Transcript of this video:
As a group we chose Crystal Whites this is because we are all fans of their
music. To start our music video, we began researching into their existing audience
demographic. However as we personally knew the band before, we felt we had a
good grasp of the age range who enjoyed this band.
We went onto their Facebook and Twitter pages to see the
ages of the people they had following them. From this, and our own knowledge of
the band, we decided our music video would function around males and females
around the age range of 16-24. This age was also identified as we have been at
numerous Crystal White gigs, where we were able to see those who frequently
came along. Luckily, each member of our group liked the Indie/Rock genre and
were familiar with various bands of the same genre. These include bands like
Arctic Monkeys, The Kooks and The Foo Fighters. We researched into these bands
and gathered key elements which we believed were essential at appealing to our
target audience. An example of this was to include a subtle yet understandable
narrative. Through research we noticed the Indie/Rock genre tends to steer
clear of a long narrative as they revolve their videos more around them actually
playing. This is something we felt we needed to incorporate into our music
video.
You-tube played a key role in letting me see what elements
to feature in a music video, but also to visually watch live performances of
bands in the same genre, allowing us to analyse their audiences, gaining a
clearer understanding of who my target audience would be. Furthermore, radio
stations such as X FM enabled us to find examples of bands similar to that of
Crystal Whites. We soon realised that the target audience age of the genre was very
wide, adding to our decision to focus on 16-24 year olds.
We next needed to attain an understanding of what our target
audience enjoys throughout the Indie/Rock genre of music videos. To start with,
we asked a random sample of people within my age bracket if they liked/listened
to bands in the Indie/Rock genre. This gave us a starting point to our questionnaires.
If they liked them, they could respond to my follow up questions, and those who
didn’t like them could write that down. In total we found that around 60% of
people we asked said they enjoyed Indie/Rock music, whereas the remainder
typically listened to other genres like Pop and classical. The next question we
asked those who answered yes, was “what element do you think is most important
for making an Indie/Rock genre music video successful?”
A: A strong narrative
B: Close up shots of the band playing
C: Both
The majority of people answered C: Both. They felt having
both balances out the music video. Additionally, we wanted to see the ages they
felt mostly listened to Indie/Rock genre music, so we continued the research by
asking “what do you think is the age range for people who enjoy this genre?”
These answers were mixed, however the option for older teens still came out to
be the most popular. I would say it was important that we carried this out, as
we were able to write down what our target audience preferred, and incorporate
it into our music video.
Before filming, we presented our idea to a group of people,
highlighting exactly what we were planning on carrying out. At the end of the
presentation, our audience were able to share their views. At this point, we
were certain of an idea of filming on top of a roof, using ‘the stripes’ as
inspiration for this. Despite really liking this idea and thinking it could
work, our audience told us it just wouldn’t be possible. This was due to a
number of reasons, such as; accessibility and heath and safety. We were also
asked during this pitch about our narrative, as we group we hadn’t yet decided
who would feature in our narrative, however after the conversation during our
presentation, we sat down and came up with a suitable person for our video.
Without this pitch, we wouldn’t have known how a large group of people felt
about our initial idea. From this our good ideas and bad ideas had been
highlighted and we knew what we needed to change. This enabled our video to be
the best it can be, by listening to our initial feedback.
Once we had finished filming the music video, and had
finished the postproduction stage, we presented the first draft of our music
video to a number of people within our target audience age group. We felt using
single people to give their feedback works better than using a smaller group of
around 6 people. We argued that individuals hear what their friends have said
and is influenced by their choice. This means our feedback wouldn’t be
reliable. To combat this we didn’t include a focus group into our audience feedback,
we just stuck to asking single people our questions.
In relation to our print products, audience feedback was
vital. We produced a magazine advert and a digipack, however without
constructive criticism from our audience they wouldn’t look how they look
today. For example we created our first magazine using inspiration from the
band “Conduit”, and their album “Funeral for a friend”. We liked how they
featured their band members at the bottom of the page. As a result we tried it
by heavily editing an image we previously captured of our band. This involved
matching our background and following it up to create the illusion of the sky
at the top, and the band members at the bottom of the page. Unfortunately due
to lack of experience in the Photoshop field, it didn’t go how we had
envisaged. Despite knowing our image didn’t look perfect, we played around and
created a first draft of our magazine anyway.
We presented this draft to members of our target audience
and we attained a number of useful criticisms. For example, we were told our
text wasn’t appropriate for an Indie/Rock genre music video. Secondly a lot of
people failed to understand all the empty space above the bands image. A common
view of our magazine draft was that it doesn’t stand out. Although we created
this from being inspired by the band “Conduit”, w e just weren’t capable of
producing something similar to that standard. As a result of our audience
feedback, we were able to note down the elements our audience had told us
didn’t work, and what they felt would work better. However, we decided to just
scrap our draft completely and start over. One major element we gathered from our
feedback was how most Indie/Rock genres present their band members playing
instruments on the cover of their magazine adverts. This was due to it standing out to an
audience and also how it conforms to their genre. Luckily, our process of making a second magazine was a lot
easier. We had already been told what our target audience liked from a magazine
and therefore felt it was easier. Once our second draft had been completed, we
needed to gather another set of feedback. We were told it was very eye catching
due to the bright colours and a good representation of members from an Indie/Rock
genre. However, a few members still didn’t like it. They argued that something
was missing and influenced us to include a quotation. This appears on a lot of
magazine adverts and we realised we should include one as it gives an element
of realism to our work. Additionally, we changed our font around our digipak
outline. This was to increase how much our advert should stand out to our
audience. For a final time, we presented our final draft and we were told it
was very good. Without our feedback on our first and second draft, we wouldn’t
have known exactly what the public didn’t like, and we wouldn’t have been able
to make improvements.
Another example of where audience feedback has been
essential is through our digipak, including what image to use but also what
font to use. In the same way as the magazine we produced a digipak draft. After
audience feedback we transformed our digipak completely. After showing a group
of people, we were informed the font wasn’t easy to read and it didn’t stand
out. Also, our actual picture didn’t enable their faces to be easily seen. A
big problem our audience discovered was that our draft digipak shape was
rectangle, opposed to square like it was supposed to be. We took these
criticisms and went away to plan a second draft. While researching for
inspiration, we saw the album cover for “The Stripes”. We used this as an idea
to incorporate into our digipak and soon created a second attempt. We showed
another group of people and they loved our font choice and the way we had
presented our font scheme. We were pleased with our audience feedback upon our
second attempt and overall liked how it looked. Without asking our audience
again, we wouldn’t have been able to change our digipak to suit the ideas of
our audience.
In addition, there was a split decision among the group
members as to what logo design to use. We had three similar ones but couldn’t
decide which looked more authentic. We asked a group of people to pick which
they liked and from this we knew which to pick. As well as questionnaires and individual feedback, we used
surveys to find out certain font choices and styles which our audience
preferred. These were effective as they gave as a clear to the point answer and
we evidence them on our blog.
In conclusion, initial research into our target audience age
of the Crystal Whites band, and our audience feedback upon our video and print
products played an integral role in shaping our final work. As a group we were
able to tailor our drafts, to create a final piece of sustainable work that our
audience could enjoy. This was important to us because our main aim of this
project was to present our audience with something they like. We took on board
all our negatives and positives as we valued the opinion of our audience. This
was especially true when members of my group were certain that their idea was
best, despite what our audience feedback had already told us. They realised
after, that the key element is making sure our audience is happy and soon
changed their mind.
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