EVALUATION: Question 4

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Having finished creating our music video, on Tuesday 6th of December 2011, our college had booked the Screen on the Green cinema in Angel so we can all see each others finished music videos. This gave us the opportunity to view each others music videos and compare the similarities and differences between them. As it was the first time our music video was being shown to everyone, it gave us the chance to see the audience's first reactions to our music video. Below is a video showing the audience's reactions when the music video starts and when it ends. The video below also contains some detailed and in-depth feedback from our college's head of media department, Mary (interview courtesy of Nick). 

Mary had given some very detailed and feedback about our music video. Being a media teacher, Mary is very experienced within the media world and knows exactly what works and what doesn't. Thankfully, we received a rave review from a knowledgeable person who has seen may examples of student's music videos. Unlike most people I've heard reviews from, Mary firstly, she went on to praise Poppy's performance in the music video. By playing a big role brilliantly, Poppy was able to make the video look as if she was actually singing the song. She then went on to praise the camera work stating that how there was a massive range of shots. Overall, we had recorded nearly 20 base tracks from all different camera angles to make sure we had a variety of shots in the video. These ranged from low angle shots to extreme close ups. It was great for someone to have noticed this. She also mentioned how the lighting was consistent throughout the video where we tried to have as much lighting on Poppy as we could. She greatly appreciated the locations we recorded in  and the images we projected on to Poppy using the projector. The shots and lighting were so unique that Mary even went on to say how it reminded her of Angela Carter. Picture below:

The journalist (known for her feminist work) Mary had compared
Poppy to, due to the woodland shots we had filmed.

The mise en scene was something else she had said worked well by the way the costumes changed to suit the lighting and colours. This was because during the planning stages, we had discussed greatly the colours and outfits were to be worn by Poppy. We also spent time discussing what make-up she should be wearing and how it should be done.

Although I do not have much footage of peoples thoughts of my music video, I have heard extremely good reviews from everyone who has seen the music video. Many people have stated that they find my group's music video unique in terms of lighting and mise en scene and greatly appreciate the camera work and projection shots used as well as the make-up. As my group all contributed to create the music video, we all feel great appreciation that our music video was seen by many as a success. Much time and effort as well as commitment had been implemented into creating the music video and that effort has shown through in the work we have produced.

Our music video had been posted on YouTube by Nick in response to another successful video to hopefully gain some feedback. And gladly, we did. With over 1900 views on the video, our video had accumulated a few comments from friends and also random people. Below is a screen shot showing the last 8 comments on the video, with mostly all of them being positive.

Comments from our music video on YouTube.

There was however one comment on the video which provided useful information into how we can prove the music video.

Although I do not know who this person is, they gave some good and bad feedback. Whereas Mary and many others had stated they like the way the costume changes depending on the lighting and colours, this person states they prefer the costume to stay consist in the woodland shots. Like may other people I have shown this music video to, they also went on to say that although the projection shot is a good idea, they feel as if it was used too much and not enough footage in the woodlands was used. I have to completely agree with this feedback. This is because as we were going for a theme where the artist is in touch with nature, we did not show that much footage of Poppy actually in the woods. When we did, most of the shots were recorded at night and you could not there see the surrounding woodlands. If we had the opportunity to redo this music video, I will take that advice greatly on board. This is because even I had stated to my group during the production stage that the projection shots were shown too much in the video. If we were to have the opportunity again, I have learnt to focus on each shot equally and make sure more of the woodland shots were implemented into the final edit. By doing this, the music video will present a more constructed theme, rather than the music video looking like its switching between two themes. With this improvement in place, the  the music video would appeal to a more specific type of audience who like the opposite of an urban and technological advanced location.

Trying to find people who found criticism within our work was extremely difficult. As I stated before, people generally liked the music video for what it is as it had surpassed their expectations. An example of this is the below image. Out of 26 votes, 25 people had liked our music video.

25 people out of 26 had liked our music video. That is nearly a ratio of 4 dislikes per 100 people.

If I had only received reviews from YouTube, then I would have been sceptical as the people who watched the video would have only watched it as it would have appealed to them in the first place. Someone who has no taste in this genre of music would not click on the video to watch it therefore making the reviews on YouTube slightly bias. However, the fact that I have received great reviews from people who have no preference in this music at all (such as my friends who listen to more of rap/hip-hop) says itself that the video contained shots or references that relate to everyone's tastes. Although this may sound great, this may also mean that we may have done something wrong. This is because when planning our music video, we had a general theme with a specific target audience in mind which we wanted to target. The fact that we met everyone's preferences shows that we didn't stick to our target audience as much as we'd should have. This has shown me and made me learn that mise en scene plays a big part in music videos and also that our music video needs to have a stronger and more clearer meaning. This is so the target audience get exactly what they want, and not a mixture of a bit of everything.

In terms of feedback for my ancillary products, all I have received are positive reviews. All three ancillary products had taken me over 25 hours to produce excluding planning time. This was because I had scrapped my initial plans after I had discovered I could not do certain edits with the images available to me. Having posted my advertisement to Facebook, I had received all round great feedback.

As you can see, the comments from Facebook show what people think of my work. Each person said something different yet still positive and this is what I have discovered about my work. However, I have heard one or two comments from people stating what they did not like about the work. Firstly, the main thing people stated about both my digipak and advert is the font. The majority of people who look at my ancillary products state the way they love how the images blend together in a unique design and love the colours used. After I press people into saying something negative about the digipak and ancillary product, they always say that the font choice could have been better. I had used Dafont.com to download the font I had used in my ancillary product. However, after a bit of thought, I have learnt and realised that the font could have been more suited to the genre. This was because the font I had used is simple, plain and ordinary with a few effects added to it. The font itself is not one which stands out and has noticeable features that would make it unique to my work. Therefore I have learned that font choice is absolutely vital within my designs.

Overall I have learned a few things in reference to some feedback I have received on my group's work (music video) and my own individual work (my ancillary products). I have learned that my in my music video, most people liked the projection shots while some thought the shots over powered the video. What I have acknowledged from this feedback is that if I was able to redo the music video again, the edit would have to be changed slightly. It would be changed to evenly show Poppy in the forest the same amount of times it shows Poppy in front of the projector. I also learned that in terms of my ancillary products, everyone generally liked the design, the colours and the lighting, but feel as if the font was a let down. This was because people felt that the font didn't link that well with the theme and images and looks as if it much thought had not gone into it, when it had. If these could be redone, I really feel as if the design itself is great, but the font is not; I will change the font to one more suitable to the theme so it can all link up together. Overall, I don't think much change is needed in terms of my music video and ancillary products.