Evaluation Question Three. (video was done as a group)

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

To gain feedback from our rough cut of the video, we got our peers to watch the video from start to finish and rite down their comments. This helped us to receive a lot of constructive criticisms that we could then alter and improve. Here is the feedback that we gained:

We decided to make a feedback video based on our final cut, in response to this question, hoping that it felt more like an informal interview than a formal interrogation. We added relevant clips from our music video at specific points throughout the feedback video in order to remind the viewer of the parts of the video that the recipient is referring to. We had a number of set questions to ask each member of the target audience that was interviewed and improvised the rest.

The general feedback that we received about our video was very much positive. A lot of people felt impacted by such a harrowing topic and felt moved and inspired to help prevent it. They feel that we really understood the timings of the song and used the cross dissolve transitions appropriately and accurately. The majority of our interviewees agreed that they would have liked to have seen more of the graveyard scenes the most. The audience enjoyed the dramatic parts of the video the most- the pill-taking scenes and the chase scenes. I believe this could be due to the thrillseeking nature of our target audience in present times. The youth of this century have been so desensitised by watching mediums compete to receive the biggest reactions that they have grown accustom to all genres of shocking footage. To 'shock' the viewers using our video we tried to portray both the physical and mental effects of heartbreak. The desire to run away and punish yourself physically are both forms of trying to lose yourself and escape the pain that you are preventing yourself from feeling by bottling up emotion. The natural human desire to not let your emotions escape has really affected us as a society. For example, studies have shown that humans are much more likely to cry at a film when they are alone. We aimed to make the audience feel moved and have understanding for Claire's character's actions, whether or not the audience do feel moved emotionally or not depends on their own emotions and how stubborn they are when it comes to showing them.

Untitled from Alysha Bennett on Vimeo.

The thought process between the want for more graveyard scenes falls the viewer's thirst and excitement for all things morbid. As humans, we are naturally drawn to dramatic happenings. Everybody would like to put this video to the emotional limit, emphasising on the death and the general melancholy tone. I think that it is only naturally to want more of the graveyard scenes due to the emotions that those scenes provoke and if I were to restart this task then I think I would probably have quite a lot more graveyard footage.

We also posted the final video on the most popular social networking site, Facebook, as it is an easy way to gain feedback from an audience our age. As the users have to comment on the video, it also meant that we had written evidence of what each person really thought about our video.

To get feedback from our ancillary tasks we have created a booklet with spaces for the audience to give detail to their opinions of each of the tasks. We got many people to complete this booklet with their thoughts and ideas to ensure that this evaluative process was as thorough as possible. We also did not just stick to the target audience of being under 25, it was intriguing to get feedback from people older than this age because it showed a much vaster range of feedback due to their contradicting ideas. By using an unrestrained area, it meant that the feedback was not limited, and by not using set questions, instead simply asking for feedback, it meant that the audience did not feel obliged to fabricate their opinion, they were free to write their honest thoughts.

Magazine Feedback:

• In my opinion I feel that the way there are logos and representations of other companies on the magazine give it a very realisitic feel. Alongside his I would also say that the use of colours make the adertisement stand out. The text is very easy to read and the advert gives a lot of information without using a mass amount of text, keeping it simple was a very good idea.
• The magazine advert goes well with the CD cover. I like the way both images are quite dark and shady. I like the way the reviews lie (ie. star ratings) are below the images
• The magazine advert is similar to the CD cover, which creates synergy within the campaign. THe images are well edited and the text is easy on the eye.
• The layout is very professinal and the colours, fonts and lighting match the digipak creating a strong house theme. The professional touches such as the itunes and hmv logo work very well.
• I like the combingation f the dark background, suble images + light, clear, easy to read writing.
• Beautiful images, the upside down rose is distinctive and symbolic
• Maybe pictures better aligned.
  
  
  Digipak Feedback:
  
  
• The digipak almost tells a story through the pictures used, I would say this is very good as it clearly builds from the music video. Again the use of logos make it look realistic and credible. It is kept very simple but at the same time very eye catching for the buyers. It definatley looks like an album to buy and keep.
• I like the saturation - could possibly edit further?
• The dark imagery gives a hint as to the lyrical themes of the video. The sense of foreboding is conveyed through the open gates and tree shapes.
• Dark contrast makes it seem very gloomy and mysterious. I like the barcode positioned at the bottom right.
• The gothic theme indicates what the genre of the music will be.
• The use of dark low key ighting is amazing, the saturation of the pictures and lighting emphasise the message and tone of your vdeo. The front image works really well as it is a scene from the video and entices viewers as it does not give too much away. Also love the continual symbolism created by the rose.
• I like how dramatic the pictures are. The front picture has mysterious elements that draws in audiences.
• The lighting makes it very atmospheric. The open gate draws you into the picture making you wonder what will happen next.
• Atmospheric - sets a sombre tone. Pictues are excellent, perhaps bottom right could have zoomed in on graves a bit more to distinguish it from bottom left.