Ben's A2 Media Coursework

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

SURVEY RESULTS

During the research stage of my A2 Media Studies coursework I produced a survey using the web site http://www.surveymonkey.com/ in order to gain responses from my target audience of teenagers and what they would expect to see in a music video, album cover and album advertisement.

Opening Page of http://www.surveymonkey.com/

From producing my questionaire I have found that the target audience demographic is a mixtue of both males and females. The average age of my target audience is beween 16-18 years old and therefore our aduiovisual main task must appeal to this age category.

Question One and Two of survey

Question Three of survey

Thirdly, I asked the question; what genre of music do you listen to most? The responses recieved conclude that the most popular genre of music is Indie with 66.7% which was closely followed by 60% for both Pop and R 'n' B music. These three genres of music have connotations with teenagers and for example; teenagers who are into Indie music are identified as a subculture through their choice of clothing (check shirts and chinos) and interests; going to music festivals. The emergnence and combinaion of club/ dance/ electonic; bass pounding music has in the last year formed Dubstep which recieved 46.7%. This style of music is clearly associated with teenagers who enjoy clubbing and partying at the weekend.

Question 4 and 5 of survey

The fourth question that i asked was; do you read any music magazines? Suprisingly, 86.7% of the responses given were no; this was not the result i was expecting to get from the teenage demographic as myself being a teenager am subscribed to NME magazine and Q magazine. I then asked the target demographic what music channells do you watch? The two most popular were Kiss and Viva with both having 50%. This result is conventional as the music that is played on these channell's is mainly Pop, R'n'B and Dance music which would therefore agree with the results of which music genre the target audience preferred. The third and fourth most popular were Chart Show TV and 4 Music with 42.9% of the vote; these channells also follow the conventions of the type of music to be aimed at the teenage audience of Pop and R'n'B. The joint least popular music channel's were Magic, Kerrang! and Scuzz. Magic is aimed at an adult demographic as they play "easy listening" and classical music which is not associated as popular with most of the teenage demographic. On the other hand, Kerrang! and Scuzz mainly play heavy rock and metal music and would be less appealing to the general teenage demographic and would only be popular with certain types of people who identify themselves as subcultures by dressing in a certian way and having certain interests.

Question 6 and 7 of survey

The sixth question i asked was how often do you watch music channells. The top response was Monthly with 40% which shockingly suggests that some of the teenage demographic do not bother keeping up to date with new music which seems suprising to me. The seventh question i asked was to do with the technical aspect of our main task; producing i music video. I asked what length of music video do you prefer and 80% of the results gained were 3-4 minutes long. When producing my music video; i have taken this preference into account as if a music video is worth producing then i also believe that it should be of a conventional length and be worth watching as a mini - movie.

The eighth question i asked was which radio station my target demographic of teenagers listen to; both Radio One and Kiss recieved 33.3% of the vote. I was unsurprised by this as these radio stations play the most up to date, mainstream and chart friendly music which teenagers like myself are interested in. Heart radio also recieved 26.7% of the vote which also plays mainstream music as well as songs from previous era's, such as; the nineties and the eighties and has become a popular radio station with teenagers.

The ninth question that i asked my target audience to answer was "What attracts you to CD covers?". I asked this question in order to increase the appeal of my own CD cover when producing my ancillary task. Some of the responses that i recieved included; "bright colours, band name, a good image, a good design, band logo's and a catchy title. When producing my own album cover i will take these responses into account in an attempt to meet the preferences and increase the appeal of my product to the target audience.

The final question that i asked was; "What do you expect to see from a music video?" I asked this question in order to increase the appeal of my own music video when producing my audiovisual main task. Some of the responses i recieved included; "dancing, catchy music, good lyrics, relevance, a story related to the song, the band playing in a set location, great camerawork and production value". The response that i found most helpful was "a story related to the song"; therefore when producing my music video i will create a developing narrative that fits the song's lyrics and is interesting and entertaining for my target audience of teenagers to watch.

FOCUS GROUP RESEARCH

I then conducted focus group research on teenagers of my target audience. In terms of music video's, i found that a teenage related costume and bright colours help to make the music video more eye-catching and appealing. Members of the focus group seemed to prefer the technique of fast paced editing as apposed to slow paced; this is arguably because it relates to a teenagers fast paced lifestyle, we therefore ensured to make most of our video fast paced to add further appeal to the target audience. Findings from the focus group also highlighted that a variety of different locations are needed to keep the music video interesting; although the settings used need to relate to the teenage target audience and the narrative of the video. Special effects also seem to be favoured, such as; animation, text overlay and references to social networking sites which gives a fun, teenage related appeal to the music video. Finally teen related props seem to have a good influence on the success of the music video, such as; mobile phone's, speaker's and iPod's; all of these items are in coherence with 21st century teenage culture.

In terms of album cover's i found that the type of camerawork preferred by members of my teenage focus group was a close up shot showing the artist's face so the consumer can identify with the artist. Also, a successful album cover appears to need a bold, eye-catching title to stand out from the product. The font style also needs to be appealing to the target audience of teenagers depending on the album genre.

In terms of album advert's i found that members of my focus group like a mid shot image of the band featured in the center of the advert or an image of the album cover itself; i took this into consideration when producing my ancillary product using an image of the band in the advert. Also, a successful album advert needs to include a one liner crtical review from another established newspaper or magazine that would feature the advert. The feature of weblinks, to the band's site is also a major convention of album adverts as it allows the reader to find out more about the band after seeing the advert in the magazine. Also, a typical feature is a release date as this tells the reader when they can purchase the album or download it online; i have incorporated all of these preferences when producing my own album advert.

The focus group research has allowed to personally find out what members of my teenage target audience expect and prefer in each of my products and has enhanced the success and appeal of my promotional package as a whole.

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES FEDDBACK

After i had finished producing my ancillary tasks of an album cover and an album advertisemnt in

a music magazine I felt that it would be useful and benificial to gain feedback from my target audience of teenagers to see what they liked about each product, disliked about each product and what could could be improved about each product.

The easiest and most efficent way to gain feedback without having to print out each product and hand them out to each person seperately was to use the popular social networking websites; http://www.facebook.com/ and http://www.twitter.com./ I then posted my products on these sites and asked people to comment what they liked, disliked and what could be improved.

The aim of this was to achieve audience feedback directly from my target demographic of teenagers who would tell me what could be improved which would enable me to make my ancillary products better and more successful in relation to the satisfaction of the target audience.

From placing both of my album avertisements on my facebook page and asking people to comment on them i decided to use the first one based on the positive comments that i recieved; some of the comments that helped me make this decision were:

"The simple design and clear layout is a winner"

"The links are in proportion to the rest of the advert"

"The quotes work well in selling the album"

"The image fits in with the genre of music"

"The reviews and websites make it look professional"

Therefore i believe that this advert is most conventional and is the most appealing to the target audience out of the two due to it's conventional, clear layout and popular features of album adverts.

I also gained audience feedback on my album cover through www.facebook.com and www.twitter.com and the positive comments that i recieved suggested it was a conventional and successful product.

"I like the high quality image; it looks sharp and professional"

"The band name stands out from the cover as it is in a large, eye-catching font and is a different colour to the image"

"The costumes the band are wearing a typical of teenage clothing; skinny jeans, hoodie, sunglasses and t shirts".

"The layout is conventional of covers for albums"

"This is my faviroute of the album covers"

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In what ways does your media product, follow conventions

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CONVENTIONS OF MUSIC VIDEO OPENING

0.00 - 0.08: The opening shot sees the band playing on the rooftop through the use of a long shot which is conventional of music video openings. We also added an "aged" special effect" to all of the shots where the band are playing on the roof to give the video an authentic appeal and create a sense of continuity. The costumes that we chose are also typical of the way teenagers dress in skinny jeans and jumper's and the props used are also con;ventional of other music video's; through the choice of guitar's, drums, a microphone and a bass guitar. We also chose to add on a text title showing the name of the band and the name of the song in the music video; this is relatively conventional although less in recent music video's.

0.08 - 0.15: We then used a fade into white transition to blend in to the next shot of the lead female, Aimee playing the guitar to show she is a happy, cheery teenager. Throughout this shot we used a handheld camera type of shot to give it a playful feel which sees the camera zooming in on Aimee's face and then out again several times; this is conventional of music video's as this type of shot shows the importance of the character.

0.16 - 0.23 We then used a conventional fade out transition into the next shot of the guitarist Ben playing the instrument on his own on the rooftop. During this shot we broke normal conventions of indie music video's by using a slow motion effet to give the effect of slow paced editing. Through this shot we used conventional types of camerawork; opening with a zoom in on Ben's face to a zoom out near the end of the shot to show the whole location. The type of clothing that Ben is weaing is conventional of an indie band member in a music video; skinny jeans, a snapback hat and a retro jumper.

0.24 - 0.26 We then used a cube style transition into the next shot of the lead singer, Aimee sliding down the school banister; here we used a conventional long shot to convey her character as being fun and playful. We also sped up this shot as a special effect which is arguably conventional of other music video's of the same genre.

0.26 - 0.35 We then developed the music video's narrative by using a fade into black transition cutting back to Ben, the guitarist standing on his own outside smoking. The featue of one of the band member's smoking in the music video is conventional of similar producs as it fits with stereotypes of the indie/ alternative genre and the rebellious connotations of teenagers that listen to this style of music. Here we used a black and white special effect which is a conventional editing technique used in music video's. We used this effect to convey Ben feeling loney as he is apart from the lead singer, Aimee (who he fancies) which is also shown by his unhappy facial expressions through a conventional zoom in on Ben's face.