Question 4 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Music Video Analysis
When I did my initial surveys, I found out that most people expect to see young people in the music video. When I then researched the music videos in this genre, I found this to be a common trait. I therefore decided that if the information from two sources was telling me to use a 'Young Person' who is in the age group which this music is aimed at. The survey helped make my decision about what age my main character should be.
Only half of the people I asked said they expected to see the artist in the music video, and I found that only half of the music videos I researched actually contained the artist. When I asked about story-lines, there were also mixed views, equal amounts of people said they wanted to see just a narrative storyline to those who said they wanted to see the artist/band, and a fair proportion said they wanted to see both. I therefore decided not to use the artist, but focus on other traits I could have in my music video.
People also said they didn't expect to see costumes (as in 'dressing up'), but thought that normal, everyday clothing should be used for the main characters in my music video. My research helped back this up as being a good idea.
When asked about settings people expected to see Urban settings, for example a house or a recording studio. I therefore used the setting of inside a house, and inside an empty barn (also an urban setting).
I did not get any noteworthy feedback for the other codes and conventions for my music video.
Only half of the people I asked said they expected to see the artist in the music video, and I found that only half of the music videos I researched actually contained the artist. When I asked about story-lines, there were also mixed views, equal amounts of people said they wanted to see just a narrative storyline to those who said they wanted to see the artist/band, and a fair proportion said they wanted to see both. I therefore decided not to use the artist, but focus on other traits I could have in my music video.
People also said they didn't expect to see costumes (as in 'dressing up'), but thought that normal, everyday clothing should be used for the main characters in my music video. My research helped back this up as being a good idea.
When asked about settings people expected to see Urban settings, for example a house or a recording studio. I therefore used the setting of inside a house, and inside an empty barn (also an urban setting).
I did not get any noteworthy feedback for the other codes and conventions for my music video.
Digipak Analysis
When I did my surveys, people said that the most important thing they would want to see on the Digipak is the artist/album name. They also said that they would like to see bold fonts and bright colours on the Digipak. In my research, I found that the text took up the largest part of the front cover, and therefore it would be important to make sure this trait is large/clear on my Digipak cover. I also decided to use bold and bright fonts.
People also said that they expected to see images of the artist somewhere in/on the Digipak. When I did my research, this was not something that was done, however I decided to go with what my quantitative research (survey) told me.
People also said that they expected to see images of the artist somewhere in/on the Digipak. When I did my research, this was not something that was done, however I decided to go with what my quantitative research (survey) told me.
Website Analysis
One thing that seemed to be very popular to see on the artist's website (according to my survey) was videos. However, when I did my research, I found that the sites tended to just have links to the page where the videos were, and not have the actual videos on the home page. I therefore decided to go with what my research showed me.
People were also keen to see images of the artist and of album covers on the home-page. I took this in to account, and included an image of the artist, as an album cover on the home-page.
Another item which people thought was important to include on the home-page was tour dates for the artist. This was also true of the websites I researched, therefore I made sure I had this feature on my own.
People also though it would be good to have links to the artist's social networking pages on the homepage, again this was also true of my research, so I included these links.
People were also keen to see images of the artist and of album covers on the home-page. I took this in to account, and included an image of the artist, as an album cover on the home-page.
Another item which people thought was important to include on the home-page was tour dates for the artist. This was also true of the websites I researched, therefore I made sure I had this feature on my own.
People also though it would be good to have links to the artist's social networking pages on the homepage, again this was also true of my research, so I included these links.
Music Video
All in all, my qualitative research came back as positive. The people I asked liked my music video, and thought I had captured the demands of my target audience well.
One common criticism of the video was that some of the shots were not great quality. This is unfortunately due to the poor quality of the camera I used for part of the filming. I was unable to get the camera that I used for the other part of my filming. Although this is a clear fault, people did say that it did not make too much of a difference to what they though of the actual content of the music video.
When asked what they thought of the main character, everyone said they thought that she was in the right age group to appeal to the target audience. Further they thought that her costume was appropriate - her clothes and make-up made her look perfectly suited for the role.
The favourite prop that I used was the alcohol bottle, people thought that this prop was very stereotypical of young people. People said they thought this prop helped with the whole storyline, and that it was good for displaying the 'rebellious youth'. Other props which were commented on as being significant were the remote (to embed the music into the story), the CDs & make-up to show the personality of the main character.
People were also especially fond of the party scenes, they said that I had chosen a good setting, and made it look very realistic.
My use of camera movement (e.g. tracking over the bed) was also appreciated, they said it livened up some of the scenes. They also enjoyed the range of shot distance/types I used.
They also commented on the lighting I used in the party scenes, as they said that it made it seem more realistic. They said it looked like the sort of party you would expect to hear this music, and therefore see in this sort of music video.
One common criticism of the video was that some of the shots were not great quality. This is unfortunately due to the poor quality of the camera I used for part of the filming. I was unable to get the camera that I used for the other part of my filming. Although this is a clear fault, people did say that it did not make too much of a difference to what they though of the actual content of the music video.
When asked what they thought of the main character, everyone said they thought that she was in the right age group to appeal to the target audience. Further they thought that her costume was appropriate - her clothes and make-up made her look perfectly suited for the role.
The favourite prop that I used was the alcohol bottle, people thought that this prop was very stereotypical of young people. People said they thought this prop helped with the whole storyline, and that it was good for displaying the 'rebellious youth'. Other props which were commented on as being significant were the remote (to embed the music into the story), the CDs & make-up to show the personality of the main character.
People were also especially fond of the party scenes, they said that I had chosen a good setting, and made it look very realistic.
My use of camera movement (e.g. tracking over the bed) was also appreciated, they said it livened up some of the scenes. They also enjoyed the range of shot distance/types I used.
They also commented on the lighting I used in the party scenes, as they said that it made it seem more realistic. They said it looked like the sort of party you would expect to hear this music, and therefore see in this sort of music video.
Digipak
When I showed my Digipak, the feedback I received was very positive.
Everyone who was asked, said that they thought the colour scheme (black and white/grey-scale, with some yellow font) looked good. They especially liked the use of the black and white image of the artist as the front cover. Some people commented on the title fonts, saying they were what you expected to see on a Digipak, especially one for this genre, as they are bold and 'futuristic'. They commented on the back cover as looking good, saying that it looked good and contained the important song list, which is what they look for from the back cover of a Digipak. They liked the general layout of the Digipak (3 panels), saying it was simple and effective. They thought the idea of having a pocket for the CD was a good idea for a lower budget Digipak which is suitable for a less well known artist.
Everyone who was asked, said that they thought the colour scheme (black and white/grey-scale, with some yellow font) looked good. They especially liked the use of the black and white image of the artist as the front cover. Some people commented on the title fonts, saying they were what you expected to see on a Digipak, especially one for this genre, as they are bold and 'futuristic'. They commented on the back cover as looking good, saying that it looked good and contained the important song list, which is what they look for from the back cover of a Digipak. They liked the general layout of the Digipak (3 panels), saying it was simple and effective. They thought the idea of having a pocket for the CD was a good idea for a lower budget Digipak which is suitable for a less well known artist.
Website
The overall impression that the people asked had about my website was that it looked very professional. They said it looked much like real Artist's website's that they had seen. People liked the colour scheme that I used, saying it was simple, but effective, especially liking the dark background. They thought that the overall layout of the page looked very sophisticated and easy to pick out the information you want. They liked the use of sections on the page, which split the information up into bits. They thought that the Tour dates section was the most important and the thing that made it clear that it was a music artist's website. They liked that there were several things you could do on the actual home page (buy gig tickets, buy the album, etc). It was also said to be important that the artist's social networking links were on the home page making it easy for the viewer to access these.