Evaluation Q3 - Audience Feedback

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?



Audience feedback provides us with a new way of looking at the situation when our own ideas are not clear. It also offers us a direct insight into the target audience, which then helps us further focus the content to their taste. When creating our products, we collected a feedback from a large range of sources, enabling us to gain opinions from lots of different people. We collected some form of feedback at every stage of the production, right back from our initial research and ideas up to the point of completing our final cut.

This is England '86 helped us research our secondary audience.

We had to consider our target audience when creating the products. We had two different target audiences in mind:

• Our core target audience was of people aged 16 -25. We wanted to bring Joy Division to a new generation of fans, so we had to make a band from the late 70s appeal to the youth of 2011.
• Our secondary target audience were existing Joy Division fans, who would have been the youth of the late 70s/early 80s. That means the majority will be around 40 - 50 years old. It is important whilst attracting a new audience, we didn't lose existing fans. 

 In Person
This was our primary source for getting feedback. It was the most useful as we could clear converse about suggestions, so actually build up thorough ideas whilst responding to audience feedback. This was useful right back from our initial ideas. We screened each new rough cut we made, and also got feedback on the ancillary products.
Here's a quick vox pop with two other Media students (Mary and Lucy) discussing their thoughts on our magazine advertisements.


This was of particular importance as our media class (one of the groups we screened to) fall under our core target audience. This meant we could begin to think that if they were happy with the video, then we targeting our core audience well. They also have a deep understanding of music videos, so we were all on the same wavelength when thinking about key factors such as genre etc. Our teachers are also Joy Division fans, so the fall into the secondary market, meaning that screenings in class were the ideal way to get audience feedback.
The following video is an example of one of our feedback sessions in class:


As they saw each rough cut they were able to pick up slight changes and tips for what has improved (or not). It was important for us to provide them with a context and also any specific sections that we wanting new ideas for. We found this of particular use because we were able to get the feedback very quickly.

Internet Forum - JoyDiv.org

When originally pitching our idea, the concept was very loose and lacking direction. We considered where to get audience feedback in order to help us drive the project forward. We had earlier researched on the importance of the internet for exhibition of music videos by conducting a short survey, but in the ideas stage in particular we found that a Joy Division fan forum was very useful for giving us ideas.

One particular member gave us some great feedback, very deeply detailing his ideas for the video. As this user was also a recovering drug addict, that had an insight which a majority wouldn't. They were part of our target market as well as experiencing the issues our video signifies. The fact that he and other users seemed supportive of idea was great, and we made substantial changes thanks to his suggestions. A lot of the fans on the site have a great knowledge of Joy Division so this meant their ideas were of particular importance.

Below is a MS word document in which we have copied in his feedback from the forums. As you can see he had a lot of ideas...
Idea

Youtube

As previously mentioned the website and specifically Youtube are very useful for exhibiting music videos. The fact that the website (like Blogger) is free for everyone, means that the opportunity for success is a real possibility. Though this doesn't allow us to target a specific market (though the use of tags does help narrow it down somewhat), it meant that the video was out there for everyone to see and leave feedback.

Youtube has seen the rise of many indie bands to gaining success and likewise indie filmmakers. We ourselves have a had a lot of hits on various rough cuts, with responses again suggesting certain ideas that we have considered. The fact that the video has been recieved so well by viewers, meant we could be sure that we were on the right track.



Facebook

Socio-networking is becoming a major tool for companies/bands to interact with fans. As well as joining a Joy Division group we also posted links to our rough cuts. The people who received these links are narrowed down to being our friends, which therefore meant we could get quality feedback from people we could trust. Again, they also fall under our specific target market.

Summary
Whilst the primary source of getting feedback in person is always useful, like everything these days, the web provides us with exhibition of our video to the masses, and therefore means we can get a much wider spread of feedback. Thanks to the use of different sources for gaining feedback, we got lots of ideas that helped shaped our products to being the quality that they are now. When you see our original rough footage and compare it our final piece and ancillary products, there is a significant rise in quality - a lot of which is down to the feedback we got along the way.We found that most often, the most critical responses to the work, were normally the most useful. This helped us create a product that our target markets could respond to more positively in the long run.

As music video makers working so deep into the product, it can be useful stepping back from the project momentarily and allowing others to share their views on your work. This is what we did, and sure enough it helped us come back to work with fresh motivation and new ideas.