Q1)In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Research and Planning - Adverts: Drafts of adverts

Adverts are marketing tools which is used to attract a target audience.  It provides visual information about the artist and the album which is used to influence the consumers decision to buy the product. Key information such as the track list and where it is available to buy should also be included as these are seen as conventional elements of a advert.

To make sure we created a conventional advert that appealed to our intended target audience, it was important that we created drafts of our work and feedback on them. We created two in total and this process allowed us to analyse and review our use of conventions, what worked and what didn't. Below are the drafts that my group and I created.


Draft 1

Advantages
Availability and other information is evident
The name of the album stands out well
The structure and layout looks more professional


Draft 2

Advantages
Key information in like album name etc. and this clear for the audience to see
Use of colours and location is more appealing
Artist's image is represented well
Disadvantges
Key singles were not on there

Final product: music video

Final product: Digipak

All the drafts for the digipak has been worked on and edited, from the audiences critisicms  which finally resulted in the final creation of my digipak.

Final product: Advert

After the drafts were created, I created my final magazine advert. All the feedback was taken on board to create a conventional final advert.

Viewing various magazine adverts from the Club/Dance genre enabled me to understand that i created a conventional advert. My advert was visually appealing, and enhances the star image of the artist. The bold font outlines the cool aspect of the artist which the audience would be able to relate to. The font used is easy to read and also stands out which gives it a simplistic effect. Overall, this magazine advert along with the other promotional products worked really effectively in attracting the target audience.

Q3) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

To gain audience feedback, as a group we used various research methods to ensure we were appealing to our target audience. This ranged at the pre-production stage and we also carried some further audience feedback sessions post-production. This was to initially make decisions from our audience feedback and then judge the performance of our product. Before being able to carry out various feedback methods, I had to establish who my target audience was for the ‘Club/Dance’ genre.

Target audience:

Age/s: 15-35

Genders: Unisex

Ethnicity: Diverse

Occupation: E to C1 class bracket

Hobbies and interests: Popular and mainstream culture – Social culture, sports, socialising, relationships.

Creating a questionnaire and graphs enabled us to gain audience feedback that we needed, which would result in us meeting the demands and expectations of the intended audience. A questionnaire is a reliable source which is specific to the target audience that would give us direct feedback. It also allowed us to receive feedback and analyse decisions about our choice of conventions and what we planning to include and what we shouldn’t include. What was effective was that we had the power to hand it out to the audience that we thought we would receive relevant feedback from which helped us speed up the process to receiving relevant and beneficial feedback.

4 key questions from the questionnaire and the feedback we received which helped us make informed decisions:

Which structure of a music video do you prefer?

Narrative

Performance 

Concept

Do you believe that the narrative of the music video needs to relate to the song?

Yes 

No

Which location is relevant to a Club/Dance song?

How often do you think we should see an artist in a music video?

A lot 

Not too much 

Hardly present

 

Graphs:

Analysing graphs enabled me to address the needs of the target audience. They also helped me to include the conventions that the audience were demanding. The graphs were a visual representation of my results that was easy to comprehend.

 

The feedback that I received from various questions has enabled me to be aware of the conventions I should include in my music video. The questions helped me to identify what keeps the audience satisfied and the essential parts of the music video that I need to include. However, some people thought if the narrative was good, it would be enough and star image isn’t as important, this is something my group and I disagreed with. This was supported by jemima aged 18 that stated “Star Image is essential in club&dance music video’s which was because  the artist should be the standing out factor of the music video and the club&dance genre is very much based on mainstream popular culture and the artist represents this." club&dance artists also have an image that is quite cool and others aspire to be like. I took this on board as she fits in the category of my target audience.

Why did you put your video on YouTube?

YouTube is the most commonly used video sharing website as well as being internationally popular and known by many. All ages are able to access it which allows a broad audience to view our work and judge the work which would differ due to differences within age or interests. YouTube I felt was the best place for the group to share the video in order to get as many views and feedback comments as we possibly could.

3 positive comments

 

 

 

 2 negative comments

 

What did you learn from this audience feedback in terms of whether you created a conventional and successful music video?

The audience feedback was generally good as we satisfied the demands of the audience and understood that we addressed the target audience well. The audience was knowledgeable of the themes and characters which convey that we represented our genre and target audience well. However, we could have improved on some aspects such as the range of iconography and representing the male character in a more conventional way. Overall the audience feedback for YouTube was successful.

Why did you hold a focus group?

 

Discussing and debating the music video within a focus group was a reliable way of gaining true feedback which enabled us to reflect on our work even further. The honest feedback suggested that we did create a conventional and successful music video as the sixth formers were pleased with what they had seen.

To conclude, a various range of media formats had been used in order to promote my music video product. This was done in order to gain as much feedback as possible, taking into consideration the large amount of people that viewed my music video. Therefore, this would determine if my music video was conventional, and if I had met the demands of my target audience. 

The feedback I received for my music video was highly positive, however, improvements could have been made. As a producer, this was beneficial as I was aware of the aspects that needed improving of my music video. When looking back at my music video I understood what jemima meant by the male character being young and not being a conventional character in my music video. I believe that if I had used a more conventional male character this would enhance the quality and success of my music video as the audience would be able to relate to the character more. The feedback was highly helpful because if I could create this music video again, I would plan and build on these elements with more detail which would enhance the overall quality of my music video for the target audience to enjoy.

Q2) How effective is the combination of your main product and and ancilliary texts