IzzyA2Media

Question: 4  Audience Feedback, What have you learned from your audience feedback? We asked a group of 30 people between the ages of 16-18 to watch our music video. After they had watched the video we asked them to fill out a questionnaire we had prepared, asking them what they thought of the video.

analysis of Feedback: What do you think is happening in the video? In General audiences had a good understanding of the narrative as a whole. However some audiences members had a clearer more in depth understanding of the message being pot rayed and the deeper meaning and connotations within the video. All audience members recognised that the girl had died, she was reliving her memories in the forest and the male artist Tobias Jones was singing about her. Some audiences members identified the fact that it goes through her memories in chronological order leading up to the car crash where she died. some were able to identify the idea of autumn linking with death, and understood the fact that the narrative and performance joined at the end of the video. A few audiences members thought that the female protagonist and the male performer had a romantic relationship, whilst this was not the original intention, the idea that the video can be about friendship or a romantic relationship will appeal to a wider range of people as the story is more relatable as it can be interpreted ether way. ideas that were mentioned by audience members .Car crash .death .love .friendship .past .looking back at memories .childhood .Ghost/spirit .mourning .Seasons

What did you like about the video was there a bit in particular which you liked? Audiences responded to this question with a variety of things they enjoyed and liked about the video here are some examples:

. Audiences enjoyed the narrative, many said they could sympathise with the story and characters and found the music video moving and emotional. .Audiences thought the editing was strong, many people particularly enjoyed the part(s) in the video where there were overlapping bits of footage as it made our female protagonist more spirit-like. . The moving photographs were popular among our audience; many felt it really added to the narrative, was framed well and was very well edited. Audiences particularly enjoyed the end of the music video when the narrative and the performance combine and we realise that the female protagonist has died in a car crash. They liked the fact that as Megan walked away she slowly faded, which clearly showed that she had died.

Our music genre within this music video is of the singer/songwriter genre. how convincing is our video for this genre?

The general response we got from this question is as follows: from the feedback we received we see that our audience thought that the music video was convincing as a singer songwriter music video for a few reasons. A performance from our artist was strongly presented throughout the music video through the use of lip-sync and playing the piano. Often Singer/songwriters are associated with playing their own instruments and audiences thought the piano effectively portrayed our artist as a singer/songwriter. Audience noticed that the pace of the video matched and complimented the pace of the song. They thought the use of slow-motion was an effective way of mirroring the slowness of the song. Audience recognised the fact that singer/songwriters tend to also have a in depth narrative alongside the performance within a music video. They acknowledged the fact that we were sticking to typical singer/songwriter music conventions.

Any criticisms? While their weren't a great amount of criticisms, the only thing which appeared repeatedly in the feedback was the lip-sync. Some audiences members said that at the start of the video the lip-sync was slightly off. 1 or 2 audience members mentioned that the Mis en scene on the performance side could have been better. We recognise that this is an issue and if we were to film it again, we would most certainly change the location that we used for the performance or altered it more drastically to make the location more professional looking.

How could i improve (reflection on product)

Looking back on the project, there are several changes now which i would make on the production and handling of the video.

firstly i would spent a lot more time researching locations for our performance side of the music video, as i feel this is the weakest part of the video and i believe i could have done more to make the school hall look more authentic. I would have scheduled more filming hours for this side of the video as looking back now i don't feel like enough time was spent filming and therefore when it came to editing we were more limited in the footage we had and what we could do with it.

evaluation question 2

(additional commentary below)

"How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?"

In all of the texts, The digipack, the advert and the music video, we used natural settings so that they were more recognisable as one product through the use of natural setting. The use of natural setting also reflects the singer/songwriter image of raw talent and the fact that indie style artists don't need extravagant location/settings/props. We felt by using woodland settings in all three of our products that it would depict the idea that because of the fact that the setting and look is very pulled back and naturalistic it would effectively show to a potential buyer of our product that their is more of a focus on the music than the image of the artist.

We also focused on the music as opposed to the image in the products by focusing on critical acclaim. For instance on the advert we had a review from Q magazine. By having this second opinion audiences will be more intrigued by the product and therefore more likely to buy it because they have heard positive things about it from a respectable indie magazine.

Here are some of the responses from our audience when they were asked  to say three things they liked about the video:

"Scenery/setting with the contrasts of colour & texture from the knarled multitrunked trees & carpet of leaves to the dazzling sunrays. 2. The girl's natural face & her emotion in her eyes& movements told the story 3. The pinning of the photos on the tree idea was interesting & helped the story to unfold, visual & emotional, it was very moving."

"The plot, very touching. Good choice of the song. Nice settings."

"Setting- very appropriate especially the broken car the lighting - bright and the ending which is a really good twist"

"I liked how the video would deal back and forth between Toby and then Megan, I liked the effect piano and I liked how Megan vanished at the end"

Audiences responses when they were asked what there favourite part of the video was:

"The warm sunny, tranquil woodland setting, but in reality it was Autumn therefore a sense of an end, not just summer, began forming in my mind as a viewer & photos being pinned onto the tree were captivating as a way of unfolding the story, that I started making predictions about."

"The reveal at the end of the video because the plot is something a lot of people can relate to"

"When the girl disappears at the end of the clip"

"When the girl is pinning up photographs. its emotional."

Audiences response when asked: Do you understand the videos plot, if so, what is it?

"A boy & girl loved each other but couldn't be together any more, although they both seemed unhappy to be apart, and as the story unfolded, through the photos & the change in music, it became obvious why. The girl was living a happy teenage & young adult life with friends, love, achievement, only for it to be cruelly cut far too short as a result of her dying in a car accident in the woods, where her spirit now sadly lingers, the boy being drawn to that place too. Gulp ! Sniffle"

"Well, the artist is remembering a girl who could be a girl friend or sister and we watch her go through her life in picture and video then it is revealed she was in a car accident!"

 The majority of the font is white as it needs to stand out from a predominately black/dark background. White can represent a successful beginning which would make sense as this is George Ezras debut album containing very successful hits such as 'Budapest'. His name in font is larger than the album. This may have been done because as this is his first album his name will not be well known but he needs to establish himself as an Artist, people may not recognise his appearance but may recognise his name so its important that his name is clearly visible. The album title 'Wanted On A Voyage' is in the same font as the artists name but significantly smaller and is just beneath his name, suggesting this information is slightly less important.

The same font is used on the back of the digipack for the song names but the track number and the album name is in red and the song title and George Ezras name are in white. The colour red is able to bring Red bring text and images to the foreground.

The fonts are also the same of the disk of the digipack, (excluding the record labels) but this time the text is black on a red background and comes across as quite striking and eye-catching.

George Ezras name and the album name are in  a larger font size than the song names, suggesting his image and name are more important.

But whats interesting here is that there is a huge emphasis on the record labels. Columbia records are quite a respected record company and therefore Ezra wants to associate himself with the company and make it clear this is who he is signed to. The label suggests his music is of good quality and respectable. it also has the columbia logo on either side of the disk to emphasise this.

On the back of the digipack 'Sony Music''s logo is present there but it isn't highlighted as much as columbia.

On the front of the Digipack George Ezra is central and looking directly at his audience. His red T shirt makes him stand out from all the people which are surrounding him, they are all looking away from us either talking to another character or engaging in a task.

Whilst looking at Singer/Songwriter music videos a recurring thing which i noticed in many of the videos i looked at was the ones which were based heavily on narrative had a pre narrative before the song starts.

I good example of this is from singer/songwriter band 'The Script'. In their music video For The First Time. It Focuses on a Young Irish woman

and her relationship with a man and the fact that she misses home.

The pre narrative in which she writes a letter to her parents really aids in establishing the narrative and literally gives the protagonist a voice as often in music videos you won't hear the central characters voice (unless they are singing) and we feel more sympathetic towards her character because we feel we know her on a more personal level because we see her when she is most fragile. ( getting upset when writing a letter to her parents because she misses them)

Having pre narrative or even narrative after the song has finished is effective in immersing the audience into the story as by using this technique the story is expanded on further as opposed  to having a narrative video without pre/post Narrative.

The results from the Digipack suggest that:

Whilst most people liked the font many thought it was only ok, so therefore needs to be changed/improved.

The majority of people thought it was important to have the Artist on a digipack

The majority of people recognised that the Digipack was of the Singer/songwriter genre