Q3
Audience feedback is key in the media, as the audience bring in the revenue and make a person’s work credible, it is also what makes a music video popular or not, the more people that enjoy a music video the more the message of it gets spread. The aim of an editor/director/producer is to please their audience. The audience is the reason for making a music videos/films, in some cases, however in short films and other various media products it is sometimes not about the money and number of people that would go and watch it but it is about expressing themselves or may be just a hobby rather than a business.
How we went about getting audience feedback:
Questionnaires - Our preferred use of getting audience feedback was through questionnaires as it does not put much pressure on the audience therefore results are more likely to be accurate and true, questionnaires can be designed by using closed questions with yes or no answers or open where the audience can comment on what their opinion is. We included a range of both types of questions, this was because as it is a closed question it was straight to the point and easier to analyse, however we did include open questions so that we could get more depth and it would also enable us to see why people made certain choices or have specific preferences. For example we asked what their favourite music video was and why, by asking an open question like this it enabled us to receive an answer with more depth, we could analyse the reasons why they like these videos. Some responses included “I liked the narrative as it revealed an interesting story” and “I liked the visuals because the song was like a live performance”. Therefore, by receiving these types of responses we were able to use these ideas and reasons why they like the music video to help influence ideas for our music video. As our film is not a Hollywood Blockbuster our scale of people we asked would be a lot smaller than a big film would go and get feedback from, we sent out a questionnaire which included eight questions to all of Hartlepool Sixth Form College which Chantelle and I attend.
Other options include test screenings; this is where an audience is asked to watch the film before it is released and they must comment on good and bad points, these points are then taken into account and the film may be re-edited, we used a similar technique to this but with our peers just to make a few comments on how we could improve our film from another perspective, unfortunately we never recorded this.
There is also the feedback which comes after a film has been made such as reviews, number of dvds sales, exit polls etc which can help the director build upon this in the next film so they do not make the same mistakes or try to include things which the last film have lacked. By gaining this post production feedback.
Throughout our A2 media project, Chantelle and I consistently received audience feedback to help us produce a media product that would be as successful as possible. In retrospect to this, if we can produce something that the audience ask for, then it is a certainty that the product will be a success.
