What have you learned from your audience feedback?

By Julianna Moore

Feedback is crucial and essential, when it comes to creating my own product(s), and this is because, if people give me their opinions on my product and how I could 'improve' them, then this greatly helps me to enhance and develop my products into even better creations. I started off this project by first doing thorough research about several different types of things that were related to helping me achieve successfully finished products. In addition, I started off by researching existing products of digipaks, magazine advertisements, and pop genre music videos, I then did a lot of deep research into the codes and conventions of music videos, and this was because, I first had to understand and acknowledge exactly what types of conventional forms that I have to incorporate into my own products, in order to have a successful and appealing finished production of a music video. I then created a questionnaire, and asked 10 people of who were representatives of my established target audience to fill it out, and the feedback results of the questionnaire, significantly helped me and gave me answers to decide on specific things about my music video, etc. such as, what type of style I want my music video to be, and from the results of the survey, I shortlisted my choices to: Narrative, mixture, and cameo.

Moreover, I then researched into the possible song choices that I could use for my pop genre music video, and after thorough research into the several types of pop songs that I could choose from, I and my partner, shortlisted our songs list, and then asked the whole class to give us feedback on what song choice would be best, and after collecting everyone's opinions, we created a tally chart, and got our decision of our final song choice, which was 'Cool Kids'. Furthermore, getting feedback from my class mates, who are also representatives of my established target audience, helped us instantly decide our song choice, and also enabled me to learn the preferences and opinions of people of our target audience, which was highly beneficial, as we were one step closer to getting an overall successful and appealing music video.

Also, as I established that the decision about what type of style my music video was going to be, was between, either narrative, mixture, or cameo, through the feedback given by my friends from the questionnaire, I researched into those three particular styles of music videos, and created a moodboard of ideas. I then asked people around the school about which style of music videos they prefer out of the three, and the feedback results was a tie between mixture and cameo options. Likewise, again my given feedback helped me further develop my understanding of what the most prefered styles of music videos teenagers liked, and also instantly helped me make my decision that I would incorporate both of the two styles (mixture and cameo) into my music video.

Furthermore, the production process of my music video involved me first creating drafts of it and then asking my target audience for feedback, on what I could improve within my music video. In addition, I made a few drafts of my music video, and then each time asked my class mates (who are representatives of my target audience) to watch it and tell me what else I could add to it or change, in order to make it more appealing and engaging to them. Consequently, in my first draft, I was given feedback, for example, to change the beginning, by adding establishing shots and setting the scene, rather than it starting with close-up shots of people’s eyes and faces. Therefore, I did make these changes, and altered the introduction of the video, by adding establishing shots and removing the close-ups. Below are images of these changes.

First draft (beginning/start of the video) Introduction lasted

for 14 seconds, with close ups of people’s eyes and faces.

Final draft (beginning/start of the video)

Introduction lasted for 18 seconds, with establishing shots, setting the scene for the overall general video ahead.

In addition, more feedback that me and my group partner, Naomi, received from our target audience, was that we should add an overlay or effect of flowers/nature or scenery on the parts when our main artist, Jasmine, is lip-syncing, as it makes the overall music video more eye-catching and appealing, therefore, I did add an overlay onto those specific parts of the video, by using the ‘Opacity’ option on Final Cut Express. Below are images of the changes made, based on our feedback from our target audience:

First draft (Jasmine lip-syncing shots)

No overlay or effect (plain background).

Final draft (Jasmine lip-syncing shots)

Overlay of flowers (fits the overall nature theme of the music video).

Additionally, when I showed the first draft of my/our music video to my class mates (representatives of our target audience), their initial reaction was that I should improve the quality of our music video, as the overall quality of the video appeared unclear and blurry. Therefore, based on the feedback given from my target audience, I learnt how to change the quality, and by altering the quality settings, I managed to change it, making the music video HD (high-definition), in other words, the video was of very high quality. Consequently, this made our music video a lot more enjoyable to watch, as the visuals were very clear and allowed our target audience/other viewers to be able to see every graphical shot without the interference of bad quality, since I changed the quality to HD.

First draft (quality of the music video) Final draft (quality of the music video)

Poor quality, with black border and not available to view in HD.

HD quality, with no black borders (covering the full screen).

Segmentation/Ideal Audience Profile• Furthermore, after getting feedback from my friends and

classmates on who my typical/ideal audience would be, I also did my own research to see what exact age range pop genre music videos tend to be aimed at, and after hearing people's thoughts of my typical audience and also after my own research, I then created a document of my typical customer profile.

Furthermore, for my digipak and magazine advertisement, I started off by first doing thorough research into the stereotypical conventions of digipaks and magazine advertisements, which instantly gave me an understanding into what professional and successful digipaks and magazine adverts are meant to look like. Also, I researched into existing products of digipaks and magazine adverts, which again helped me plan ahead and decide on the layout, images and typography, etc. that I would use for these two ancillary products. Additionally, I then made flatplans for my digipak and magazine advert, and then asked my class mates to give me their opinions on which flatplan they like best, and afer collecting the results, the feedback suggested that many people liked a combination of front covers and back covers for the digipak, and that I should mix and match them, and flatplan 4 for my magazine advert. Therefore, again my audience feedback for choosing the design and layout of my digipak and magazine advert helped me learn that my target audience do in fact have preferences and do greatly care about the appearance of digipaks and magazine advertisements, other than just the songs or the artist of the album.

• Furthermore, I then took pictures of my models/artists, for my digipak and magazine advertisement, and then shortlisted the images that I think are most suitable and appropriate to use for my digipak and magazine advert. I then asked my class mates and teacher for feedback on which picture(s) is/are best suited for these two particular products, and I got comments from friends, such as "All these images are great, however if I were to pick one, I would say number one, because I like how not all three models are directly looking into the camera, and that Luka's posture and body language is giving off a typical 'Cool Kid' look/style/vibe, which conforms to your genre of pop/indie pop and music video song meaning of 'Cool kids'". Moreover, after receiving feedback from my target audience, I came to the decision of which image(s) I would choose for my digipak and magazine advert, and the images that I chose for these two products were:

Chosen images for advertisement and digipak, based on target audience feedback

Magazine advert

Digipak/album cover

Moreover, other ways that we could feedback was through social networking sites, such as, snapchat. Myself and Naomi used snapchat to send pictures to each other, as well as to our other friends, of our individual album covers and magazine advertisements for advice and feedback from them on what their overall thoughts were, and how we could improve, which therefore allowed us to visually compare our improvements and products.

Magazine Advert (Draft 1)

I asked my class mates to give me feedback on how I could improve this first draft of my magazine advert, and I received not so many positive comments, as the product of this magazine advertisement was not fully finished, being just the first draft. However, I received constructive feedback about how I could improve this draft, and what other features and conventions I still need to add.

After receiving feedback on how I could develop and enhance my first draft of my magazine advert, I took on board every bit of feedback, and greatly improved my magazine advert. Final and finished version of Magazine Advertisement

This is the feedback that I received after showing my final, finished and improved version of my magazine advert to my class mates