In order for me to measure the success of all of my products, I have had to distribute them across a wide range of sources (mainly the internet) in hope for some audience reception over the past few weeks.
Music Video
As shown in the previous distribution post, I uploaded my finished music video onto YouTube because it is now a global success and is home to millions of people, mostly those that fall into my target audience age group of 13-20 years old. After uploading to YouTube, I managed to get lots of comments from users giving me as much feedback as possible.
Candidate 1
Tayla P
(YouTube)
From this feedback, I can tell that this user really liked my music video as she had the ability to pick out lots of strengths. I really appreciated how she noticed the black and white effect and the narrative that I worked so hard on trying to create, especially as she was able to pick out on the lack of stereotypes as a positive.
Candidate 2
Kiran Saghir
(YouTube)
This target audience member was able to offer me some criticism in the way she noticed how some shots are lighter than other ones. I think this was probably down to my individual changing of the colours of settings such as Dunstable Downs and St. Albans Park, though I think I did a good enough job of this to be not much of a great concern. However, Kiran did praise the continuity of the narrative and the time I spent on the editing which is well appreciated.
Candidate 3
Shane Ashcroft
(YouTube)
Even though this comment is much more basic compared to the others I have received it shows that audience members are liking the product that I have created and gives me confidence in the decisions I have made so far.
Candidate 4
Chloe1495
(YouTube)
The opening statement of this feedback alone is enough to make me happy, and the word 'professional' is what I have been looking for all along. She also noticed the lip syncing, the visuals matching the lyrics and the use of scenes. However, she did pick out the change in brightness for some of the scenes which is again a recurring criticism.
Candidate 5
XxRawrRamishxX
(YouTube)
This feedback was very helpful for me as it gave me some praise for the theme and the creativity, and still offered from feedback on how to improve. Again, she noticed the different intensities in colour for some scenes which is a given, but she also added the fact she might have appreciated credits at the end. Unlike films, music videos do not feature full length credits at the end but what I think this audience member means is the recognition of the institution/directors at the end as the last thing that the audience see.
As well as uploading to Youtube, I added the link to my Facebook and Twitter account which I think is the reason why I got so many likes and views on my video because every time I re-added the link to these sites, the views on my video increased. This shows me that audience members are using social networking sites to access a lot of things, and that the connection between YouTube and social networking sites is very high.
I also got some responses from people via text message who had watched my music video and were very impressed.
Candidate 6
Abbie
(Text Message)
This feedback was very positive and it praised the idea of the music video and the general feel of it. As a media student, this also shows me how my target audience access technology, and how this target audience member felt it necessary to text.
Candidate 7, 8 & 9
Chloe, Emma and Lisa
(Text Message)
This feedback was from a family of people who told me their favourite parts were Ted's performance scenes and the scenes of Tayla dancing at St. Albans Park. I appreciated these comments, especially Ted's performance scenes, as these are the shots that I worked hardest on filming and also editing.
On Twitter, I also got some feedback from some friends who RT'd the link of my music video to other people and gave some positive feedback for me too.
Overall, I think the audience reception of my music video was very good. I was given lots of praise for my efforts, as well as some criticism on the brightness of some of the shots compared to others. Taking this into consideration, if I were to repeat this task over again I would make sure I spend some time planning the colours before I begin filming, and also make sure that all of the scenes are more precise and accurate. In general, though, the feedback was very happy and showed that they all enjoyed aspects of it.
Digipak and Poster
To promote these products, I also uploaded images of them to Facebook and Twitter for my target audience to notice and give me feedback as well. However, even though some of my target audience members liked and RT'd them to other people, they didn't give me as much feedback as they did for my actual music video. Instead, I decided to do a quick questionnaire with each of them where I could record their answers on a piece of paper and use that for my analysis. I chose to question 5 different aged people to comment on my ancillary tasks and give me some strengths and weaknesses of both.
Candidate 1
Stacey Barton, 20
Strengths: I really liked the jail/convict theme you used on your Digipak as that's a typical type of R&B music theme. I also liked how you used the same theme on your poster, and the realism of both products is very good.
Weaknesses: I think you could have changed the image of the CD design to the same background as the others as its quite random.
I think this feedback is very fair in how she recognised the change in image on my CD design compared to the background of others. This is something I realised as well when producing my Digipak, though the CD design is usually not the same, just connected in a way, which is what I found out when studying previous Digipak's. However, she did comment on the theme I used which was one of my later decisions and shows how my reconsideration has paid off.
Candidate 2
Sarah Smith, 18
Strengths: I really like the chrome effect of the writing on your poster as it drew my attention in straight away. I can also see you've put a lot of effort into your Digipak and the layout of the text and images.
Weaknesses: I think the layout of the review could have been changed slightly as its not very noticeable and the image on the CD design.
The same weakness of the CD design was given again from this candidate which shows me this decision may have been something I should have improved or thought about more. However, I liked the way this candidate picked up on the effect I had used for the font and shows that what may seem a simple thing is very effective to my target audience.
Candidate 3
Daniel Sahyoumie, 14
Strengths: I think your attempt at capturing the R&B genre is an obvious strength as it's very urban, hip and modernised, and is something I would look for when entering the R&B section of a music store.
Weaknesses: I can't pick out any immediate weaknesses, though something you may reconsider is the effects you have used for the texts on the poster as some of them look slightly different to others.
This feedback was actually very helpful in making me realise something I hadn't noticed before - the effects I had used on the fonts on my poster were actually slightly different to one another and if you looked close enough you could see this. Though, I will take away the fact he praised my knowledge of the R&B genre so much as this was a clearly important part of my Digipak.
Candidate 4
Luke Brooks, 16
Strengths: You have clearly planned this product against your chosen genre and thought about the audience you are making it for, hence the reference to iTunes.
Weaknesses: The small text on the back of your Digipak and on your poster is difficult to read so I have no idea what it says if it's important.
The small writing I have included on both of my products is simply copyright information about the institution that every media product includes. Fortunately, this writing isn't massively important and as I realised this, I was able to make it of a smaller font so the target audience understood it wasn't important. However, this candidate praised my planning of the product which is a surprise as this final draft wasn't my original idea and shows that the effort I put in can be sought by my audience.
Candidate 5
Amanda Gower, 13
Strengths: Both products look very similar so I know that the Digipak goes with that poster. The layout of the poster is very good in how Ted is standing on the right on the poster and the picture of his Digipak is on the left works well.
Weaknesses: All I can say is that the sentence about iTunes is slightly to the left and could be placed in the middle more.
I agree with the weakness that this candidate has mentioned in how this could have been aligned more with the rest of the components on the product. Apart from this minor criticism, she was able to notice and compare both products together which I have been waiting for and she has praised my attention to detail on the structure and mise-en-scene of my poster.
With all of the feedback I have received for my ancillary tasks, I am very happy as the outcome is very positive and audience members have picked out on strengths that I had decided on from the start. I have been able to turn their criticism into potential changes I would make in the future which shows how helpful feedback from audience members are in improving products.
