Audience feedback on Rough Cut

Audience feedback on Rough Cut

As I'm sure you know, we are close to finishing our music video 'Superman' by Behind Bad Luck. There are a few adjustments that need to be made to the music video till it can be labelled as completed but these adjustments will not take long at all and they will be done this week. We have had several teachers and members of our class watch our music video and it is very rewarding and pleasing to hear their positive responses. In the rough cut, towards the end of the music video, there is a long section which has been labelled 'placeholder'. Many of our classmates assumed that the video was finished but we still feel that we need to complete one more shot. The placeholder was there just so that we can upload the rough cut but myself and my group do not have the intention of leaving it there on the finished music video. The feedback we got, as I said was extremely positive, with our great editing being highly praised and complimented. What they liked was how the beginning linked very well with the end. At the beginning the first scene is of myself and my group inviting Tomas to join our band, and then Tomas begins to daydream and this is where the song begins. At the end of the song, we come back to the playground where we invited Tomas to be part of our band and because the whole music video was a daydream, my group member Connor attempts to wake him up. This idea was highly praised by teachers and students for its originality and even though it is only the rough cut and it still needs to be altered, we intend to develop this idea further. Overall it is very rewarding to know that even though our music video is not quite finished, it has been described as very enticing which only makes us more determined to make it better.

Rough Cut

Rough Cut

Digipak first draft

Assembling the Digipak for the first time

Here is our first attempt at making the digipak. As you can see, my group and I have remained faithful to our word of keeping the black and white pattern as a base because of the connotations of it with the concept of 'Ska'. The digipak has six panels as you can see below. The front panel is the one at the bottom right hand corner that has the title of the song and the title of the band on it. Overall my group have agreed to disagree in regards to this digipak. Some of us think it is decent for a first attempt and others disagree. One thing we can agree on however is that there is plenty of room for improvement!

Preparation for the Digipak

Preparing to make our 1st draft of the Digipak

In regards to making our digipak, to make a successful one, we need to ensure that it links cohesively with the magazine advert and that the product as a whole, can be seen as one. This means that aspects of the digipak will have clear distinctive links to the music video and the magazine advert. In order to do this we are going to add things associated with the concept of 'Ska'. By doing this we will be increasing our chances of achieving high grades because the product as a whole will look fluent and consistent. On our digipak, we intend for there to be some sort of black and white pattern as the primary base. This is because we have used this black and white checkered pattern with our tie's when filming but also because black and white where the two main colours that where used in the filming process. With black and white as our base, we intend on placing text and images onto it. We will attempt to make these images and text as clear as possible because it is important to be able to clearly see what the key conventions are of a digipak. Overall as a group we have got the foundations to making a successful digipak, but we just need to put it together and we are looking forward to this.

Audience Research findings using Wordle

Audience Research Findings

Based on my survey that I did, I have created a form of research that came from the feedback given to me on my survey. These words and answers that you will see in the picture below are answers and ideas that my audience gave me in regards to making a successful music video.

How to expand, broaden audience and Increase Sales

How to expand, broaden audience and Increase Sales

One of the main things that we need to directors ensure is that they need to know whether or not the music video is going to be profitable. Even it the video and song is very good but it is not aimed at the right audience and the director does not believe it will gain maximum profit then the director will be extremely reluctant to broadcast it. In order to make a music video profitable, you need to think about your target audience and also alerting the public about the product. You can do this in various ways but the fundamental aspect is to conduct research and discover the best way possible to advertise the product to the chosen market with the greatest chance of ensuring maximum profit. This advertisement varies due to the market, for example if aimed at the younger female audience, the advertisement may include colours such as pink, purple and yellow. Going further as well as making people aware of the product, as I said, it is vital that the correct target audience is selected as appropriate to the product. All these aspects need to be taken into account if maximum profit is to be made. An example is a two recent London 'underground rap' artists called 'Krept and Konan' released their mixtape titled 'Young Kingz'. As they appeal to the younger audience, particularly males, they used Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in order to keep their target market updated with their music that was coming out. They also had merchandise that was to be sold as well as competitions to win tickets to their tours. I would definitely conclude that not only was this extremely effective but it ensured sales and increased their popularity as well as their audience.

Feedback on Survey Monkey Results

Feedback on Survey Monkey Results

The first question was how often do you watch music videos. I asked this question just to gain basic knowledge and this question gave the respondants multiple choices to select an answer. The results showed that 60% of the people that did my survey answered that they watch music videos weekly.

The next question I asked was what is your favourite music genre. This question allowed the respondants to type their answer. The results obtained clearly shows that out of all the people who did my survey, 80% answered that pop was the favourite genre of music. This question was asked for the benefit of my music video, as I wanted to know what music genre is preferred the most by my target audience. The song that my group have chosen, has aspects of 'pop' in it but it is mainly considered to be a 'ska punk' genre of music but I do feel that if the audience listened to the song they will be able to see the similarities of our song and pop genre songs.

Question 3 asked where do people watch music videos. I asked this question again to gain general knowledge and it will not profoundly affect my music videos as the only place my music video can be uploaded is on YouTube. This question gave the respondants multiple choices to select an answer. From the results obtained, it shows that there isn't really a specific website or program that people watch music videos on, it is quite even and most probably based on individual preferences.

Question 4 asked what is your favourite music video and why. I was not expecting for everyone to agree on a few of the best music videos that I discussed earlier on my blog hence the reason why I gave the respondants a box to complete their answer. This question was asked purely on the basis of maybe taking an inspiration from one of the music videos that my respondants feel is effective. From the results obtained, 3 of the 4 songs are on the 100 greatest music videos on my blog.

The next question; question 5 was a very important and influential question. It asked what key conventions are needed to make an effective music video. I believe that this question is quite influential because it will definitely give me an idea of what is needed on my music video for it to be effective. This question gave the respondants a box to type their answers and from the results obtained, I was feeling very positive about my music video. In each of the answers, the respondant has either said good lip synching or a variety of shots or both. This encourages me because myself and my group travelled all over London just to ensure that we had a variety of shots that we could use in the video. Also, we did an exercise of lip synching with the Elton John and Kiki Dee task which helped us immensely with editing lip synching and filming it aswell. 

The last question was do you think that the music video is just as important as the song. This question gave the respondants only two options; yes or no. This question was asked to gain general knowledge of my audiences's thinking. The results showed that 100% of people that answered this question agreed that yes, the music video is just as important as the song. I was satisfied as this was the answer that I was hoping to get.

Overall I believe this survey was not only necessary but also beneficial to me on my way to completing a fine media product.

Audience Survey Monkey

Survey Monkey

Here is my survey that has been created for the purposes of benefitting me on my way to creating a successful music video. I hope as many people will complete this as possible and I will then be analysing the results.

Click here to take survey

Our Music Video - Sinead O'Connor Inspiration

Sinead O'Connor Inspiration

In our music video we decided to have a part of it that links to an inspiration that we have all previously studied. Sinead O'Connor's single titled 'Nothing Compares 2 You' is a single that all of us know too well now. In our lessons we have analysed this video as you will be able to see on my earlier blog posts. The music video is very simple and mainly consisted of a close up of O'Connor's face throughout the video. As basic and simple as this sounds it was incredibly effective because the close up allowed the audience to see O'Connor's emotional state as she was going through an incredibly hard time with her mum passing away at the time. This sense of raw emotion caught the audience's attention which made this single extremely successful. From watching and analysing this music video excessively, my group and I decided that it would be a good idea to try and include this in our music video somewhere almost as a tribute. After editing this shot on final cut, we asked many people in our class if they know the reasons as to why we did this. They were able to tell us the reasons and they all did say it looked similar to what Sinead O'Connor did and this was the point that we where attempting to get across so therefore it was a success as people where able to distinguish links between it and Sinead O'Connor.