A2 Advanced Portfolio

Before producing a complete first draft of my music video, I produced small 10 second rough edits of ideas that I initially wanted to incorporate into my video. I printed the following questions to ask peers and family for feedback - I chose not to conduct a large survey using survey monkey because it was only rough edits I was asking about and therefore didn't want to spend too much time waiting for lots of feedback.

Questions:

Do you think it is edited well?
Do you think the timings are correct?
Is there anything I could change?
What is your opinion on the effect I have used (colour correction). Does it go well with the style of the song/artist? Could it be changed in anyway?

As shown, the feedback was very positive as the majority of respondents said that the editing techniques I had used were effective and portrayed the genre well. I therefore went on to use the rough edits in my first draft, making minor changes to fit with the rest of footage I had filmed and edited together. While it was only a small piece of feedback, at the early stage I was at I learned that my editing skills were proficient enough to produce a full product that would look professional. This also gave me confidence in the type of video I was producing (in terms of narrative and who I had chosen to be my artist). Later, I completed several full drafts that I was completely happy with so instead of conducting surveys I asked people (teachers, parents, friends) to watch the videos and give general feedback and support in how they could be improved. This feedback, again, mostly included positive comments on aspects of my video (such as my editing-lip-syncing). Teacher feedback in particular really helped as they were the ones who had the most knowledge about what I was producing and therefore could give me direct feedback on how to improve my draft. While, overall, they said my product was good, they directed me to further filming techniques I could use (such as adding simple camera shot-pans/tilts that would give more variety to my video). From having one to ones with my teachers, I learned ways of going back and analysing my own work, as if it were someone else's, to be able to see areas of improvement, thus giving me a complete product that I was proud to have produced. While I haven't conducted mass surveys for each draft of my music video, I have still learned how my product has been successful from valuable feedback of small groups of people in my class. In a way this has been more beneficial for me in learning from my feedback because if my music video was to be a real product, it would probably be a low key, non-mainstream video because it would target small niche audiences due to the genre. Therefore not only have I learned more ways of producing a professional video, on top of the research I had done, but also how I have been able to affectively address my target audience through conventions.

Further Surveys I Conducted:
Research and Planning:
For my research and planning, I put together the following surveys in order to find out the demographics of my target audience. I did this to be able to understand who would consume my product, therefore allowing me to incorporate specific elements that would address them.

The following screenshots show the poll I added to my blog as part of my music video research. I didn't learn a lot from this poll because it was a lot more difficult to distribute it in order to get responses. Since I only received answers from two female respondents, with almost all similar answers, the results were not representative enough to tell me anything about my target audience- although it did give me a slight guide on where I should start with planning my video. For example, both said that performance is important in a music video, therefore (while not everyone would agree) I knew that it was something I should definitely consider when thinking about whether my video to be narrative based or not.

As I didn't get the amount of responses I was hoping to get, I created the survey again on survey monkey, asking the same questions, and then posted it on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. This meant that I would receive a wider range of responses and would be an easier way for people to access it.

Create your own user feedback survey

(Link to the results)

As shown, I got far more responses that included respondents of both genders. Therefore I could get a better a picture of how to address their age range (predominately 16-24) but also how aspects of my video should attract both males and females (although most respondents were females who the narrative of my video would be most likely to attract).

As these questions didn't specifically focus on target audience research, I went on to produce a Demographic Survey as this would provide the opportunity for me to get a variety of results from people across the college and even the world (since I posted it on social networking sites). Below I have summarised my results by creating an infograph.
- infograph
From the results of this survey I could a learn a lot more about how to address my target audience on a global scale as cultures differ so their views on the product I was making may have differed too.

The only problem with this type of research method is that it wasn't specific to my target audience in terms of genre. Therefore while I learned the average age of my target audience and were they are based, from a survey like this I could not tell whether they were fans of the genre or not- so maybe not the target audience I should have been looking to focus on. However, from later feedback, it appears that my product has in fact addressed my target audience.

Create your own user feedback survey
Again, I created this survey on surveymonkey and was able to get a lot more responses because I posted it on social media sites (facebook, twitter and tumblr). This then meant that I could receive answers from the age group that I was targeting because a larger proportion of 16-24 year olds were most likely to use these sites. From the responses, I learned how my music video should be structured in order to meet the needs of those viewing the video, who like the genre. This guided me into looking at specific conventions of existing products.

Another problem with these three surveys, on a whole, is that because they were distributed individually, I couldn't get a real picture of what my target audience thought of music videos in relation to my genre. While creating my music video, I therefore had to assume that the majority where aged 16-24 because they were posted on social networking sites which are used mostly by this age group.

Digipak: (questions for all drafts were the same)

Link to the results of my survey:
First Draft
Second Draft

By looking at each of the results from the each draft I produced, they show that each time my product was improved and further reflected my artist's genre.

These results may not be reliable. however, because I didn't receive as many responses on my second draft as I did my first. I therefore haven't learned how good of a product my digipak is compared to real products, although this doesn't affect how I feel about the finished product.

However, these surveys do not show all of my audience feedback as throughout the process of creating my product I asked for teacher's and other student's advice on what particular pictures and editing effects I should use- therefore learning more about how my product could be improved via the use of editing and photography (learning the appropriate types of camera shots that suit such a product). Before deciding on the final draft, I also asked each individual in my class for their opinion on which which was the the best along with the best suited CD/DVD design. Although this was, again, limited due to close ended type of question (so wasn't able to learn why they were the best), I still learned that what I had produced was good enough to be chosen as a final product.

Album Advertisement: (questions for all drafts were the same)

Link to the results of my surveys:
First Draft
Second Draft
Placement

In conclusion, by comparing my products to these early responses, I can see that I have used them as a guideline to create my products. Therefore, from my audience feedback, I have learned that....