To assess audience feedback we took data from various sources- youtube, a focus group, our peers and our family. I attempted to use open questions throughout especially in the focus group. I realised this was a small scale trial of our pop video and ancillary products.
Our target audience for the pop video 'La la la' was Jictar A,B,C and possibly D,E. We were targeting females generally as the band is two girls and females would relate to them as the video is 'girly' and 'heavenly'. The age of the target audience would
be 9-16 to look up to the band as role models but also 16-25 that would relate to the band and enjoy the music. The band would be based in London, England so the target audience would be firstly predominantly there. However, I would hope that the band became 'stars' therefore reaching a global audience in time. The female fan's aspirations would be to have an enjoyable youthful life without stresses and strains of a family life. She would be educated, attending school in the first age bracket and thinking to the future possibly going through university and taking life as it comes.
As of 15th of January we have had 430 hits from youtube, three comments- all positive and three 'likes'. 'michealthecure' said "love this song", HurtwoodHouseMedia commented saying "the video goes so well with the song loved the last slow motion bit. The colures look really beauti
ful! Thought the use of free hand shots was really effective love it!" and 'Mamizia2' said "La La La-ARCHIVE me encanto esta ".
This is extremely positive because it shows how much websites like youtube help upcoming performers to be known not just in their area but internationally.
We also conducted a focus group to enable us to gather more research and opinions of the pop video. A focus group is much more effective than a questionnaire, which is a written document to be filled in by viewers. This is because a focus group allowed people to voice their opinions which are easier and less time consuming than a questionnaire. Asking open questions allows the group to add to them creating more of a discussion about the video rather than one worded opinions.
We conducted a lively discussion with an intelligent focus group made up of 12 AS level students, 8 of which were female and 4 were male and all aged 17. 4 A2 students were also included in the focus group, 2 were boys and 2 were girls, all aged 18. We first brought the group in and seated them; we tried to make them feel comfortable by having a relaxed and friendly presence. This is so they would not feel pressured during the video, meaning they would feel relaxed about voicing their opinion on the video. We then showed them the pop promo we had created on youtube on the projector screen. This is so they had a fresh idea of what the video tried to communicate and if they liked it or not. We asked them straight away to have a vote on who liked the video and who did not by raising hands. Two A2's raised their hands and one AS did to state they did not like it, which meant 18% of the total focus group disliked the video. I felt this was an achievement as girls were our main target audience under the age of 18 and they all enjoyed it.
We then asked them the set of 10 open questions we had prepared before hand one at a time, these were:
1) Did you like the video?
2) What was the most enjoyable part of the video?
3) What message did you get from the video?
4) Do you think the video compliments the song well?
5) In what was would you agree that this video reminds you of a fairytale?
6) In what way could the video be improved?
7) Do you feel that the choice of colours went well with the video?
8) Did you feel there were different types of shots or could this be improved?
9) What are your thoughts about the band from this video?
10) Does the video / band remind you of another band/star?
I also showed the video to peers and family members. This is also a helpful tool as you get an opinion from the general public. The focus group was formed of a media class; therefore they have some knowledge of film and media. However, family members may not so are therefore viewing the video just for entertainment purposes. However, this may be biased as a parent is not likely to voice their true opinion of the video if they did not like it. I showed the video to my mother and grandmother at the same time, they seemed to genuinely enjoy the video as they expressed how much they enjoyed it but also backed this up wi
th reasons for it. My mother, a 41 year old dark haired business woman stated "I could picture this on the television as a real music video above the others from your school". I also showed it to my peer group and it was obvious that the females enjoyed it far more than the males. Annie, an 18 year old aspiring artist stated the pop promo was "like entering a dream world...it reminded my of an MGMT video". This was a great success as I had voiced at the start of the pop promo process that I wanted to create a video inspired by the band 'MGMT'.
We tried to include the theory of Blumler and Katz on 'uses and gratifications' to assess our audience response. Blumler and Katz state that audience respond to media text in four different ways:
1) The audience identifying with the characters on the screen
We were trying in our pop video for the audience to identify with the ethereal, heavenly, dreamy twin girls in the band. It worked well as out of the eight females in the group; 7 identified with the characters and were aware of their dream like presence. Mimi a 17 year old blonde said "I get a heavenly quality from the girls".
2) Diversion
82% of the focus group believed the video was entertaining. Blumler and Katz say that a media text must occupy the viewer for more than 70% of the time to be diverting. The six males agreed they lacked powers of concentration to last for 70% but it was still entertaining and therefore diverting. 8 out of 9 of the girls in the focus group stated they were occupied for 100% of the time. Although, Storm Clark-Webster an artistic 18 year old said that the video did get "Slightly repetitive during by end".
3)
Personal Relationships 
All the members of the focus group believed they could sense of a sisterly relationship coming from the band. Although, 15 out of the 16 members of the group would not have known that they were twins from the video if they did not know before. Heather a drama student said "you could tell they had a good relationship from the close up shots but cause they did not look the same I couldn’t tell they were twins"
Stuart Hall’s encoding and decoding theory relates to the audience feedback we gained from the focus groups and
other sources. The theory is based on the producer creating a preferred meaning within a media text to try and send to the audience. In our pop video the message that we were trying to convey to our audience was that the girls on the screen were twin sisters that promoted youth, peacefulness and creativity. This was through the use of the heavenly mise-en-scene in the video; for example, the fairy lights and the projections of changing patterns of green, blue and pink. It was also portrayed through the band’s performance, as they were shots relaxing on a sofa and weaving through heavenly sheets. Furthermore, it was represented through the lyrics in the song, for example, “make yourself free, make yourself grow”.
Hall says the audience may give the media text one of three interpretatons. The audience may accept the preffered meanign with a preffered reading. They may negotiate a slightly different meaning of their own, or they may reject the preffered meaning with an oppositional reading. For 'La La La' we had a slight negotiated reading among a small amount of females in the focus group. The belived that some women could see the video of twins cavorting ins hort white reavling dresses as demeaning to the position of women. This essentially rejects the preffered meaning and gives it a different interpretation.
Another theorist that is linked to what an audience gets out of a media text is Aristotle. He believed that the goal of argumentative writing is to persuade your audience that your ideas are valid, or more valid than another's. The Greek philosopher Aristotle divided the means of persuasion 2000 years ago. He said it can be divided into three categories;
Ethos,
Pathos and
Logos. Aristotle did not apply these to pop videos as pop videos were not created when he developed this theory but it can be used in all media texts.
Ethos (Credibility) or, ethical appeal
This means convincing by the character of the author. We tend to believed people who we respect, for example, the Prime Minister. We tried to build up this type of credibility in the band. The focus group responded by stating they enjoyed watching the band physically but also identified with them. This meant that the audience could respect and trust the band, helping to give the band a good name.
Pathos (Emotional)This means persuading by appealing to the reader or watcher’s emotions. Texts from classical literature to contemporary advertisements are used to persuade through one’s emotions. Language choice affects the audience’s emotional response, and this can be used to enhance an argument. For example; charity advocates such as the NSPCC television advertisements. We used pathos to tap into the dreamy, ethereal emotions of the audience and 10 of the females in the focus group understood that there was emotion in the video.
Logos (Logical)
This is the Greek word for “Word” and it means persuading by the use of reasoning, speaking or writing. Giving reasoning is the heart of an argument, and it cannot be emphasised enough not only in literature but in all media texts. For example, Channel 4 news, without facts we are not persuaded by what the News reader tells us. However, this doesn’t apply to our video as it did not tap into the knowledge of the audience but was just for entertainment. We were trying to connote a underlying meaning of the freedom of youth and women but this was not the heart of the video.
