Transcript: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Gathering audience feedback was a fundamental element of my production process, as it allowed me to see what I was doing and what I need to improve in order for my products to be at the best of my ability and as successful as possible. It also ensured that I was creating a product that would successfully meet the needs and expectations of my target audience.

The target audience for my products are females aged 15-25; there is also a secondary audience of males aged 17-25 as there are some male pop listeners. My artist ‘Pixie’ is a young teenage girl living life, I have made her image happy by making sure she is seen always smiling or laughing, I applied an outer glow to some of my images which made the images appear more innocent but lively due to her facial expressions i.e. smiling.

I made sure to gather audience feedback for my products throughout the project, as this would allow me to make necessary changes which would benefit me as I would be able to improve and make the products as professional as possible. I generated this feedback in various ways, I asked the people who was going to be in my music video to give me feedback on what they thought and any ideas they think would be better. I also created a survey using Survey Monkey, which allowed me to write my own questions and then share with whoever I liked. I was able to ask different types of questions such as open and closed and leading questions. I shared my survey with my Facebook friends, I received over 65 surveys. Examples of questions I included are; “Does the editing in my music video fit in well with the beat of the song? If you can see anything that would need to be improved, please explain” and “How would you rate the different aspects of my music video?” By asking these questions guaranteed that my target audience would give me accurate feedback to my music video which would allow me to see if it is successful or not.

I found that some feedback was more effective than others, for example asking a media student for feedback was more effective as they knew exactly what type of feedback would be effective; colour correcting was a key feedback from media students. A question which I got a variety of answers was ‘Did you understand the narrative of my music video? In your opinion what do you think the narrative is?, after asking this question I realised that some people may not understand the question as I was receiving mixed responses. For example some people understood that the question meant what did narrative mean, so they’d give me a definition ‘Narrative is the story of the music video, what you were trying to get the audience to understand’, this was a good response however it didn’t answer what I wanted to know but highlights that the person researched what it meant. Another response was ‘I don’t know’, this may be due to some people not actually knowing what narrative meant.  However overall most of the respondents understood the narrative of my music video and even over complicated it by trying to explain a story and applying the lyrics to it as well.

When asking for improvements on my music video I received quite a few mixed responses, some said that I should improve the lighting and contrast, miming and the transitions was too quick into the next shot. I believed that this was successful feedback on improvements as many people mentioned the same thing, I have improved my music video and followed the advice from the feedback given and applied it.

The most positive feedback that I received was my editing; as it was to the beat of the song and the shots weren’t on screen for too long, they kept cutting back and forth this is typically found in music videos which make them a lot more interesting to watch.  My different type’s camera shots were also another strong element of feedback from my target audience.

By asking quantitive and qualitative questions along with opinions allowed me to receive a variety of responses, which allowed me to improve my products in order to fit the genre appropriately. By gathering feedback online through a survey allowed me to get a lot of responses whereas if I was to interview people I wouldn’t have received as many improvements. For my survey I received over 65 responses, this for me was beneficial as I was given appropriate feedback which I then applied to my music video. Therefore in my opinion the more people you ask for feedback the more improvements you get which will help improve. I went through all my responses and noted down which improvements were suggested the most, for example colour correcting.

I organised a focus group with media students to gather feedback on my magazine advert and digipak, I did this by printing out my products and then filming the conversation the group were having were they talked about the elements they liked and what needed improving. The focus group was successful as they gave honest improvements and suggestions, and they were able to expand on their ideas, whereas on the survey there was a word account which didn’t allow the respondent to reply more than a certain number of characters.  I also went round asking people for feedback, I did this by asking them questions related to all 3 of my products. I found that by asking the questions myself and letting them answer the question allows them to develop more on their answer as there isn’t a limited amount. I find that this type of way of gathering feedback is a lot more successful than just gathering audience feedback through surveys and questionnaires.

All the feedback received helped me make certain decisions on all my products. For example in my magazine advert, having the black and gold colour scheme didn’t fit in well with the genre, therefore I had to come up with another house colour to follow. Feedback has also effected the audience’s interpretation of decoding the messages behind everything; in my survey it is clear that the audience have understood my message of my music video of having fun. 

In conclusion after carrying out different ways of gathering feedback I have learnt that a focus group with media students is more effective than having a survey which can be for anyone to complete. This because I noticed in my feedback which ones had the understanding of the project and tools for improvements. Whereas with a no media student they would just assume that everything is good. For example a non media student wouldn’t pick up on colour correction. When creating a survey, I think it would be more appropriate to have a question such as ‘Are you a media student?’, as this would enable us to distinguish responses which would be more beneficial as there would be advanced improvements such as contrast and lighting of the videos. Finally, I was open to feedback; I made as many improvements as I could, in order to have a successful product.