The document discusses how the creator involved their audience in providing feedback throughout the entire process of planning and creating three alternative rock media texts. This included conducting research such as questionnaires about lyrics, ideas for the music video, costumes, and conventions of the genre. The audience provided feedback that influenced decisions around the narrative, character names, cover art, and more. The creator found that using audience feedback was key to creating products that the target alternative rock audience would want. The final feedback from audiences on the finished music video was very positive, showing that involving the target genre fans led to high quality work.
2. Throughout the planning and creation of all three texts I have always made
sure my audience is involved in every step possible. I decided to go with an
alternative rock genre of song as I have not watched many alternative rock
music videos so I thought I could use this to my advantage. I had ideas in my
head for the genre but I made sure my audience swayed me towards the right
directions in decision making whilst trying to bring my own interpretation of
alternative rock through. Throughout the process I have discovered that using
your audience is key to create products which they would want to buy out in
the public. If I did not use the audience to help my decision making, all three
texts would have solely been my ideas which may not have been what an
alternative rock audience want.
3. The first bit of research I decided to do was back in September 2011, which was a lyrics
questionnaire. I had chosen the song and wanted to know what the audience thought about the
lyrics without hearing the song.
Hear is the lyric questionnaire I made and I
got them to write down what they thought as
tick boxes made have influence their decision.
This helped me a lot on the mood the lyrics
were creating in the song so I could relate my
ideas to the audiences ideas.
The audiences responses from this
questionnaire were some responses I didn’t
think about before so if I didn’t do the
questionnaire I wouldn’t have thought about
all the possibilities of the music video that the
audience had thought of.
4. These answers I put in red was to make
it easy for me to see what the audiences
ideas were about the lyrics. The
audiences ideas gave me ideas I didn't
originally think up myself as the
alternative rock audience will have a
more genre related imagination on
music videos, which I discovered was
highly useful for me to generate final
decisions.
5. Another source of research I did in September 2011 was the spider diagram I created with all my
ideas for the audience to chose from. I decided to list ideas of my own instead of getting the
audience to chose off the top of their heads for a more stable and secure decision. This spider
diagram had the audience circling their preferred thoughts from this to generate my final ideas
and decisions.
Using the audiences feedback I was
able to make the final decisions from
all my ideas I had. Not knowing
much about alternative rock, the
audience was very useful in
influencing the final decisions
6. The results from the spider diagram circling was set up as so on a PowerPoint slide show so it
easily showed the preferred options in various forms, including, number of answers, percentage,
and rank which gave me a better prospective on what the audience decisions were.
Using the audiences feedback from
the location/s I should use in the
music video, I decided to go ahead
with what the audience decided to
create a video which the alternative
rock audience would enjoy watching.
The props feedback wasn’t
used in the end as I decided
that props weren’t
necessary in the narrative
music video I was creating.
However the feedback gave
me a prospective of what
the alternative rock
audience like to use as
props for that genre of
music videos.
7. The costume decision making from the audience was very useful to me. As I don’t know what
type of clothes the alternative rock genre of audience wear I needed the audience to help me
choose outfits for the male and female character within my music video.
I went with the audiences decisions of casual and stylish for the male and Floaty and light for
the female. As I personally do not wear the rock style of clothing it would have been very hard
for me alone to pick out a rock outfit. With my style being fashion girly, I would have probably
applied some of my own fashion knowledge to the dress style for the rock outfits. This would
have created more of a pop
genre so the audience
feedback for costuming was
essential to give the
alternative rock genre their
style and what they want to
see.
8. The next step in planning for my music video was to get the audience to fill in a questionnaire
about what the typical forms and conventions of alternative roc music video was to them. The
feedback I got from the questions made many decisions for me to make sure the styles I was
including in the music video were keeping with the genre.
1. Would you expect a rock/pop music video to be performance, abstract or narrative?
2. Should the lyrics and visuals hold a relationship?
3. Should the music and visuals hold a relationship?
4. Would you like to see a message in the music video?
5. What would you expect a rock/pop artist to be dressed in?
6. What would you expect a female character that has a sweet nature to her be dressed in?
7. What colours would you expect in a rock/pop music video?
8. Is there anything that you would like to see in a rock/pop music video?
9. Would you like the music video to include elements that are not expected?
10. What genre of dance would you expect to see in a rock/pop music video?
11. Would you like to see dancing in a rock/pop music video?
12. Would you like to see flash backs in the music video?
13. Do you think a rock/pop music video should include slow motion?
The answers I got from this questionnaire is on the blog and definitely made some decisions for
me. With the audience feedback stating that a narrative music video will be more interesting to
watch made my final decision to create a mainly narrative music video. The audience wanted an
interesting setting so I thought the location I would definitely use is the forest which was
preferred in a previous questionnaire also. With the rock genre audience like to see flash backs
and slow motion I decided to include them slightly within the music video. All ideas I finally
generated from this questionnaire and is happy with the results it made me think of. The
feedback was very successful to keep the music video in the rock genre.
9. Another form of audience research I used was mood boards. I found this useful to create three
varied mood boards, each with their own connection to alternative rock style.
The third mood board is what the audience chose and their feedback
gave me much inspiration from the images which they liked within it. I
used the majority of styles the images portray and I kept to what the
audience wanted. This made sure I created a music video which was
worth the rock genre audience to watch.
10. With the audience wanting a narrative alternative rock music video which I agreed with I got the
audience to listen to the song and give me an narrative I can base the music video I create on.
The audience gave me feedback listed below:
- Lost a loved one.
- Natural disaster.
- Living in his head.
- He can see dead people.
- Chasing.
- Scary.
- Ere atmosphere.
- Dark.
- Though someone had died but they didn't.
This feedback from the audience gave me many ideas to choose from and after deciding on
‘love’ to be the narrative of the music video, I was glad the audience gave me other options as
well to chose from. Without the audiences feedback I wouldn’t have generated all those ideas
myself and wouldn’t have had many to chose from as the ideas would be mine alone which may
not appeal to the alternative rock genre audience.
11. To create a name for the alternative male solo artist I decided to ask the audience as they would
know what names they would like and fit into that genre. I set the names out as so:
First Name:
- Vince
- David
- Oscar
- Alex
- Eddie
- Craig
Alex Steel
Last name:
- Rock
- Cooper
- Steel
- Manson
- Lee
The audience feedback helped me create the perfect name for my artist and I am very happy
with it. For the audience to chose the name themselves will make a better relationship and
connection between the artist and the audience, also it is a name that the audience are happy
with listening to as an alternative rock genre.
12. After deciding I wasn’t happy with the image I had chosen for the front cover of the digi pack, I
edited two more images of which I thought connected and looked better and asked the
audience to chose which front cover they thought looked the most appealing to them.
The audience chose the image on the right so I followed through with their decision. The
feedback has given me and insight to what kind of images the alternative rock genre enjoy
viewing and find appealing to them so I now know how to please the audience with images.
13. The last bit of feedback I got was for the watching of my finished music video. I gave 7 people a
questionnaire to fill in after they watched the music video.
The audiences feedback from this
questionnaire came back very positive and
helped me understand the positive
features of my video that the audience
saw. It gave me great confidence that I can
create professional media products to a
good quality standard as I didn’t get below
4 out 5 in the feedback.
I have learnt from this particular audience
feedback what I could improve on and I
now understand what the audience sees in
my music video. The feedback helped me
find parts of the video which they thought
was a slight downfall. However, for future
references I will be able to create other
media products keep in mind the feedback
I got from this questionnaire.
14. Did the narrative fit with the song choice? The score I got for this overall is 32/35 which is a very
high score and I am very pleased with the feedback. With including the audience in the
narrative decisions I think this helped towards giving the audience the narrative they wanted
and resulted in excellent ratings.
How original is the music video compared to other rock music videos? Overall I got a score of
30/35 which I am very pleased with as creating something new is hard to do as most ideas have
been done. I tried my best to be original with my ideas but the audience helped me with the
majority of decisions so I tried to include elements with what they want to see whilst developing
my own ideas.
How would you rate my editing skills? I am very pleased with 32/35 for the editing skills as I
found the editing one of the hardest parts. I discovered some ideas and decisions would not
work when it came to editing but I tried my best to work around it. When trying to add fades
into the music video it created some problems which I had to find a way to work them out to
make the editing continuity editing throughout.
How easy was the music video to watch? With a rating of 35/35 and 100% of the audience
asked gave me 5/5 for this rating I am extremely happy. For the music video to be easy to watch
I had to create story boards which flowed and the narrative make sense, also making sure I use
continuity editing effectively using clips which are at the best of quality.
15. How would you rate the lighting? I got an overall score of 31/35 for this rating and I am happy
with this as I only used natural lighting but I I had to manipulate it by placing the characters in
good and interesting lighting making sure it isn’t too dark or too bright on the days we filmed
on.
How would you rate the camera techniques? Receiving a score of 32/35 has gave me great
confidence in my media skills as I found that the tripod I used was not very tall so I had to have a
steady hand to film higher up shots by hand without the tripod. Also by making the shot list I
was able to know what camera angles I wanted to use and use to make a dynamic music video.
1 2 3 4 5
Did the narrative fit with the song choice? Ill lIll
How original is the music video compared to other rock Illll lI
music videos?
How would you rate my editing skills? Ill Illl
How easy was the music video to watch? 0 lllIl ll
How would you rate the lighting? Illll Il
How would you rate the camera techniques? Ill lIll
Total 0 0 0 19 23
16. Overall the feedback was a major influence on ideas and decision making within the planning
and creation of all the media texts and I doubt I would have had such high marks from the
feedback sheet if I hadn’t involved the audience in the decision making.
With me attempting this project with very little knowledge of alternative rock I wouldn’t have
been able to make true alternative rock genre products. It has helped me understand the
different ideas myself and the audience have as I came into this project with a very open mind
about alternative rock and thought I’d be able to make decisions myself, however after receiving
feedback I discovered the difference in imagination and I now understand how different genres
are so different from one another. The feedback helped me understand what alternative rock is
and what makes alternative rock.
The audience decided on the details such as costume, setting, names, layouts etc, and all of
these decisions created the products with the other elements of each text fitting into place
nicely.
If I didn’t do or take on board audience feedback then my end products would have been
something which the target audience would not want to watch as they wouldn’t have elements
they want to see in them.