Evaluation: Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Survey• From the outset we knew that even before we had decided on a video, we needed to create a survey that

would aid us in understanding our target audience and which genre to pick in relation to this.

• Our survey featured 10 questions:

• 1. What is your age?• 2. What is your gender?• 3. What is your favourite music genre?• 4. Would you rather a: Band, storyline, representation of lyrics, or all of the above?• 5. Would the feature of an attractive woman draw you to a video?• 6. Would black and white footage be useful in an arctic monkeys video?• 7. How often do you watch music videos?• 8. Where do you watch music videos?• 9. What operating system do your devices run on?• 10. Which devices do you own (from list) if any?

• The four questions we highlighted as the most important were 3, 4, 5 and 6. This is because they would have a direct effect on how we went about planning the structure, content and aesthetic of our video.

Question 3The results showed that the majority of people we asked, preferred indie and rock music to the other Genres. Initially we had three main ideas: an arctic monkeys video, a C2C video and a KONGOS video. We used the results to narrow down our choices. Due to C2C being an electro/DJ artist we thought it may not appeal to the audience of our school as much as an indie video.

We thought it was important to match the needs of the school audience because this is who would watch the video. Because the school holds many younger years, we made the decision to choose indie over rock, as the people who were younger picked indie more often than not.

Arctic Monkeys are Indie, with aspects of rock throughout also, and so were a perfect fit for our audience in terms of genre. Through asking members of the school community, we also got an idea of whether individuals liked the band. We found that people were very into Arctic Monkeys at the time, due to the recent release of their 5th studio album ‘AM’.

Question 4The feedback showed that the majority vote was in favour of a story line. We considered this option but decided that because of the importance of the band aspect in Arctic Monkeys, we would focus on performance.

Although we did not go with the verdict of a storyline, 34% of people asked picked either the band performance or a visual representation of the lyrics. Because of this, we decided to marry the two up, planning to create a music video that intertwines performance with conceptual footage.

We believed strongly that because of the emotive and imaginative lyrics of arctic monkeys, we needed to show them in video form. Also, a big part of arctic monkeys is the image, leading some people to label them as ‘style over substance.’ Because of this, we knew it was important to keep a band identity and focus on the lead singer.

Question 565% of the audience said that it would benefit the video if there was an attractive woman featured. We took this on board and aimed to use an actress to play the part of ‘Arabella’. However, unfortunately we did not find an actress that met our needs in time for filming. We then used feedback from the previous question which showed that conceptual footage could be effective.

We then made the decision to represent Arabella metaphorically and with imaginary, instead of actually featuring her. We believe this to be in fact more effective as it gives less away, allowing the lyrics to speak for themselves and not be ruined by trying to captivate exactly what the lyrics say, but playing on his words with metaphor.

For example, we filmed Fire, and put this in slow motion to draw attention to its beauty and to allow audiences to be captivated by it. This fire represents Arabella, as fire I also ‘hot’ linking to ideas suggested in the lyrics that she is attractive. Another lyric brings forward the idea of magic and compares her to it. We took this and represented it with smoky shots and clips showing sparks, adding a sense of enigma and mystery.

First draft of Music Video

We posted the first draft of our music video onto the group page for our school. This meant a large section of our target audience would see it. We received a fair amount of feedback, with some very useful opinions.

ContinuedFrom a number of people, we were told that the eye did not fit, and that it was a nice shot, but did not keep in with the style and aesthetics of previous clips. From this we were given a choice, to remove it entirely or better implement it. Initially we chose the latter. This is because we knew that once we had applied grungy effects to it and darkened it, it may fit more effectively.

Furthermore, we agreed with the feedback that it was not in the right place and subsequently moved it along the timeline to a point where the lyrics mention an eye. We also timed it with the music, cutting it on the beat, which lead to a more seamless transition and the eye fitting in with the video more effectively.

We also received feedback that the lip syncing was not quite on point on certain clips. This was due to the fact that we had not fine tuned it yet and were focusing on filling blank spaces. We re watched the video and found the clip where lip syncing was particularly off and corrected it. This lack of continuity between visuals and sound really distracts and completely ruins the professional look of the whole thing.

We ensured from then on that lip syncing was as close as it can be, by zooming in on the soundtrack and finding raises and bumps in levels on both the soundtrack and clips, and then aligning them up as closely as possible. In some cases the footage was slightly off, and so we decided to speed up the shot by a few percent of slow it down in order for the lead singer’s lips to move at the pace of the song.

Second draft of Music Video• For our second draft, we received two pieces of extensive feedback, both of which we found very useful,

especially the email from Mrs Hill.

Callum George:Positive Elements:

Wide variety of camera angles, at varying focal lengths.Nice use of camera dolly to create moving shots.Stylistic monochrome effect applied to all shots is in keeping with the bands preferred style.The use of a band and vocalist helps to sell the illusion of musicians performing the song in the music video.The slow motion shots of different objects (such as the fire and gasmask) help to break up the long periods of vocals.Improvements:At times the use of slow motion seemed unnecessary and unfitting with the pace of the vocals and instruments.There were a few incidences where the lip syncing did not quite match up with the intensity of Alex Turners singing voice. Consider cutting to a different angle or shot all together.At The beginning of the video there is a rather long pause before the song begins to play. Maybe this could be improved by increasing or adding a sound clip of a record spinning. Consider linking the context of the filler shot to the vocals in the song.

Mrs Hill:At the start of the video there is a strong beat that starts the song at 4 sec in. I think that you need to cut to that beat - so cut from the record player to the lead singer at the point.At around 45 sec in you use an effect - kind of like it is aged footage with scratches and a white line that appears to run through the middle of the clip. I like the effect but I think this is the only time you use it. It is a good idea to use effect more than once (to show that you have not just included them because you could.) Maybe every time we that sort of mid shot of the lead singer you should have that effect - then we link the effect to that character. You could add it in to the shot at 1:18. If there are other effects that you have used only once try to incorporate them in somewhere else as well (but with a reason)At 48 sec in the lead singer stops singing - I think it looks like an error. I would remove that portion of the clipNot sure some of the slow motions work e.g. at 1:36 - there is a very strong series of guitar notes that is not matched by action. maybe cut to the light at that point - cutting to the beat of the music is a good technique to use and if you use it here you can keep most of the slow motionNot sure about the shot at 2:08 where you have used a MLS of the lead and drummer. The lead is playing with his hair but we here singing. It kind of break the continuity of the performance. This shot would be better in an instrumental momentWhen we see the bass guitarist again at around 2:50 I think you should use the ghosting effect that you used in an early shot with him - again this shows that the effect is linked to the bass player and not just used because it was cool.And obviously no black patches in the final one...

ContinuedWe received note that the first shot did not quite work. This is because the music initiates halfway through the shot and there is no physical indication as to why the sound starts like a drop of the vinyl needle for example. We considered Mrs Hill’s advice and made sure to cut the clip on the first beat of the song, creating a more definite beginning. We also added diegetic, post production added sound of a record player and film roll, ensuring the first clip was not complete silence and giving it purpose, whilst maintaining focus on the record player alone.

We received feedback that the ultra slow motion shot seen to the left did not work because of a lack of continuity. We were very fond of this shot and so did anything we could to keep it. Instead of using jump cutting or juddering between clips, which we thought wold ruin the smoothness of the shot, we timed light flashes to the guitar lick. This guitar riff is very prominent in the clip and it was the main reason as to why the shot did not appear to be right.

We also gained feedback regarding effects. With particular attention to the fact that we had added a few, but not really committed to any, not featuring them throughout. We agreed with this a lot, and we realised it stopped the video from flowing. We took this advice and decided to explore for more effects online, and watched tutorials on how to create vintage sequences like rolling and stuttering. By adding more effects, we feel that the video became more flowing and interesting, because some of the latter clips became a bit similar to the start.

Ancillary Feedback• From our Vinyl, CD cover and Website, we gained great feedback, with little room for improvement. We feel this is because of the extent to which we ensured they kept in with the style and format of the video.

• We were informed that the vinyl cover may need a title. However we maintained that we wanted to keep it as retro as possible, relating with the arctic monkeys theme. Not having the album title gives it a vintage quality and keeps in with the style we kept throughout the whole process. Once we explained this to the teacher, it was understood that it was good as long as there is reason for it.

• We were however told to create more of a booklet based item for the CD cover. This is because the vinyl did not need this as it is a retro item but the CD needed information to draw the audience in. We acted upon this, creating a folding booklet that consisted of lyrics on each page for each song. In addition to this, a different band photo was added onto each page. We felt that this added excitement to reading it because of the way a different, new image is displayed on each and every page, giving it the qualities of a calendar.