Question 3

We used a few different methods of collecting feedback and the target audience’s opinions. These methods are Poll Everywhere, vox pops, asking people opinions and conducting a focus group.  We used these methods throughout our entire project. We got feedback after our preliminary; this really helped us because it showed us what we really need to improve on skills wise, like the camera work and the framing of shots and the editing. So after research and planning to our productions this showed us what the audience will and won’t like, they also have us some good constructive criticism. Also got feedback after the production, this helped us to understand what we could have done better to make it more appealing and suitable. We needed feedback constantly because we need to know what looked right and what the audience wants. Audience feedback is so important because it can tell you many things, like weather somethings looks good, or if something works well keep it and use more of it, or if something doesn’t work so well we could change it or make it better, getting audience feedback is all about getting peoples opinion to aid you to develop your work to make it suit your target audience want work a lot better. One method we used was using audience polls, we used a website called PollEverywhere. This website enables you to setup quick and easy polls. We setup a question on it, this question was to find out what people thought of our music video intro, also it was good that you could properly answer with text not just multiple choice because we can get more detailed feedback quickly, this is good because it will show us quickly what needs to be changed and developed to create a better piece of work, whereas if you just use multiple choice your feedback will be limited. It didn’t take long; people could either write whatever they thought of it. This method was very good for quickly collecting feedback as it didn’t take long to set up and people text in their answers so they can do it from their own phone.  Using their phones really help because they may want to give feedback anonymously, another good thing about the mobile market you want feedback on what platforms to listen to music  on and watch videos on, youd get results like Spotify, Sound cloud and YouTube. We asked them what they thought of our intro to our music video. This method was very useful, we used it a few times and it was good because the feedback instantly appeared and it was quick.

Another method we used was Vox Pops. A vox pop is where you collect what people think of a certain topic or thing. None of the answers are scripted and they should be non-biased.  Vox Pops are very useful and very clear at showing people’s opinions. A problem with it those is that when you ask people they might feel like they are being put in the spotlight, they become nervous and just sometimes say the first thing that comes into their head, also some people may stutter making it hard to understand or they don’t go into enough detail.  We asked a few questions, like for example, what is your favourite music genre? Where do you want music videos the most? And what conventions do you like to see in a music promo? All of the people we interviewed were all aged around our target audience so that we would be able to get the answers that best suit our research. It was very beneficial as we got a lot of different views and opinions. From what the vox pop showed me, it was clear that people wanted more narrative than performance, but still make sure that it was contained. They also like disjuncture so we decided to incorporate that too. It showed us that people really like something going on in the shots, for example we got answers like “ an interesting story” or “dancers and dancing” and “ flashing lights” we liked the idea of an interesting story but we didn’t think that that dancing and flashing lights would work in our music video so we decided to leave them out.

While generally carrying out our planning and production we sought for audience feedback, if they like what the saw and that if they could give any useful feedback. Whatever they said we’d just write it down and act upon their feedback. For example when I had finished producing the digipak, I wanted some feedback quickly, and I didn’t have time to set up anything so I just asked my peers what they thought out it, they said the liked it but it needed a few changes. They said I should change the back of the chase to match the rest; they also wanted to see lyrics on the case so I added that down the sides. Taking feedback in quick answer form is very easy and helpful because it gets straight to the point. We used this when editing our production, creating our ancillaries and planning. This is good because people can also be non-biased and this really helped us. It is the fastest method of them all but you can forget and lose your feedback.

Another research method was that was very useful was the focus group. A focus group is where you get a group of people to sit down and you ask them questions that you want to know the answers to. We got a group of about five people to sit down and we made them watch our music promo and afterwards we asked them a variety of questions related to our music video production. Firstly we asked yes and no questions like, do you like the idea behind it? Does it suit the song? Was there a correct balance between performance and narrative? Secondly we then got them to write a detailed response on a piece of paper of what they thought of it, as they went into so much detail this meant we had a lot of feedback and it could really show us if really need to change anything to make it more suited to the target audience or making sure the genres conventions are correct. Then we got them all to talk amongst one another, we’d ask one opened ended question and then just get the focus group to talk about it between themselves and wed write down what they said. This is a good way to get very detailed answers as the people don’t feel pressed and on the spot just like in a vox pop. Just like the other methods, collecting this data meant that we had loads of information about what we could change and what people liked, it really help. We got a lot of feedback, it was mostly positive with a few negatives here and there but other all people like it because it was different and unique.

When we needed feedback on our ancillaries we made a quick focus group, it want like a proper one. We got three different people to make a few comments on them and what they thought of them. The digipaks feedback was great and so was the magazine adverts feedback, there wasn’t many points of improvement just like two, one was could of made the text slightly smaller and the other point was that I should of made the social networking icons bigger. People liked seeing the main subject of the digipak cover and the magazine advert was the masked man form the music promotion as they then could recognise it ad easily go out and buy the song or download it off of the itunes store. They said they also liked the mask because it represented fear in a physical form and how the guy can’t escape it, so because we thought of this we decided to put it is everywhere like the listener can’t escape it either People said they really liked the colours of both the digipak and the magazine advert as they show that it is a potentially a dream and that the prop of the animal is mask is white this could connote that the guy is lost and doesn’t know how to escape him and his suit is black which could connote death or fear and that’s why they guy is trying to escape it. The digipak has a really positive affect on the target audience and they really liked it. The audience also enjoyed look of the magazine poster as they said it really grabbed your attention and that it was really laid out just like a typical magazine advert or an artist, they said it followed the typical conventions and it worked very well.