Evaluating Audience Feedback from Youtube

Once our thriller was completed – we wanted to get even more feedback than what we already had from our focus group. We put our video up on to the broadcasting network Youtube. This then enabled us to receive even more positive and negative feedback to help evaluate and make our next piece of work even better – so knowing what worked and what didn’t would therefore benefit us. However, the comments that have been made so far are only from my peers from Hurtwood House, who are also studying Media Studies. This was apparent by looking at the ‘insight’ of who is viewing my video and how the discovered it etc. All the views have been within the week of the video being uploaded and also in our lessons we have been told to comment on our peers work, therefore I am pretty certain that these comments are from Hurtwood students as they were asked to analyse their peers work.

Below are the comments that have been made so far on Youtube:

Sold
Time: 2:21
Added: 1 week ago - 2.08.09 From: hurtwoodhousemedia
Views: 108

HHMedia2009 (3 days ago)
'Very well shot, with some nice camera angles. I also like what you did with the titles. I didn't feel that the way they faded was good, I think having them stay as the strnage characters would have been better. I also felt the the choice of sound was random and disjointed, with sound appearing at random times just fo the purpose of having a soundtrack.'

I think that this comment is useful target audience feedback as it really points out what they believe to be negative aspects of the film. They have noted the strengths and then said how they didn’t work – for example the liked how the titles were created but didn’t like the way they faded. By giving us this feedback it helps us to be able to work more on the product and meet the needs of our audience more precisely. However, I appreciate there opinion on the sound – I feel that the sound used worked very well and created an impact – which we wanted the audience to feel. I personally do not understand how they feel it is random and disjointed – if the sound was not there then it would be silent which would not have worked as effectively. Maybe the use of the sound was quite prominent but from the other feedback we have received, but it has created a huge amount of suspense – a theme we were very much trying to create.

DIVA0000001 (4 days ago)
'The way the sound is editted in is very precise. NICE...'

In contrast to the other comment – this person gave us very positive feedback on the sound and the way it was edited in. I think that this comment gave a simple message but they clearly enjoyed our media product. They were obviously clear on the suspense we were trying to create and understood where we were coming from. Therefore it made the impact we had hope for from the audience.

imismith1 (4 days ago)
'Great piece of work, well thought of and good use of camera work and angles. I like what you have done with the titles how they disolve ect. well done!'

I believe that this comment is useful feedback – as they give positive views on our use of camerawork and angles. This then makes us feel good about our work as we feel it is effective and the audience like what we have done with the footage by keeping them engaged throughout. Also, I am very pleased that they appreciate what we did with the titles. This is something that I personally spent a lot of time doing myself – I really wanted the titles to look creative yet effective and this is what I believe I have achieved, so receiving positive feedback is therefore very helpful. Therefore making us aware that risk taken with the credits and how they dissolved into Greek lettering was worth it.

Our video is still up on Youtube and therefore generating a wider audience all the time – allowing more and more people to give feedback.

Below is a link to my thriller, ‘Sold’ on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVYpt-Oasxg&feature=channel_page