3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The target audience for our product is people aged between 16-24. Our main target audience is females because our video stars a female artist and it is most likely that other females will want to watch our music video. However our video also stars a male dancer, as a result of this other young males may also want to watch our video. 

In order to receive feedback for our music video we posted it on both the social networking site Facebook and YouTube. We posted the video when our product was in the final stages of editing. We decided it would be a good idea to share our product because there  were a few things about our music video we wasn't completely sure about. Therefore it was vital that we received feedback for our target audience to ensure that the video appealed to them.

Posting our video on the social media site Facebook was very effective as it was a quick way of reaching a large amount of our target audience (aged 16-14). As well as this, it meant that we was able to receive feedback from outside of our target audience, therefore we were able to see if our video would able to a greater target audience, as originally we were aiming to appeal to a niche audience.

When we posted our video onto Facebook I made sure that I asked our target audience a variety of questions for them to answer as these were the things that we were most likely to change about our video. For example before posting our music video on social media we were not completely sure if we were satisfied with the ending of our video and therefore this was an aspect that we wanted to know if our target audience would change, to ensure that we were pleasing them. It is important that the ending of our video is up to the standard of the beginning as this is the last thing that the audience will see and it will stick in their minds. Therefore the video needs to end in clarity.

For example some of the feedback that we received from our target audience is shown above, this displays that overall our audience were very pleased with the video however they were not particularly impressed with the ending of the video. After receiving this feedback from our audience we decided that we should definitely work on the ending of the video. This is because our target audience said that the ending of our video was quite random and did not fit in with the overall tone of the rest of the video, I also agreed with this feedback and therefore wanted to ensure that we made these changes. As we wanted to ensure that our target audience were satisfied with the whole of the video and that the ending did not change their views. 

Before changes 

The image above displays the original ending of our music video. One of the members of our group wanted to focus on the artists eyes. However as you can see from the above image, it is easy to see from the artists eyes that her facial expression does not fit in with the serious tone of the music video and therefore ruins the overall narrative that has been developed throughout the video.

After changes 

As a result of this we changed the ending of our music video to ensure that the overall tone remained the same throughout the video. The above image contains the new ending to our video after receiving audience feedback. We decided to remove the close up shots of the eyes and instead replace them with a shot of our artist walking down the stairs. The use of this shot signifies the end of the video as the artist walks out of the frame. I think that it is very effective and ends the video far more professionally. Therefore I think it is useful that we posted our video on social media as it helped us to gain a greater understanding of what our target audience expect to see.

As well as this, we then got some of our target audience members to watch the music video again after making these changes to our video and the feedback that we received was very positive. Our target audience told us that the ending of the video was a lot more clarified after removing the close up of the eyes. 

Next, a piece of positive feedback that we received from our target audience is that overall they liked the use a dancing element within the video. As a group we thought that it was a good idea to include a male dancer within our work because to begin with the product was completely centred around the female artist and there wasn't a lot of variety within our work. The use of positive feedback from our target audience cemented our initial thoughts that the dancer was a good element to add within our work. As well as this, the use of a dancer follows the codes and conventions of real media products.

One of the negative pieces of feedback that we received from some of our target audience members is that they thought there were too many transitions within our work and effects, this meant that it was unconventional to what is expected in real life media products. Although I can see where our target audience members are coming from with the aspect that our video is different to what you would typically expect to see, I personally think that it is a good element. I believe this because we have not tried to be too unconventional with our work however we have tried to make it our own and by doing so you must at times try to be unconventional. It is important that in order to stand out and be noticed in the music industry that  you make changes unique to your own work.

In contrast to this we also received some constructive criticism for our work. One of the members of our target audience gave us overall some very positive feedback and said that we used a good variety of camera shots throughout our work. However they commented on how some of the lip syncing aspects of our video were slightly out of time. This is crucial feedback to receive as we need to make sure that the lip syncing within our video is completely on time to ensure that we can make our work look as professional as possible. As a result of this we looked back on our work and changed some of the timings in order to ensure that our work reached the standard of what is expected.

Another piece of feedback that we received from our target audience is that in order to ensure we could get the greatest amount of marks and make our work look professional, we should have changed some of our costume choices. However at this stage in the process it was too late to adjust this. Therefore this feedback is useful to know but unfortunately we were not able to act on it. As well as this, the costumes that we chose to use were featured in order to represent our artists feelings, this is because of the use of dark colouring to reflect the negative mood. Furthermore, the use of grey clothing signifies the artist is stuck in between and is unsure as to how she feels.

Next, a piece of positive feedback that we overall received from our target audience is that they liked the use of the repeated sequence throughout our work. This is useful information to know as we decided to use the repeated sequence element throughout our work because it is a code and convention of real media products. The target audience liked the use of the repeated sequence element within our work because it linked all of the video back together. Furthermore, we also received positive feedback on the use of various multi screens throughout our work. Our target audience liked the use of these screens because they created variety within our performance and they are also unexpected, this is because they go against the codes and conventions of real media products.

Furthermore, after posting my work onto the social networking site Facebook, my mum also shared our work with her friends. This meant that we was able to receive feedback from audience members outside of our target audience to see if our work would appeal to a wider audience and a different age group. 

The feedback that we received from an older age group was once again very positive. This suggests that our work could appeal to a wider target audience than we first expected. Without using the social media site we would not be aware of this.

Overall, I think that it is effective that we posted our work on social media sites as it meant that we was able to receive both negative and positive feedback from our target audience. The use of posting our work online had an influence on the overall ending of our video and therefore it was very helpful. I think that the changes we made to our work due to the feedback that we received overall benefited us as a group and meant that we could make our work as appealing to our audience as possible.

Some of the initial feedback that we received from our target audience was in the beginning process of constructing our work. This is when we created a questionnaire as a group to ask our target audience what they typically expect to see in a music video and their favourite genre of music. This questionnaire is displayed below:

1.     What is your gender?

Male      Female

2.     How old are you?

16-18     19-21     22-24     25-27     28+

3.     What is your favourite genre of music?

Pop       Rock      Classical      R&B       other

4.     Do you often watch the accompanying music video to a song you enjoy? If so why?

5.     What type of music video do you prefer?
Emotional     Upbeat      No preference     other

6.     Do you like the music video to match the lyrics? Why? 

7.     Do you tend to listen to a song first before you watch the music video?
Yes      No     Sometimes

8.     Where do you normally find out about a new music video?
Social media   YouTube    Friends    Other

9.     Do you normally only watch a music video once or several times? Why?

The initial feedback that we received from our target audience is that they liked pop and R&B. As a result of this we decided to create a music video that was a combination of both of them genres. This was so that we could appeal to our target audience and insure that as many people as possible. 

As you can see from the above, the feedback that we received in the initial process helped to shape our work. However it was quite minimal feedback where as the feedback that we received after posting our work on social media had a greater influence on the narrative of our work.

In conclusion I think that it was very beneficial to us as a group that we posted our work on the internet for a large amount of our target audience to view as it helped us to shape our work and adjust any final changes.