Question 3- What have you learned from your audience feedback?

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After producing my music video I showed it to my class and asked for them all to give me some feedback on certain aspects of my music video.

Mise en scene
- The cinema mise en scene is good- with the same girl- good narrative
- Fast cuts of girl and different boys so is more interesting- doesn’t look boring.
- Mise en scene of streets and town was great.
- Match on action wasn’t perfect.

As you can see there are a variety of responses to the mise en scene. Even though there are comments which are expressing how the mise en scene and the fast cuts are ‘good’ and ‘interesting’. Ideally I needed more feedback from audience further than my local area and my social groups due to the feedback being more reliable if there was more of it. This may then allow me to gain a stronger response as to whether the mise en scene worked well for my music video.

Narrative
- Quite original, but almost stereotype of boys chasing girl
- Is she just a big slut? Not sure how all the different boys worked. None of them looked dumped. Not clear narrative structure.
- I liked the narrative idea, it was really original.
- Clear narrative structure.

The understanding of the narrative to me was an important factor due to if people didn’t understand the storyline of the video people would not want to continue watching the video or not enjoy it. Here I have been given a slightly mixed opinion due to some people commenting how the narrative structure is ‘clear’ therefore quite entropic I guess for a music video.

Use of Colour
- Love the change of boys and the fast editing, the colours against the sepia ish street look really good- very vibrant.
- Lighting and colour effective
- Swapping colours during the chorus may be too sudden.
- Good use of colour for different singers
- Nice use of colour
- Really liked the effects to show the 4 singers.
- Effective black and white filming
- Really good colour and variation
- Don’t think the coloured bits went well with the black and white/sepia effect. It would have worked in colour.
- Very good use of colour, from black and white to bright primary colours
- The black and white effects make it look more professional
- Good use of lighting and colour
- Liked the binary opposition of black and white and then bright coloured singing bits.

My uses of colour seem to be quite popular (when using the blocked colour behind the actors). The main negative here was:

• Don’t think the coloured bits went well with the black and white/sepia effect. It would have worked in colour.

Therefore I did an experiment by taking the 'black and white/ sepia effect off some of the clips (however unfortunately i couldnt take it off all, but as it was just as an example i thought it would be ok) and uploading that onto YouTube also to get more feedback on this video.

The people I asked to comment on which they preferred said:

'I prefer the video when it is mainly in sepia, this way the chorus seems more uplifting and bright because of the connotations of the colours'

'Sorry... Previously I thought that colour would have worked better... But now i prefer the sepia/black and white effect'.

Audience
- Great for the audience
- Can clearly see who this is aimed at.

Lip Syncing
- Lip syncing wasn’t perfect all the time but the background colour blocks looked great.
- Miming wasn’t all perfect…sorry.
- Bad miming by blue guy but that isn’t your fault
- Some lip syncing may have been out.

Lip syncing caused quite a few problems for me... The band struggled to memorise the song and one of the actors hadnt managed to receive the song therefore he had to try learn the song in a few hours. Hopefully it most cases it is well hidden that the actors sometimes needed a prompt to help them with the lyrics.

Cinematography
- Shots are extremely good and original
- The shots to show the boy had changed was a bit jumpy
- Good use of film shots- close up and from a distance.
- Effects and editing very professional
- Very good editing
- Good cinematography, the shots were good. Some from across the street and some close up.
- The street shots aren’t particularly cinematic, whereas the colour shots are.
- Some shots were slightly too long

Genre and Similar Conventions
- Split screen looks quite similar to other music videos so very effective
- Video goes very well with the song
- Redundant video but the different guys were quite original. (Busted- sleeping with the light on)
- Two clearly different editing styles used to distinguish the singing from the narrative and seemed conventional of the genre but in a good way as it would have seemed out of place of it was challenging the genre.
- Fairly entropic
- Clear genre- love song, boys and girl

Other
- Made me smile :)
- Really good
- I like how he kissed his fingers at the end- that was funny.
- Was entertaining as lively and energetic
- Like how you made use of all the footage- fun/laughing and so on.

I also asked my target audience to answer a few questions for me...

1.) What type of genre do you think this song/music video belongs to?
I’d say a pop/indie sort of music.

2.) Who do you think are the target audience for this video?
I would say it has a universal target audience, but it wouldn’t be for children.

3.) Can you think of any alterations that you think would have improved it?
I think that the jump when the squares move should be changed.

4.) Did the video/song have any effect on you?
I thought it was touching, and was romantic!

5.) Do you think the narrative in the video fits with the song? And why?
Yes, I think it does fit with the song, because it is the right speed of the song.

6.) Do the actors/actress fit the genre/video well?
Yes I do.

1.) What type of genre do you think this song/music video belongs to?
pop

2.) Who do you think are the target audience for this video?
Young teens (15-17) mainly girls

3.) Can you think of any alterations that you think would have improved it?
A change in actors, the one I felt didn’t look like he should have been in the band. Another thing that needed to have been done more clearly is that the lip synching wasn’t perfect therefore the actors needed to learn the song better.

4.) Did the video/song have any effect on you?
I thought it was really uplifting, and very catchy... I found myself humming the chorus during the day. Id definitely be tempted to listen to more of their songs.

5.) Do you think the narrative in the video fits with the song? and why?
Yeah I do! The tempo of the song fits the action in the video well, also the lyrics are really romantic and so is the narrative, it’s really cute!

6.) Do the actors/actress fit the genre/video well?
Yeah, even though some of the sync was out so it didn’t look like the one in particular was in the bad... however their clothing was perfect!

I also emailed the band...

To: LIGHTS AND SOUNDS (WRITIN... (lightsandsoundsmusic@myspace.com)

Dear Max, Alex, James, Jack and George,

This message was to quickly let you know that we have completed our music Video. Im sure you all can't wait to watch it... ha! Here is a link to it on youtube...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlo-jpbplDUIf at all possible could you watch it and give us some feedback...? Shame you live so far away otherwise it would have been nice to have you in it.

Thanks, Lauren x

THEIR REPLY...

Ahhhh awesome! absolutely love it, looks really pro and love the coloured spotlights on the guys!thank you so music for choosing to use our tune in your coursework, really does mean a lot!make sure you say well done to everyone involved in making it, really does look great!

George

L&S x

Conclusion

I was really happy with my feedback because the majority of comments were positive. I found it really useful gaining feedback which I could then experiment with such as the alterations to effects on certain clips.