Evaluation Question 4: What have you learned from your audience feedback?
We found, from our audience feedback, that our music video has been a success. We were able to effectively present to our audience the messages we had hoped would come across in our video and our other ancillary texts. We received a large amount of positive feedback, as well as some constructive criticism that we have taken on board. From this, we have been able to completely understand the necessary objectives to conform to the demands of our target audience.
From the beginning of the editing process, we received continuous and beneficial feedback, in which we were able to adapt our music video over time to include or fix anything brought up. Some of the most comm suggestions included using more transitions for a smoother and cleaner flow to the video, using a darker and less visible font for our use of text, seen at points 0:56 - 1:03 of our final video, and altering the saturation to adhere to the more gloomy and miscellaneous atmosphere. Throughout the editing process, we noticed these changes and the impact they had on our video, and the positive feedback we received from our target audience reflects this.
We received a large amount of comments on our music video. These have made us feel more confident in our video and how it has been successful. These comments have been added to the video here. (link this to annotated video). Overall, these comments talked about the concept and how it worked to create an interesting watch. Some mentioned the effects of the editing and how this enhanced their experience. We didn't receive any constructive criticism through this platform. One of our commenters recognised how"the story goes so well with the music". This has been promising for us, as we were concerned some may not be able to relate the two elements together. As we have used the lyrics of the song as the focal point of our video, we were concerned some may not be able to focus on linking them to the visuals. From experience, we understand that particular music videos do not use the song or lyrics as a basis for what is visually presented. As we have challenged this idea, we were concerned we may have lost the interest of our target audience. However, having received this feedback, we are happy that we decided to do this. We believe our video is more unique and found the elements of music videos that we challenged became some of our video's strongest assets; for example the editing, with another commenter stating that "the editing...fits perfectly and effectively with the song".
We further received positive feedback from our target audience, which we collected through a survey. These responses focused on the concept, editing and overall feel of the video. Many complimented the quality of the footage, and the use of transitions. However, the feedback was varied, with some saying they found the clear footage off-putting and unnatural in terms of the video and the concept of unpredictability. One user suggested that the use of static would have helped to bring the story to life more, and would make the situation more realistic. When reading this, we began to notice and understand this idea ourselves. Were we to make this video again, we would focus closer on the use of overlays and lens focus to adhere to our story and atmosphere.
We asked our target audience if they understood the concept of our video, to which 100% of participants answered "yes". This was important to us as we wanted our music video to have a clear but important concept, so it is rewarding for us to see that we executed this well. We also asked if the music video worked with and suited the song, to which 100% of participants said "yes". Since we wanted to follow the narrative and ideas portrayed through the lyrics of our song, we are glad to see that this came across to our target audience. Our third question was "Do you think our music video effectively depicts a character suffering with Bipolar Disorder?" We noticed a change in responses at this point, with 66% of our participants answering "a little bit". After having analysed this, we understand that it is hard to know we were focusing on Bipolar Disorder from a different perspective than our own. Although we didn't want to make it completely obvious, we understand that if we were to do this project again, we could include more shots that show changes in emotion, such as flickering from happy to sad, or cheerful to angry, to present a more stereotypical concept that a larger amount of people will understand.
Another thing we learned from our audience feedback was that 66% of our target audience may have seen a video similar to ours. Due to the amount of music videos on the internet, it is hard to avoid this. However, we found it useful to keep in mind when evaluating how effective our video has been. If it may be similar to others, we can feel reassured that we have adhered to some stereotypical features of a music video, and therefore are creating content that matches what our target audience may be expecting.
We were relieved to see that 100% of participants in our target audience survey would purchase our content if it was on the market. This makes us feel satisfied in what we have achieved, and that we have been able to properly attract our target audience.
Our comments from friends and family have been similar to that of online viewers and our target audience. The amount of positive feedback has helped us to understand how we have effectively attracted our audience and integrated what we felt would be most effective in doing this. Some examples of this are seen in the editing process: we felt that more transitions such as zooms, and the use of shape layering to create a "blinking effect" would be more enticing to the audience as it makes the video more visually entertaining, as well as bringing a sense of dramatic tension and unpredictability to the narrative. The compliments on these elements have helped us to believe we executed this well. As these were elements we weren't able to integrate into our AS project, this feedback has also helped us to understand how we have developed and attracted a wider and more visually-orientated audience. These comments have been added onto our annotated video.
Some performance viewings we executed provided us with more detailed and precise feedback. This has been helpful in understanding specific elements of the video, and less of a summative overview. The feedback was again positive and beneficial to us. One viewer stated that they "really loved the detail in the editing, for example at the start when the door opens to reveal the artist's name [0:00- 0:04], and the blinking effect". This feedback on editing has been reassuring in understanding what visually impresses a viewer, and how these happened to be elements that took less time to produce. The viewer continued with "I thought the way you used quick cuts (for example at 1:16, 1:37 and 2:45) was really effective in portraying the idea of dual personalities and also creating an atmosphere of rising tension." We also received positive feedback on our choice of shots, with another viewer stating that "There were some shots in particular which I thought were brilliant, such as the bird's eye view at 1:49." We found the filming process to be one of the hardest, as it was difficult to visualise what would effectively tell a story. The shot mentioned was an aerial shot of our character, which was initially a filler shot. We included this as we felt it portrayed an element of inferiority and depicted how our character would be feeling in relation to her fears and the rest of the world. We are happy this has been recognised by our audience.
