(C) Hannah Ram 2011 Media Studies Coursework

1. Evaluation Question Three:What have you learned from your audience feedback? Hannah Ram, Candidate No: 4730 My target audience consists of both males and females aged 15-24

2. TARGET AUDIENCE FEEDBACK VIDEO...

3. MUSIC VIDEO... Wordle word cloud of the target audience feedback that I received for the music video:

4. MUSIC VIDEO... Whilst editing the music video I constantly asked people for their feedback, so that I could improve the music video as I went along. After Anthony and I had edited about a third of the music video I uploaded it onto YouTube in order to get feedback from our target audience and I then posted the link onto my Facebook page so that my friends could give me their feedback on what we had so far. One of my friends Scarlett, who fits into the demographic of our identified potential target audience, commented on the initial minute or so of our music video and said that she thought that the lighting should be slightly darker for the narrative elements of our video because it was on a dark subject.

5. MUSIC VIDEO CONTINUED... We tried to take this on board when we were editing and thus, made the narrative shots at the beginning of the video a little bit darker. However, we were unable to make it significantly darker because when we tried to do this it pixelated the shots slightly and we didn’t want to compromise on the quality of the visuals. Thus, in order to take her comments on board what we decided to do was make the shots at the end of narrative brighter, as the female character becomes more hopeful, to contrast against the semi-dark lighting from the beginning of the narrative. We hoped that by doing this we would highlight the fact that compared to the end of the narrative the situation that the characters were in at the beginning of the narrative was negative, but that you can still have hope even in such a bad situation because the lighting wasn’t completely dark and therefore didn’t connotate hopelessness just despair. Therefore, although we didn’t do exactly what she suggested we found a compromise that worked best for the music video whilst taking the basics of what she had suggested on board.

7. MUSIC VIDEO CONTINUED... However, there was some feedback that my group and I didn’t necessarily agree with and therefore, didn’t take on board. For example, one person said: As a group we decided against re-filming the band in another location because we found that it would go against our research, as in most Indie music videos the performance is filmed in one location, rather than in a variety of different areas (e.g. the performance elements in Vampire Weekend’s music video for ‘Giving Up the Gun’ and in Razorlight’s music video for ‘I Can’t Stop This Feeling I’ve Got’ are filmed in one location). This taught me that just because a change has been suggested by your target audience you don’t have to apply their views to your final product, if it goes against you research. ‘if the band was in more locations I think it would be really good’

8. MUSIC VIDEO CONTINUED... Overall, I think that one of the most important things that I have learned from my audience feedback is that you can please most people most of the time but not all of the people all of the time, as everyone has different opinions and different likes and dislikes. The feedback that I got for the final music video highlighted this as some people liked the slow cuts at the beginning more than the fast paced cuts at the end and some people liked it the other way around, but I think that by including the variety and by making sure that the cutting pace matched the tempo of the song we appealed to both types of people – the people that like the slow cutting rhythm and the people that like the faster cutting rhythm. Shot taken from my music video Shot taken from my music video

9. MUSIC VIDEO CONTINUED... By using the social networking website Facebook to get feedback it was easy to make sure that we were getting feedback from our target audience demographic, as we could check that the individuals giving us feedback were of the right age group. However, in some respects the feedback that we received could be classed as biased because all the people that I have on my Facebook page are people that I am friends with, so they are unlikely to be really horrible about what my group and I have produced. This is why I also uploaded the final music video onto YouTube, as YouTube has a degree of anonymity, that Facebook doesn’t, so people could be more honest and we could also reach a global audience. Essentially, all of the feedback that my group and I have received has either been overwhelming positive or constructive criticism. This feedback has really helped my group and I improve our finalproduct and has taught me many important lessons, such as how vital regular audience feedback is to producing a good media product.

10. MAGAZINE ADVERT... Wordle word cloud of the target audience feedback that I received for the magazine advert:

12. MAGAZINE ADVERT CONTINUED... After my initial draft I came up with another two possible drafts, but my group and I were divided as to which one we preferred. As we couldn’t decide we asked our target audience which one they preferred in order to guarantee that our final magazine advert would be the one that our target audience would find the most appealing. Essentially, my group’s potential target audience were really helpful and informative when I was constructing the magazine advertisement, as they helped me pick up on any mistakes that I had made and I think that ultimately their feedback was central to me being able to successfully produce a magazine advert that they found appealing. This is the straight edged magazine advert that had the band’s website on it. After asking our target audience we found that this was the one that they liked best. This is the torn edged magazine advert that didn’t have the band’s website details on it. However, our target audience preferred the other one because they felt that the straight edge went with the clean cut font and image of the band.

13. DIGIPAK... Wordle word cloud of the target audience feedback that my group and I received for the digipak:

14. DIGIPAK CONTINUED... After Arfa, Leon and I finished the digipak we asked our classmates for feedback and we also uploaded all of the different panels onto Facebook so that we could get a more global kind of feedback. Surprisingly, we did not get a single negative comment about our digipak so we did not change anything, as we realised that what we had already created successfully appealed to our target audience. Here are some examples of the comments that we received: front panel ‘I like the fact that both of the inside panels are in grayscale’ ‘It just looks amazing, it’s like something I would expect to see in HMV’ back panel

15. DIGIPAK CONTINUED... From the feedback that my group and I received I learnt that effective research into existing media products is vital to producing a product that will successfully appeal to your target audience. The comments highlighted the fact that the blue colour motif and font used were appealing, as they were eye catching and made our digipak stand out. The motif and font were two aspects of our digipak that our target audience often mentioned when giving us feedback, as they thought they were simple but effective in creating a positive image for our band. This, therefore, taught me how important it is to make an aesthetically pleasing product if you want your product to appeal to your audience and if you want to create a positive and recognisable image for your band. Ultimately, the feedback we have received as a group has been extremely enlightening and has taught me many valuable lessons. inside left over inside right over