Evaluation Question 3: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?Billy Clayton

Target AudienceAge: The age demographic that my music video and Digipak primarily targets is the 16 20 year old range. This is due to the representations in the production itself which features two actors; one male and one female whom belong to this group and so the audience will identify themselves with such.Gender: The gender that the production predominantly targets is females due to the female actress in both the music video and Digipak playing the lead role of the two. Also, the use of props and objects, such as the floral patterned tea cup and the costume such as lipstick and dresses will appeal to females as they may find interest in the character for her style.Ethnicity: The ethnic background of our targeted audience are likely to be primarily white British due to the two white actors in the music video and the white orientated backgrounds of the fairy tale stories the production is based on, such as Hansel and Gretel for example.Sexuality: The sexuality of our targeted audience is likely to be heterosexual due to the male and female characters in the video hinting at a heterosexual relationship, such as the scene where the male goes down on one knee to propose a flower to the actress as Alice. However, it is possible that the production targets a partially lesbian audience due to Danielles pleasantly styled physical appearance which may attract females just as it does to males.Social Class: The possible social class of our targeted audience approximately fit in to the C1 category on the social class pyramid. This because of the backgrounds of the actors used in the music video as well as the locations featured, such as Norwichs Plantation Garden which sits in the Earlham road area, an area consisting highly of middle class and upper middle class people.Media Interests: The targeted audience are likely to hold interests in modern contemporary fashion and shop at popular branches such as Topshop and H&M due to the clothing and accessories that the actress wears in the production. The target audience may also enjoy music such as Welsh based band Florence and the Machine and British singer-songwriter Marina and the Diamonds as both artists present leading females in their music videos and possess a combination of Indie-alternative, New Wave and contemporary pop elements to their music. The track for Warriors itself holds a very festival orientated vibe to it, so it is likely that our audience enjoys attending British festivals such as Latitude and Glastonbury.

Reception Theory Theorist Stuart Halls encoding and decoding theory can be applied to my production as the feedback received regarding the music video and print productions displays either dominant readings or negotiated readings; Dominant readings are where the consumer fully shares the texts codes and accepts and reproduces the preferred readings. Negotiated readings are where the reader partly shares the texts codes and broadly accepts the preferred reading but sometimes resists and modifies it in a way which reflects their own position, experiences and interests. This means that a media product may either be responded to by the audience in an entirely accepting and enjoyable way, or it is partially done so with some disagreements to certain representations or aspects of the production. As the producer of the music video and print productions, I encoded certain meanings and representations in to the products, however, the audience are open to decode them in their own way.

Audience Feedback To gain an understanding of how my production is to be received by its possible audience, as well as helping to define the audience, I asked several peers to assess first the music video, then the print productions piece via questionnaire which asks them to provide honest opinions towards each piece, what they enjoyed and what they believed required improvements and alterations. Both males and females, media students and non-media students were consulted in to the feedback process. All participants were from the ages of 15 18 years old which is specified on each questionnaire in order to compare the results with one another. Theorists Blulmer and Katz contributed to the uses and gratifications theory, stating that personal identification with the representations in the product help the consumer to identify with such and view the narratives to be applicable to their own lives. In our production, a sense of the power of imagination is presented, thus young people are encourages to strive for a more positive representation of their demographic and find appeal in this as they can relate to situations where they have created scenarios in their minds as a form of escapism.

Music Video Feedback The questionnaire for the music video begins with four questions which asks the participant to circle the most appropriate number from 1 5, with 1 representing the lowest response and 5 representing the highest. 100% of participants (8 in total) awarded either a 4 or 5 for these questions which indicates a highly positive response towards the music video, providing that aspects such as the use of mise-en-scene and quality of camera work and editing were very favoured. However, when regarding gender, this feedback did display that whilst the male participants awarded 11 5s altogether, the female participants awarded 13 5s, proving so far that the production appeals further to females than males. 90% of participants believed that the music video was the correct length, with 10% stating they were undecided which revealed that for the majority, the length needed little to no alteration. 100% of participants stated that they would watch the video again, generating a highly positive response as it means that our production was both captivating and entertaining, fulfilling its primary purpose. The following question asks for suggestions that could improve the appeal of the music video, with 20% suggesting a slightly wider use of location. This allowed us as a group to consider further exiting and stimulating locations to include during a re-shoot where we took our Goldilocks scene from the kitchen to a woodland area of a park, allowing our primarily teenage audience to escape the home environment when watching the video, thus increasing appeal based on this minor alteration. Once again, 100% of participants stated that they found no aspects of the music video offensive, this clearly indicates that our representations, such as that of women are encouraging and challenging rather than derogatory and objectifying, thus increasing appeal for the female viewer.

Questionnaire Examples

Music Video Feedback The next question asks participants to go in to further detail with their answers, asking if they found any aspects of the video confusing or hard to understand. 20% of the responses agreed that the transitions from one fairy tale to another were slightly confusing or hard to follow. This therefore allowed us to ensure the editing cleared this confusion by including fade to black or white where appropriate in order to reinforce the separation between each scene and increase the appeal of the music video whilst avoiding the production being too ambiguous or complex. Furthermore, this 20% came from male participants, indicating that the overall production holds more appeal to female viewers who found no trouble following the narrative of the video. A highly positive variety of answers were submitted for the following question which asks the participant to highlight their favourite part of the production with answers varying from the use of mise-en-scene to the overall fairy tale theme being original and fascinating, thus encouraging us to continue this theme in the print productions process due to its positive feedback.

The next two questions ask if the video appropriately reflects the style of music and if it successfully promotes the artist. These questions generated a yes response from 90% of the participants, with the 10% that chose undecided being male acting as a further indication that our video appeals to females more so than males. Finally, the last question which returns to the 1 5 formula asks participants to give the music video and overall ranking. The most common response was a 4, a very positive response in general. The remaining 20% who ranked the video with a 5 were from female participants, responding to the video in a highly awarding manner and concluding that the music video generates a higher response from female viewers, thus our target audience is defined.

Further Questionnaire ExamplesFemale responseMale response

Print Productions Feedback In order to gain an understanding of how my print productions were to be received by my target audience, I used another questionnaire which asked peers for their opinions on the Digipak and magazine advertisement. The questionnaire opens with five 1 5 rated questions, like the previous and asks Does the package successfully reflect the genre of music? 60% of participants circled 5, whilst 40% awarded a 3 for this question. This prompted me to consider how fonts participate in reinforcing genre, therefore I responded to this by researching bands of the same genre for inspirational purposes to improve this area. The more critical 40% also happened to be male participants which again highlighted that the overall production contains heavier audience appeal towards females. Whilst only 2 5s were awarded in total from the male responses, a total of 21 5s were circled by the female participants, displaying a heavy contrast in the responses of this section of the questionnaire and highlighting that the print productions did not hold as much appeal for the male participants in comparison to the female responses.

A total of 45% of females stated they would be encouraged to by the Digipak, whilst only 30% of males stated they would, with the remaining 25% circling undecided. Another question asks participants to share what they feel would improve the print productions, with 30% of the responses stating they felt the Digipak was repetitive and could promote the artist heavier, therefore this feedback allowed me to increase visual appeal by altering colour saturation and enlarging the bands logo to further emphasize the artist to the viewer. Finally, the questionnaire asks for an overall rating which generated an average of 4 from the male participants and 4.5 from the female participants, thus defining my target audience as before with the results received from the music video.

Print Production Questionnaire ExamplesMale responseFemale response

Value of Audience Feedback Overall, the use of audience feedback for both the music video and print productions has allowed me to gain an understanding of exactly who my target audience is, and furthermore confirm that both pieces primarily appeal to a female audience. This can be applied to Stuart Halls encoding and decoding theory: The female viewers can relate to and apply themselves to the representation of the actress in both the music video and Digipak for Warriors as they are encouraged to be imaginative and creative and are not restricted by popular objectifying methods in many contemporary media products that dominate the music industry today. Whilst positive responses were generated from male participants, more critical responses came from those too, implying that the production as a whole is not as suited towards a male audience as it is for a female audience. The use of feedback has also been essential in the process of creating both the music video and print productions as it has enabled me to build upon my work and focus on areas of revision that I would not have picked up on myself, linking to the negotiated readings aspect of Halls theory which highlights areas of a production that are rejected by consumers; thus by observing these issues, I have been enabled to produce the best possible production.