Evaluation: Question Three

What have you learnt from audience feedback?

The song I chose for this project was “King Of Anything” by the artist Sara Bareilles; although she is not necessarily considered an extremely popular singer some of her songs have reached the top of the charts for example “Love Song”. As a result, I took an unconventional approach by taking an unpopular song and trying to make it popular as it could and does easily fit in the Pop genre.

Obtaining and using audience feedback has been a vital part of my production process as it is ultimately what enabled me to continue improving each individual product so I could create three different products that would directly relate to my target audience. It has been really important for me to meet my target audiences needs and wants to allow my music video, digipak, and magazine advert reach as a wide of an audience as possible as my overall aim is for them to be “popular” which is ultimately what the pop genre is; as result, it was important for me to obtain a wide range of different opinions from a range of different people in terms of age and gender.

One of the first things I got feedback for was the first draft of my music video which illustrated the early stages of my music video production, when I completed this first draft I showed it to two media students; this is because they both studied the subject and knew a lot about the typical codes and conventions and ultimately what audiences look for, as a result, I knew I could gain some constructive feedback before I showed any audience members my music video. What I learnt from this type of feedback was typically media related, for example I was asked to experiment with using different shots to broaden the range I’ve used, change some of the lighting in the video, and to take a look at any possible transitions, all of which I knew would make my music video more exciting and engaging for my audience.

Next I began asking some people that would fall into the age range of my target audience to view the second draft of my music video, I did this by posting it on Facebook and getting a few friends to view it and comment on what they think. However, as Pop music can obtain such a wide audience I understood that I needed a mixture of people so I could get a good range of comments and opinions; therefore, I also began asking family members on their opinion. Throughout this feedback I also asked a mixture of males and females as pop music can be liked by either gender. What I learnt from this type of feedback was what my audience actually wanted to see in a music video, what engages them and makes them want to watch a music video, and lastly what they don’t like seeing in a music video. This part was one of the most important pieces of feedback as I was directly getting it from my target audience who are the most important people to consider throughout this process as they are ultimately the people who are going to view and enjoy the product.

For the other tasks such as the magazine ad and the digipak I took full advantage of social media as I knew I could reach a large part of my audiences demographic and obtain a good amount of opinions. I also continually messaged updates of my digipak and magazine ad in the form of images to a group of friends and asked them to send me any honest feedback. Once more this was a very important step as I understood when you create something you generally miss any subtle improvements therefore by sending updated images of your products to an audience ranging from media students to actual target audience member’s enables these improvements to be highlighted to me for example, syncing problems, colour scheme, spelling mistakes etc. As a result this type of feedback has taught me and enabled me to gain a sense quality control so all three of my products were made to the highest standard possible and therefore would be enjoyed to the fullest by my target audience.

Overall, all the feedback I gathered throughout this process have been extremely useful and directed me towards creating three successful products that would appeal to my target audience which I believe is due to me getting a mixture of both media students and people from target audience as a result I got a large majority of opinions/views.