Evaluation Practice

To what extent was the intended audience a major factor in the creation of your A2 Advanced Production Portfolio?
At the beginning of my media production portfolio I spent a fair bit of time thinking about my intended target audience. I thought about who I wanted to appeal to and what age range I wanted to focus on. I thought it would be appropriate to choose a similar age to myself as I could gather information from my peers about what they would like to be included in the music video and I could use my own preferences which would make the task more enjoyable for me. I decided on the age range of 15-25 years of age and I started by conducting some audience research.

Audience research is a systematic and accurate way of finding out about your audience. The most common method of audience research is the survey. This is where a group of people are selected and they are all asked the same questions, and their answers are counted. I decided to create a questionnaire with ten relevant questions on and handed them out to classmates that were aged around eighteen. I decided to design this survey because some people were happy to help me in my research but didn’t want their answers to be filmed.

The intended audience impacted the creation of my production portfolio to a major extent. The answers which I gathered from both the recorded footage of people voicing their opinions and the graphs I was able to calculate from the filled in questionnaires helped me greatly. If I had used my own opinions and idea’s then it would have had a very narrow approach on it and would have been purely on my own thoughts and idea’s which don’t appeal to everyone. The answers which were collected from my audience feedback helped me to realise that everyone has different tastes but that some similarities can be picked up on. An example of this would be that some of the answers stated that the person enjoyed music videos more when the footage was relevant to the lyrics. However some people disagreed with this and said they preferred when the video wasn’t relevant to the lyrics in any way, shape or form. Many believed that a music video is merely a marketing device for the actual single and that it should be created with this in mind. Others thought that it was more then that and thought that the video told the story of the single and is used to help the audience imagine more about the actual song itself.

All through out my planning and research as well as my practical and evaluation the intended audience was always at the front of my mind. Without the audience then there would be no point in creating the music video apart from to watch it for my own gain. I wanted to involve my target audience and I wanted them to have a say in how my music video went. I looked into locations, costumes and the storyline all with the research from my audience I had. At points during my editing I would stop and view the footage, imagining that I was in fact a member of my target audience rather then the creator and director of the video. This helped me to place myself in their shoes and to see it from their point of view which helped me to improve my video.

The intended audience helped to a great extent towards the end of my production portfolio as well as the start. As I had gathered thoughts and opinions to help be creative in my planning and research stages I thought that it was only right that the audience should have a say and give me constructive criticism in the final stages. I uploaded my first cut of my music video onto YouTube and I asked for my intended audience to give me positive and negative points about the actual video. It was really helpful to get this information as it allowed me to gather more then my own opinion and helped me to spot things that could have been improved which I might not have picked up on, had it only been me watching the end piece. This allowed me to change the parts in my video which my audience said could be improved and become more appealing to them.

The audience is a vital and key part of any product or production and should always play a major part through out the whole process. The audience should always be referred to every so often for their thoughts, ideas and expectations. However boundaries should be pushed and sometimes an audience is more impressed when the creator thinks outside of the box and puts their own unique stamp on their production. The more creative a music video is the more wow factor it can be said to have. In music videos there is a tendency to move in the same direction as similar artists and previous videos that have been successful. However this is a safe option and sometimes the audience likes to experience something fresh and new rather then the same old. Some directors don’t even listen to the song before they create the music video for it. This idea could be placed into thinking about audiences. Music video’s are made for the enjoyment of the audience, but shouldn’t be created by the audience.