Question 3…What have you learnt

from your audience feedback

?

Target Audience Feedback…

Male aged 16This student has stated that they ‘kind of’ understood the

narrative but has not said why. They also preferred the performance shots as they were more ‘dramatic’ and said that the actors and band played their parts as they like how they showed their emotion.

Their favourite shot was the one in the tunnel, they described it as ‘dramatic’ ‘effective’ and ‘interesting’

This person has said that they are not 100% on the storyline.

male aged 17.

This person shows me that they understand what was happening in the video. Their favourite shots were the

narrative shots because they were much clearer compared to the performance shot which they said they were too dark. We chose for these shots to be darker as it helped portray

the sadness that the band was feeling because they could not have the girl.

This person preferred the ‘cuts’ I think that this is because a cut is something tat follows convention and most music

videos use cuts.

Overall this person enjoyed the music video and say that they understood it clearly.

Female aged 17This person says that they understood the narrative, they

liked the way we portrayed the band and the couple together.

However, they felt that the narrative shots were awkward and liked the performance better.

Again, this person liked the cuts better than the dissolves.This person liked the way that the band acted, they

thought they were ‘quirky’ and ‘playful’ this is good as we waned the band to come across in a positive way.

This person liked the shots from inside the barn the most, although they thought that they were too dark.

Something this person did not understand was why Courtney walked around each band member. This was to show and/or symbolise the way that Courtney teased and

played with their feelings.

Female aged 17

This person says that they understood the narrative and that they liked the narrative shots better because they

were more natural. They preferred cuts rather than dissolves and they felt that

the actors and band played their parts well. This person’s favourite shot was the one of the couple

walking past the fence in the park, I think this is because this was a more romantic shot.

Although this person liked the video, they felt that the performance shots were too dark.

Female aged 16This student found that the narrative was easy to follow and easy to understand, she preferred the performance shot because she

could see the emotions portrayed from the actors. This person again prefers the cut rather than the dissolves, and

they also think the actor played their roles well. Their favourite shots were in the barn, I think this is because of its

unique urban ‘look’.

Female aged 16This student understood that the narrative was based

around a relationship. They also enjoyed the performance shots better than the narrative as they

found it ‘convincing’ and liked the shots better. Again, this person preferred cuts than dissolves, I think this is because it is what you are more likely to see in a

pop rock/pop punk music video. This students favourite shot was in the tunnel, they

thought that the light around Liam’s face looked ‘great’.

Female aged 16This person has said that they understand the narrative and their favourite shots are the narrative ones – this is

due to it being perfectly in sync. This student has said that they like dissolves, whereas most others prefer the cuts. This person may prefer

dissolves as they aren’t as harsh as the cuts and help to portray the relationship at some parts in a softer way. They also thought that the band were ‘very convincing’

and their favourite shot was the ones in the barn.

female aged 17This student has said that they do not understand the narrative of the video. Their favourite shots were the performance shots as they were ‘lively’ ‘funny’ and

‘entertaining’.They prefer the cuts rather than dissolves and they

thought the band and actors played their parts ‘quite well’.

This persons favourite shot was the one outside with the band on the patch of grass, they thought this was

‘unique’

Female aged 16This person has said that they understand the narrative

but they do not understand why the girl (Courtney) started to flirt with the band.

Their favourite shots were the narrative ones and they preferred cuts rather than dissolves.

This person thought that the band and actors played their parts well and it looked as they were ‘actually playing the

music’ Their favourite shot was the wide shot of the whole band playing together, although I do not know which wide shot

they mean.

Female aged 16

This person states that they do understand the narrative and they prefer the narrative shots because it was

‘interesting’ to watch the couple. They prefer cuts and thought that the two actors, but

the band especially were ‘very convincing’ This persons favourite shot was the one of the lead

singer, when they were outside, singing into camera. They described him as ‘very convincing’

From this audience feedback I can see that the majority of people understood the narrative however, there was a selection of students that did not understand why Courtney was flirting with the band. One student said that the lyrics fit the video really well, therefore that helped them to understand the narrative. Another student said that

although they understood the narrative they did not understand why ‘the girl was flirting with the band’ – we used the fight scene to try and show that Courtney was unhappy at this point in her relationship and this is where she decided to go to the band. Overall I think that the narrative was relatively easy to follow and was successful with

most people although, there was a selection that were confused.One half of the students that saw the video enjoyed the performance shots more, and the other half preferred the

narrative shots. The people who preferred the performance shot said this was because they were ‘lively’ ‘dramatic’ and the band were ‘very convincing’ as they portrayed their emotion really well, this is very good

feedback as this is exactly what we were trying to portray from the band, we wanted their energy to be over the top, this was so their passion for Courtney could be seen. The other half of students preferred the narrative shots, the narrative shots were described as ‘interesting’ ‘effective’ and ‘natural’ this is good feedback as we wanted the

couple to look real and convincing, the fact that one person found it interesting shows they must have been thinking about what was going on, rather than just watching without thinking. Some negative comments we

received were that the narrative shots came across as quite ‘awkward’ and that the performance shots were ‘too dark’. Most of our target audience preferred the cuts rather than the dissolves, I think this is because it is what you

would expect to see from a pop rock music video, dissolves are usually used for much softer songs however, we decided to use dissolves in our video as it softened the mood for the relationship, I thought that using cuts would have been too harsh to use in a shot that needed to be much softer. All of our target audience liked the band and

two actors, they thought that the band were very convincing, played their part well and had a lot of energy – which is good. The two actors were also convincing and did well at portraying their emotions. There were a variety of ‘favourite shots’ in our music video, I think the most popular were the barn shots and the tunnel shots, this is

because they are very unique and fit well with the urban, pop rock, grungy effect.

''If you wanted to watch a music video where would you go to do so? E.g. a particular app, you may name more than one. Also, what do you believe makes a good music video?''

Another way that I gather target audience research was by text messaging friends and people who I could not get into contact with face-to-face regularly, or just not at that time. For this, I asked the question ‘if you wanted to watch a music video where would you go to do so? E.g. a particular app, you may name more than one. Also, what do you believe makes a good music video?’ From this research I found that the most popular way to watch a music video was to use YouTube. I think this is because it is easy to access, free and there is a large variety of videos to watch.

From my friends point of view a good music video needs to be ‘entertaining’ there needs to be good ‘camera work’ ‘professional editing’ and the whole band needs to be shown as much as the lead singer. I would agree with these opinions as these points are vital to make a good music video. I think that my group and I have achieved these points with our video as we made it to the best of our ability and we took into consideration what our target audience wanted.

For this I asked ‘What is your favourite way to watch music videos and why?’ From this, again I found that YouTube is again the favourite place to watch videos. People of any age can use YouTube because it is so easy to use.

What did we learn from our focus group?

These are the sheets of which we asked the people in our class to fill in. From these answer I found that all but one person understood the narrative. All of the people in our focus group said that they enjoyed the performance shots rather than the narrative, this is because they were more ‘lively’ and there was more of a range of angles and different shots. I found that the cuts were most popular in our video, I think this is because they fit better with the genre of the song as the song is very upbeat and too fast for dissolves. Everyone thought that the band and actors played their parts well, the band were said to be very ‘convincing’ however it was thought that the couple could have been more ‘expressive’ and/or ‘flirty’. The most popular shot we filmed was the shot of the lead singer in the tunnel, I think this is because the silhouette gives a great sense of mystery and it is something that that you don’t see as often in music videos.There is nothing that this group did not understand, this is what we were hoping therefore this feedback was very positive.

Initially, this is who I believed my target audience would be.

Now that I have finished creating the music video, I agree with the choice for my target audience. However, I have decided that although people who listen to pop rock music will enjoy this, I also believe that people who like any genre of music will like the video since the narrative portrays a softer, sweeter tone.

The target audience for our music video will be aged around 16-20. They are likely to prefer indie pop punk or pop rock music, as appose to just pop or anything with a lighter sound.The TA will probably consume their current music through ITunes and/or YouTube.Our video will appeal to both males and females since it contains both genders. The TA may be middle class, with good jobs and average grades - they may also come from challenging backgrounds, and listen to this music as an escape from their everyday life.The audience, I believe may live in quite rural areas.

Overall, I found that the best way to collect target audience research was to hand out sheets with questions on them. This technique is fast, easy to do and does not take up a lot of time. When handing out the sheets to my class members, it only took around the length of the music video for them too complete the sheets, this is around 3 minutes 30 seconds. A benefit of using this method is that if you hand out the sheets yourself you can be sure that you are giving them to the right target audience and of the right age range. However, although I found using hand out’s was a good idea, text messaging people was also a good as I was able toContact people that I could not normally face-to-face.A disadvantage of using class members to fillIn sheet would be that they may be slightlybiased compared to someone filling out theSheet that doesn’t know you at all.