What have you learned from your audience feedback?

My audience feedback was compiled by showing my piece to peers from the media department, and then asking them to complete a sheet summarising their thoughts on the piece, and also estimate what mark they would award (out of a possibly 40) based on the criteria detailed in the mark scheme.

The range of the marks was between 24 and 38. Clearly, there was a great deal of varying opinion, with some responding incredibly positively, whilst others responded with an opposing, more conservative mark, thus indicating to me that each audience member will have his or her own, individual reaction to my piece, and it will appeal differently to individuals.

The mean mark given by the audience was 33.4, which is around 84%. This is a strong mark, and is well into the top 'level 4' band, showing that they believed that my work had, in general, exceeded basic skills and was excellent in most areas. Above all, I can learn from this that, for the most part, people thought my work was of a high standard, and as a result can be considered to have some success.

One of the key areas that was highlighted in the 'comments' section of the sheet to be successful was the use of stop-motion animation. People were complimentary of its successes, and it received only one limited criticism. Many comments highlighted how fluid the motion was and not 'jumpy'. I have learnt from these comments that I was right to be ambitious, and attempt to work with stop motion, and that the meticulous attention to detail had helped my piece's success.

The most frequently mentioned weakness in my work, however, was the narrative. People often commented that the plot did not maintain their interest. I chose to use a very familiar setting and feature routine tasks, thus I agree that the subject matter may well not be of interest, and indeed that was my intention. I intended to create visually interesting scenes through the use of photography and animation. Some noticed this approach an commented that whilst the actions were everyday, they would be familiar to the audience, adding humour at how they were being carried out by small red men. These critical responses taught me that maybe my intention was too subtly portrayed for some within this audience, and that people of around my age are looking for something more obviously interesting than photography alone, and need an exciting plot to truly engage with a video.

Another common negative response was that some of the shots, particularly towards the end of the video, were too long. This was noticed by a fair number of people, and is a point I am more than willing to concede is true. When editing my footage, I realised that I would need to make some of the cuts longer, in order to fill the entirety of the running time of the music. Thus, some of the cuts are longer than the ideal. One of the people who picked up on this commented that it may fit in with the slow, relaxed feel of the song. This may be true, but for a more general audience, a few of the shots last longer than seem natural, and people are quick to pick up on such things. I have learned from this that I should plan more shots in future, to avoid a shortage at the editing phase.

One criticism that I found particularly hard to understand was that of people commenting that my work lacked attention to 'mise-en-scene', with people suggesting that I should work more on it, or that I had only made a limited effort. I was particularly puzzled by this as I had spent a great deal of time establishing a mise-en-scene. For example, using only natural light was a particularly difficult and unconventional task, yet I undertook it to maintain a natural feel to my work. I carefully selected props like the coffee cups, and Cafetiere to establish a familiar breakfast environment for my viewer. The symbolic use of costume to signify my character's move from the fantastic world, to the ordinary business world. All of these were conscience decisions made to better my mise-en-scene. It may be that they were, again, too subtle for this particular audience.

The audience feedback, however, was largely positive even though comments were largely used to suggest improvements, most made more general statements of approval also. It is worth bearing in mind that the audience feedback wasn't taken strictly from my target audience and that it is possible that members of the audience I had in mind when creating my work may have noticed things like the more subtle mise-en-scene, or found enjoyment in the narrative. Despite this, my audience feedback has taught me a great deal about where I could improve my work, as well as confirming to me that it, in general, is a strong music video.

How effective is the combination of your product and ancillary texts?

The relationship between my project and ancillary tasks is key to their successes. It is important to note that the ancillary tasks should combine with music video in such a way as to enhance its success, and that of the entire project, and such the links between them should be strong and exist in a way that draws an audience into the franchise in general, and not focus their attention on a single element.

I chose to use a simple, brown paper style theme for both ancillary tasks. In a way, the magazine advert section was directly linked to the album by the shared theme, and would act as more effective advertising as a result of recognition. A person may walk into a record shop, for example, and immediately pick out the album on the shelves due to recognising the cover image from the advert they had seen in their favourite music magazine. In turn, this would generate more interest in the music video through increased popularity of the album. I feel that this method of visually tying the two ideas together is a successful form of advertising, and increases the success of my work as a combination. This idea was confirmed somewhat by a short discussion raised using the social network 'Facebook'. The audience members who replied to my post commented on how they would automatically associate the two pieces, and that the album would be far more likely to register in their minds if presented to them in a music shop.

In terms of visuals, the links between the ancillaries and the main task are not immediately clear. The theme of my ancillary does not make a visual link with the mise-en-scene of  my music video, and an observer may have to more actively decode the significance of the brown paper idea. In my view, I chose to use the brown paper not because of a obvious link to my video in how it looks, but more so in how it makes you feel. The qualities people associate with brown paper packages usually feature nostalgia, optimism and excitement. These are traits that I attempted to portray in my music video. The optimistic, excited start to a new day. The feeling of nostalgia that goes with the jazz-influenced hip-hop sound, harking back to the days of Marvin Gaye. The symbolic connotations of brown paper is that of a gift. It represents a gift in much the same way that the efforts of the Plasticine men represents a gift. As such, the combination of my portfolio is more than visual, it is emotional. Tying into what a person feels rather than sees which is, in my opinion, far more powerful and makes for a more successful combination. By looking at the responses to the question I posted on my facebook page, it is fair to say that other people's interpretation of the look of my ancillary tasks somewhat match my own, reinforcing the idea that people will associate the two sections of my portfolio.

I tried to keep an ongoing trend of simplicity through my work. This is shown in the homogeneity of my ancillary task, and the modesty of my music video. The use of a straightforward, yet effective design for my ancillary creates a great deal of symbolism and a lasting impression from a basic idea. This is also true of my production work. It held a philosophy of simplicity, based on an idea containing little dis-equilibrium or raw emotion, but merely suggested ideas and feelings to the audience. By utilising this idea of a single set of ideals running through my entire portfolio, it gives an impression of identity, promoting a single idea more effectively than three projects with little linking them together.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

A podcast, by me, answering one of the questions of my evaluation.

Podcast by Carskol Blue Division