A2 Media Studies Coursework Evaluation: Question 3 Response

A2 Media Studies Coursework Evaluation: Question 3 Response

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"Gathering research for my coursework was integral, as I could utilise the feedback to further develop and explore the production of each individual products, both main and ancillary.

My first steps at gathering research meant utilising social media to procure feedback for the first cut of my music video. I took to Facebook and uploaded a link that would send my audiences to YouTube, where they could view the first cut of the music video, as well as a link to SurveyMonkey for my questionnaire regarding my ancillary products. Ensuring that my audiences could view the products at the same time, I also included links that would direct them to my ancillary products on my Media blog.

Utilising Facebook was an incredibly effective way of gathering feedback as it is a platform that is utilised nearly everyday by my friends and peers, thus, I was confident that I would gather appropriate responses. In terms of satisfying my target audience demographic, I targeted a selection of people from a selective interaction option on Facebook. Creating a private list of people who could view the post, I targeted these specific people as they were the demographic that I believe would more than likely interact with my product, and based on the feedback I received, I was correct in my assumption. The private list that I created had an amalgamation of my friends from all over the world. I did this with a strong intention in mind, as I wanted to see if being located in a different country and influenced by different cultures would alter the way in which audience members received and interpreted my product. I found that, from research, there was a general consensus on the emotionality of the video and how well the narrative translated to them, but there were no obvious differences in cultural reception.

Initial feedback from Facebook was incredibly positive, albeit there were some of my friends and peers that provided me with some constructive criticism.

Feedback indicated that my consideration of mis-en-scene, colouring, lighting, narrative and technical elements (such as slow-motion) were superb. I also managed to successfully convey the overall mood and tone of the music video to my audiences, as they felt “sad” but “uplifted” and “happy” at the same time. In terms of my development, some of my peers suggested that I edit down some of the camera shots nearer the beginning of the video, more specifically, the close-up camera shots of the female protagonists eyes (00:52 – 00:55). After going back into Final Cut Pro X and amending the issue, I noticed that the alteration of the timing for the camera shots didn’t really fulfill my intention of creating an emotive piece of film. But, I didn’t completely disregard their suggestions, I did alter the timing slightly, but not to the extent that the footage was edited in a rapid fashion - as this didn’t convey the emotional tone of the video.

As well as altering the length of some of the footage, a couple members of my audience suggested that I match the beat of the music to the editing during the car scene. Going into Final Cut Pro X, I adhered to their suggestion and found that it worked extremely well, emphasising the element of succinctness and cohesion within the visuals. I chopped the visual footage so that it married with the bars that were evident within the music levels, so that every time a “beat dropped”, there would be a visual cut within the footage (2:15 – 2:20).

After completing my alterations to the video, I then reposted the music video link on my Facebook account and asked my friends and peers if the footage looked better. I was happy to see that all of them agreed with the alterations that I made and really enhanced the cohesion of the video. Although, there was a friend that challenged my decision not to dramatically edit down the first opening scenes, I quickly justified my reasoning, which he seemed to accept. Overall, it seems that the alterations that I made based the opinions of my audience demographic, worked extremely well and I achieved exactly what I wanted to creatively, whilst also fulfilling my intention.

As aforementioned, I took to SurveyMonkey to design a questionnaire suitable for my audience demographic. When designing the questionnaire, I knew that I wanted qualitative and quantitative data, as I wanted to gather statistics, as well as written opinions.

Because I must evaluate the entire product package, I decided to include a variety of open and closed questions – some of which required the audience member to provide a number on a scale of how successful my products were as a whole and some of which required them to provide a reason for their answer. I was really happy to see that all of the written responses were positive, with key effect being in the simplicity of my products – as they didn’t feel “overwhelmed with outlandish colours or distracting fonts”.

As I mentioned before, I wanted to investigate if living in a different country influenced the way in which my audience received my products – however, based on feedback gathered form the survey and individual responses, there seemed to be no correlation on the way in which they interpret or feel about certain elements on my ancillary products or music video.

From feedback, it was clear to see that the people that were interacting with my products the most were female, taking the lead with a 54.4 percentile, whereas the male demographic came in at around 45.5%. I found this interesting as my products were not aimed at any sex or gender more than the other, but perhaps this response echoes how feminine my designs might be, as a female audience seemed to interact with my products more.

It was interesting to see that I received a couple of responses from members of my audience demographic that were in the age range of 35 and upwards. I believe that this was due to the fact that my product advertised REO Speedwagon as a featuring artist. On the other hand, I am aware that not a lot of people from an older demographic responded and I put this down to the fact that many of them might not use Facebook as a social media platform and I am not friends with many people above my own age. 

A multiple-choice question allowed my audience members to choose which element on the DigiPak design was the most effective. Although nine members answered that all elements of the design were effective, three people believed that the colouring was the most successful element, with 2 people each believing that the layout, fonts/text and texture were the most successful elements. Overall, I am extremely happy with the responses that I received for this question, as I believe that the responses echo my success in my DigiPak design as a whole.

As well as the DigiPak question, I provided the audience with another multiple-choice question; this time concerning the success of individual elements on my Magazine Advert. As evidenced, there seems to be more of a mixed response about the elements of the advert, as only 5 people believe that all of the elements were successful on the final design. Following close behind was the interactivity of the advert as well as the music reviews. I am still extremely proud of my design and I believe that I made a conscious effort to make the advert relevant to a 21^st Century audience – which, according to my feedback, paid off.

It was great to see that 100% of my audience thought that my products were visually engaging - thus reiterating how I have successfully fulfilled my intention of creating captivating and engaging products. Again, it is clear from feedback that 100% of my audience thought that my products successfully represented the band. This is perhaps due to the influence of their original tour posters and magazine adverts, as I consistently evidence that I am maintaining a strong relationship between each individual product and the original designs.

As with all films and media texts, there are subliminal or more obvious messages that are woven into different products in order for audiences to decipher and interpret. The overarching, dominant message that I wanted audiences to interpret from my music video was that relationships are bound to be turbulent, but as life progresses, people can move forward through hardships and rejoice together in perfect harmony. With my ancillary texts, the dominant reading that I wanted to advertise was the band that I am representing, and help to accumulate a wider audience whilst introducing members of my audience to new music. I believe that I have achieved this rather successfully, as evidenced by my feedback. In line with Stuart Hall, the audience are at their own will to decide which reading to give a media text – either dominant, oppositional or negotiated. However, I believe that my audience members have received the dominant message that I was trying to portray throughout all of my products.

The way in which my products relate to the Uses and Gratifications Theory is through different audience interpretations of the messages that I have portrayed in my products. On one hand, the audience fulfills the objective of escapism and entertainment, as they watch my music video, they are no longer conscious of the outside world and instead delve into the realm of two characters that are in love.  Audiences may also experience a connection with social and personal identity, as once they remove themselves from the external world, they may identify with the narrative of the music video, or the actual characters themselves.

In regards to my ancillary products, audiences may take pleasure in entertainment when divulging information from both the DigiPak and Magazine advert; as colours, fonts and overall design may intrigue them and coerce them to form a reading, whether dominant, oppositional or negotiated, or form an opinion from the texts."