Research into Target Audience - Miss Miller

      As a group we decided to create a questionnaire to gather more information about our audience and what they prefer to watch. This enabled us to create more ideas for our own questionnaire and discuss as a group what would be more suitable to an audience who liked the indie genre. Would they prefer us to stick to the common codes and conventions or in fact move on to more of a unique setting. We asked a totally of 40 people our questionnaire which really helped us gain perspective on what is possible for us as a production team and what is suitable for us to do to create something that fits in within our target audience which is about 15-25 years old. After gathering and analysing our results we are able to learn what is the best way to connote and present our music video in a way that provides satisfaction to the majority of our target audience. 

The first question allowed us to find out what particular genre our audiences liked the most. Pop was very popular but overall indie beat the rest. This was a very positive thing for us as group as it meant that we could narrow down the indie genre into particular sections and this would allow us to get individual opinions on what peoples favourite parts of the indie genre is. We knew that if the majority of our audience enjoyed indie music that we would be getting a much more clearer representation of what is to be expected.

We needed to get a range of different ages to get an accurate representative result. This will allow us to provide successful to each age group in our target audience. Including the younger most popular teenage audience which may represent how much we have to comply to this particular age group as they are the majority of our audience. This will overall allow us to give our audience a very accurate representation of a music video that complies to their needs through what they have actually answered in the questionnaire. 15 - 18 year old's are actually very influential and may watch something and take it more personally. This will actually allow us to able to consider conventions and themes that will be more relatable to the younger teenage audience as they are still trying to find out who they are themselves. 

After having asked the particular questions that we needed to know, the gender of our participants is crucial in the knowledge of knowing what to include in our music video. As our audience is mainly female. We know that we are going to have to adapt to the female side of the audience and promote and advertise our music video, while aiming it mainly to the female needs of our audience rather then the male. We may be able to accomplish this by producing an artist who is female and has a very influential persona about them. As a group we are now able to discuss what type of costume and and imagery the artist persists to create and this will supply us with a very strong female lead that other female audience members are able to look up to. 

Overall the favourite and most preferred indie artist remains to be Ed Sheeran. Being a very mainstream indie artist who is well-known, this is no surprise to us as a group. Although most of the reasons that they actually picked Ed Sheeran, were because they liked his particular sound and look. This overall means that indie artists are mainly enjoyed for the same reasons. Our second most popular choice was Gabrielle Aplin. As a group who desired to do the indie genre we were able to take a unique liking to Gabriella Aplin as she produces music that is both inspiring and beautiful which 35% of our audience picked up on. Although Ed Sheeran was a popular choice we did feel as a group that this was bias just due to the fact he is the most popular and although we do enjoy his overall look and genre we felt that Gabrielle was a better choice due to her vulnerability in her music and to the fact my group is an all girl group. Which means that we are able to relate to her in a more successful way.

This remained to be a very interesting question that was useful to us as a group as it provided a closed answer. A simple answer that would overall help us choose which scenes would be better suited to the indie genre and following this not only the indie genre but our particular story line. The most popular answer was the Countryside at 68%. This overall allows us to see just how much of an impact the location could have to our profit and our success of a music video. We as a group have decided to include mainly countryside shots. This is not only due to the fact that we are able to follow with what our audience want, but it in my opinion it creates a more angelic feel in the music video as we are able to display our characters and performers in natural environments which overall give them a sense of belonging and shows the audience that there are 'beautiful' setting just round the corner, which will overall relate to the audience strongly due to the fact that they themselves can find there own piece of land that creates the same tranquil effect. In addition to this we will also use the city scenes in our music video. They wont be as prominent but they will still be present which will allow us to present the 'frantic' side to life as many indie genres do like to portrays raw emotions and the chaotic London life will support this.

This particular question in the questionnaire remained very interesting to me as it provided me with answer that was very mixed. Some of our audience didn't like it as they said it seemed too boring and they wanted it to be narrative based, some of our audience didn't even notice or care. The majority of our audience though enjoyed the thought of having an instrument present. The most popular response was that it allowed the artist to be seen as extraordinary. People could look up to there desired artist and feel inspired to do better and be better like them. The fact that they could physically see and hear the artist playing in the music video contributed to the fact that they where able to the fact that they relied solely on the fact that there artist wasn't just someone who had no talent, but they earned there way to stardom through real creativity and effort. It weren't just handed to them on a plate. Overall I aim to add this into my own music video as it implies that our 'artist' is a talented indie artist and continues to be through the use of her instrument. It may be a good way of selling an artist who doesn't just sing but presents a very clear and vivid image of themselves as being unique.

This is something that played a massive part to our group as a whole. This question would conclude whether the idea we had in mind would be able to be produced as a team. This is because the idea we have is to create a music video that is strongly towards a narrative based music video. Only 30% said no to a narrative which was a relief to us as we really thought that music video where so much more entertaining with some sort of storyline attached. The people who said no argued there reasoning for this is because they enjoyed the performance base of a music videos, they said that sometimes the narrative can be too heavy and they want to be able to watch a music video that actually has there favourite artists performing in one way or another. This was the opposite to the people that said yes. They insisting that having a narrative and something to watch made the overall atmosphere of a music video so much better. They said it felt as though the belonged to the song more and in addition to this they said it gave them a better idea of what message the particular artist wanted to get across. Overall I am very satisfied with the outcome of this question as I aim to add both performance and narrative into my music video. Although the main idea of the music video is narrative based there is plans of having a range of different performance based scenes that will also be included into the music video. Which should be successful due to the fact that I have catered to both sides of the question.

This question often had to be explained to my participants as many of them are not familiar with the media terminology. Overall though the main too things I am able to focus on is the costume and storyline. 50% of people said that the quirky and vintage looking clothing is what made an indie genre music video successful. This made it clear that the audience do pick up on the stereotypical aspects of the indie genre and this allows me to incorporate costume into my music video and still produce something that the audience want. The sort of costume people gave examples of where beanie hats, big woolly jumpers and boots. This was very informative as it not only told me what people expected but it gave me an insight into what indie means to them. I will aim to include this particular style onto my main artists and actor in my music video as it will overall set the atmosphere as being vintage. The love story was another advantage that people found necessarily successful in the indie genres. People though that having this particular narrative meant that the artists was more relatable. The fact that most of the narrative is displayed as having love and heartbreaks implies to the audience that there music video artist is a 'real person' and goes through the same things that 'normal people' go through like love and hate and relationships with other people.  

This question was essential in narrowing down what was needed to be done to create something that was effective in deciding what type of narrative I wanted in my music. The most popular was love. This was due to the fact that people felt that it was something that related well to the indie genre and was also most entertaining to watch as it is something that is a lot more raw and emotion compared to a narrative about partying for example. The 2nd most popular being war we was able to get a satisfying reaction into why. People felt that the indie genre related well to the vintage atmosphere. To some of our target audience this to them meant that war or some sort of conflict would be essential in the narrative. Following these reactions I was able to come up with a narrative that involved both love and war in a way that should still create a bond with the audience and artist and leave them feeling a particular emotion that will leave them feeling venerable and sympathetic to the artist themselves just through the particular storyline that has been chosen to create.

This final question was a very difficult one for us to come to terms with. Due to the fact that it is a very important aspect but it also means that we may struggle to produce what the audience want in an effective way. Although the results where fairly close together the Older time era was favoured by our target audience. This was due to the fact that they believed it was more realistic to have an indie genre set in the past and then the archaic clothing and atmosphere would be supported and effective. The people who voted that Modern time era would be more effective said that it would allow them to feel alot more related to the music video as it would be the current time period. I have decided that to include a old fashioned setting into my music video would be far to hard to substitute in a successful way. This means that I will follow the modern era time setting but try to incorporate very vintage effects into the music video to try and relate this to what my target audience want. I will do this through clothing and particular cinematography shots.

Hebdige is a theorist that I have considered while making the questionnaire. His view on the younger generation is that they are either viewed as fun or trouble. Having taken this into consideration while asking my questions I am able to view the answers and see whether they imply troubled behaviour or fun behaviour . Overall I feel the answers are very reasonable to it assumes that the teenage target audience do not want to be viewed as trouble but in fact fun. This allows me to add scenes that are 
more positive into my music video. This is due to the fact that as a producer I am able to influence my own music video to take on a more positive teenage approach. I will do this by introducing the main characters as being very down to earth and influential to the target audience. This will result in my teenage audience feeling a lot more respectful to the artist for portraying there age in a more sensible way and not showing them as the stereotypical trouble maker. 

I filmed 5 different people who was part of the 40 that answered the questions in my questionnaire. Vox pops are essential in creating a successful media plan. This is due to the fact that they can be used for video or radio purposes. I can carry out a questionnaire that will help me decide major points of the music video I am going to create. This overall counts for the fact that I will be able to look over the Vox pops and recall what has been said. The 5 music video interviews I have on this post portray the qualitative data because we are able to see the participants answering the questions visually. I can look back on these in the future and know that as a whole I always have these videos to support my questionnaire and the answers. In addition to this being able to see a true representation of the answers allows me to read peoples answers and supply a very true and realistic setting for the audience. 

Overall I found that creating a questionnaire and having real people answer them and get there answers and views across really helped me to decide what I need to consider when creating my music video. I know know what specific things I need to add to create a successful atmosphere in my music video. For example the location of the music video. I can see that people prefer the countryside to the city. This enables me to being researching the idea locations and settings that are local and excess able for me and my group. In addition to this a lot of people liked the idea of vintage clothing which means I have to start gathering pieces for my main characters to wear I can do this by starting to research where I can find these particular outfits that fit the genre of the indie music video. If I was to carry out these particular questionnaire again I would make sure that I proceeded to create questions that would be easier to understand to people that were not really familiar with the media terminology this would make it easier for me to present and ask the questions without having much involvement due the the fact that I would often have to explain the questions in more detail to non-media students. This meant that often results took a lot longer to analyse