3) What have you learned from your Audience Feedback?

Our Audience:

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We have always placed importance on feedback, whether it be asking for feedback from a group member on an edit of a publicity shot, or feedback from staff on our whole music video, we have placed such prominence on feedback in the making of our texts.

Click here for the initial feedback from staff on our music video. 

Our target audience is fans of the genre, particularly of the sub-genre PBR&B and so we asked peers who were fans, and so our target audience what they thought of our music video. This was at early stages in our video, when we had generally put everything together and so started experimenting with effects that could work.

To summarise their feedback:

• Edit more to the tempo of the song e.g. more fades at slow points, and quicker full cuts as the tempo picks up 
• The effect on the narrative didn't work well and was confusing, they suggested a type of sepia grading instead
• The hair-flick was over-complicated, needed simplifying to work well.

This feedback was crucial in improving our music video and served to show that a 'fresh pair of eyes' really is key throughout the development of our texts.

We got feedback in early stages of our digipak too, after we finalised a version and asked for opinions.

First version

The main criticism was the lack of connection between the from and the back. Whilst we thought that it would be clear due to black and white being conventional opposites, others felt that it just looked like a completely different album. Not wanting to go all white, or all black, we decided to try a gradient from black to white, so that there is more of a smooth transition and connection between the two.

Improved version

The website also was critiqued in the earlier stages of construction, and changes were made accordingly. For instance, our contact page was criticised on being too plain and looking unprofessional, and so we embedded a map to show the 'Raw Sound Record offices'.

After feedback

Before feedback

Once we finalised all of our texts we asked various people a few feedback questions, summarised and seen in the videos below:

The Music Video

To summarize feedback:

• The video was enjoyable to those people, was visually stimulating and worked well with the lyrics and song.
• However people did have improvements, varying from the changing and personalizing the bedroom set, cutting the artistic conceptual shots for more narrative shots. 
• The genre was clear, although we were working within a sub-genre of PBR&B, which is less known, and so we got a variety of answers as they tried to pin-point the genre: R&B, Urban, Soul, Alternative & Indie.
• The artist came across well; compared to Rihanna, cool, independent, unique and a strong female.
• The narrative came across well, everyone understood the story line, if not commenting that there could have been more narrative.
• Artistic conceptual shots came across well - sleek, stylish. 
• The video overall looked professional. 

The Album Digipak

To summarize the feedback:

• People seemed to think the album digipak looked professional, the colours and pictures seemed attractive and representative of the genre and the artist.
• Most seemed to think it was eye-catching, but not everyone would buy it due to the music content itself.
• The writing of the song titles was not clear to everyone, and the album cover itself could have been more mysterious and intriguing - with a story of its own. 

The Website

To summarize:

• The website seemed professional, fun, easy to use and the countdown on the landing page and home page built up excitement and was a nice addition.
• The colour scheme and style worked well, although not all thought it was representative of the genre. 
• Was synergistic with the rest of the texts.

To summarise:

• Overall synergy between the combination of products worked well.

 We created a survey on surgery monkey after finishing our video and posting it, and found that:

• The R&B genre was well-established
  
• The overall theme of relationships came across in the music video

People were asked to leave an overall comment on their views on the video, which were very useful:

We were happy that the theme of water and fire was picked up on - something I wasn't sure we put enough emphasis on - mainly in terms of water, but to some it was good.

The more conceptual and artistic shots were perhaps not integrated smoothly enough for audiences to pick up on their meaning. This was to be expected to a certain extent, as metaphorical meaning is often not grasped on the first viewing.

Overall, I was pleased with how Roza and her identity came across on all three platforms, especially as it generated interest. 

I think that I have learned a lot from audience feedback which will help me in any similar future situations. Below are the top things I learnt from each text that would aid me in making improvements and changes:

Music video:

The top thing would probably be planning the shots better. The conceptual shots needed more thought and a stronger link to music video as a whole. The narrative shots also needed more thought and planning as I found that the audience felt that those shots were probably the weakest. Although I think the narrative story was clear and well received, I think that the visual presentation of the couple could have been made more realistic and set up better (mise-en-scene).

Album Digipak:

The font of the track listing wasn't clear to audiences, which could actually be a very big issue for sales if the audience have trouble reading the track list, they probably put it down and won't bother buying the album. 

Website:

Similarly to the changes I'd make above, the font on the autobiography caused difficulty for some, I also learnt that the poem style itself could be alienating and pretentious which I hadn't thought of before the audience feedback process. I would also make the website more visually stimulating, with more videos, gifs and images, especially on the latest articles.