A2 Media Studies: January 2016

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Quotes from young demographic (13-17 yr olds)

In general, comments were mostly positive. Most notably, or certainly my favourite comment being, 'I like that it's in a wood'. Most weaknesses however were comments on how some of the shots were very 'shakey' or 'wobbly', which we mostly understood, but most of the time the shot was intentionally moving around in order to make sure that the music video was not stunted. On the other hand, perhaps it would have been smoother if we had had a stabiliser in order to make sure the shots did not move around too much and thus distract from the actual visuals, the most important aspect. Also, many people commented on the fact that we used the same/similar shots of the couple narrative. If we were to shoot the music video again, perhaps we could have planned out more shots of the couple to resolve this problem.

Despite this, feedback from the younger demographic was mostly nice. Many people commented on how much they liked the colours used - 'colour looked good', 'colours are pleasant and compliment each other'. Similarly, the different setting seemed to be effective and most thought that shots were well framed. Also, some feedback was somewhat contradictory since some said that the 'cutting of the shots in time with the beat of music works well' and that the 'short fast cuts were nice' whereas others mentioned that it 'sometimes cut too frequently' or 'too quickly'.

Strengths
'Nice mix of inside/outside', 'Lovely layouts', 'Short fast shots, nice', 'Colour looked good' 'Colours are pleasant, and compliment one another.', 'Cutting of shots in time with the beat of music at parts (works well)', 'Lip synching in time', 'Good variety of shots', 'Nice use of colours/setting', 'great depth to shots', 'Opening shot good', 'Lighting and colour grading is really good, goes with the music', 'Depth of shots is really good', 'Good close-ups on the instruments', 'Live band was great', 'Colours compliment nicely', 'Well done continuity', 'well choreographed shots', Very good use of depth throughout the video'.

Weaknesses

'Shaking camera', ' Overuse of some shots (e.g. walking up steps)', 'Jumps to different scenes too quickly', 'Returned to the holding hand shot too many times, perhaps you could have used a different shot to represent the relationship', 'when camera panning up in the forest, its wobbly rather than smooth', 'sometimes cut too frequently', 'Overused some shots - need the story to move on with new shots', 'When walking up the steps, it's flat (no depth)'.

Younger Demographic – (12-14 yr olds)

Interestingly, feedback from a younger demographic was mostly the same. The majority who criticised suggested that shots were too shaky and some were repetitive. Perhaps if we were to re-shoot we could plan different shots in order to not make it seem too repetitive. However, the positive outweighed the negatives, something which seemed most prevalent was the fact that the lyrics fitted with the visuals.

Strengths

‘I like where it is set out’, ‘lyrics fit visuals’, ‘it didn’t look like she was lip synching’, ‘in time’, ‘cute’, ‘good lip-synching’, ‘singing with sync’, ‘lip syncing on point’, ‘setting worked with the song’, ‘like vevo sign’, ‘it’s the actual band’, ‘looked a bit professional’, ‘different to other music’, ‘lively’, ‘images fitted with song’, ‘lots of different settings’, ‘interesting because sing in forest’, ‘lyrics fitted with surrounding’, ‘loved the setting’, ‘interesting and aimed at our age’, ‘performance was good’, ‘shot composition were good’, ‘good lighting’, ‘good linking words to the shot used – ‘your eyes’ = shot of eyes’, ‘I like the close up on eyes’, ‘felt like an actual music video’

Weaknesses

‘repetitive’, ‘not realistic as you wouldn’t start drumming in the middle of the woods’, ‘instruments were quite overpowering to the voice’, ‘camera a bit jiggly’, ‘shots of couple were repetitive’, ‘bit shakey’

Responses from Social Media

We also sent a message on Facebook to receive some feedback from other people our age. The responses we mostly positive, with only small notes of constructive. For example, they said that it would perhaps be a little better if the fade out at the end of the music video a little longer, which is easily fixed and mostly personal preference.

Feedback from Targeted Demographic

Constructive criticism from our targets demographic just consisted of adjusting the pace of our cuts. In an interesting way, feedback from our second cut revealed that we did not have enough cuts and that cuts were not correlating with the pace of the music. However, we managed to improve this, perhaps too far. Thus, if we were to construct this again, we would make sure that shots are held long enough in order to make sure that the meaning is clear, and everything is easy to understand. The same criticism of the repetitive couple shots also came up, again, if we were to re-do the shoot we would make sure that we had taken enough shots and perhaps planned the shoot better. However, this was hard since we had to construct this narrative in a small amount of time since, initially, he music video we meant to be a purely performance based music video. Other than this, from this response it is clear that the meaning was received as we had hoped.

"I thought that the incorporation of the pastel colours helped to form a soft effect which partners nicely with the tone of the singers voice. The timing of the changing shots against the music is very accurate. The hand linking between the shots of the lead singer creates a symbolic meaning towards the storyline. The change between indoor and outdoor location adds interest as the video is not static. There is also the consideration of depth within the video when the couple are walking up the stairs, which could mirror the length/distance the relationship could travel? There are many shots which suggest that the couple are united, such as the holding hands and shots of the feet side by side. Care has been taken to depict a particular mood, such as the glistening sunlight through the trees and interesting colours of leaves overhead. My only criticism is perhaps the quick changing of shots throughout the video, I think that the slower transitions or longer duration on each shot would have allowed the viewer to appreciate the colours and movement within the frame! Apart from that one criticism, I thoroughly enjoyed this video! I thought the colours were very eye capturing and overall the music video was very sweet!"

"I think the song and video go together perfectly. The balance between the wood shots and those in the room were well balanced. One thing is the shots of the back of the blonde's head were a bit repetitive"