A2 Media Blog / PEOPLE ARE STRANGE : February 2016

QUESTION 3 SCRIPT

I will be discussing how my audience feedback has impacted my media products, and what I have changed in order for my music video and other products appeal to my target audience. Throughout out the process of researching my media products I have used audience feedback by using social media sites in order to gain an understanding of what my target audience is looking for. When coming up with an initial idea it was crucial for me to understand the nature of my target audience and the type of music video they would expect to correspond with my chosen track. During the process of coming up with an idea I used focus groups and social media sites to gain an understanding of what my audience will be looking for I carried out these focus groups in different forms, for example giving hard copies of surveys and questionnaires. This made the feedback process more efficient and practical, enabling me to analyse and understand what my target audience is looking for.

The information that I gained through my research included my target audience’s age and tastes which helped me when I continued further planning for my media products. It is important to establish the type of people who you are trying to reach out to, to create a successful product that will please my target audience. Through conducting this form of research, I was then able to carry out more focus groups on a specific target audience, as I had a greater understanding of the demographic that my target audience were a part of. When carrying out further research it was notable that the demographic that I was targeting was the ABC1 group, including middle class men and women from the ages 25-50. From this information I was able to receive more accurate and exact information that would help me carry out more planning for my final products.

When I conducted my first focus group I sat down with my target audience and played the track, People are strange by the doors. After I played the track to my focus group I asked my target audience to write down a few keywords that came to mind when they listened to the track. From the focus groups that I conducted I was able to brainstorm in detail further ideas for my music video and ancillary tasks.

Before I started to film my music video I decided to act on a few ideas that I had in mind, such as the screen projector idea. I used social media to gain some audience feedback on whether I should carry out this idea for my final product. Although my audience suggests that this was a good idea, after planning and developing my initial idea, I did not follow through with this idea. This shows how, some of the feedback hat was given was ignored.

Using YouTube to upload the progress of my music video was very helpful, as it allowed me to conduct more focus groups. I played the first half of my music video to my focus group, and asked for their feedback. I found that by playing to my focus group the unfinished music video I gained a lot of negative feedback on the lighting and editing of my first draft. Consequently my target audience gave me feedback and advice on how I could improve my music video negative feedback that I gained included the lighting and editing of the unedited music video. From this feedback I went away and re-edited my music video to fit the tastes of my target audiences. This process has taught me that gaining audience feedback verbally is crucial when improving any media product that I create

In addition to gathering audience feedback for my final product I also received audience feedback for my ancillary task. Like my main product, I used a survey and questionnaires to find out what my target audience would like to see on a CD cover and poster. My audience suggested that I express the importance of my artist on the front cover of the digipak and poster, as they liked the artist’s persona and felt that it was an important aspect of the final product. I followed through with this advice and included the artist on the front of my poster.

However, during the editing process of my ancillary task I did not follow through with the comments that my target audience had made. For example when deciding on a font to use for my digipak and poster. My audience suggested that I use font b for the front cover of my digipak, due to the vintage style that the font portrayed. Although when I attempted to use this style during the editing process, I disliked the way it looked and therefore decided to change my idea. This therefore shows that I did not follow through with some of the advice that my target audience gave to me via Facebook. In the future when I create more media products I will make sure to take more care when analysing my audience feedback, as the way my audience may perceive a certain style or idea may not fit with the initial idea that I had planned. It is also important to note that the majority of respondents of my audience feedback are only of a minority compared to the large scale of the over demographic. I also had to take into account the current style of CD covers in today's music industry, avoiding my CD and poster to appear dated.

When I redrafted the design for my digi pack and then decided to send my sketches to my target audience via iMessage to gain some feedback. The feedback that was said was successful.

After I created my products is decided that I wanted to show my target audience the final outcomes and hear what they had to say. I used what to share my music video due to the controversial subject that my video includes; I did not want to share my video on a website like Facebook.

My audience gave me plenty of positive feedback regarding the how clear and current the narrative was to today’s issues in society. My audience suggested that the video could provoke much attention in a positive way. They also touched on the technical skills that I used in the music video such as editing and camera angles.

I did however gain some constructive criticism. The main criticism was the fact that I did not show the main character applying the makeup, some of my audience suggested that if I had done this it would have given the narrative a clearer ending and finish off the story.

I used face book to gain feedback of my digipak and poster products. I was surprised at the amount of positive feedback that my audience gave, as I did not construct as many focus groups as I did for my main product. Positive comments included, interesting professional. However some of my audience suggested that the spacing and placing of the text around the main artists was hard to read and the font was hard to read.

Over all, throughout the process of creating all of my media products, audience feedback has enabled me to think in a more critical way about my work, and to adjust to what my audience would like to see from me. Using focus groups to understand how my audience would like me to change my music video was useful, as my audience encouraged me to change parts of my music video which would improve my product.