Final cut. My music video

Evaluation Practice

To what extent was the intended audience a major factor in the creation of your A2 Advanced Production Portfolio?
At the beginning of my media production portfolio I spent a fair bit of time thinking about my intended target audience. I thought about who I wanted to appeal to and what age range I wanted to focus on. I thought it would be appropriate to choose a similar age to myself as I could gather information from my peers about what they would like to be included in the music video and I could use my own preferences which would make the task more enjoyable for me. I decided on the age range of 15-25 years of age and I started by conducting some audience research.

Audience research is a systematic and accurate way of finding out about your audience. The most common method of audience research is the survey. This is where a group of people are selected and they are all asked the same questions, and their answers are counted. I decided to create a questionnaire with ten relevant questions on and handed them out to classmates that were aged around eighteen. I decided to design this survey because some people were happy to help me in my research but didn’t want their answers to be filmed.

The intended audience impacted the creation of my production portfolio to a major extent. The answers which I gathered from both the recorded footage of people voicing their opinions and the graphs I was able to calculate from the filled in questionnaires helped me greatly. If I had used my own opinions and idea’s then it would have had a very narrow approach on it and would have been purely on my own thoughts and idea’s which don’t appeal to everyone. The answers which were collected from my audience feedback helped me to realise that everyone has different tastes but that some similarities can be picked up on. An example of this would be that some of the answers stated that the person enjoyed music videos more when the footage was relevant to the lyrics. However some people disagreed with this and said they preferred when the video wasn’t relevant to the lyrics in any way, shape or form. Many believed that a music video is merely a marketing device for the actual single and that it should be created with this in mind. Others thought that it was more then that and thought that the video told the story of the single and is used to help the audience imagine more about the actual song itself.

All through out my planning and research as well as my practical and evaluation the intended audience was always at the front of my mind. Without the audience then there would be no point in creating the music video apart from to watch it for my own gain. I wanted to involve my target audience and I wanted them to have a say in how my music video went. I looked into locations, costumes and the storyline all with the research from my audience I had. At points during my editing I would stop and view the footage, imagining that I was in fact a member of my target audience rather then the creator and director of the video. This helped me to place myself in their shoes and to see it from their point of view which helped me to improve my video.

The intended audience helped to a great extent towards the end of my production portfolio as well as the start. As I had gathered thoughts and opinions to help be creative in my planning and research stages I thought that it was only right that the audience should have a say and give me constructive criticism in the final stages. I uploaded my first cut of my music video onto YouTube and I asked for my intended audience to give me positive and negative points about the actual video. It was really helpful to get this information as it allowed me to gather more then my own opinion and helped me to spot things that could have been improved which I might not have picked up on, had it only been me watching the end piece. This allowed me to change the parts in my video which my audience said could be improved and become more appealing to them.

The audience is a vital and key part of any product or production and should always play a major part through out the whole process. The audience should always be referred to every so often for their thoughts, ideas and expectations. However boundaries should be pushed and sometimes an audience is more impressed when the creator thinks outside of the box and puts their own unique stamp on their production. The more creative a music video is the more wow factor it can be said to have. In music videos there is a tendency to move in the same direction as similar artists and previous videos that have been successful. However this is a safe option and sometimes the audience likes to experience something fresh and new rather then the same old. Some directors don’t even listen to the song before they create the music video for it. This idea could be placed into thinking about audiences. Music video’s are made for the enjoyment of the audience, but shouldn’t be created by the audience.

Evaluation Starter Questions G234 Audience Feedback

Based on the analysis of your audience feedback, is there a consensus on how effective your work is?

Most people agreed on what parts of my video worked well and also what parts could be improved on. Most people said that the beginning and the end was effective and well filmed but the middle could do with some re-adjusting to make it better as the section seemed fairly irrelevant.

Do the replies pick out similar things to comment on?

Most people suggested that the part in my video which i put to slow motion shouldn't be as slow as it seems to drag on a little bit to long and because the song is fast paced it doesn't fit the music as well as it could do. Also there is a part in the video which is a bit pointless and most people suggested that this part is deleted and is replaced with something relevant to the song to help the audience keep interested.

Do you accept the comments of your audience or would you want to challenge them?

Looking at the comments which were made i accept them and plan to take the constructive criticism on board and have a closer look at my editing and making a few changes to bring my mark up. I want to try and persuade my friends boyfriend to be in the video as it would help the journey through out the video as the story line is about a young teenage couple.

If you were able to re-visit your work and develop it further which aspects would you focus on the improve the piece. Try and explain why you would make the changes.

I would make some changes to my video because of the audience feedback i was given. I would include more shots of my two characters as the song is about the couple and i would place this in the middle and delete the footage of the views on the surrounding area's of the river tiffy.

My Music Video

As you can tell , my music video is above. I'd like to take a moment to explain a bit about it and the thinking behind the shots etc. Firstly , the introduction to the artist and the name of the song. I put the 'clouds' frame into it to start of the music video as when people think about Katy Perry they imagine bold, bright, funky colours and costumes etc. I didn't want it to be exactly like Katy Perry's work as i wanted to put my own unique feel into it. However i decided to go with the first frame as it is fairly retro and i like how the clouds bounce along with the music.

 The first scene is of my young teenage couple walking along the river. They are hand in hand and are quite close. They have been together a while and things seem to be moving along just fine. I flick to the words high school as this is a quite important phrase within the lyrics. High School is where their romance started and it is widely seen that relationships that start in high school don't really last long as life changes are about to happen such as going to university and the love fizzles out. I repeated the footage of the couple walking as i thought this went along with the beat of the music. I also added the affect of 'cartoon' because even though they believe they are madly in love, its a bit childlike as they are young and also the video is going to tell a story kind of like a cartoon comic does by getting highlights of a certain stage.

Back in November i had my own 18th Birthday and for some reason i kept the balloons from my party. I filmed some footage just of me zooming into the 18 on the balloon as this was relevant to the lyrics and i wanted all my footage to be original so i quickly did this myself.

Keeping in theme with my video being relevant to the lyrics, i filmed over my garage roof. I didn't think it would be very safe to make my actors actually sit on the roof as im not exactly too sure how safe it would of been and i didn't want to take the risk! I also put in a frame of 'stars' as it gives a kind of fairytale feel about it. The day i filmed the footage it was fairly sunny so i adjusted the lighting on the roof scene for it to be a bit darker and give the impression that the couple would stay on the roof chatting and laughing into the night.

As i previously mentioned in one of my earlier posts i ended up having to use only my female actor and so i decided that parts of the music video would have a home-made style about it. I changed the lighting and contrast on some areas of the video so that this home-made style would come across more. There is parts where Emma is looking directly into the camera and laughing and joking around with her boyfriend.

I used some old footage that i had previously taken while i was on holiday for my video. When the lyrics 'keep our promises' comes on , i changed the style of the footage and made it look 'dreamy' as the female actor and her boyfriend had discussed all these plans that they would do when they were older.

I used the globe for the phrase 'be us against the world' i thought this fitted in well and i added a jet sound to it so that it sounded more genuine. I had the end destination as Florida as people associate Disney Land and fairy tales with this area.

For the chorus i reversed my footage as the romance is rewinding and feeling like it is going back to before it started. It's like all the hard work and time the couple have spent with eachother has just disappeared for no reason and like it never happened.

The part where Emma is ripping up the valentines card she rips it so the heart splits into two. This helps resemble how heartbroken she feels and how all the promises they made to eachother have been broken. I put this footage into slow motion as it is the main crisis in the video where everything is being ruined.

I film Emma listening to her ipod and then pulling the headphones out. I do this because she is listening to songs that remind her of her and her boyfriend and she goes into a trance like state, day dreaming about how it used to be. She pulls them out as she begins to get emotional.

In the location that i chose to film in, there is a church/abby. I thought this was the ideal location as i could incorparate it within my footage aswell, which was a bonus. Churches are associated with weddings and so i focused on it for a while because the couple probably had spoken about getting married in the future and making those vows to one another. I changed the affect to 'old film' for a panning shot of it as i wanted the audience to think that she was looking back on her relationship and that the church is now seen as like a funeral and that her relationship is over and has come to an end. I also filmed in an anti-clockwise direction as it gives a sense of going the wrong back, and turning back in time. I then immediately film it in a clockwise direction to show that she wants to move on but move on in life with her boyfriend.

I gathered a load of rings that i found in my room and put them on a ring holder and filmed this for the lyrics on replacing with a million rings. I zoom in on the rings to show the glitz and 'bling' of them and then drop some onto the white background, infront of the camera.

I then flashback to the home-made footage that her boyfriend has taken of her infront of the church. I put this into slow motion as lots of thoughts, feelings and emotions are running through her head at this time and so it needs to be slowed down. Her body language is very upbeat and happy as she thought everything was going right for her and she is smiling.

I filmed Emma at my house sitting under a duvet. Many people think that when a girl is suffering after a break up she is feeling upset and sorry for herself and so ive put lots of chocolate next to her as she is comfort eating. I also included a teddy bear that is meant to come from her boyfriend and she throws it on the floor because it reminds her of him too much.

The last scene i put in black and white as the actor feels like all the colour has been taken out of her life and she is feeling depressed and doesn't really know what she is going to do now and being single is something that she is not used to.

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