EVALUATION 3: WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED FROM AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

Audience feedback is really important to all media industries; in this case, the music industry. The public's opinion is a detailed method for artists and producers to reflect on their work, as they may become aware of certain flaws they had not realized otherwise; it can also influence them on how to improve certain aspects of their work and it is also encouraging when they are given support. When the feedback is positive, it is beneficial for the artist's confidence as they can acknowledge their success and happily further establish themselves in their area of expertise.

The industry is keen to please their target audience as they are rewarded with money. That is why audience feedback is so important - listening to the public and pleasing them means more sales of the artist's work, more interest and reports by the media, more concerts; it is all round beneficial for the artist/s and all those involved. Ignoring audience feedback is a major fault it can lead to a huge failure - if the feedback is bad and nothing is done about it, the artist and companies risk losing fans, money, endorsements, and any interest whatsoever.

Our target audience was from ages 16-25 but we tried to widen the appeal to older members as well because we believe the message it sends can be appreciated by all ages. We have received a lot of feedback as we had five questionnaires filled out and uploaded the video onto Facebook where people commented on it. We also had people just randomly watching it in the editing room. The comments on Facebook were all short and positive comments including "this is impressive" and "loving the work!". I showed the video to a fifty year-old woman who claimed that she enjoyed it, that the video was interesting entertaining and that the message of anti-violence was clear to her. Many praised the effects we used and the shaky movements we added during editing. They also told us they understood the video's meaning/message. We also had positive feedback on our album cover and advert. We were told the front and back covers looked somewhat menacing which is what we wanted, and that the slogans and insert images were effective and a good idea, although some said the image of the policeman was less effective than the others. Nothing bad was said about the magazine advert, everyone claimed it was eye-catching which pleased us a great deal.

Here is an extremely positive questionnaire feedback from an 18 year old girl. The quality of the picture is awful so I have written it underneath.

1. Did you enjoy the video? Answer honestly.

Honestly loved it, wouldn't mind watching it again

2. Did you feel there was a message being conveyed, if so what?

Street crime being stopped

3. How did you feel about the violence displayed on the music video?

They presented it in a really good way

4. Did you understand what the mirror scene was referring to; if so what is the correlation?

It was from the film taxi driver I think

5. Which of the three scenarios do you find the most effective?

I really liked when the policeman came rapping

6. Which part of the video did you enjoy the most?

The end part and the start

7. How clear was the meaning of their taking off the masks?

Really clear it showed they ended all the violence

8. How well do you reckon the visuals matched with the audio?

She left this answer blank so I presume she did not understand

9. What is our opinion on the shaking/distorted effect used throughout the video?

Really liked it added a special effect to it

10. How conventional is the video for its genre of drum and bass?

Very

11. Would this video encourage you to buy the album (which would be filled with similar songs and lyrical content)?

Yeah to be honest

12. How effective and cohesive are the album cover and advert?

There is a strong cohesion with the masks and they are effective and interesting

12. What would you have changed?

Umm... nothing really I can't think of anything

13. What would you have added?
I don't know

14. Please rate out of 10. Do it!

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10
She rated a nine. Wow!

No one told us that they did not like the video, but there were indeed forms of negative feedback. For example, one girl told us she enjoyed the video but "not so much the violent parts". She said the violence was uncomfortable to watch and that if she had changed anything she would have had "less violence". This is a fair enough opinion, but I think it would have been harder to prove our point if we did not display the violent moments. Interestingly, she said she found the phone-mugging scenario, which was the shortest, the most effective because it related to social class. I am glad she noticed that as it was an aspect we were keen to show but that was not emphasised much.

Surprisingly to me, a couple of people said they did not understand what was going on from the rap scene onwards (not understanding who the rapping guy was, why they threw off the masks) which means that they did not grasp the meaning of the ending. I found this disappointing as I reckon it was quite obvious he was a policeman as he shows his badge, and them taking off the masks after he has a word should make it fairly easy to put two and two together as to what is going on.

Here is an interview with a female of 17. We were pleasantly surprised to find that she is a fan of Roni Size, telling us her brother got her into his music.
Unfortunately the file on the phone did not work during the uploading. Very disappointing.

During the video, she says she enjoyed it, and gave interesting criticism on the visuals claiming they were too shaky. She also criticised the use of a white person for the rapping scene as the vocals sounded like they were obviously coming from a black man. This is something we were always aware of and had indeed been looking for a black male to do the part but none seemed keen to do it and we were running out of time. We just hoped it would not be too noticeable but sometimes it is just inevitable.

We were very interested to see what the artist himself Roni Size would make of our video, so Aiden passed by his studio one evening and used his phone to record some quick feedback by his uncle.

We are glad that he liked the video, it would have been very disappointing if he kicked at the screen screaming how horrible it was. He comments on how there could have been more energy and sharper edits; I reckon he was underwhelmed at the pace of the visuals because of how used he is to seeing professionally speeded visuals in so many of his own music videos and others of the genre. While it is a bit disappointing he did not grasp the full meaning of the masks, he did understand the message and we are grateful that he told us we made a good job.