Group - Evaluation Q3: Audience Feedback

The target audience for our film was teenagers, specifically 15 to 25 year olds. This is because the indie genre has shown to appeal significantly to this age group.

With this in mind, we conducted research.

It was important to test our concept in pre-production to an audience because:

• Gathering audience feedback before our pitch allowed us to investigate into our product's genre and how that would relate to the production of our video.


• We were able to highlight our target audience, allowing us to focus our concept on this target group so that it would be relevant and relateable.


• Playing our chosen track to the potential target audience before presenting our pitch encouraged any conceptual ideas we had, and also gave us new ones. Again, making our product relevant to the audience we were aiming for.


• Our method of carrying out this part of our audience research focused on qualititive research; we asked a small number of people from our potential target audience to listen to our chosen soundtrack and to then comment on any ideas/visuals that came to mind that would aid our concept development.


• However, before we carried out this particular method we spent time proposing different ways of carrying out this audience research. Here are links to the posts that are evidence of this: - http://twgsbmedia10a2group6.blogspot.com/2010/09/rc-audience-research.html, http://twgsbmedia10a2group6.blogspot.com/2010/09/ch-audience-research-proposal.html


• After deciding that a focused group was the best way to go, we then narrowed down the questions that we were going to ask. Here is a link to a post with our questions: - http://twgsbmedia10a2group6.blogspot.com/2010/09/group-audience-research.html

For more of our initial audience research, and the results thus, see the posts below.

http://twgsbmedia10a2group6.blogspot.com/2010/09/feedback-from-our-class.html

http://twgsbmedia10a2group6.blogspot.com/2010/10/ch-audience-research-sample.html

• It was also important that we tested our print texts at the early stages to ensure that we were going in the right direction. Here is a link to my (Rosie) post highlighting peoples first response to my first draft: http://twgsbmedia10a2group6.blogspot.com/2010/11/rc-advert-for-music-video-mock-up.html

• After receiving the green light for our concept we made considerable development on our music video before testing a 'rough cut' to our class and few other outside members always considering our target audience
• The questions we asked included:

1. Did you enjoy the video and why?
2. Does it stand up to repeated viewings?
3. How is the genre of track apparent through the video?
4. How do you perceive the artist/band? How does this construct/reinforce their image?
5. Name one shot you liked and why
6. Name one area which could be improved and how

The results from this rough cut feedback showed:

• The cutting rate (particularly in the arcade sequence) needed improving
• People particularly enjoyed the car sequences, especially the one car shot that was sped up
• People found our concept to be interesting and thought it stood up to repeatability
• They found the lighting to be too dull in some areas
• We had a good range of shots
• The liked the bright lighting in the arcade shots
• They thought that it suited the indie genre by conforming to the conventions in most parts

Below is the embedded audience research completed by Casey:

These interviews were conducted after a viewing a preliminary final cut of the film.

The results showed:

1. Our target audience enjoyed our film
2. Our target audience understood the purpose of the film
3. They believed it would stand up to repeatability, a concern of ours
4. They especially enjoyed the arcade scenes
5. Like us, they noticed the problematic dark shots, another concern
6. They agreed it had many of the conventions of an indie video
7. As a whole, they understood the concept and it appealed to them
8. The band performance (particularily the main singer) were very convincing

• This informed our development by confirming the points we had already made.
• From here, we were able to make certain small changes (such as the use of more arcade shots in the final scene, and cut in different shots to shorten the dark scenes).
• However, after these small changes we were confident in finalizing our film, as their feedback assured us that the video would be succesful if not for the (now changed) small problems.

We then conducted further research after the finished cut. Below are some example quotes;

• "Very modern, cool, fun,"
• "Exciting and interesting, I'd watch it again and again,"
• "I want to watch it again, I see different things each time!"
• "The main singer was very indie,"
• "I liked the arcade scene best,"
• "My favorite shot was probably when the bad boy was hanging out the window,"
• "My favorite shots were actually when the main singer was in the background of the getting ready scenes,"

• We encoded the text to show many of the above things; rebellion, fun, the cult of youth, popular indie conventions; and the above research concludes that our preferred reading was definitely taken among our audience.
• An example of this is the quote "when the bad boy was hanging out the window," because this is a coded signifier of rebellion and the cult of youth; the audience are responding to it in a positive manner.

Below is a video of two teenage girls answering questions after watching the final cut of our music video because we felt we needed more of a female perspective of our video:





The points they brought up once again confirmed the points already made, highlighting to us where our issues lied with this final cut.

• We also managed to gather more audience feedback by posting our video onto our blog gaining three relevant responses:

• We feel that our product can be consumed in either an ambient or focused fashion because although our video is narrative-based there is enough breaks in continuity for people to watch it without paying full attention
• We think that our video would appear on music channels such as NME, Kerrang and possibly MTV.
• It is hard to allocate music channels because there does not seem to be many that just focus on 'indie' music videos
• However, because there is an element of rock to the soundtrack we feel that, that would be a reason for it to appear on channels such as Kerrang

• After more development on our print texts we then posted our final versions onto our blog alongside some questions relevant to our text

• However, it seemed that we were not getting immediate responses so I (Rosie) went out and tested my print text to the first four people aged between 15-24 that I could find
• Here is a link to a post showing my results: http://twgsbmedia10a2group6.blogspot.com/2010/12/i-have-carried-out-survey-to-aid-my.html

• We think that our adverts would run in magazines such as Q and NME, which are magazines that focus on the less 'mainstream' music
• Just like our video we think that our texts would be consumed by youths aged between 15-24

• All our audience feedback proved to be invalid.
• If it weren’t for this attribution then we may have been restricted in the ways that we could improve our piece.
• Audience feedback is there to constructively critique and to make suggestions on methods of cultivating our music video, so without this there is no way that our product would develop in the most effective manner and therefore become the best it can be.