What have you learned from your audience feedback?
From my audience feedback, I have learned a lot about my music video production. I found that many people liked the clear narrative, and were impressed with our ability to create such a professional music video with the available resources.
Facebook Feedback:
I decided to use the popular social networking site Facebook, in order to gain my friends and acquaintances opinion on my music video. This is important, as a lot of those who commented were between the ages of 16 - 25, well within the boundaries of our target audience.
Comments on the video:
The video gained 13 'likes' and a number of positive comments as shown above. The comments were from a mix of both males and females, all commenting on the editing and themes of the video. The feedback in terms of ages were mostly between 17 - 24, with one exception being 54. This is valuable information because our target audience was around the same age. Most of the comments were from girls, but one male did comment on the attractiveness of our performance singer, Bex, meaning we successfully objectified her.
Comments on the supporting materials:
The supporting products got 10 likes, and some very positive feedback. People seemed very interested in the CD cover. The fact that 3 out of the 5 comments were boys suggest I successfully objectified my model enough for the boys to be even a little bit interested at this outcome. I also noticed that boys generally specifically commented regarding the image itself, whereas girls tended to talk about themes within the texts, which further supports my previous point. Everyone seemed very impressed by the colour scheme, and how I highlighted the lips, dress and bracelet in colour, whilst the rest of the image was in black and white.
Planning the feedback questions:
I decided to brief the viewers of our various products and the questions I would be asking them to ensure they were prepared to answer. I outlined the importance of all three products together, and ensured they had enough time to see both products before filming. I filmed two boys and two girls, all aged between 16 and 20, which is my target audience for these products. Although my target audience is primarily female, I decided to get a males perspective, allowing me to assess the effectiveness of objectifying the female characters.
Feedback questions for the video:
- What did you like about the video?
- What did you dislike about the video?
- Who do you think the target audience is for this video?
- What improvements do you think could be made to the video?
- What did you dislike about the video?
- Who do you think the target audience is for this video?
- What improvements do you think could be made to the video?
Feedback questions for the magazine spread:
- What do you think of this double page spread?
- Do you think it's realistic?
- What do you think the best bit about the magazine spread is?
- How could this magazine spread be improved further?
- Do you think it's realistic?
- What do you think the best bit about the magazine spread is?
- How could this magazine spread be improved further?
Feedback questions for the CD cover:
- What do you think of the CD cover?
- Who do you think the CD cover is targeted at and why?
- Would you buy a CD cover that looked like this if you saw it on the shelf of a shop?
- How could the CD cover be improved?
- Who do you think the CD cover is targeted at and why?
- Would you buy a CD cover that looked like this if you saw it on the shelf of a shop?
- How could the CD cover be improved?
Receiving the feedback:
A written account:
From all the feedback I received on my video and subsidary texts, I feel I have learned some valuable techniques and improvements which will be useful for the future. Whilst many people felt reluctant to post negative feedback, it is clear that some were happy to offer further suggestion in improving my product.
The response to the video was often very positive, with people making a note of pointing out the narrative and editing skills. It was difficult to extract constructive feedback from comments of people who don't understand the structures of media, such as 'so good.' and 'this is brilliant.' However, the fact that they liked it still contributes to assessing the overall effectiveness of the product.
I gained a lot of praise for the quality of the singing voice we used for our music video. This is something we can partly take credit for, as we had to control the sound levels in the recording studio, and actually approached our singer to request her involvement in the video. This was after great deliberation, and it obviously paid off; the risk of singing such a famous song by a well known band was risky for one young women, yet despite this still of enough quality for critics to focus entirely on the voice for some of their points. Some people commented on how well the narrative 'fit' the song, and that we did a good job in interpretating the lyrics. This proves that our portrayal of the storyline is clear for the viewers to relate to the lyrics, once again proving it is effective on the audience.
One bit of constructive criticism we did receive was the noticing a flicker of laughter across our performers, Bex's, face during one bit of the performance element. Whilst we realised that it was there, we found that we couldn't use a shot form the other camera because it jolted at that point, and needed performance on that piece of the lyrics. In an ideal world we would have re-filmed, but because equipment was not easily accessible, and we would need time to organise the actor in the same clothes to come in again. We decided with an upcoming deadline, we would try and minimise the laughter, making it nearly unrecognisable to a certain extent.
One comment also claimed that our narrative was too 'common' and present in a lot of music videos. Personally I take this as positive feedback as opposed to negative, in that it must mean we successfully fulfilled the required codes and conventions in other, professional music videos and real media products.
In terms of the subsidiary texts, I received a lot of positive feedback, specifically in regard to the artistic style of the CD cover. I obtained many comments praising the colour contrast which highlighted her top, lips and bracelet, as well as some general feedback commenting on the style of the image, relating it to other professionally made products. There wasn't much negative feedback on the CD case, although some argued that I should have maintained the themes from the front, and made the image on the back in black and white too.
The magazine double spread gained mixed emotions. Some decided that because the back round was plain white, it was unrealistic and not a true model of other professionally made magazines. However, I did research the colour schemes of magazines before undertaking this project, and found that there were many professional models of spreads that did have pure white back rounds. For example;
The response to the video was often very positive, with people making a note of pointing out the narrative and editing skills. It was difficult to extract constructive feedback from comments of people who don't understand the structures of media, such as 'so good.' and 'this is brilliant.' However, the fact that they liked it still contributes to assessing the overall effectiveness of the product.
I gained a lot of praise for the quality of the singing voice we used for our music video. This is something we can partly take credit for, as we had to control the sound levels in the recording studio, and actually approached our singer to request her involvement in the video. This was after great deliberation, and it obviously paid off; the risk of singing such a famous song by a well known band was risky for one young women, yet despite this still of enough quality for critics to focus entirely on the voice for some of their points. Some people commented on how well the narrative 'fit' the song, and that we did a good job in interpretating the lyrics. This proves that our portrayal of the storyline is clear for the viewers to relate to the lyrics, once again proving it is effective on the audience.
One bit of constructive criticism we did receive was the noticing a flicker of laughter across our performers, Bex's, face during one bit of the performance element. Whilst we realised that it was there, we found that we couldn't use a shot form the other camera because it jolted at that point, and needed performance on that piece of the lyrics. In an ideal world we would have re-filmed, but because equipment was not easily accessible, and we would need time to organise the actor in the same clothes to come in again. We decided with an upcoming deadline, we would try and minimise the laughter, making it nearly unrecognisable to a certain extent.
One comment also claimed that our narrative was too 'common' and present in a lot of music videos. Personally I take this as positive feedback as opposed to negative, in that it must mean we successfully fulfilled the required codes and conventions in other, professional music videos and real media products.
In terms of the subsidiary texts, I received a lot of positive feedback, specifically in regard to the artistic style of the CD cover. I obtained many comments praising the colour contrast which highlighted her top, lips and bracelet, as well as some general feedback commenting on the style of the image, relating it to other professionally made products. There wasn't much negative feedback on the CD case, although some argued that I should have maintained the themes from the front, and made the image on the back in black and white too.
The magazine double spread gained mixed emotions. Some decided that because the back round was plain white, it was unrealistic and not a true model of other professionally made magazines. However, I did research the colour schemes of magazines before undertaking this project, and found that there were many professional models of spreads that did have pure white back rounds. For example;
However, there was positive feedback in addition to this, with some people praising the way the image was presented, with a flowery border, and the 'tweet o'clock' section which related to media and the online age, and was a very 'current' addition to modernise the print magazine.
In terms of the three texts together, most people assumed correctly that the target audience was aged between 16 and 20/25 and mainly at females, although we did receive an ample amount of positive feedback from males viewing the video and the texts. This suggests that while the narrative, content and general style is more suited to female audiences, we have successfully manipulated the female models in each piece, considering Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory, and objectified them sufficiently, allowing room for male interest.
In terms of the three texts together, most people assumed correctly that the target audience was aged between 16 and 20/25 and mainly at females, although we did receive an ample amount of positive feedback from males viewing the video and the texts. This suggests that while the narrative, content and general style is more suited to female audiences, we have successfully manipulated the female models in each piece, considering Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory, and objectified them sufficiently, allowing room for male interest.
Conclusion
Overall, I received a lot of positive feedback regarding all three of my texts. People seemed to like the clear narrative and style of editing in the video, which made it easy for them to understand and aesthetically pleasing to the eye. The artistic approach of the CD cover paid off well, as people commented on the effectiveness of the contrast in colours, and how I did this to highlight the subjects lips. The magazine was referred to as 'professional' and one that 'I'd go and buy in a shop.' There was some constructive criticism which would be useful, should I ever do a project like this again to consider. Some people felt the narrative was too stereotypical of other music videos in it's genre. Whilst this was our aim, I would consider adding an unusual or controversial twist, following the styles of even Michel Gondry, creating a certain style for myself as a director, and increasing the unique nature of our video. I have also taken on board the comments about the importance of maintaining themes, and would consider keeping all the images on my CD case black and white, should I decide to alter the product, or create a similar CD case in the future. Whilst some people were negative about the 'whiteness' of the back round in my magazine spread, I researched print copies of other magazines and noticed that the majority of interviews were on top of a plain white back round. For this reason, I stand by my original decision and would not change the magazine cover style. I think my feedback has been extremely useful in receiving outside perspectives, and has shown me aspects of my own projects which I'd never even considered. I think my projects may have been easier for the audience to comprehend if the same actor was used throughout, however, due to filming complications, this was not possible.