Evaluation Question 3: Audience Feedback

E V A L U A T I O N  Q U E S T I O N  3

- WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK -

Evaluation Question 3 Vod-cast Part 1



Evaluation Question 3 Vod-cast Part 2

At the start of this vodcast, there is part of a vodcast we made prior to the evaluation. This is voiced by Declan Williams.



Originally we based our target audience on our own knowledge. As our act - Faithless is a well known band across the UK we already had an idea of our primary and secondary target audience. We believed that 'insomnia' was a well known song. Therefore, our primary target audience age is 15-24 and our secondary target audience age is 25-40.

YouTube Comment

YouTube Comment

Carrying out research on YouTube as a start up task. We found a lot from this immediately as their is a target audience for our primary target audience. But this also highlighted to us that there was a secondary audience as well. To begin with we were sceptical about our decision of our primary and secondary audience because we thought that the act would be more suited to an older audience as
the primary audience. As Faithless originated in the early 90's. However, the feedback we got from YouTube comments didn't lead us to change our minds.

Another feature i found relatively useful was to look at Faithless' live performances and to look at the audience members attending the concerts. This was a useful tool as we could roughly work out the age of the audience. This matched up to our primary and secondary target audience perfectly as there was a mix between the two at Faithless' live performances.



When researching for magazine ads this also helped us define our target audiences as we looked into previous magazines that Faithless have been in. As well as this it also helped me know which magazine to target when creating a magazine ad as the right audience would be targeted. 

This is my initial knowledge of magazines and their target audiences...

Jay Z on the Rolling Stone cover

• Q magazine - Target audience 25-40
• MixMag - Target audience 18-32
• NME - Target audience 15-24
• Rolling Stone - Target audiences 16-24, 25-40
• Mojo - Target audience 25-40
• Fact - Target audience 18-32
• FHM - Target audience 15-34

Dance specific...

• djmag - Target audience 18-32
• Core - Target audience 25-40
• Maxumi - Target audience 18-32
• OHM - Target audience 18-32

 The steps i took to hunch our target audience were simple but effective methods. These were showing members of our primary target audience pictures of our artist and seeing if there was any recognition there. A second thing I did was to play the mp3 of the track 'Insomnia' to see if there was any recognition with the song as well.

This is an audience research vodcast we created.



Age/gender/ethnicity/sexuality/nationality and class were not an issue in the nature of the feedback we received in terms of content. Girls were usually much more hesitant to speak on camera and were very camera shy. Most of the feedback we got was from our peers from our primary target audience. The feedback was good but wasn't very thourough. Compared to the feedback we got from our fellow students and teachers their feedback was alot more precise than the general feedback we received. It was good to use a range of both general and educated feedback as we could act upon the little things as well as things that a normal viewer may not see such a slight glitch in camera movement.

We created a range of sample sequences, 5 in total and told them the idea of what we were going to do for this video, and that gave them a taste of what it was going to be like.  One of the questions we asked was ‘do you think this idea is appropriate for our target audience?’ The feedback was that it was suitable because of the idea and the fact that the main character fits in the age range of our primary target audience so they can relate to the character. We also were planning to incorporate a nightclub scene in our original idea, which our target audience seemed fond of. However, we didn’t include the nightclub scene in our final draft because it was unconvincing and un-realistic. A lot also agreed that the music was suited to our target audience because the track was well known. On the contrary one person did say that the audience could be stretched to an older audience profile because their parents would be familiar with this genre of music and the act itself. Which is why we have a secondary target audience. Another question we asked our audience was ‘any thoughts on how we could utilize the tools of social media?’ The majority said Face Book was a key tool especially for people who have a lot of followers therefore we could reach a wider audience base, and it gives a possibility of a viral aspect.

We were able to gain feedback from our sample sequences which was good as it required little time. As we made 5, we got a good range of feedback. I gained feedback from 5 peers on the sequences although the audio on the clips were muted. The feedback boiled down to both positive and negative.

The positives were.

·      The track itself was good

·      The black and white filter

·      The effects used e.g. the time lapse on the chair

The negatives were.

·      Lip syncing out of time in some sample sequences

·      Boring in places

The audience feedback from this was useful as we knew what to do and what not to do when it came to creating our rough cuts. It also gave us a heads up on what we had planned to shoot, as we could change this accordingly and save time.

One of the key pieces that arised from our audience feedback was our nightmare scenes. We originally had a masked character but this was very unconvincing and didn’t fit in with the style of our music video at all. Which is what we were told. We therefore, changed the idea completely to a little girl which gave the text verisimilitude as well as Stuart Halls preffered reading which is what we hoped for. So the feedback was very useful as it allowed us to change our character and know that it was what our audience would like.

Digipak Audience Feedback:

Throughout all our digipak rough cuts we collected feedback from our primary audience and our secondary audience, this way our end product would be able to achieve the preferred reading from our audiences.

With our first digipak draft the design only reflected our research into the genre and therefore didn’t reflect any audience input, which is probably why our final draft looks nothing like our first seen as our audience weren’t appealed by it at all, and from our feedback they preffered the further drafts we created with a grid of our main character, and also the use of our character standing aloine on the rock.

Mag Ad Audience Feedback:

In total we created over ten mag ad drafts which were all summariused in a vodcast we created. With our mag ad we stuck to the main conventions and we collected feedback from our primary audience and our secondary audience, this way our end product would be able to achieve the preferred reading from our audiences.

Audience feedback showed that our primary audience particularly liked the tube station draft ideas and liked the link we made with Faithless’ British heritage, our tube station ads were not the one we going to use as our final magazine ads. However, if we included more conventions they could have been, this is why we used them for teaser ads. Our final mag ad was widely preffered from the rest of the mags ads we designed, our audience feedback helped us tweak the final stages of designing as one member of our focus group said that we should enlarge the band name and make iot stand out more which is why we increased the font size and decreased the size of the information. Also due to audience feedback we layered an image of the girl onto our mag ad to fill a blank space, as they had seen our rough cuts prior, they knew of the second character. When a filter was added this was very effective. Therefore our audience feedback played a large part in our Mag Ad.

The web 2.0 theory really helped us with receiving feedback as it facilitated interaction with our audience through the use of YouTube and twitter. Which follows Tim O’ Reilys theory of an ‘architecture of participation’ which delivers a rich user experience in the way they can now interact and access our music video. In some cases the audience has a large role in our production which links to David Gauntlets theory as people become producers as well as consumers. An example would be when we mad our video faster paced towards the end due to consumer input.

 Before the construction of our media product we already had an idea in mind of the audience we were addressing which would follow Ien Angs theory.

John Hartley states ‘institutions are obliged not only to speak about an audience, but-crucially, for them to talk one to one as well’ Our text would follow this theory as we effectively created a character that our audience can engage with through the text. As our target audience’s age range is similar to our characters. It is also reflected in the mise en scene and costumes we used, such as black jeans and a stylish coat.

To summarise all three of our media products required us too take in to account, and rely on the audience we were addressing. It proved to be a key aspect during our production as we enjoyed interacting with our audience’s whether we were focusing on our multiple rough cuts, our digipak or our magazine ad. Audience feedback was vital in order for us as a group to bring out the best of our idea, and to make it suitable for our audiences. 

We have referred to our QR code and Viral Vid in Evaluation Question 4.