Task 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Once completing the construction of our music video, it was time to evaluate whether or not the production of it had appealed to our audience members. One method of achieving this was through the use of ‘You Tube’ in which we posted our final video. Here, viewers where able to leave their comments anonymously which therefore meant that when analysing the viewers in terms of sectors of our target market, we did not in fact know whether the commented viewers where in fact in our target audience or not. This therefore provided a range of demographical feedback. Two examples left by viewers read,
“I really liked this video and the pop art theme. I think the strongest part of the video, is to do with editing the music (e.g. distinctive beats.) I also agree with the person before, just being picky but it would have been nice if the picture was landscape, but well done.”
Another comment left by an anonymous viewer read,
“I love the use of pop art and the Andy Warhol-esc style in the video. It is almost like the artists inspiration was the music you are listening to and the paintings she makes are a reflection of her thoughts around this music.”

These two comments enabled us to understand the viewer’s opinions of our strengths and weaknesses regarding our production as well as expressing their own intake as well as belief of the narrative within the video. This is reflected in the last comment in which the viewer believed the paintings were a reflection of her thoughts around the music. As the creators, this allows a new outlook as well as oppositional reading of the video.

Additionally to this, focus groups were carried out in which a random sample of 16-18 year olds were collected specifically collected within our target audience age in order to gain feedback upon their screening. I found this to be a beneficial process, as it allowed us to see not only the strengths and weaknesses of the performance video but also provided ideas of what they themselves would change if they were to do it again. The role of the artist was also questioned as I wanted to discover whether the views would have preferred, negotiated or oppositional readings to ours. When the screening was carried out, the main strength noted was the editing of the material, such as the accuracy of the lip syncing as well as the visually stylish popping of the band backwards and forwards, described by the viewers as “fitting in well with the style of the song. “ Additionally, when each frame was hung, the precision of blending between the imposed after effect image with the real black frames was appreciated by our focus group. Additionally to this, the ending was appreciated in terms of the frame were she walks back to stand with the boys, with one comment saying, “It added a professional look to the video with the surprise twist of the band hanging up the artist to finish it off.”

An all round main strength felt amongst the group, however, was the artistically stylish mise en scene of the piece in terms of the way the bright colours add to the mood of the video, e.g. bright yellows and greens connotes a joyful, fun loving band. The strengths mentioned were closely similar to mine as well as the aspects I found most enjoyable to watch and create within the video. Despite the strengths of the video, the focus group felt that weaknesses also played a part such as one focus group member suggesting that the narrative was difficult to comprehend at times, such as the reason behind the boys being painted. Moreover, when the artist walks back to group with the boys in the last shot, one member found the artists movement “to be a bit sluggish and therefore could be seen as unprofessional.” In terms a mutual weakness felt amongst our group, it was the appearance of the boys in terms of their age and size. They where described to look young and unsexy by the peers.

I found this to be a fatal blow to our video, as this comment came from a member of our female target audience and therefore did not appeal to her in terms of their music stardom of sexual magnetism. If this was to be felt amongst a large number of our female based audience this could reduce the number of albums sold dramatically. Having said this, others argued that a song such as ‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa’ did not need attractive older men as the song portrays a more youthful, fun, lovingness to the song in terms of their star image and in some circumstances plays to the bands advantage. For example, due to their young, unprofessional look this gives the star image of ‘being successful against the odds’ and therefore the band act as underdogs in the music industry which may potentially appeal to our target audience of 16-24 year olds as they are young people starting out in their carrier paths themselves.

I understand the weaknesses suggested and do agree in parts. I would also add that if I was to recreate this project again, I would have edited out the nails in the Andy Warhol pop art section as although small and insignificant detail I feel, the shot would have had a greater affect if the canvas had appeared on the wall without the look of hanging them up. This led me onto my next trail of thought for questioning the focus group ‘would you do anything differently if it was your video?’ One member stated the idea of locating the video in different sites for shots such as painting real walls in subways or on the street, providing a more diverse look to the video. Another proposition made was to have the band members dance more in order to portray their star image of a fun loving quirky band more as well as acting as their visual equivalent to the music. The idea of a close friendship came across by the band and was a preferred reading amongst the group, however they felt that although there were vast close ups of the lead singer, drummer and guitarist, there were not enough of the bass player and therefore this resulted in the feeling of a tight friendship of the group being lost among one member as they felt the bass player to be “left out.”

By proving more close ups of the bassist perhaps a greater unity and friendship could be portrayed to the viewers. In regard to my own feelings about carrying out the project again, I would not have the band members shake the frames once they pulled it to their face in the narrative. This previously intended to have imposed faces of the band pulling faces, which would have been created in after effects to then pull the frames down in order to look at their faces and shake them off. This narrative soon changed in the rough cut edit once we realised this would be time consuming and hard to complete in the time period. As a group we therefore made the decision to leave it the way it is. This has no created a problem for our video, however, as it appears to be framing their crotches which some members of the focus group found confusing to the narrative.

My next set of questions, led me onto exploring the encoding and decoding model for our music video. The idea believes that ‘Media’ texts are ‘encoded’ (both consciously and unconsciously) with the values of their producers who are generally seen as white, middle-class, men. However an audience is not made up exclusively of these groups and therefore different groups are likely to ‘read’ the text in different ways. This was where the idea of preferred, negotiated, oppositional and aberrant readings took part in our feedback for our targeted focus group.
Firstly, the preferred readings of the group were analysed, meaning the audience closely reflected our values regarding the video as well as accepting and agreeing with the concepts and ideas portrayed by us. An example of this is shown in our piece, were we wanted the artist who creates and hangs up framed images of the boys to be seen as idolising the band; however holding the twist at the end where the band hang up a frame of the artist therefore symbolising the band idolising the artist. This creates a preferred reading of the video, as the group suggested she was ‘godlike’ to the band with the members lusting over her attractiveness as if worshipping her.

This was in fact the effect we were looking for. Having said this, an oppositional reading occurred in which a meaning is created for the movement however it runs against the values of the producers and therefore the viewers do not accept or agree with the values of ours. This was the case for the same section in which a member of the focus group felt it to portray aspects of revenge in which the band members where taking revenge on the artist by hanging her up to see ‘how she liked it.’ It was also suggested that the artist painting the band acts as the creator for them such as the marketing director who invented them as a synthetic band who put them together in order to target different markets and appeal to a wide range of audiences. This goes against our original intention of portraying the boys as a fun loving, self nurtured organic band.

Negotiated readings were also carried out in which some values of ours were accepted; however others were not, forming a debate and negotiation amongst people. This was the biggest category in which the comments fell into as some ideas and values were accepted as well as new ones similar yet diverse were created. For example, one member of the audience believed that as she painted the boys they came to life more and more as well as making the art accessible by keeping it quirky and easy, therefore portraying the accessible quirky image of the band to the audience. This was where our pop art styled theme occurred in which Andy Warhol believed that everybody deserved 15 minutes of fame.

Additionally to this, the fact that all members of the band are part of the group is shown through the various close ups of the drummer and other members. This therefore demonstrates to the viewers that the song is not fixated around the lead singer but instead shows off all the bands talents e.g. instrumentals, providing a strong image of not only friendship but also unity and equality for the band which in effect will sell the entire band and not just the one lead singer.
Overall, I feel the feedback was successful in terms of the group having similar ideas and views of the video to us, proving the success to our main objectives and ideas of post production. In addition to the success of the overall narrative being understood in terms of representations and meanings, and as a group we took on the weaknesses expressed by the group and viewed it as constructive criticism for how to improve the project if carried out again.