Audience Feedback; Music Video

By Heidi Nockels and Nicole Harman- Smith

What are your initial thoughts after watching the

music video?• Well edited

• Intriguing

• Looked professional

• Different to others on the market

• Well thought out e.g. the setting and costumes

After watching our music video for the first time we asked participants for their initial reaction. As a whole we received positive feedback and the reactions were what we most wanted to achieve. Most of the positive comments were on features that we concentrated most on, such as editing, setting and costumes. Throughout the whole planning and construction of our music video we aimed to keep it to the highest quality, therefore by participants mentioning that it looked professional means that we achieved our goal.

What are your favourite features about the video?

• Atmosphere

• Masked Characters

• Variety of Shots

• Dark scenes

• Use of mystery

• Smoke Effects

• Fitting images to music

• Location

• Editing

When asked what their favourite features about the video was, many aspects came up repeatedly. For example, the masked characters, use of smoke and the editing. As a result, this showed us that some aspects were more stronger than others. These aspects were what we most focused on and spent the most time planning. Therefore it is clear that these features had the most impact and dominant presence within the video.

What are your least favourite?

• Repetitive Scenes

• No Story

• Not enough happens

• Needs more pace

• Confusing editing

In contrast to the previous slide, we then asked participants what their least favourite feature was. The following aspects also came up repeatedly, for example, the repetitive scenes and that not enough happens. This showed that it was clear to the viewers that we had not stuck completely to our story board, therefore some scenes were repeated and that there was not a solid storyline.

What music genre would you place it under?

Electronic Alternative Pop02468

1012

Genre

Am

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peop

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When asked what genre they would place the music video under, 11 of the participants guessed the correct genre being electronic. However, 3 guessed alternative, and 1 suggested pop. A reason for this may be that we pushed the boundaries of our location, being in the woods. This isn't a typical setting for any electronic music video, therefore may have confused the viewers. However, we used fast paced editing and abstract shots to help reflect our chosen genre and style.

Do you think that the coloured smoke pellets created an

atmosphere? And if so, what kind of atmosphere?

Yes No0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Yes or No

Am

ount

of

People

What kind of atmosphere;

• Mystery • Intrigue • Creepy• Unknown• Abstract

Out of the fifteen people we asked, fourteen people answered ‘yes’ in response to if they thought that the coloured smoke pellets created an atmosphere. When creating our music video we aimed to set a certain atmosphere and hoped using coloured smoke pellets would help to achieve this.

When we asked what kind of atmosphere it created the results showed a clear reflection of the theme we tried to follow, this being an abstracted unknown mystery.

Do you think that a forest location is the typical norm setting for an

electronic music video?

20%

80%

YesNo

As previously mentioned, our chosen location of the woods goes against the typical conventions of other electronic music videos. Usually they are set within city locations or on live stages/ nightclubs for example, Afrojack. As a result of this it is not a surprise that 80% of the participants said that a forest location is not the typical norm for an electronic music video. However, we stick by our choice as it is both unusual and different to the norm. It also follows through with our theme and is the perfect setting for our woodland creatures.

Do you think that this video challenges the typical conventions of

already existing electronic music videos and if so why?

YesNo

How the video challenges the typical conventions of existing music videos:• Location• Props• Characters

When asked if they think our video challenges the typical conventions of already existing music videos, the majority answered no. This may be because we followed the typical conventions for our chosen genre in many aspects within our video. For example, the editing, abstract style, age of characters and types of shots. Those who answered yes and thought that our video had challenged the typical conventions of existing music videos, they mentioned that location, use of props and characters types challenged the typical boundaries.

Do you prefer the abstract/ artistic style of video, as opposed to a

staged or narrative?

Yes

No

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Amount of People

Yes o

r N

o

From our results, nine participants answered ‘yes’ to if they preferred an abstract/artistic style video to a staged or narrative. This shows that the majority of our target audience agreed that we followed the right style of video for our chosen music genre and target audience. The six people that answered ‘no’ preferred a staged or narrative music video as this is most commonly featured in mainstream music videos.

What are your opinions on the masked characters? 

• Adds atmosphere

• Reflects both album name and artist name

• Creates mystery and intrigue

• Different to other videos

• Unusual

When asked what the participants opinions were of the masked characters, we received only positive feedback. The masked characters were one of our main features that we focused on throughout all our media products. The idea of this was to make a clear link between the characters and both the album and artist name. From looking at our feedback, this was then clear to our viewers. We aimed to stand out from other typical music videos by using the masks to create a more intriguing atmosphere. This then came across within our participants responses.

Do you think that they create a disorientating and mysterious impact

in the video?

100%

YesNo

All participants agreed that they they thought the masked characters created a disorientating and mysterious impact within the video. This was the main theme that we were hoping to achieve when using the masks as followed through with the idea of hidden identity. Therefore we consider ourselves successful in the aim to create a disorientating and mysterious impact

What do you think of the idea of not

physically featuring the artists themselves? 

• Adds atmosphere

• Different to other videos

• Gives it an interesting edge

• Encourages Intrigue

• Makes the video more creepy

The participants answered with the positive responses in which we hoped to this question. When looking at other electronic artists who do not feature themselves within their videos, we found that it created more of an atmosphere and stood out against others. This then helped reflect our theme of creating a ‘hidden identity’ towards the artists themselves. Finally it added to the style of being both mysterious and intriguing.

Do you think that the style of editing fits in with this style of

music?

Yes No0

5

10

15

Yes or No

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12 participants out of the 15 said that the style of editing did fit in with the style of music being electronic. When looking at current electronic music videos, we found that their styles of editing was both quick and random. As a result of this we followed this common trend when editing our music own music video. We cut clips short and changed the direction and duration of some of the clips to help reflect other current electronic music videos.

Which scenes did you prefer, day or night? 

Night; 9

Day; 6

When asked if they prefer day or night scenes, the majority answered night. A reason for this may be that the night scenes create more atmosphere and really reflect the theme of hidden identity as it then becomes unclear where the creatures are. The night scenes also focus more on the masks themselves rather than the setting therefore making them appear more creepy and sinister. However, many of the other participants said that they preferred day scenes. Reasons for this may be that they felt they could see more of the action and that the location added to the over all atmosphere.

What improvements would you make? 

• Wider variety of shots

• Quicker editing

• More of a clear story

• More interesting scenes

• Better costumes

• Make it less repetitive

Finally, we asked participants what overall improvements they would make. They mostly responded with similar answers that linked with their least favourite features within the video. As a general, they all related to the idea of having a wider variety of scenes and for more to happen. Other comments included, better costumes and quicker editing. These factors were hindered in our construction due to lack of funds and time. If we were to have asked participants there improvements earlier on within construction, we would have had time to make these changes in order to reach their expectations.