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

In this evaluation question, I gained some valuable feedback from a selection of audience members spanning the ages of 17 to 56 and from both genders. My primary method of attaining responses was the survey, which I produced and conducted on SurveyMonkey. This was a useful way of doing it as it allowed me to easily be presented with a graphical representation of my results which made for simple, quick and effective analysis. I also conducted audio interviews with specific audience members.

1. 

My first step for receiving feedback from my audience was to identify the people whom I thought would provide the most comprehensive answers. Approaching specific people directly also meant that I could cover different genders and age brackets easily. The survey consists of five questions which are as follows:

2.

Once I had received my feedback, my results were analysed and my findings were interesting, particularly when it came to questions three and four. Using SurveyMonkey, I have constructed graphs and tables to display my results as clearly as possible, starting with question one:

This graph clearly depicts the fact that my music video was unanimously well-received in terms of production quality, receiving a 100% top-band response. One respondent skipped this question but this was presumably an accident as they were able to answer the rest. While I don't need to point out that taste is entirely subjective, I can assume that given the other responses, this audience member would have awarded my music video one of the more favourable answer choices over a more negative one.

Given that the three key themes I was attempting to convey with my music video were alienation, isolation and frustration, I am totally satisfied with my findings for this question. These answers have also revealed some themes which I didn't even realise I was portraying, but make perfect sense in hindsight, particularly redemption. This respondent will have been referring to the protagonist finally getting what he wants after so much rejection. I am pleased that the majority of responses are themes that imply an ending and a conclusion rather than being mostly open terms such as 'rejection' and 'loneliness' because for the themes I was trying to convey, I knew the viewer would traditionally expect a classic underdog story like this one to come full circle.

This wordle cloud illustrates what my audience thought the most prominent themes were in my music video; the larger the word, the more frequently it was mentioned across all answers to this question. The largest of the initial themes I set out to achieve is alienation. It is among the second largest words pictured, meaning that I portrayed a sense of alienation effectively. Frustration and isolation are smaller, so perhaps there were other, more effective ways in which I could have depicted these themes.

Again, these are responses with which I am very happy as I wanted my themes to be portrayed as clearly as possible. 28.57% of my respondents answered with "Quite clearly, but I had to watch it more than once" indicating that to just over a quarter of my audience, my music video seemed clear and cohesive but could have been more so. This was perhaps due to Shady Lane being a fairly short song, which meant that there were certain extra bits of footage that I had to leave out. These bits of footage may have helped the themes in my music video be conveyed unanimously clearly.

And the last response which was left off the above screenshot:

Of course I knew what message I was putting into my music video, but I didn't have any particular phrase or soundbite that I wanted the viewer to leave with in mind, so this was a particularly interesting set of results to look at. The one that best articulates my initial thoughts is: "yes. i think it is a hopeful message, saying that no matter how odd you might feel, there is the ideal friend for everyone out there..". I knew that hope had to be conveyed, so it was pleasing to see the word 'hopeful' used in this respondent's answer. I also liked the use of the word 'friend' as it eliminates the implications of a romantic interest, which, whilst not my intention, universalises the message in my music video to apply to all kinds of people as opposed to just those looking for love.

I have singled out this respondent's answers as a model set: every non-multiple choice answer was interesting and thought-provoking for me, as 'companionship' was not a word I had considered when defining my music video's themes. And, the uses of 'hopeful' and 'friend' are interesting for the reasons stated above. 

Similarly to in question two, I put together this wordle cloud to illustrate the key words involved in what my respondents thought the message or moral of my music video was. Clearly, love is the most prominent.

The last field of my table could not be included above. It was "Weighted Average", and the figure was 9.43/10.

Lastly, my respondents' ratings out of ten for my music video range from eight to ten. As the lowest mark was only given by one respondent, I was curious to see how they answered the rest of the questions. The most interesting comparison was between their answers for question one and for question three:

Given that this respondent thought the video was 'Very well made', but at the same time felt as though the themes were conveyed 'Quite clearly, but I had to watch it more than once', I assume that their rating of eight out of ten rather than something higher was a result of certain narrative ambiguities. 

3.

The survey was not the only method I used to collect audience feedback. Below is an audio interview with my classmate Joel, who is 18. I interviewed him as he is working on the same coursework task as me, so I thought he would be able to give a different kind of feedback to the respondents in my survey. The questions in this interview are more related to the production process and its technicalities because of Joel's media knowledge and experience with producing his own music video rather than an overall impression that someone without this knowledge would give, but I tried to avoid relying on jargon too heavily. 

1. From a technical standpoint, what did you make of my music video?

2. What did you feel were some highlights in terms of camerawork and editing?

3. Is there any part that you would have done differently?

Transcript

Sean: From a technical standpoint, what did you make of my music video? 

Joel: Well, technically it was quite impressive, everything synced up, it was quite well edited and some of the cuts appeared to be in time with the video while others weren't and that appeared to be deliberate rather than just an editing mistake so that seemed fitting with some of the themes of the video and that was quite well done.

S: What did you feel were some highlights in terms of camerawork, editing and the more technical side of things?

J: Well you use a variety of shots, in the speed dating section you use POV, so we felt as if we were in the protagonist's position, and you used a couple of canted angles and such and in terms of editing you used things like match-on-action, which was quite good. That's quite complex editing, it was more than straightforward, and very well delivered.

S: And is there any part of it that you, as a fellow media student, would have done differently?

J: Not that I can think of straight off the top of my head, I thought everything was done very well, there was nothing that stood out to me that failed, as such, so no, not particularly.

S: Okay, thanks very much.

In conclusion, my audience feedback has proven to be extremely valuable. It has allowed me confirm that I have successfully conveyed the themes, messages and ideas that I wanted to convey in my music video, and yet I have also been introduced to new interpretations that are related to what I wanted to put across, but are not totally similar, and this has been very interesting.

I have also learnt which parts of my music video were most effective from a technical standpoint, which was very useful as it provided an explanation of what I did well and what could possibly have been done better, and I will definitely carry what I have learnt here into future productions

Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Update

The ancillary tasks have been available on their respective pages for a little while now, so I am well underway with the evaluation questions. 1 is a blog-style spoken address to camera, though I think I will take screenshots from my advanced portfolio production to layer on top, as this will allow the marker to identify which parts of my music video I am referring to much quicker. 4 is also underway as a Prezi presentation, and I will shortly be conducting a questionnaire to allow myself to answer questions 2 and 3.

Update

I'm happy to use the first finished version of my music video and so is my teacher. I can't think of anything I'd personally want to change, and with the footage I got, there would only be so much I could change. I'm currently working on my ancillary tasks,  of which the website is practically finished; I only need to add some photographs which are already taken. Next, I will need to concentrate on my digipak. This will involve taking photographs this coming weekend, and if I stay on schedule, it should be finished by the end of next week.

Music Video

Update

Filming is now well underway for my music video! Last week I filmed my speed dating scene on the afternoon of Wednesday the 7th, which was very successful and productive - everything that had to be filmed in that scene got filmed, my actors were excellent, and all shots came out looking better than I expected.

Then, on Sunday the 11th, the bulk of the video was filmed, and all of the narrative parts (other than the speed dating) were completed. My friends Will and Leah were my two protagonists. They were both great fun to work with, and were both perfect for their roles as horse guys (no offence). Now all that need doing are the few lip-syncing and instrumental shots, which will be done on the weekend of the 17th.