In order for me to create a successful media text, alike my music video, I firstly needed to recognise my target audience as this is the audience that my product is going to be aimed at. My target audience will determine how my product is made, and also what content it includes, in order to satisfy their needs and requirements so they will therefore be encouraged to watch it. At the very beginning of the course, my group and I decided to produce a music video of the Alternative Rock genre, in which we needed to research existing Alternative Rock music videos so we could understand the needs of the target audience. We collected our target audience information through both qualitive and quantitive data, in the form of a video interview and a questionnaire. Within the interview, we picked a handful of people and asked them a few questions in order for them to give us their opinions on their music taste, their age and what they would include in a music video for the song we had picked out. The feedback we received concluded that the primary audience for our media product were young males aged between 15 – 19 and listen to music for around 3 – 4 hours per week. Once we understood that the main audience for Alternative Rock music were primarily young adult males, we could then use this to create ideas and concepts for our video. The same applied to the ancillary tasks, in which the same audience would need to be acquainted for. From the audience research, we then began to use this and collect footage to produce our music video.

 

After creating our first draft of our music video, we wanted to gather some feedback from our target audience so we could ensure that are creating the suitable music video for them, and also gain some constructive criticism so we could use it and improve our music video, and make it more appealing and suitable. To do this, we again gathered a handful of people of our target audience and gained qualitive and quantitive data in the form of interviews and questionnaires. Within the interview, we asked questions such as ‘What did you like about the music video?’ and ‘How would you improve the music video?’ which were open ended questions. The use of asking open ended questions allowed us to gain a more detailed response from the target audience, rather than just a simple yes or no. The detailed opinions of the target audience helped us to fully understand what they are looking for in a music video of an Alternative Rock genre, and we could use this information to develop and improve our music video, in order for it to look more professional and attract our target audience. The questionnaire also included open ended questions, such as ‘what was your favourite element of the music video and why?’ We decided to use open questions for the same reasons to why we used them in the interviews, to get a more accurate response so we could greatly improve our video for the target audience. After collecting back the 20 questionnaires, we counted up the feedback and realised that our music video draft was very successful, with a median score of 8 out of 10. Most of the reactions to our video were positive, saying that it looked professional and the performance elements of the video were very effective. I then understood that the target audience enjoy these elements, and that they should remain in the video for their enjoyment. However, some of the improvements that were suggested include the syncing of the track to the footage and remove the storyboard drawings within the video. As this was the rough cut, we could expand on the criticism we received and improve the video by making small changes to suit the target audience’s needs and requirements. The audience feedback we received successfully helped us to improve our music video draft, and create an improved, exciting and interesting music video that our target audience enjoyed very well! From this audience feedback, I learnt that we rely on the audience and their opinions in order to create a successful media product that they will enjoy.

 

In addition, we also needed to create a digipak and a magazine advert as part of our ancillary tasks to complement the music video. This was also another opportunity to create a draft version of both our digipak and magazine advert, and then collect information and feedback form our target audience, in order for us to reflect on the criticism and improve them, to appeal to our target audience. For our digipak, three members of our group produced their own individual digipak design using the same images, which we then showed to our target audience for them to individually decide what design they preferred and thought would complement the music video, along with improvements. From the feedback in the form of questionnaires, we discovered that the second design was the most popular and more suitable to complement the music video and the magazine advert. Some of the improvements that were notified of include putting a track list on the back of the digipak, and recolour the images used. This feedback allowed us to go back and improve out digipak, in which we did place a track list on the back of the digipak and recoloured the images on the digipak to match the magazine advert and the colour filters used over the top of the footage in the music video. The same applied to the magazine advertisement, where three members of our group produced their own individual magazine advert design using the same collection of images, and then showed members of our target audience the three designs, along with a questionnaire to get feedback on their favourite design. After asking our collecting in the questionnaires, we understood that the first design was the most popular and more suitable to complement the music video and the digipak. The type of answers we received in terms of improvements to the design included ‘add more information and text’ and ‘recolour the image’, in which we took note of and used to develop the magazine advert in order to make it look more aesthetically pleasing and suitable to complement the music video and the digipak.