What have you learned from audience feedback?

When first designing my album I had planned to create a black and white digipak, similar to Jake Bugg’s debut album, as I felt that this would fit with the genre of indie/alternative rock and would also draw the eye because it subverts the convention of using colour and would therefore be different from other albums. I chose to take a picture of Jonny with a serious facial expression as this is the expression Jake Bugg had on his album cover.

However during the creation of this digipak my classmates gave me feedback about my black and white photo. They thought that Jonny looked like he’d been taking drugs due to the bags under his eyes and his facial expression. As my product is aimed at both genders between the ages of 14 and 20, the idea of taking drugs is not something I would want to promote, because my audience may be influenced by musicians and therefore I do not want Jonny to look like he has taken drugs.

For this reason I decided to redesign my digipak in order to make it very clear that the genre of music is indie/alternative rock. I decided to use a picture that I had taken during filming which shows Jonny playing guitar as this shows that his music will have an acoustic style. I made this image look like a polaroid picture as this also relates to the genre and also connects with the polaroid in the video. I chose to use a map for the panels of the digipak, as I felt that this had clear connotations of freedom and nature. In addition when I asked my audience they also felt that using a map would show that the style of music is indie/alternative rock.

My final digipak

My original digipak idea

Audience feedback was really useful in helping me decide which style of magazine advert to create. I constructed two initial advert ideas and asked some audience members what they thought about each one, which they preferred and which aspects they liked most within each.These were my initial ideas:

I then got feedback from some members of my target audience:

Vicky liked that use of star rating on the advert on the left as it “shows that audience that the album is good”. She also liked the inclusion of the phrase “DEBUT ALBUM OUT NOW” because it tells the audience that they can go and buy the album at any time they like. She also said that the black header and footer on the poster draws the eye as it contrasts the pastel colours of the map. However she also felt that the font used for the artist name and album name is quite difficult to read because of the small size; this also meant that the title did not stand out much because the font is not particularly big. She thought that a big image of Jonny may work more successfully than the small polaroid because it would be easier to see and would be more eye catching. She liked the way the map covered the entire background of the advert on the right and liked the slighter lighter colours as they are “easier on the eye” and also relate more to the genre of indie rock. However she felt that there was no need to include the album name and artist name on the polaroid as it is already written at the top.

Similarly to Vicky, Amber liked the bold phrase on the left advert informing the audience that the album is out now, as it makes it very clear that it is his first album. She liked that the guitar is shown within the album cover so that it is clear the Jono plays guitar. She also liked the “contrast of the white font against the black background as it makes it easy to read”, however she felt that the darkness of the black was slightly harsh and does not really work well with the pastel colours of the map. Amber liked the soft colours of the map background used for the advert on the right, however she felt that it looked slightly like a travel advert due to the map and the polaroids; she suggested that I should choose to either use the map background or the polaroids so that people do not confuse the album advert for a holiday advert. She really liked that I have included a Twitter @ on both advert ideas as she uses Twitter a lot and would probably use it to find out more information about Jono.

Based on this feedback, I combined and developed some aspects of each poster and created my final magazine advert.

I then spoke to the same audience members again, and found that they felt my new advert is far more eye catching, unique and appealing. Heather also said that she feels it connotes the genre of alternative rock more successfully now due to the simple layout and focus on the photo of the artist. They all liked that I had continued to use the star ratings to suggest that the album is very good. In addition Vicky liked the way in which the words 'debut album' are bold and draw the attention to the fact that it is his first album. This would encourage new listeners to find out more about his music. They also expressed that, although it does not use the convention of showing the a picture of album cover in the centre, the way that I have used the picture from the album cover polaroid and the use of the map background show that it is promoting the album. Amber also believed that the use of a UK map provides context about Jono's life as the audience will know that he is from England.

Following this I showed my ancillary products to my class and got some feedback (shown in the picture above). My peers gave very positive feedback about the use of conventions and connotations; however they felt that the artist name was difficult to read due to the joined up letters and they suggested that it could be seen to say 'Jana'. For this reason I decided to remove these joins.

When creating our music video audience feedback was useful throughout. For example at the very beginning we used a poll to assess whether we had chosen the correct song. Audience feedback was also really helpful after I had finished my rough cut for the video because, after showing many audience members, I discovered that many people found the opening title of the video quite dull due to the use of black and white and therefore did not draw their attention. They felt that I should use a lighter colour for the background as they recognised that pastel colours are conventional within the genre.For this reason I decided to change the title of my video to include a map used in my ancillary texts as this shows a clear connection between the three products and also fits with the genre as it features a range of pastel colours. In addition I chose to use the font from the digipak and magazine advert as the dark colour will stand out from the map and will show a connection between the products and make them easy to recognise.

Below I have shown a screen shot of the title before and after my audience feedback:

Audience feedback was particularly useful after I created the rough cut of our music video. I put the rough cut on Facebook and asked people for feedback about the video.

This audience feedback was all very positive; this was encouraging as it reassured me that we had created a video which is entertaining, appealing and good quality. The feedback was also really helpful in showing that we had used conventions of the genre. I created a Wordle near the beginning of the project which showed many of the conventions of indie/alternative rock. My audience feedback from Facebook shows that I have used many of the conventions of the genre.

Chloe, Jenny and Heather all said they enjoyed the outdoor scenes such as the beach and the woods. Natural settings are a common convention within indie/alternative music videos, this is because these locations have connotations of freedom which is often seen to connect with indie music.

James and Elliot pointed out that he liked the lighting used throughout.

Jenny, George, Beth and Natalie all noticed that during many shots we have created a visual representation of the song lyrics. George commented “the music ties in really well with what is happening” and Natalie believes “the video matches the song”. This shows that we have successfully used the convention of connecting the storyline and with the lyrics.

The majority of my audience members commented on the emotion we have created within our video. Heather described the video as “cute” and “sad” which suggests that we have successfully shown Jess and Tom’s relationship in a positive (cute) way, and Jonny’s situation is a negative and sad way. In addition George said “I feel sorry for Jonny” which shows that we have created sympathy for Jono, and also shows that our video does appeal to boys as well as girls, possibly because they can relate to Jono.

James, George, Chloe, Vicky and Carly all noticed that we had done a lot of editing between shots to make the video flow.

Audience feedback has been a great deal of help throughout my project. Through social

networks, polls and interviews, my audience have helped me make decisions during the

research, planning, construction and evaluation of my three products. This feedback has

assisted me in creating three products which can be enjoyed by our target audience.