TASK THREE: WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

How did you carry out your audience feedback? We carried out our audience feed back for our music video in three ways. Firstly, we uploaded it to YouTube where we gained both positive and negative feedback. For example, ‘Really good effects :) band works well together and I really enjoy it!!’, and ‘Its a good video except the drummer is not playing that song!!’. We also put the video on Facebook and asked a focus group a questionnaire. By doing these three things we gained good feedback to determine the strengths and weaknesses of our music video. How did the feedback reflect the strengths of your product? Perhaps the thing we were pleased about most is that 100% of the people answering the questionnaire liked our music video whether they listened to the Arctic Monkeys or not and two people rated it their favourite video on YouTube. Everyone who answered our questionnaire thought that we used the stop motion effectively and they gained the general idea that it purpose was to show time passing and the band becoming more successful. Some mentioned that it gave the video its unique selling point as it is rarely used in music videos. Many said that it made it more interesting and helped to tell the narrative of the video and they stated that the purpose of it was to show the band improving. As well as this, people though that the props that we used fitted well with their environment and showed their background effectively. How did the feedback reflect the weaknesses of your product? We did discover some things which we could improve on through the feed back from the questionnaires and the comments on YouTube. The main criticism is that the singer did not learn the words as well as he could have and therefore the lip syncing was not as good as it could have been. As well as this, all three other members of the band could not play their instruments and therefore we had to work with what they played. Next time if we were to make a music video again, we would make sure to use people who can play the instruments well. Some also said that we could have made a bigger and clearer transition, from being poor, working class boys and playing in the bed sit, to getting signed and becoming more successful. They stated that we could have perhaps used a stage with bigger lights but this is near impossible because of the budget we were given. Explain the encoding-decoding model - Stuart Hall The encoding-decoding model derives from the work of Stuart Hall. It is a theoretical model, which is based upon the notion that the audience do not act as a ‘mass’, but rather as a collection of smaller groups defined by social and ideological elements. Media texts are ‘encoded’ (both consciously and unconsciously) with the values of their producers, who are generally white, middle-class, men. However, the audience is not made up exclusively of these groups and different groups are likely to ‘read’ the text indifferent ways. This ‘decoding’ process has 3 possible outcomes which are, a preferred reading, a negotiated reading and an oppositional reading. Examples of preferred readings achieved From gaining feedback, most of the people we asked about our music video gave a preferred reading. This is that they read our video and understood the intended values and messages. So, they understood that the concept of our video and the values we intended them to interpret was about a group of boys who practiced in their room until they got signed and became successful. Examples of negotiated readings achieved Negotiated readings are when people understand some values and they accept some elements of the video, but they have their own opinions. One girl gave us a negotiated reading. She said that the boys were just a group who played in their room and she did not understand the transition to being successful. Examples of oppositional readings achieved An oppositional reading is when the audience or members of the audience disagree with the intended values and messages we tried to put across in the concept of the video. One member of the audience commented on the artificiality of the music industry and stated that he thought that the video was trying to convey that looks and attitude is more important than talent. Conclusion In conclusion from our audience feedback we have learnt that we should have made a bigger and more clear transition and used better musicians with a singer that learned the words. I also learned that using stop motion made the video more interesting as was a good way of showing the time passing.