Audience Feedback

Audience feedback is a vital part of my project. Without it I wouldn't be able to understand the the negative and positive parts of my work, and what to improve on!

After finishing my music video, I uploaded it to YouTube, where I could expect some comments on it. In addition to this, I posted the link on Yahoo Answers where I received some feedback. 

In terms of feedback for my ancillary tasks, I decided to ask some members of my family and some friends what they think about the album cover and advert, and what they would like me to change about it.


DIGIPAK - *Positive comments*
"I like the backcover, the colours are good, and so is the layout. The inside left image is good." "Shows the story of the video in a snapshot". "Kind of cool considering the name of the song."
*Negative comments*
"Lucy looks haunted/scared!" "Front cover is too dark." "Doesn't make sense on its own."
*What could be changed*
"You could put some colour on the collage part on the inside." "Rotate the collage image 180 degrees to make it the right way round." "Make the writing on the frontcover multicoloured."


ADVERT - *Positive comments*
"Better than the digipak" "Shows Christianity or anti-Christianity well" "Looks more professional than the digipak."
*Negative comments*
"The beam of light coming down is not strong enough." "The font doesn't look right." "Does not show much about what is being advertised i.e the songs and the music video/image."
*What could be changed*
"It would be more effective if Lucy had a cross necklace, and the light hit it. It would look better if you changed the font." "The design should be changed to make it look less like a poster and more like an advert!"


Alongside this feedback, I created a questionnaire to give to a group of 14/15/16 year olds so that they could fill it out after watching my music video. This is a good age range to look at because dance/pop music is something which the majority may take an interest in.
This is what the questionnaire looked like...




17 people in total filled out the questionnaire, and most of the feedback was positive. There were 8 girls and 9 boys in the group.
ANALYSIS OF FEEDBACK


1. 4 people thought that the genre of the music video was "pop", 10 people thought that it was "dance" and 4 people thought that it was "electro".


2. One person didn't like my video. 2 people thought it was okay. 14 people liked it! Answers included: "No, just don't." "Yes, I really like it because its effective and matches the music." "It was entertaining and fun to watch." "Excellent, it all comes together really well and is very interesting." "I like the effects and camera angles used." "Goes with the song." "I think the video fitted well with the music." "Yes, because it was easy to get the plot."


3. 5 people said "YES" to whether or not they would expect to see the video on a music channel, 2 people said "NO" and 10 said "MAYBE".


4. In response to "if you could change something about the video, what would it be?" people said: "More realistic emotion." "Lighting in some places - party scenes." "Near the end, girl was sat in the park." "The part near the end, the girl." "Change some scenes." "Make it more colourful." "None" "A clearer storyline." "I don't like people miming." "Nothing." "Change the bit where she (referring to Lucy/main character) had the spray can."


5. In response to "does the video keep your attention throughout? and why?" People said: "No, bit boring." "No, not good." "Yes, because there are lots of different elements to the video." "Yes, because there's lots of variety used and its a fast song." "Yes, because it kept changing scenes." "Yes, as there is lots going on. Also lots of clever things with lights and different camera angles." "Yes, its upbeat and interesting." "Yes, has a story and is fast paced." "Yes, it was lively." "Yeah - a lot of movement." "Yes, because the location changes."


6. In terms of understanding the storyline behind the video, 12 people understood it, 4 did not and 1 sort of understood it! Better result than I expected!


7. Fifteen people thought that the lyrics fitted well with what was happening in the music video, 2 did not.


8. People thought that it fitted well because: "It was fast paced" "Singer sings about a flashback, the video is similar." "It describes what is going on in the video." "Because of the 'dreams' part. Its what she wants to be doing." "I think the music fits in." "Because when she went to party, it fitted well."
People thought that it didn't fit well because: "Coz it don't go."


9. Nobody rated my music video at a '1' (poor), two people rated it at '2', four people rated it at '3', six people put it at '4' and five people gave it a '5' (very good).


Here are the other comments people wrote: "More realistic emotion. More colour." "I liked it when it said 'dream' with the candles and the sky part." "I really like the video, and I think that the use of different camera shots is effective."It would have been nice to have seen what Lucy had written with the spray can..."


This feedback has been really useful to me, and I'm glad I got to show my video to a proper audience!

Revisions and Changes Made

I have made a lot of changes to my storyboard, after creating the animatic, before filming, during filming and at the editing stage too! Here is what I changed...

*I re-arranged some of the shots, as I decided they didn't look quite right being all together, and needed to be split up with a different scene (churchyard scene) in order to make it more interesting for the viewer.

*On shot number 19 (shot where Lucy looks out of the window to see who is throwing stones), I realised that there was no way of filming her through the window, because of the amount of reflection. This was an impossible shot, which I made possible by filming her opening the window and looking outside. I think this is much more effective!


*Instead of filming a clip of a nightclub or party sign, I realised it would be more effective to film a POV shot entering the party, to show some context and set the scene. This also replaces the shot where the camera is supposed to track backwards whilst filming the people entering the party/club.

*Did not use confetti in one of the party shots, as this would make too much mess - I used balloons instead!

*Instead of having Lucy and Jaye/Calvin running down a path in the dark where lighting would be difficult to control, I made the decision to film a stop motion scene with candles to spell out the word "dream".

*I quickly realised that the 1.5 second long shot of party people in the hot tub would be completely unrealistic. Making my actors sit outside wearing only swimwear would be harsh in such cold weather, plus there would be health and safety issues. I replaced the shot with a medium shot of the fire in a can.

*During editing, I thought it would be better to show one of the actors lighting up the cigarette, before giving it to Lucy, to lengthen the shot out.

*Originally, I had planned to insert shots of Calvin sat on the bed in Lucy's room, whilst lip synching, because I wanted to feature more of the artist, as there wasn't enough of him. After some thought, I removed this scene, as it didn't actually have any significance.

*At the churchyard scene, I planned to place Lucy on the floor, surrounded by lots of autumnal leaves. It turned out that the floor was very damp, and so were the leaves. I didn't want Lucy to get muddy, or her costume, so let her sit on the floor, on a coat, whilst sprinkling leaves/feathers on top of her.

*Also, there is supposed to be a shot of Lucy walking towards the camera, whilst the sun is setting behind her. The only time available to film was in the early morning, so this did not happen - it was cloudy!

LOCATION CHANGES

Most of the locations I had initially planned to film at eventually changed, for various reasons.
At first I wanted to borrow my mum's room to film the bedroom scenes, because the colours and furniture were plain - just the look I wished for. However, filming would take a long time, and my mother didn't want her space invaded! I resorted to re-arranging all of my room to film there instead.

As for the scene in which Lucy "transforms" outside, this involved a location switch too. I wanted to film at the library, where there would be a large window to capture reflections. But, this was a difficult location to get to. I quickly thought of filming at a nearby street, which would have plenty of light and some windows.

Party scenes: At first I planned to film the party scenes at a local nightclub, called Karma. I emailed them to ask, but they did not reply, and soon realised I wouldn't have enough actors to fill it up. It would also be complicated to travel there. I decided to film in the school drama studios, which turned out okay. The opportunity to film at a real party arose later on, which I decided to utilise when my friends kindly let me film. This was by far the best location I had to film at, and looked very authentic.

The location for the garden scene also changed! My friend had allowed me to film in her garden, as she had plenty of lights, a nice decking area and a large pond. When we got there, things looked different to what we expected, and we resorted to filming in my garden, which went well.

Animatic

This is the animatic I made at the beginning of the project, after the rough storyboard. I created this animatic by taking photos of all of the 100+ shots, uploading them to iMovie on the Apple Macs, and then putting the images in time with the music. This process has allowed me to see roughly how the shots would look alongside the music.

The animatic has caused me to make a few changes to the length of time that shots run for, and in which order they are placed in!