3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

In order to receive feedback on my final products I decided to ask various  people, including peers and family, a variety of questions through the use of surveys (both written and online), focus groups and social media. This enabled me to see both the positives and negatives to my music video, including the decision of making any last minute changes. 

Audience feedback is hugely beneficial and definitely a necessity when creating any product, especially one such as a music video, which is aimed to appeal to an audience and make them want to consume it. 

In relation to Stuart Halls' Reception Theory, I wasn't too concerned as to whether my audience took a dominant reading of the messages and values within my music video, as long as they were able to to at least take a negotiated reading and understand that there was more to the story than a puppeteer performing shows. I created the narrative with the intention that an audience would see more than what was just on the screen and would take it quite personally and feel some emotion when watching it.  

Audience Demographic:

Although my specific target audience was teenagers/students, I used people of various ages, genders and social classes to fill in my surveys/take part in my focus groups. I felt varying my audience would create a product that not only targeted one audience, but would appeal and be appropriate for everyone. Ages ranged from 11 up to 55, I had both males and females to complete the survey, all from either a worker or middle class social class. This enabled me to gain fair audience feedback from a variety of people. 

Survey

Throughout the year I created surveys that helped me create my final products. Before starting the products I created a poll to put at the side of my blog, so that people who viewed it could give me ideas as to what they wanted to see in my music video. 

I also created a survey monkey account and posted the survey onto social networking sites, such as twitter to gain ideas for my products. 

After the creation of my products I wrote down a variety of questions that I could use for my written survey in order to get good responses that I would be able to work with. I also created another online survey and sent it to some friends on my Facebook account so they could click the link and fill in the survey straight away. 

This screenshot shows me sending my music video and the survey to a group of friends and family on Facebook, so I could incorporate the idea of social media into my feedback and help gain quick responses on my product.

The majority of my responses via surveys were very positive and helped me improve on specific areas within my music video. I got responses from people of all ages, ranging from 11 to 45 (with the majority of responses coming from 17/18 year olds). Despite my main target audience being teenagers/student, I felt getting a range of responses would be beneficial and help me with the success of my product. 

Q1) Do you think my music video matches up to the indie folk genre? Why?

The responses to this question were all 100% yes. This meant I was successful in creating a product that linked to and reflected the indie folk genre. The results I got for why the video matched the genre were mainly answers like 'because the narrative is really quirky' and 'the mise-en-scene, e.g. the outfits and props reflect the genre'. This meant the creative decisions I made were worthwhile and created a popular product that met my aims and appealed to my intended target audience. 

Q2) Do you think my music video is effective when combined with the ancillary texts? Why?

I got a 100% result of yes for this question in both the written and online surveys I provided. People responded with answers such as 'they're all cohesive and I feel the colour scheme works really well with the genre as well.' This meant I was successful in creating a link between my music video and my ancillary texts, therefore creating a product that looked very professional and making sure an audience liked it and wanted to consume it. 

Q3) What part of the music video did you like the most? Why?

I got varied answers for this question as it's all down to personal preference. Responses I got were 'at the marina', 'the close-ups of the puppet dancing', 'the puppet show', 'I liked the Queen's Gardens scene, as the range of cinematography looks really good'. The puppet was definitely a good idea as it created a quirky alternative to typical music videos that often involve a type of romance. 

Q4) Do you think the narrative is effective? Why

Everyone seemed to think the narrative was effective, which is definitely what my aim was. Responses such as 'it's really original but still matches to the message of the song' and 'the use of the puppet is really different and quirky' were really helpful as it made me see that using different themes and portraying specific messages and values in the way I did was a success.

Q5) What would you change/improve? Why?

I didn't get many responses on what anyone would change, as people seemed to like what I had done. The one response I got was 'it's really good but to improve maybe think about different songs in the melody to fit different times'. I took this on board and mixed some of the editing up to see if it would be beneficial and make an audience more likely to consume the product. 

Focus Group

I did a focus group with Emily and Kayleigh, who also take media because I thought feedback from peers who understood the course would be beneficial to what I would learn. Another focus group was with Kate, who is also a media student as I wanted to vary opinions. I did another focus group with a friend who takes other courses, such as science and maths, as I wanted a variety of responses from people who didn't necessarily understand the course and I also did a focus group with my younger sister as I wanted a variety of ages, therefore using an 11 year would help achieve this, as well as help me gain responses from someone with different ideas. 













Responses to questions on my focus group were all quite similar and definitely positive.
The questions I asked in the focus groups were quite similar to my surveys, therefore getting similar responses:
1) How old are you?
2) Does my music video match up to the indie folk genre?
3) What's your favourite aspect of my music video?
4) Is there anything you feel could be improved?
5) Do you feel the narrative works well with the song?
6) Would you watch my music video again?


Charts
I created both bar and pie charts on the meta-chart.com so I could round up the responses for my ancillary text mock ups. They were a really easy way to present information and responses that I got, even thought they were only responses to the mock ups that I created for my ancillary texts. I asked both family members and friends, ranging from age 11 to 50. This meant I got a variety of answers, which meant my product would be more successful.

The results show that for the digipak, more people preferred number three and for the magazine advert more people preferred number 2. This made creating the real ancillary texts easier as I knew what an audience would want and would be more likely to consume. 

Poll:

I created a poll on blogger before creating any of products and added it to the side of my blog, so that it would be easy to get a varied audiences opinion on what ideas I had for my music video. It proved successful as I got a variety of responses from an anonymous audience, likely to be people who were visiting my blog. The fact anyone was able to complete my poll means my audience is vast and shows how I got different opinions from people who I didn't hand my written survey to, or send my online survey to. This is beneficial to my product, as it makes it more appealing to an audience and therefore more likely to be consumed by them. 

My audience feedback has taught me a lot, from the very beginning of the course, to the very end. I realise how important the feedback of an audience is when trying to create a product that looks professional and will be a success. I learnt that I would need a specific target audience when creating my products, as there would be too many opinions if I tried to aim it at everyone. I feel I still intended the products to be appropriate for all ages, but focusing my mindset on teenagers/students made it a lot easier, especially since I am a student myself.
Gaining both negative and positive responses helped me to create a product that I felt would want to be consumed by an audience and would be successful.