Question 3: What Have You Learnt From Your Audience Feedback?

Audience Research Music Video

In the evaluation stage of my music video, I have carried out some research into what my target audience think of my music video.
I chose to gain primary data by interviewing a male aged 25 called Matt who is a professional in the production of music videos. The method I used to interview him was straight forward, as I screened the music video to him in a room and after he had watched it all the way through, I proceeded to ask him a series of questions based around what I felt worked well in the video, what might need improving, and to get the response and opinions from someone who I would call a member of my target audience of my music video. From this I would make notes and document his answers for future referral, analysis and interpretation. The responses I received I could then take with me to my next editing session and amend to better suit my audience and improve the quality and appeal of my music video.
The questions I asked, the answers he gave and how I used his answers to adapt and improve my music video are as follows:

1. How effective did you find the transitions and effects?
>Matt: “I found the cross fades to be smooth, which I think works well in collaboration with the music you are using”.

I used cross fades with the part of the video that involved showing the Polaroid photo and the shot of the couple walking together. It was important that this was smooth and that both shots were equally visible to keep to the mood of the film and help the audience understand the representation of the state of the couple between each of the shots. The affirmation from Matt telling me that my transitions and effects have worked well, I have accomplished my intentions here.


2. Was the narrative clear to follow?
>Matt “The narrative is very much film like and seems like you have set out to shoot it in this way, so yes it was clear to follow, it fits the linear narrative well”.

Matt here has stated that he believes that the narrative in my music video has been shot as a linear narrative. I am glad he has picked up on my intended narrative structure as I have shot the narrative progressively to make it easier for my audience to follow the story line and how it is affecting each character simultaneously. As Matt has found my video easy to follow, then this should mean that further people of my target audience will also find it easy to follow for the ease of their viewing and understanding.

3. Was the contrast too sharp?
>Matt: “In places, the close up shots focused on the lips in particular need less contrasting because they look pixelated”.

I asked this question to Matt because in my own opinion I felt that some shots in my music video such as shots of the lounge where my male character is situated did look too pixelated and sharp. In actual fact, Matt felt that the close up shot of my male character’s lips was the most poorly edited in terms of contrast. From his comments, I have since lessened the amount of contrast edited onto the shot, which makes the picture look softer, natural but however darker. I am glad that Matt did agree with me on this as it shows that my target audience are engaging in the media that they watch.

4. Were shots angled well, and were they varied?
>Matt: “Photo on the window is strong. You have used a good range of shots which adds to audience appeal and makes it look more interesting. The shots of the birds were good but perhaps needed shots that were focused in closer to the birds, from the perspective of looking up at the sky”.

From Matt’s answer to this question, he has reassured me that the range of shots in my music video are varied, and also given a reason as to how it strengthens audience appeal and the video appeal. This is always a good sign from my point of view as the producer because my audience are telling me ways in which I have been successful to sustain their attention and interest. Matt has given me an example of a shot that achieved this, that being the shot at the end of the video with the 2 halves of the Polaroid pressed up against the window. I composed this shot to sustain their attention by giving them more than one thing to focus on. By this, I mean how I used the image of the photo and the writing on the back, and how my audience have to simultaneously make connections between each half of the Polaroid, and think about how this affects the state of the relationship of the couple in question.
Matt has proposed I revise the shots of the birds to show them closer up. He hasn’t given me a reason why he thinks this shot could be successful in my music video, but in my opinion it could be either for appeal or to understand the role that the birds play in my music video clearer; to which the reason to this should become apparent in question 5.

5. How noticeable were connotations and metaphors within the composition of the shots and music video?
>Matt: The connotations and metaphors you have used, such as the black and white, the birds and signposts with the sun are relevant to the lyrics, which make them more noticeable and clear. Connotations in a story like narrative tend to work better when they are subtle rather than obvious”.

By connotations and metaphors in this question, I am relating to the use of the birds and their connection to the relationship in metaphor, and the connotations of how sign posts pointing to the sun represent a point of view, and if two sign arrows pointed towards the sun, then both characters was on the same page.
In Matt’s response, he has picked up on my intentional use of black and white, the use of birds and signposts with the sun. This is positive as he has picked up on the use of this, and although he has not stated to me if he has understood what they mean, he has not said that he hasn’t understood them either. Hopefully by him not mentioning if he understood or not, that he has understood, especially as he has related them to the lyrics, which would relate these techniques I have used to the familiarity of the lyrics.
Matt has also hinted to me that with the linear narrative I am using, subtle techniques work better than obvious techniques. To affirm this, I had another look at my music video and switched the order of the establishing shots that include the birds to make sure they follow in a logical sense, for easier familiarity for the audience.

6. Was the use of black and white effective?
>Matt: “The use of colour, and lack of colour in this case (in relation to the use of black and white) is good, it serves the story well and shows contrast between the characters. It also helped me as the audience understand the mood of the video, being on a minor note rather than major and when the focus switches between these”.

From Matt’s response to this question, this is definitely positive feedback to assure me that my use of black and white has been understood by my audience. I used this technique to show negativity and contrast between my characters and the state of the relationship, so when the relationship is healthy there is colour. Matt has successfully received this intention as he has informed me that as an audience lack of colour has helped him understand the mood of the music video when it is on a minor note. He also tells me that he understands the switch between the major and minor tone of the video. Therefore he is interpreting successfully that the use of colour is the major and lack of colour is the minor. He has quoted back at me that this technique shows contrast between characters, which is a good sign as this was one of my intentions when I applied this effect.

7. Does the video withhold audience attention, or when does it lose interest?
>Matt: Your video has a good replay value, such as returning back to the production shots of the male character playing guitar, and the divide of the photo”.

I asked this question so I can understand what works well in my music video to keep my audience’s attention and help them understand the progression of the music video.
Matt has told me here that the use of replay value and the divide of the photo have worked well to achieve this. It is positive that he has picked up on devices I intentionally used to achieve this, with the use of the photo and production shots. I referred back to the Polaroid photo to establish the state of the relationship, that the characters are still divided and also how each character is thinking about what the photo reminds them of; the first shot with the argument and when their relationship and the photo becomes divided.
The use of guitar playing shots I felt helped further establish the music element of the video (as a music video), but also how the male character is further expressing his emotions and feelings through the correct instrumentation of the track (guitar) and through the lyrics of the song, using lip sync to make it obvious this is the case and how I repeated the use of the close up shot of the male characters lips to show this.

8. Does the pace of the editing suitable; is it in time with the music?
>Matt: “Most of the time this is good but I would advise you to check the pace of your shots during the instrumental at the end as the pace appears inconsistent, and also you should make sure your music video ends on the last beat of the song.

I have been advised with the feedback to this question to revise the pace of the music video towards the end. What Matt has picked up on here is that the pace of my editing is inconsistent with the timing of the track and also the previous tempo applied earlier on in the video.
From this comment, I progressed to look at my music video and found that the music video did not end on the last beat accurately. I extended the track to re-cut the audio file successfully and fade the track out at the end to make the ending appear more natural and smoother. I also progressed to use such shots as the male character walking out of the shot to the left when passing a group if friends as I felt this had an element of action from the group of friends that I found to be displeasing to the audience, and the shortening of this shot made it easier to keep a similar length to the shots at the end as I found when after shortening the previous shot I explained, the shot had moved to be more in time with the music track.

Part of working as a group meant that another member of my group received audience feedback from asking questions to our target audience on a social networking site (a similar approach I took when gaining feedback on my digipak work). A group containing C1 and C2 demographic including male and female participants was constructed, in the format of a forum so each participant could view the video and other responses that had been made and if they chose to, debate between each other what worked well and what needed improving.
A noticable debate between these participants were how they interpreted our representation of birds in the music video and what they meant. For example, when one interpreted them as "Metaphors for each character", when another thought the birds referred to "The artist using his lyrics to move both characters onto a parallel trail of thought, towards the sun representing this". It is interesting that the birds were interpreted in this way because both interpretations are along the right lines, showing we have successfully broadcasted the messages we wanted to send, although some work might have to be done to get the exact message running through each participant's minds.
A point in the video that the audience strongly agreed on however was that the shot at 1 minute 30 lasted too long and contained unneccessary movements by extra characters in the background. From this we were able to detect this shot distracted the audience, made them uncomfortable and interrupted their satisfaction of the experience of our music video. Since this comment we have moved to cut out the unneccessary movements of the extras, and once screened again the audience preferred our ammendment to the original.

On the 16th March 2010 we received news on our artist's Myspace page of a comment he had posted there including a link to our music video uploaded onto Youtube and a comment of one word "Interesting! =D". This is great news as it shows the vastness in range of how a site such as Youtube distributes it's content to recipients, and hopefully with the inclusion of the link in the social networking site of Myspace, will accumulate our video of more viewers and enhance the reputation of our work and gain the artist and us feedback on a wider scale through a potential target audience, this time dictated by the artist and who he sees as his ideal audience. This is placing empowerment of our content out of our hands and into his allowing him to freely distribute our work and our connotations of his work if he agrees with them and sees them appropriate. The comment itself we chose to interpret as positive because of the smiley face he put after the word interesting. This we thought told us he is interested into how his audience have used his media and also our interpretations of his work.



Digipak feedback

I thought it would be vital to gain audience feedback for my digipak to get an understanding of my target audience’s opinions of my work.
I set a method of using the social networking site of Facebook to group together hand picked individuals (5 male and 5 female for even gender responses and larger numbers strengthens the accuracy of my responses to discover patterns in their answers) that fit into the parameters of my ideal target audience, and from this I sent them a web link to my blog where I have uploaded a video that screens all my print work of still images and a video of the digipak being opened. I chose this method because it was simple to group together a set of individuals and as the artist who I was designing the digipak to promote has a profile on social networking site Myspace; I could assume that his target audience would have a social networking profile on such a website. This method of gaining feedback also allows me to diversify from how I gained feedback for my music video and this time use technology to document and distribute my work and allow comments to be posted back to me. Another advantage of this method is that my planning for this project I have also documented on my blog, which should help my audience understand how I created my print productions, what had influenced me and my intentions of my work.

A female of my target audience posted a comment that stated that my work flows well, however my CD slide was boring. It is good that my work flows well because this means my video is made in a way that helps my audience understand my work well, what each piece of my work is and how it is related to the other slides of the video. To link with her comment that my CD slide (where the CD will be held) is boring, another participant of my audience stated that I should inform them of further detail of the slide, “Point out that the CD pane isn't just blank and has a hole in it because that isn't completely clear.” This shows that I have been unclear in the detail I have given my audience about what this slide involves, and the disadvantage of using graphic images in my video that do not show these dimensions. To improve this part of the video, I could involve real still images of photography taken with a digital camera and use them either embedded in the video or embedded separate from the video in the same post to help my audience understand what the physical product looks like as an end product, and from these they will be able to look at the video of my print work and understand where I have applied these graphic images on my digipak.
This female of my group also informed me that “I really like that fact that you have put in a video of you opening the case as it makes it interactive”. The effect of using a video to show how the product opens is that the audience can imagine themselves opening the digipak. This shows the success of using a video to show my target audience how the real product works, and stronger emphasizes the need to input photos of the real product onto this blog post to boost this understanding of the real product, this at the moment appears to be the main improvement I will need to do to successfully amend and improve this blog post of my print productions.
In contrast to the need of real still images of my digipak, a male participant of my audience group mentions that “The digipak looked very professional and well made”. As I have only included graphical images at this point, the use of technology and graphic images appears to have made the project appear sharper and more professional to this member of my audience, which seems to make my project more appealing to him.
Another male member of my audience commented on my magazine advert, as he thought “It is simple but impacts”. I kept my magazine advert simple by using a larger size graphic image of a Polaroid from my digipak and maintained the same font, when also using the same background graphic to look like paper. A female member of my audience had picked up on my repetitious use of these to maintain a theme throughout my print productions. She replied that “You have tied the Digipak and the advert together really well by keeping the themes and images the same”. My print productions therefore are coherent and follow a set theme and style that combine these productions together in an obvious and successful way that my audience take a liking to.
Another reason why I used the same style between the two was because of genre. A male participant of my audience picked up on this and said “The fonts, background, images etc all really suit you genre, target audience and artist”. Again this shows coherence between each of my productions have been successful with consistent use of Polaroid images, photography and paper graphic background. Also this member of my audience agrees that it does indeed suit my audience well, and as he is part of this audience, it shows my productions were well received by this audience. It is important that this member of my audience agrees that it suits the artist well, as this quote brands my promotion of my artist as successful, positive, and accurate portrayal of his image and style.