Evaluation: Question 4.

Q4: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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Pre-Production:

Survey

Before starting to plan my music video, but after I had conducted my primary research I made a survey to find out what my target audience. Below shows what I learned and my main findings from this.

-Main Artefact (Music Video)

1. My audience preferred the idea of a Split Narrative and the artist playing an instrument whilst singing. They thought this would help to show my ideology that everything will be okay, as the singer would be a prime example of this, as she is not presented to be in any trouble, but the sympathy in her voice and the meaning to the song will suggest that she is talking/singing from experience. In addition, my showing the artist directly, she would be a member of their social group (and my target market of young people) that they could easily identify to.
2. Everyday settings would help relate them relate to my ideology better.
3. A mixture of camera ranges/angles would keep the video interesting throughout.
4. They would prefer one central character to refer back to  as they can relate to them again and gives video a basis to build on. It is also useful for the combination of my three products as she will be recognisable.

-2nd Artefact (Magazine Advert)

1. They suggested the main Focus Point should be the artist, to keep a consistent house style across as she would be the main focus/reference point in my main artefact.
2. Moderate Information - Reasonable amount of text
3. Picture of Digipak should be shown but there was an indecision as to whether it was extremely or fairly important, but this finding at least shows that it should be there, as no-one answered that it should not be there. Also by including it, the clear house style in terms of style, colour and character, can be shown as the two ancillary texts are placed together.
4. The majority of my audience wanted simplicity. For this I used black sections which  keep all the information separate from the picture meaning it is not so crowded and more simple.

-3rd Artefact (Digipak)

1. The most popular structure for the digipak was: just one picture + Name + Album. This finding very much supports my research. 
2. My audience were definitive in that they would like to see the conventional features of  digipak used (e.g. track listing, barcode, copyright)
3. Pictures on the inside - although not consistent with my research it is what my target market prefer as it would be a direct representation of themselves making them feel more a part of the campaign and help with identifying with my ideology and characters. 
4. 100% Imperative that there is a recognisable house style. (colour, font, character, props)
5. Finally the digipak should reflect the style of music. With this aspect I was conscious not to go too overboard on colour etc. as it would not represent the style.

Post-Production:

Survey & Focus Group - These both helped make sure I was pleasing my audience both in terms of authenticity and what they want to see, meaning I could change features or add some in for my final drafts.

-Main Artefact (Music Video)

1. When using a split narrative a bigger difference is needed in terms of the colour of shots. But the representation of the singer is good, and it is easy for them to identify with her. 
2. I need to be more careful with reflections. This was a particularly important finding as it is not something I could get from primary research, or notice myself.
3. They suggested that some shots were too long, especially in the chorus.

-2nd Artefact (Magazine Advert)

1. The initial style was not very popular - prefer a natural photo, which would also help to create my desired house style too.
2. Social media links are very important for them.

-3rd Artefact (Digipak)

1. Needs to use a different photo to the magazine advert, but one that is similar to carry on the house style.
2. Links to social media are again important, so they can really become a part of the campaign themselves. 

Post-Production Research & Feedback

This is a post I put on Facebook appealing for my target market, and some outside of it, to provide me with feedback on my completed Magazine Advert and Digipak, before I make some final changes for my final draft. The feedback I received for both artefacts was very encouraging. The pictures below indicate the general thoughts and main points raised.

First impressions are key when selling something so it was imperative that my audience felt this way when looking initially at my digipak. 

 I'm glad that my target market liked my colour scheme. I was reluctant to use very bright colours because it did not fit the style of the music, even though it is the stereotypical style for a 'pop' album. 

 One key point here was the inclusion of the young people making the media more accessible which was my main aim in including members of my desired target audience of young males and females. 

I only saw this in one of the digipaks that I analysed but I thought it was a lovely touch, and once again helped to engage and include the audience. It appears here that my target market agreed with me.

 This feedback was extremely pleasing, showing that I have managed to capture what my target market want to see in an advert.

Once again, this shows that I have included consistency, another aspect that lies well with young males and females.

 One comment here says that it looks a little old fashioned. To try and make it look more current, I plan to add in a text number in which my target audience can text to get a song, something that is likely to appeal to them as the technical generation. I hope this will also make it a little more interesting as it will be busier. I want to also try to lighten the photo a bit to make the advert more eye catching.

Notes for 2nd Draft - Music Video

After completing the first draft of my music video I showed it to some members of my target market to get some feedback and find out any ways that I could improve it. I did this by sharing my video on social media sites, including Twitter and Facebook as well as creating a questionnaire so that I could get some specific feedback as well as some personal opinions. Below are some of the notable aspects that may need changing when in my second draft.

- Could include more close ups of the characters so the audience can really see the emotion in their faces.
- Most people didn't mind the reflections but there are a few that are a bit distracting e.g. the feet that appear to walk over the piano in the last shot.
- In the chorus the shots need to be shorter.
- A bigger difference between the stories and the singer is need colour wise.
- There is a shadow in one of the shots of the homeless girl which needs removing.

Notes for 2nd Draft - Supporting Artefacts

Much like my music video on completing my two supporting artefacts of a digipak and music magazine advert I asked some of my target audience to make comments on how to improve them both. To do this I held a small focus group before showing them the advert and digipak I explained about my ideology and showed them the music video so they understood a little better what I was aiming to achieve in making them.

"Georgia: "I really like the photo of Katherine, it's very natural and definitely suits your ideology, but I'm a little unsure about the effect you have used. It looks nice but I think both artefacts would appear more professional with just a straight photo with no effects."

Florence: "Yeah, I agree with Georgia the photo is perfect but maybe only use it for one of your products. At the moment I would say they are a little too similar. Perhaps keep the photo for the digipak but use another one for the advert."

Rachel: "I think the advert should include social media logos, I often look up bands of Facebook and Twitter so it would be good if you showed that I could do that."

Florence: "I think the social media logos should be on the back of the digipak as well, near where you have said you will put the record label logos."

Georgia: "That would work well! Perhaps you could also spread the track titles out a little bit to fill up the space on the left a bit more. It's great having the picture on the right but I think the left looks a little empty and for teenagers we like things to be quite busy, so the top left corner needs filling slightly.""

I agree very much with all of the points my focus group have made. I also raised the question as to whether they thought the album title was prominent enough on the front cover of the digipak, and although they like it, they thought I would benefit from having it written again near where it says 'Katherine-Anna'. Therefore, I have also decided to change the font of the artists name so that it works well with the font for the album title as I would like to keep the album title in a curly style writing like in the poster, meaning that the font for 'Katherine-Anna' will need changing too. 

Filming Preparations - Costumes

Following my initial thoughts on costume I have gone ahead and found some example pictures for the clothing I would like my actors to wear.

Singer: Katherine

Katherine-Singer

An example of the top
Katherine will wear.

The costume I have chosen for Katherine is rather simple as I want her to be able to represent each one of my target audience. By making sure that she is wearing black also reflects the sombre mood of the song and the underlying sad meaning behind it. Although the ideology is positive, making her wear bright colours would not work well with the style of the song.

Georgia - Abused girl

Abused girl: Georgia
The clothes I have chosen for Georgia are a simple dark coloured jumper and red
jeans. The dark jumper once again reflects the sad mood of the situation, whilst the red symbolises the danger in her life and her future. Both these items of clothing can be found in shops today so are very much in fashion and reflect also the clothes my target audience would wear. This will help them to identify with this particular character in the video.





Bereaved Boy: Matthew

Matthew - Bereaved
Boy

The costume of Matthew is very similar to that of Georgia. For his outside scene I have asked him to wear a dark coat and red chinos. Once again, the red will symbolise the uncertainty, tragedy and pain in his life whilst also acting as a fashionable item of clothing for my target audience.

 
 

Kaylie - Homeless
Girl

Homeless Girl: Kaylie
Although Kaylie is playing a homeless teenager it is important that her clothes are current and in fashion if a bit dirty. This is because I hope to show that she is only recently homeless due to a fight with her parents. Therefore, I have chosen a checked coat, and dark tracksuit bottoms as her outfit. Furthermore, the colours are dull to reflect unfortunate circumstances that the girl has found herself in.

Heather - Alcoholic Girl

Alcoholic Teenager: Heather

As Heather is supposed to be a secret alcoholic which is indicated by the hidden box of empty bottles under her bed, her clothes will not be scruffy just lounge clothes to indicate her lack of care for things around her an her appearance. With this in mind I have chosen a simple grey hoodie and tracksuit bottoms as her costume indicates not only her sombre mood but her plain and repetitious life as she spends her time drinking by herself.

 

Lonely Boy: Louis

The costume for this character has a very broad scope. As his state does not necessary inflicted upon his physical look. Due to this I have decided a dark coloured jumper will suffice once again to link in with the mood of his situation. As with all the other costumes, it is current and representative of something that my target audience would wear themselves. 

Target Audience Research: Music Magazine Advert Survey

As seen with my other surveys, the majority is once again made up of my target market making all these findings valid and applicable to my three artefacts.

It seems that most people are only interested in a magazine advert if it is a band they like or it catches their eye. If they only glance at them, I must make sure that the design is intriguing and the information is obvious so that the purpose of the advert is achieved.

Following on from the last answer the majority of people said the name of the artist should be the main focus point, to which I agree. Without that, the people who only glace at them would not pay any attention as they would not instantly know who it was about.

Despite the findings being relatively equal here, I can conclude that only the really essential information should be included on my advert. Much like the front cover of the digipak, my target audience prefers simple designs with the information made obvious.

Evidentially, my respondents are all in agreement that there should be a picture of the real album cover featuring on my advert. This finding is backed up by my analysis of real adverts in which a picture was present.

Again, a picture of the artist is imperative along with their name so it is recognisable who the artist is.

Pairing this response to the one about similarity between my products I will attempt to carrying on a colour scheme across all my products to make them recognisable.

Finally, the general ideas that were shared here were that the advert should be eye catching and appealing to look at. A couple of people also mentioned simplicity, which was also a feature of the existing products I analysed.

Target Audience Research: Digipak.

Once again the majority of respondents were female and aged 13 to 17, which fits in nicely with my target audience, so the following results should reflect their preferences when buying CDs.

 

 

As you would expect in this day and age, not many people buy CDs anymore. But, it is still important to have digipaks as there are people who prefer to buy them and the artwork would be needed when someone downloads a song anyway.

From my research on digipaks I found that two of the three had one picture on the front and it is seen here that my target audience prefer that too. They want only the see the album name, the artist and a picture of them. It appears that they do not like the front cover to be cluttered.

From these results I can see that it is very important for the back cover to have the track listings, a barcode and copyright details. Unfortunately, the scores were tied with how many pictures would be preferable. This suggests that, unlike the front cover, my target market is more open to additional features on the back, making it more busy.

Out of the three options given, the majority prefers there to be pictures inside the digipak. Although, because text and information were both chosen too, I may try some designs with some writing inside like the dedication that was in one of the existing digipaks I analysed.

The answer is very clear for this question. Between my advert and digipak I must make sure that there is a similarity which will aid my target market to recognise that the two are linked.

From these answers, it is obvious that a digipak that reflects the music and is eye catching is something that will interest my target market greatly.

Target Audience Research: Music Video Survey.

Due to the song chosen being McFly, I am pleased that the majority of respondents were female as I think the genre of the song will appeal to them more, so they are more likely to watch the music video.

 

 



Most of the respondents to my questionnaire were aged 13 to 17. This is good because it means the results will reflect greatly the opinions of my main target audience. Although the respondents aged 45 to 54 are not completely redundant as it is important to appeal to their tastes as well in order to attract a wider audience.

As I expected many people watch music videos occasionally and there were no answers saying never. This highlights how important it is for an artist to have a music video for their songs as most people enjoy watching them.

Since the majority of respondents have said they would expect a split narrative, I think it is imperative that I include one. This answer is also supported by my primary research as the videos I analysed all included a split narrative feature.

I was a little surprised by this answer. I would have expected more people to have preferred the artist to play an instrument. But again referring to my primary research only one out of the three videos had the artist playing an instrument. As the option of having an instrument does hold the majority I will attempt to include one in my video.

This question is very much divided up into different codes and conventions. When making the survey, I made sure each one had a contrasting answer to find out which my target audience would prefer and thought would fit in with my song choice.
Here are the majority findings:
Lighting: Low lighting.
Colour: Mixture of black & white and colour
Settings: Everyday settings
Camera Range: Lots of different camera ranges
Camera Angles: Mixture of all angles
Slow motion & Fades: Both achieved high ratings
Characters: One central character to refer to throughout.
All of these findings fit in with my primary research.

The main consensus from all the comments is that the storyline should fit the lyrics well. Also a few people mentioned that the audience should be able to relate to the stories well, which would make it more interesting and engaging I feel.