Audience feedback for media coursework

1. What have you
learned from you
audience feedback?

2. Introduction
 Audience feedback was a crucial factor to the overall construction of our
music video.
 Seeing as the video is made for the audience, it is very important to listen
to what they have to say in terms of expectations and desires relating to
the videos content.
 The feedback helped me recognise what types of conventions to include
too e.g. costumes, locations, camera shots etc.
 Another benefit in audience feedback is how they can identify any
limitations in the video, which we can then alter based on their feedback.

3. Restarting
 Our audience feedback was pivotal to our entire coursework.
 Originally, we had a music video with a narrative. However, our audience
feedback revealed to us that the narrative didn’t suit our genre, and that it
wasn’t very engaging. They also said that the song didn’t suit the narrative
either so we changed from Earl Sweatshirt’s ‘Chum’ to Earl Sweatshirt’s ‘Hive’.
 Therefore we decided to do more research on professional music videos.
 Whilst many videos do have narratives, there are also multiple that do not. So
we decided to conform to the non-narrative convention. Examples of videos
without a narrative are ‘Chum’ and ‘Hive’ by Earl Sweatshirt’, as is ‘Collard
Greens’ by ScHoolboy Q feat. Kendrick Lamar.
 By doing this we still conformed to our genre and the expected conventions
whilst creating a entertaining music video.
 If it wasn’t for our audience feedback, we would have continued to produce a
low quality and confusing music video.

4. Focus on lyrics
 In our old music video with a narrative, we didn’t have much lip syncing.
 Consequently, our audience feedback revealed to us that we weren’t
putting much emphasis on the lyrics and their meaning.
 For this reason, we decided to include more lip syncing otherwise the
content would have taken attention away from the artists intended
message.
 This message was about how Earl is perceived by the media and his critics,
therefore he is trying to address this. Although, if we only filmed action-
based content, then no attention would have been paid to his message.
 With the inclusion of more lip syncing, our audience now has a better
understanding of the songs purpose.

5. Conventions
 Our audience feedback has revealed to us what conventions they expect from hip-hop music
videos. This is a reliable method because our audience are hip-hop fans, so they have an
understanding of what is required in this genre.
 Costumes -> when our audience was asked what costumes they expect to see, they stated
brands relating to skateboarding e.g. Carhartt. In addition they also stated that we should include
The North Face too, so we did in order to conform to the ‘entertainment’ element of the Uses
and Gratifications theory (below).
 Locations -> our audience revealed to us that they would like both rural and urban locations. The
Uses and Gratifications (Blumer and Katz) theory states that when viewing media, in order to
interact with it, we must experience an element of ‘entertainment’, which makes it logical to
incorporate our audience’s demands. For this reason, we included scenes from rural woodland,
but also shots from urban housing. This would obviously entertain the audience, otherwise they
wouldn’t have stated it in our feedback.

6. Conventions: Part 2
 Camera shots etc -> as a result of our survey, our audience stated that they
preferred a variety of camera shots instead of consistent simple ones. This has
taught me that the audience wants to see something new and complex rather than
play it safe. I believe that we achieved this as we included low angle shots, long
panning shots, car mounted shots and we also used a fish eye lens.
 Skateboarding -> 100% of people who completed our survey stated that they liked
skateboarding and that they would like to see it in the video. Joey Bada$$ also uses
this convention in his music video ‘Waves’. This feedback has taught me that
skateboarding is a connotation of hip-hop due to the genres relevance to street
culture, so it was vital to include in our video.
 Lighting -> in our survey, the audience stated their preference of black and white
lighting and colouring. Whilst our video isn’t in black and white, there are still very
dark features in the woodland and driving scenes. This has taught me that hip-hop
fans prefer a convention of darker lighting.

7. Ancillary Task: magazine advertisement
Final
Drafts
We opted for our final magazine advertisement on the left because of
our audience feedback. A combination of questions revealed to us that
they thought there should be some textual information to reveal the
artist, the song name and release date. The image on the left displays
this, whereas the others do not. Our audience feedback also identified
that they wanted the model to be the focal point. On the middle draft,
the model is merely a small aspect if the entire image, and in the other
ones he is covered by a logo and/or textual information. Additionally,
when asked about colours and backgrounds our audience told us they
wanted something camouflage based, therefore we adhered to their
demands in having our photoshoot in a woodland location.

8. Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory
 By conducting and acknowledging audience feedback, it has allowed us to
conform to an element of Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory.
 Previously, our work have influenced an Oppositional reading on our
audience. This means that have no relationship to the media text, and are
consequently resistant to it.
 However by listening to their demands and creating a product devised
based on their expectations, we have achieved a Preferred reading, which
is where the audience can relate and empathise with the product.
 This successful conformity has been enabled through audience feedback.

9. Conclusion
 In conclusion, our audience feedback was very significant because it
opened our eyes to the prospect that our narrative wasn’t clear, and
consequently that our video wasn’t up to a high standard.
 With thanks to surveymonkey.com, we created multiple questionnaires to
identify the flaws in our video and alter them accordingly.
 Our audience feedback revealed to us what they wanted in terms of a
magazine advertisement.
 Based on the points on the previous slides, it is clear that we have learnt a
lot from our audience feedback, and that without it, our video wouldn’t
have reached its final , high quality standard.