FINAL EVALUATION QUESTION FOUR

Evaluation Question Four

FINAL Evaluation Question 4

FINAL Evaluation Question 3

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FINAL Evaluation Question 2

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FINAL Evaluation Question 1

FINAL EVALUATION THREE

http://samjackbaxter.wix.com/theeverything

This link is for a website i have created to present the information about what i have learnt from the audience feedback in a professional manor. Click on the link above to view.

Evaluation 3 (not presented)

Evaluation question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Gathering feedback on my music video and ancillary texts (especially on the drafts) was a great way to identify the areas for improvement. Feedback from the target market and audience is the best possible feedback to receive because this was you have a real perspective from the market you are aiming at, so making adjustments accordingly to their feedback is crucial in creating the most efficient products.  To gather feedback throughout the development stages, I used a range of methods to present my work, which allowed people to comment and make suggestions. We received feedback at a variety of different times, such as when after we presented our pitch. However the majority of feedback was mainly in our draft music video and ancillary texts, this gave us sufficient time to make the improvements.

After conducting some research on my chosen genre and creating initial ideas to go forward with we used the creational video website called ‘animoto’ to draw all of these ideas together and present them to the class as a pitch. After pitching our ideas to a group of students (our class, same age) we allowed the class to ask us questions about the pitch and what they liked and disliked etc. we found a mixed range of opinions and questions in our class. We found answering these questions and listening to improvements very beneficial for our construction of the video and ancillary texts.  After answering questions we figured that we needed to think our ideas through more thoroughly, this is because he had a variety of ideas but we hadn’t really thought how we would portray these and create them into reality. Therefore when we where asked questions we were both kind of unaware ourselves.  This made it helpful for us because it forced us to work these ideas out effectively in order to produce successful products.

A point that we did take into consideration from out feedback was ‘What kind of video will you create, performance, narrative or disjunctive video?’ this comment was very interesting and led us to thinking about what would work best with the video we wanted to create in order to please our target audience. Originally we decided on creating a video with elements of narrative and performance, because we found this as a typical convention our genre followed. However after we conducted further, more thorough research we found that it would be very hard to create a professional narrative with the limited time period and facilities we had use of. Therefore we listened to our feedback and decided to follow a fully performance based route, our audience had commented prior to this saying a mixture of two video types could “over complicate” the whole video. This is something we didn’t want to happen because we wanted to adhere to a simplistic and minimalistic video to increase continuity between the final video and ancillary texts.  Furthermore we noticed bands that we wanted to base our own band on such as the 1975 and The Black Keys used just performance videos with their first releases, when they were trying to establish the band in their genre and market. Therefore we decided this is something we could incorporate into our own video, to make it an easier task for us too. Without the feedback of our audience at such a crucial stage we probably would have tried a mixed video with both elements of narrative and performance, which probably would have had a detrimental impact on our work.

To ensure that are ancillary texts (digipak and advert) appealed to the audience it was compulsory to retain feedback from them. They are both forms of advertising and therefore not only should they fit in with conventions from the genre but also they should grab the attention of the audience and persuade them into buying the album. I received a number of suggestions for improvements and also I was surprised to see how positive the majority of the feedback was in relation to the two pieces. Originally I created a couple of drafts for each ancillary text so I could receive feedback for the improvements. I learned from this feedback that if I’m going for a minimalistic approach that everything has to be ‘perfectly layed out’. Because not much information is on show and my drafts didn’t include any photos the layout to be effective on its own had to be eye catchy, look realistic and have everything perfectly positioned, for example the borders being the same width on each cover of the digipak, and the font being perfectly centred etc. Initially I was stuck on what colour scheme to use, I created a variety of different colour schemes and posted them onto blogger so I could receive feedback on what the audience felt worked best with the band and looked most professional. After reviewing the comments I received I found overall that the audience preferred the black, white and teal colour scheme because it was more aesthetically appealing in contrast to the other colours. Along with these comments the audience found that the font ‘Bebas Nueue’ worked a lot better than ‘Century’. This is because the font is ‘bolder’ and ‘stands out more’ in contrast. It was really important for me to receive feedback at this stage of the course because it helped me to develop the most effective, successful digipak I could by incorporating all my audience’s adjustments and improvements.

*Before Tweaks

*After Tweaks

It is also evident to see from the tweaks that not only has the borders been made bolder and the font changed to perceive a more professional look but also the title of my album changed. This is because during this stage I received some significant feedback from my audience before finalising my ancillary texts. This was that if I am going to obtain a minimalistic look, I should use something which ‘links more creatively’ with the band logo so that the audience can make unconscious connections between the band and the logo I was using of the parallel lines. After considering this is decided to change the title to ‘parallel waves’ which was more fitting and coincided with the logo we where using. Furthermore this helped my ancillary texts and video to have a feel of continuity. Allowing the audience to remember the band in a more effective manor. I too feel that this album title works a lot more effectively in contrast to ‘troubled town’, which was thought of without research. 

The audience feedback has been extremely important to me at this stage because it allowed me to reconsider my options before it was to late in order to create successful texts.

My advert received really impressive comments and didn’t need any improvements. This is because I used the feedback from the digipak and incorporated it into the advert to create a sense of continuity, which is what the audience wanted to see.

This is audience feedback I received after finalising the ancillary texts. I found it useful to receive feedback at this stage to make sure that the improvements suggested had been incorporated efficiently in order to appeal to the audience. The positive comments can justify this. I have now learnt that my products have effectively reached the target market expectations from this feedback which is very important at the stage of the course. Also having this feedback from students in my class and from discussions from other students I can start to generalise these results to the majority of the target market.

After the ancillary texts had been finalised we proceeded to the filming of a draft video. We had to make sure all of the research we conducted went into the video and so that we didn’t create something that didn’t fit with what the audience look for. After producing the first music video draft we asked for the help of several students (within the target market) to tell us what we needed to improve and add into our final video. We found a lot of negative feedback at this stage; this is because the draft video we produced lacked a lot of elements we originally wanted to involve. All of the students agreed that the video was ‘lacking enthusiasm’. In the draft unfortunately our lead singer was away so we had to quickly call in for a back up to fill in his role, just for the draft. We found that enthusiasm was lacking in the body language of the entire band, they didn’t seem to be to ‘interested’ and make the audience feel ‘bored’ watching the video and there want a variety of shots. The audience also weren’t impressed with the location; we used our friend’s dad’s band practice room. The mise en scene wasn’t suitable and didn’t match the idea and approach we wanted to portray. We also involved a lot of unneeded shots, which didn’t work with the video like we initially thought, for example smoking shots of Greg. Furthermore a final comment, which was important to us, was that the lead singer in the draft video was laughing too much in every shot he was involved in, and certain shots weren’t framed effectively.

 All of this negative feedback we received really made us think differently. We took all of the feedback on board and spent a lot more time planning a more suitable location to use, which fitted the genre of the band well and was minimal. The only choice available was to start over again and use nothing from the draft.

After we had completely re-filmed the video we found a lot more positive feedback. We too found that the video was a lot more effective. We listened and noted all of the relative feedback from our students thoroughly. To begin with we made sure all the band members were very enthusiastic, especially the lead singer. Listening to this feedback worked perfectly, we learnt that the enthusiasm and passion showed made the video a whole lot more interesting and effective (based on comments from our audience). Along with this we chose a completely different setting and location, we luckily had access to an undecorated room in the lead singers house which we where allowed to film in. this allowed us to have a very minimal mise en scene. Which worked a lot better which the passionate band members. We went back to the same group of students afterwards to discuss the new footage and they all agreed that it was ‘a lot more interesting to watch’ and it looked a lot more ‘professional’.

However, we both noticed that all of our feedback had been from Media students and not any other members of our target market, which may like the music but not have studied the course. We took advantage of social networking sites and put our video onto twitter so a variety of other members of the audience could watch the video and tell us what they liked and disliked. We found this method was a lot more effective because it reduced bias, because other students may look at the video from a different perspective, as a fan. We found this feedback involved more positive comments, especially on the variety of shots and enthusiasm shown by the lead singer, this was something they ‘enjoyed’.

(comparison between old and new miss en scene + passion)

(unneeded shot)

(lack of enthusiasm)

(very enthusiastic shot)

Here are some final comments that we received on our final video and ancillary texts too. This specific set of feedback allows me to understand that my final products have been successful in fitting in with the genre and our target market. Also the feedback shows me that my ideas have been displayed successfully too:

Overall I believe we have gained a lot of knowledge from the feedback we received. We now genuinely understand how important it is to gather feedback from an audience. We found that it was best for us to use an audience because in cases they had a better vision than us and helped us to create more exciting and effective products that will be liked by the majority of the audience and target market, not just ourselves. It was also useful to look at elements from a different perspective too, originally we wouldn’t have noticed vital elements that would have had a very detrimental affect on our video, such as the enthusiasm in the lead singer and drummer. Therefore it is clear to see how much of an influence the audience feedback has been on the construction and finalisation of our music video and ancillary texts.