Questionnaire and Response Analysis

To help with the  research phase of my final product, I produced a questionnaire which I sent out to and was completed by 27 individuals. My aim when creating the survey was to collect information in regards to the various media products I would be creating. 

I divided the questionnaire into 4 sections the first section was focused on general questions such as age, gender and music preference whereas the latter sections were area focused on the 3 media products; A music video,a digipak and magazine advertisement.

ANALYSIS OF RESULTS

SECTION 1

Q1 + 2)

The results from questions 1 and 2 show that all but 2 of my respondents were all between the 16 - 24 age bracket  with 2 over 25's. This is most likely due to the fact that the majority of the people who filled the questionnaire were my friends so, it is expected that they would fall into that age bracket. This is however a positive thing however, as my final products are aimed at that age range, so therefore their responses will be of more use to me as opposed to responses from older or younger age groups. 

The ratio of males to females who answered the question is fairly equal, this is good as it ensures views from both genders are covered, so reduces gender biased answers.

Q3)

My motive for this question was to gather a feel for the type of music the respondents like and listen to regularly. From this information, it would be easier to understand their responses to the later questions which would most likely be shaped by their views. As my music video will most likely be RnB inspired, it was very helpful to see that 70% of the respondents clicked RnB as the genre of music they listen to most, as their responses would be especially valuable. Hip/Rap was second highest with 60%, features of this genre are often intertwined with RnB so this was also good.

SECTION 2: Features of the music video

This section was centered around the music video itself and what the respondents would expect to see in an RnB style video, but also what they would like to see.

Q4)

As the majority of the respondents would not ALL have been familiar with these terms I inserted a short definition to help them. For this question more than half of the respondents opted for a "concept" video as the type of video they believed would suit an RnB inspired song. From my research of RnB music videos, I found that any one of the video styles is used and more often than not, it appears to be the lyrics of the song, which dictate the style. The response was interesting however and will be taken into consideration.

Q5)

Although I was fairly confident with with what the outcome of this particular question would be, I thought it would be safer to have it confirmed. As expected a vast majority opted for a 3-4 minute video, which is stereotypical of many music videos as it is neither too short or too long that the viewers never actually finish the video. 

Q6)

Unlike all the previous questions, this was the only open ended question in the questionnaire. I felt this style of response would be easier for the respondents to convey their answer because as I said before, the majority would not be familiar with the technical terms and may have felt intimidated had I put a list of technical terms.

Summarising the general themes of the answers and recurring answers, I gathered that most wanted a "stripped back" approach and many stated how "black and white videos" are also stereotypical of RnB and in response to editing, most were not keen on "over-editing" or anything too surreal, more smooth. A lot of people also stressed the importance of "a video that matched the lyrics", not necessarily through a narrative video but they needed to be somehow linked.   

SECTION 3: Features of a digipak/album

This section revolved around the features of the digipak

Q7) 

This was a simple question to understand what style of digipak most people would prefer. Because the majority of the respondents were about the same age as myself, the majority of us only recognize/have the standard style of 4 panel digipaks, the 85.71% result for the 4 panel digipak wasn't surprising. The final digipak will more than likely be a 4 panel, to correspond with this particular feedback.

Q8)             

The results of this question are quite varied and people seemed to want very different things. This answer was open for the respondent to choose multiple answers, as I felt just one answer would be insufficient as there are multiple features of an album cover.

The most popular answer was the artists name in large somewhere on the cover and an image of the artist also appeared to be must. The least popular was the artist's name being written in small and "additional information about the single", these options will help me when constructing the digipak.

2 people selected the "Other" option and suggested a lyric book or personal hand written message. Although these weren't suggestions I had thought of, I believe the handwritten message would be very interesting and I have seen this done in some albums which I think is a nice touch. I probably won't do the lyric book idea as I believe it would be too time consuming to complete, however it was also a good suggestion.

SECTION 4: Promotional advertisement

The questions in this section were in regards to the promo. advertisement

Q9) 

Around 78% of the respondents said they would want minimal text on the advert and the focus of the advert to be predominantly on the image of the artist. Using this information, I will take care to only include text that is essential to the single and leave out any irrelevant information.

Q10)

Again just another simple question in regards to the orientation of the advert. Most likely for 

convenience, the majority of the respondents prefered a portrait advert as opposed to a landscape one. Similarly due to the percentage, I will most likely create my advert in a portrait format.

Talk with an industry expert

During the planning stage of our work, we had a guest visit from Tobie Scopes (right) an industry expert, who shared with us his experience within the music industry and gave us very useful tips.

In terms of my music genre, Tobie explained certain features and characteristics that were apparent in many RnB music videos and album covers. He also mentioned Beyonce's use of black and white in her music videos and suggested I consider this when creating my own music video. 

He also emphasized the "little things" that would bring our products to life and add a sense of realism to them. These included barcodes, logos of sites such Twitter, Facebook etc, all of which would make my final pieces look "real".

All in all it was a very informative chat and gave valid insight into the music world from an industry expert.

Research into chosen artist :BEYONCE

I have chosen Beyonce as my artist as I am a big fan of her music and feel that she is a very talented and diverse artist, therefore there would a lot of opportunity for me to create something high quality. Beyonce is predominantly an RnB artist. However she often dabbles in elements of Pop, House and electronic sounds in order to spice up her image and add create new, interesting content. 

Audience

Beyonce's audience, tend to be females with a very wide age range. She attracts fans who are 4 years old, right up to the middle aged ladies who admire Beyoncé's image and what she stands for.

Her male audience is a lot smaller, although many will still enjoy her music, less males actively support her in terms of purchasing her goods or paying to see her live.

Image

Beyonce's image is very diverse, sometimes she embodies a more urban personality with heavy jewelry and heavy makeup, whereas other times she sports a more natural and fresh look, depending on the type of song or how she wants to portray herself. As the song I have chosen for my music video is slow and calm, I will most likely go for a laid back, natural look.