Amber Needham A2 Media

Video Feedback:

Here is a range of feedback from different age groups regarding our Music Video. We used different formats to put this video together, such as audio recordings and videos, we edited this using Premier Pro and Windows Movie Maker. We had a lot of answers about things such as what they liked and disliked, whether the products relate to theories etc. At the end of the feedback, we did a mini interview with Ryan, who is of the age range for our target market, and asked him a few more questions.

Questionnaire Feedback:

Here is some pictures of feedback we were given by our class members about our music video. The age group is roughly 17/18.

Online Questionnaire Feedback:

We created an Online Questionnaire via Survey Monkey. We asked students from our school to answer questions which featured closed questions. We thought this would help us learn quickly about what viewers thought as it would take less time for people to complete and therefore appear more appealing to do so. Three males and three females answered it and they were between the ages 17/18. The questionnaire can be seen below.

Conclusions regarding feedback:

By viewing and reading all of my audience feedback I had to draw valid conclusions of what I have learned about as a result of gaining feedback from different people. I have analysed how they responded to my music video and ancillary tasks which has resulted in my knowledge about audiences and how to target them increasing. For example, I have made theoretical links to their feedback which has helped me to explore the fact that different people will have different responses, opinions and emotions towards my media products. To cite an instance, in relation to Hall's Reception Theory, those who recognise and agree with the messages in relation to love and the loss of it I have incorporated within them, would take on a dominant reading.

When asking members of the audience questions regarding our main product and ancillary tasks we received a range of reviews which we were then able to assess and analyse.

For example one of our questions was ‘What did you like about our main products?’ to which we received a range of responses.

For example Olivia, aged 17, said ‘I really liked the part where the main girl was behind a black background and she was edited to changed colours…I really liked that’ this shows that – as I asked her afterwards- she had seen the video that we were referencing with this effect ‘How Deep is Your Love’. Due to the fact she had seen the video she had more of an understanding and appreciation to the effects we had used as opposed to people who hadn’t seen the video but did like the effect we had achieved. I would definitely use this effect again, or attempt to imitate other famous music videos our target audience had seen because it makes the music videos more interesting and appealing to our target audience.

Gayla, 47’s, response was that she ‘liked the storyline’ which shows that even though she wasn’t in our target she still appreciated the storyline and the effort that was put in to it. So when thinking about what I have learned from this comment I would say that by having a clear narrative it makes the music video more enjoyable to watch from all different age ranges.

Ryan, 17, said that he ‘liked the Point of View shot’ which shows that the range of shots we used made the music video more interesting, in particular to a media student who could appreciate the video and the hard work that went into creating it. I have learned from this comment that I will always continue to put in a lot of effort with special effects and camera shots because although it is more time consuming, it can be appreciated by a wide range of people.

When we asked viewers ‘What didn’t you like about our music video?’ we received a lot of responses that can help us improve should we create another music video, and learn from these comments.

Karla,16, said ‘I think that you could have explored the character more’ which I think is referring to the fact that we don’t get to know the male character from any perspective other than how the female portrays him, therefore we are getting an unreliable representation of him. We learn from this that our target audience wanted to engage with the character more, seen as that is what we gave to them to engage with – as opposed to the artists being in the music video.

Olivia, 17, also within our target audience gave some useful feedback to this question also. She said ‘Personally I didn’t understand the change of lighting, however this has been explained to me and now I understand and like it more’. Olivia was referring to the change from warm tones in the beginning of the music video to cool and dark filters towards the end of the video. We tried to make this as clear as possible to represent the change in the girls mood, however upon receiving this feedback we have established that this is not the case. We have learnt from this that although we may feel that we are creating a clear meaning, some people may not understand this – so we can keep things like this in for the people who do understand it, or take it out to avoid any confusion.

Samantha, 44, said ‘Maybe the music video could have had more lip-synching’ which was a fair enough comment as there were only short snippets. This shows that we didn’t conform to conventions of the Pop music genre, and people realised and expected this from that kind of genre. Due to the fact that Samantha wasn’t in our target market it shows that it could have just been her age group who are used to looking out for the conventions, as the younger generation expect boundaries to be broken with music videos. I have learned from this comment that as long as we stick to what will be right for our target audience, it doesn’t necessarily matter about other’s opinions although if we were to re-film I would agree that we could use more clips of Lois lip-synching to make it feel more like a pop music video.

Gayla, 47, said ‘when she was shaking her head around she was smiling quite a bit, and I thought at that point she was meant to be sad’ I understand her comment and do recognize the confusion however due to the fact that we had an actress who had no prior experience with music videos It means that she cant remain focused at all times because she may not know when she's being filmed etc. However saying that I do feel that it was mainly my fault when editing the music video because I could have used clips where she was lip synching and not smiling but I didn't realise that the clip would be going in the part where she is sad. I have learned from this that I will check the music video more thoroughly to decipher whether or not I want to create an opposing effect to what the music video suggests, like that has been done, or whether I want the music video not to be confusing and to be clear about the girls emotions.

When asked 'Do you think it adheres to or rejects the norms and conventions of real media products?' we also learned a lot from the range of responses given.

Gayla, 47, said 'I think you can tell that its not really really professional' and this is something that we did try hard to achieve however due to the fact that we didn't have the budget of expensive music videos and weren't able to afford a crew etc., this is to be expected. There was nothing we could have done more in relation to this comment however I have learnt that perhaps shots that looked less professional we could have gotten rid of.

Ryan, 17, said 'it adheres because nowadays you get many love songs, with the relationship building up and then something devastates the artist/character' I agree with this comment because it is true that love songs in the Pop genre seem to have some sort of climatic ending, for example in Taylor Swift's music video for Blank Space we see Taylor smashing up her supposed 'love' interests car. In our music video we see the girl turning to alcohol and cigarettes to take her mind off her heartbreak. The fact that our target audience agrees that it adheres shows to me that we have learnt how to create content that links in well with our target audience.

I can clearly link my audience feedback to Hall’s Reception Theory. This theory states that media texts are consumed in three different ways, which are: dominant, negotiated or oppositional.

n my opinion, the audience feedback I have gained using the various different methods would relate to the dominant reading. I think this because the majority of people I have received data from have agreed with the intended message that me and Calum wanted to incorporate into the video by working together as directors. Some of these even recognised that our target audience would take a dominant reading.

I have learned that we all share the same view that love can be incredible and all-consuming, emotional and amazing. However love doesn’t always result in these feelings and can cause a tumultuous outbreak of heartache and pain, as shown in our music video. Since viewers recognized these themes within our music video and ancillary tasks, it helped me to learn about how my audience my consume media texts in relation to Hall’s dominant reading.

Since some of the viewers made constructive comments me and Calum were able to learn from this and therefore they took a negotiated view. To cite an example some people didn’t recognize that we didn’t include the male character to put emphasis on the female character, providing an original storyline – which relates to independence – that rejects typical conventions as woman are commonly seen in pop music. For example the Male Gaze Theory is commonly seen in most Pop music videos as women are viewed in a voyeuristic way. This helped me and Calum realise that viewers are different and could react to media products differently.

The uses and Gratifications theory can also be applied to my media texts because my viewers commented that they think themselves and other viewers would use and view them as a form of diversion to escape every day life and to have entertainment. As our video revolves primarily around relationships it is very relatable to people as they can all relate to these themes.