasks didn't catch attention as well.

1. What have you learned from
your audience feedback?
Leah Aston

2. Method
Throughout my A2 course I found that the best way to gather
feedback is it create a questionnaire and post it on social media
sites, send it to friends and family or teachers. An online
questionnaire is the preferred method, as this promotes easy
circulation and can be sent with just the click of the button. Finding
qualitative data is preferred, as it’s easy to quantify and it promotes
data that is reliable and accessible. While this is true, I also found
that qualitative data is a good form of data (and perhaps the more
successful) as it promotes personal meanings and reactions from
the audience – something important in the music industry.
Throughout the course I used survey’s in order to find the best
course of action for my partner and I’s video and ancillary tasks –
it’s also important to gain final feedback on the final products we
have created. This will be done through survey monkey and taped
confessionals.

3. Questionnaire
The questionnaire is made up of nine questions, each focused on a
different aspect of the main and ancillary tasks – promoting equal
feedback on both.
I found that this was an important question – especially to
start off the questionnaire. As the music video was the
main task of my A2 course, it’s important that I get the
most feedback on it, and because even in the music
industry, a lot of emphasis is placed on an artist’s music
video. This question is in a comment box form in order to
generate qualitative data as audience’s meanings are
significant with music videos.
It also allows for a general answer, and doesn’t use
complex words or terminology, allowing for the person
taking this questionnaire to feel any confusion.
This question is very significant when it comes to the music
industry, especially because music is very audience based –
especially the pop genre.
My partner and I needed feedback on this as it was one of
the main aspects of the task: to create a music video that
pertained to genre characteristics. As we chose pop, this
was far more significant than any other genre, as while pop
may seem creative, it’s founded on many static
connotations e.g. cut on the beat, bright colours, certain
styles for clothing and mise-en-scene etc.

4. Editing in the pop genre is very dominant. As I said
before, the audience and audience’s opinions are chief in
the pop genre, so one must keep the audience’s
attention with fast shots, cuts on the beat and perhaps
overlay’s on the video like my partner and I added.
Editing is also different for different genre’s, so it was
principle to find if it suited the pop genre also.
In the modern age, social media is at the hilt for advertisement.
Teenagers (our target audience) are on their phones often, allowing for
advertisements to be seen daily. This is important as it also means
they’re in constant contact with their friends, talking about the newest
trends and latest pop culture occurrence.
Word of mouth is important, and also digital – texting, snapchat;
teenagers send their friends videos etc. This is significant, as if a video
is recommended to friends it allows for the audience to grow.
This is the part of the questionnaire where I begin to talk
about the ancillary tasks – the digipak and album/slash tour
advert. Also important, getting feedback on this means that
our entire product will be made to the audience’s
gratifications (As even if we’re the mediators, the audience’s
opinions on a product are crucial)
Again, adhering to genre characteristics are vital, and I chose
to collect this data in qualitative form what audience’s
interpret from products hold common place in this genre,
which a quantitative question would not generate.
With our product, we wanted each aspect of the digipak to match the
album/tour advert in order to create synergy. As most things are
image based in this genre, it was vital that we got the layout, colour
scheme etc. of our product correct.
Opinions on the main image were also crucial, again, as everything is
image based in this genre. How an artist looks also plays into their
music and how popular it is, hence why we needed opinions on that
also.

5. As stated in the previous explanation, a stars persona and the
products they create are vital with this genre. Audiences are
limited to time, so the products of our ancillary task had to be
eye catching – especially for when you’re browsing in stores or
now, scrolling online.
This ties into the previous question, finding an audience’s overall
opinion on a product is significant due to the promotion of synergy.
The final two questions are interlinked. These questions are asking for the audience’s feedback on the final products, and use both
qualitative and quantitative data. While we couldn’t change anything with our product after gathering the feedback, in the pop industry
many artists have the opportunity to try out new ideas, such as new albums or tours, which is why it’s vital to gain feedback on the last
products they introduced into society.

6. Results
Q.1. What are your first impressions of the music video?
The results found that viewers liked the video, that they found the colours worked well with each
other and the location. The results also concluded that they liked the unity of the singers in the
video, especially the final scene of the artists laying next to each other.
Q.2. Did the music video adhere to the classic pop genre characteristics?
Replies to this answer were mostly yes’. They agreed that the clothing, make-up and hair all suited
the classic pop genre characteristics, yet that the locations were a bit confusing at first as they
didn’t have a direct link to the lyrics of the song.
Q.3. What is your opinion on the editing? Did it suit the genre?
Answers to this question proved that the editing was smooth, the overlay’s didn’t seem out of
place and that this usage matched the genre. They also agreed that the video being cut directly on
the beat matched the genre also.
Q.4. Would you recommend the video to your friends?
70% of answers collated answered yes, 30% no.
Q.5. Did the ancillary tasks match the classic pop genre characteristics?
Answers from this question agreed that yes, the tasks did match each other. They answered that
the colour scheme and the fact that the artist’s look’s matched were the identifying factors,
however they would have liked the bands logo to have been at the beginning of the video and on
the front cover.

7. Results
Q.6. What were your thoughts on the layout/colour scheme/main image?
The results found that the audience seemed to like these three factors, with the main image being
the one they liked most. Results showed that this was because it showed the unity of the band as
friends and not just performers.
Q.7. Do both the main product and ancillary tasks catch your eye?
Results found that the white of the ancillary tasks didn’t help the product in terms of attention, but
that with the main image being as big as it is it wasn’t very hard to ignore. The music video
however they believed would catch their eye, due to the bright colours in it.
Q.8. Do you think the main product and ancillary tasks were successful?
Results found that they could have been improved, but overall they were successful in generating
target audience attention and matching pop characteristics.
Q.9. Would you change anything about the final products?
76% said no with 24% saying yes.
Q.10. If you checked yes, please explain what.
Those who wrote that they would change anything about the products answered that they would
change the products to have things to do with the band’s name (Eclipse) and would change the
white colour of the ancillary tasks to something brighter in order to gather attention and stand out
more.

8. Conclusion
Audience feedback was useful in order to find out what
they take from our final product. As not every audience
member will have the same opinion (The uses and
gratifications theory – every audience member will form
their own opinion about a product, unlike the
hypodermic model) it was vital to gain a wide range of it
– which is why I shared the questionnaire on many social
media platforms. I would conclude that positive
feedback outweighed the negative, and was able to
obtain professional feedback too e.g. from teachers.