Evaluation Question 3

What have you learnt from audience feedback?

The production of my music video has been designed in order to appeal to a specific audience demographic I identified in the early stages of production. This approach attributes to Stuart Hall's Reception Theory, which depicts that the producer encodes the media text in a specifically for the audience to decode it, which is something I indefinitely did- making the music video a direct reflection of the age and social demographic of the primary audience. Furthermore the audience feedback I have collected from fellow media students who fall within my age demographic, as well as anonymously via an online survey service (Survey Monkey) in order to broaden the response I receive. Predominantly the feedback has been dominated by a hegemonic opinion, meaning the purpose of the text has been received as it was intended by the audience. 

As we can see, for Question 1 for this survey focuses on the comedic aspects of the music video; something of which we paid close attention to throughout the shoot, using comedy to achieve a more entertaining viewing experience. Question 2 also mostly has a continuous response, our cultural transmissions focusing on the Britishness of the band; therefore reflecting this in our choice of location (e.g Cromer, Thetford Forest and the school). The bottom questionnaire closely references the mise-en-scene captured in Cromer; the arcades and

shot of the star performer with a Noddy amusement, (a British children's television show that would have been popular throughout the childhoods of our audience therefore further reiterating the British nature of the video). Thematically the music video explores escapism and day dreaming and all three responses have recognised this concept fully, which is pleasing as a producer. The response to Question 4 is vaguely more varied, the second response notes our representation of youth, dream like and prosperous; this then followed up by

the other two responses that explicitly recognise the the escapism and day-dreaming purpose of the video; this serving as a way for the protagonist to break away from everyday norms. The answers to Question 5 differentiate the most, but all fortunately pick up upon different intertextual references transgressed throughout the music video. The top response has realised the link to C.S Lewis novel 'The Chronicles of Narnia'. The second response recognises a pop-art approach, something I then carried through onto my print productions in order to reflect the origins of the pop rock genre, (e.g The Beatles (rock), Madonna (pop). The third response again links to a textual reference to Alice in Wonderland, our production drawing inspiration from the surrealism Alice experiences within Wonderland as well as the development of youth and growth in personality as the narrative progresses, so I feel very fortunate that this reference has been noticed.

The responses from fellow media students predominantly identify the post-production of the music video, which is a nice variation in feedback to receive as opposed to the content response I received from my online survey. All 3 responses here are from male viewers, our demographic for the artist being predominantly female ,(due to the female star protagonist and lack of Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory), so I thought it would prove to be interesting to examine the responses from a male audience. I felt like the response from a male group was mostly positive, they responded generally well to the overall video, two answers rating it 5 out of 5, one male rating it a 4.5. However, it is obvious that the most appealing part of the video to this male group of media students is the camerawork and edit, "editing left me gripped" and "use of colour" in response to what their favourite part of the production was. There was no strong comment on narrative other than "clearer story", which I appreciate the criticism but in relation to Hall's theory, the intended primary audience was not male, therefore it is understandable that as a viewer he was not able to decode the text so thoroughly.

 The following three answers are from both our primary audience demographic (British female between 14-25) and interestingly enough I felt like the majority of criticism came from this group despite them being our target audience. The overall ratings from all three responses is a 4, despite the positive remarks made on edit and use of colour to demonstrate contrast. The integration between the grey scale filter representing reality and vibrant colours of the dream scape is something picked out across both genders, both commenting on the fact they liked the use of colour- this whole heartedly intentional within our production in order to make an obvious connection between lyrics and visuals (in keeping with Goodwin's theory of relationship between lyrics and visuals). Our use of Goodwin's theory is continually received well, the fast pace of the edit
                                         (relationship between music and visuals), keeping with

quick beat of the track. The edit was generally praised and the camera work, "really strong shots", well commented upon also. I was most pleased with how well the video managed to maintain the audience's attention across all feedback forms. Notes such as "edit left me gripped" and "held attention well" both describe how the video was the right length and transgressed an entertaining narrative. Conclusively I am happy with the feedback, it demonstrates that our intertextual references were explicit, the editing and chronology of the narrative took effect and captivated both the primary audience as well as the secondary male audience, an added bonus. The locations translated the British aspect of the track, and the comedy we attained through use of actress was recognised.

Finally I enlisted the feedback of Charlotte Ball, art and music student and someone who listens to many artists of the same genre as my track. I asked her opinion of my print productions, this was her response:

As Charlotte mentioned, the art-pop nature of the panels really transgressed to the audience, eye-catching it appearance as well as reflective of the bright colours used within the music video. It is obvious she appreciated the slightly less intense aesthetic of the back panel- this contrasting and emblematic of the more 'dreamy' notion of the day- dreaming sequences; (intertextually inspired by Taylor Swift's 'Style' music video promotion). I'm glad she recognised the use of font, this minimalistic in order to project a professional and individual look for the artists. The biggest risk I took throughout the print productions was merely having the beach huts on the advertisement, not the performer which I have had previously on all the panels of the Digipak. Charlotte noted the cultural projection the use of these beach huts carried, and how it reflected 'American minimalist' style, this intentional as it suggests the 'pop rock' genre of the track.