Draft Evaluation Question 3 // Sachin Mistry

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Pitch: The pitch that we created was the first time that we actually received audience feedback from our peers. This was important because ours peers also fell into our target audience which our products are aimed at. We received feedback successfully as well as some areas which need to be address as questions were raised at some of our decision made by ourselves.

 We received a lot of praise for the way we wanted to film the music video as we aimed for a more ‘cinematic’ style video which looks good as well as tells a story. This is because in our pitch we mentioned the type of shot we want to include which will help to achieve  produce the cinematic video we want. People liked our song choice as well because they thought that it fits the genre of music we wanted to fit into, and the video we wanted to create for it. One question which was raised was that how will we accommodate for both genders as we aimed our product at both.

With regards to making the product appealing to both genders we took this into consideration and the ‘needs’ of the female audience, we believe that the romantic element of the song will also help to attract a mixed gender audience, without alienating any of them. Another question which was raised was the where we planned to film the main parts of the video; this is because on our pitch we didn’t mention any of location. As for the location we had to investigate the target audience more to make sure that the setting we chose is realistic and our video is a narrative .We then decided on having an open nature setting for half of the video, and an urban environment for the other half of the video. This is because we are trying to show how the character in the video we created, has happy moments portrayed in the day time, and depressing dark times in the dark/evening. Near the end of the video we have a flashback of all the good times that he has had with friends as music comes to its peak.

I feel that receiving feedback on our pitch was important because we could get real feedback from our target audience as they were our target market. It was important that they liked that idea as we would then know that our product which we wanted to create was going to be successful.

Digipak: When I handed in my draft version of my digipak, I received feedback from which I thought was important because I could improve on something which could help me when creating my final version. The feedback I received was mainly positive as people liked my idea and thought that it fits the genre of music we chose. However, I was given some small improvements which would make to make my final product they best it could be. One of these improvements was to include the songs of the back of the digipak. I felt as this was a fair comment as I thought that it looked good without the songs on the back and it was challenging convention. But then I realised that if I placed the song titles in a booklet which I also made for the digipak then the audience would find it hard to find them. Also normally when you are looking at a CD or digipak in stores you would normally look at the back to see the songs and to see if they are interesting. This is why I chose to act on the feedback and include them.

I was also advised to add the regulatory information which I did not include on my draft. This is because it is something that is found on most digipaks, and I would be challenging conventions of I didn’t include it. I could have kept the regulatory information off, as this would foreshadow the genre of then music as being simple and slightly mysterious as it wasn’t following the ‘norm’ which is an element of the music genre. I do believe that the changes that I made vastly improved the look of my digipak as it looks more realistic and could potentially be sold in stores. I enjoyed this process as I could see whether people liked my ideas or not, and it gave me confidence that my product would be well received by my audience if it was a real product.

Advert: As my advert was similar to my digipak as it contained the same images found on the album cover, it was also well received by my target audience as it received mainly positive feedback.

One comment which peers asked is about the white boarder being uneven on one side; this was an improvement because I was advised to make this the same all the way around. The reason that I did this is because I imagined this to be in a magazine which has a thick spin this means that they need a thicker… so that the text can still be read when opened. However, I did make this change because my peers said that it looked better without it and also if where to be published then they would be able to adjust the advert not me.

This was the only constructive criticism that I received; I liked this process because as my peers fit into my target market so it was a relief that they liked my product and there wasn’t too much to change. The feedback that I received helped me to improve my product and therefore crating the best product possible for my target market. As I have made these changes I know that it will be accepted by my target group.

Music Video: Looking back at our draft music video we did not receive any feedback, instead we received feedback on our final video. This meant that we weren’t able to make changes according to the comments as we had already completed out music video. But the comments we received on our final music video were mainly positive which means that it was quite successful amongst the target audience.

If there was any constructive criticism we cannot make any changes as it is too late but I think that it is still important to receive it because it determines whether they liked our final product or not. Some comments mentioned that the ending to our video was unclear. We have taken this on board and I think that the reason that the ending is slightly unclear is because there is a lot of fast pace action due to the flash blacks and then the music dies down and it is left with the lead character on his own in the dark. What we aimed to do originally is to make the character see as if he was going take his own life as it is quite a sad song and this explains the jump from happy to alone scenes and also the flash backs near the end, but then we decided that we wanted to make a little bit of a mystery. By doing this we would let the audience decide whether, the character walks away/tries to leave home or takes his own life.

The good feedback we received was really a helpful and made us feel that our product was successful amongst the target audience. This is because people said ‘very effective’, ‘visually impressive’, ‘visual masterpiece’ and ‘stands out and appears very professional’. This was very helpful because they enjoyed our product which we made and we feel that if this product was to be presented to a larger group of people in our target market they would also like it and would be greatly accepted by the audience.

Although we didn’t receive feedback on our draft music video I think that it would have helpful because it could have made our video better and we could have made a definite ending to the video instead of leaving it at a cliff hanger. But I think that the decision we took was the right one as I think that it is interesting to see other people’s interpretations of the ending of the video. We did change a section of the draft music video mainly because we didn’t like how it was edited but also because of the feedback we received from our teacher.  

The feedback we received from our teacher was the source of the improvements which we used to make changes to our music video. For us this was important as it helps us to make sure that we were on track and on the right tracks for producing a high quality video product. For example some of the scenes which we used in the draft music video sir did not like because mise en scene didn’t fit the surrounding clips. We then acted on this and rearrange some of the scenes and moved to a move suitable area where it made more sense and fits in better. This helped our music video as we were able to make a more coherent story for our music video. Also another scene which we shot has wired lighting and made the subject which was in focus, the main character, a greeny yellow ting which he didn’t like. We agreed with this and re-filmed this scene with better lighting in a different room.

I think that overall though the audience feedback which we received was accepted and some we too action on which all in all helped to make our music video product that we could make. I was also able identify our strengths and weakness of the music video and act accordingly. I believe that feedback is important because if I didn’t receive any then I wouldn’t have been able to product the best product that I could make.