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1. Evaluation Task 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?
2. At the start of the A2 course, I came up with three different ideas for a possible music video to make: IDEA ONE -- IDEA TWO -- IDEA THREE
3. I then presented these ideas to my class, and received the following feedback:
2. At the start of the A2 course, I came up with three different ideas for a possible music video to make: IDEA ONE -- IDEA TWO -- IDEA THREE
3. I then presented these ideas to my class, and received the following feedback:
4. PRESENTING MY INITIAL IDEAS TO THE CLASS: Taken from the blog post I wrote back on the 9th of September, summarising the feedback I received from my pitch: “Overall, the second and third ideas were the most liked. People generally thought the ‘Stabat Mater’ idea was aesthetically pleasing and ‘visually inspiring’, with the ballerina-ribbon idea being particularly effective. The ‘Pray (Empty Gun)’ idea was also liked given its simplicity, but people were concerned that the idea would fall flat without a capable lead-singer. The first idea, whilst striking and memorable, would be difficult to execute as is it is just a bit too complex. Taking this advice in mind, when put into my group I am going to progress forward mostly with the second and third idea. Given the simplicity (which is enjoyed) of the 'Pray (Empty Gun)' idea, this will probably be my frontrunner and I will do what I can to begin finding the right girl, but I am also eager to further develop and explore the 'Stabat Mater' idea as well.” LINK
5. After which, we were split into groups of three. As a group, we went through all of our nine ideas together and cut them down to just two. Based off of the audience feedback, we all agreed that ‘Pray (Empty Gun)’ would be a strong idea to pursuit further, and as such selected it as our collective frontrunner. As a back up, we decided on Hannah’s ‘Amber Run’ idea. Taken from the blog post I wrote on the 12th of September, summarising our initial steps as a group following our pitches: “Unanimously, we decided upon selecting ‘Pray (Empty Gun)’ as our main idea but decided that the third element needed to be changed. We all liked the memorable images, initial plans for the look of the lead singer and the song itself — although, we did think it wise to cut the song down to 3 minutes instead of 4. We also thought it prudent to find a way to include the red ribbon idea from the ‘Stabat Mater’ music video plan given its immensely popular approval. To make the video more interesting, we thought of changing the two dancers to two males (given the fact that this isn’t overtly common) and the drummer to a female (as this is likewise quite rare). Our artist would also now be a solo artist. … In terms of our second plan to further develop, we are initially thinking of Hannah’s ‘Heaven’ idea by Amber Run consisting of a band and an out-side playground element.” LINK
5. After which, we were split into groups of three. As a group, we went through all of our nine ideas together and cut them down to just two. Based off of the audience feedback, we all agreed that ‘Pray (Empty Gun)’ would be a strong idea to pursuit further, and as such selected it as our collective frontrunner. As a back up, we decided on Hannah’s ‘Amber Run’ idea. Taken from the blog post I wrote on the 12th of September, summarising our initial steps as a group following our pitches: “Unanimously, we decided upon selecting ‘Pray (Empty Gun)’ as our main idea but decided that the third element needed to be changed. We all liked the memorable images, initial plans for the look of the lead singer and the song itself — although, we did think it wise to cut the song down to 3 minutes instead of 4. We also thought it prudent to find a way to include the red ribbon idea from the ‘Stabat Mater’ music video plan given its immensely popular approval. To make the video more interesting, we thought of changing the two dancers to two males (given the fact that this isn’t overtly common) and the drummer to a female (as this is likewise quite rare). Our artist would also now be a solo artist. … In terms of our second plan to further develop, we are initially thinking of Hannah’s ‘Heaven’ idea by Amber Run consisting of a band and an out-side playground element.” LINK
6. Developing the ‘Pray (Empty Gun)’ idea as a group, we decided to make a few changes but ultimately kept the concept as simple as possible, as this is what the audience said they enjoyed most about the idea. We then presented the idea to Luke.
7. PITCHING TO LUKE: Taken from the blog post I wrote back on the 15th of September, summarising the feedback I received from my pitch to Luke: “To summarise: the idea was given permission for us to move further forward into development, but there were a number of concerns about a lack of elements and an issue with the setting of the second location looking possibly tacky. Luke thought the first location was effective with all the smoke and lighting and that given the drummer and dancer elements, alongside the lip-syncing, we had a lot to play with. He didn't, however, rate the speaker and paint idea too highly as a really powerful slow-motion camera would be needed (which would require paid hiring) and would likely not work as effectively as we envision it to. The second location, whilst he liked the idea of, he thought could look tacky if it were made as a set within the studio, although, he did enjoy the contrast between the first and second location. Regarding the gangster memorabilia (i.e: the money and weapons), he advised us to make it less obvious but that it was indeed necessary for our artist to have something to do and play with whilst in the room, so agreed that it would be possible. There was concern, however, that this location could get boring but we assured him that we'd keep cutting back to the dancers and drummers from the previous scene. The ribbon idea was liked due to its theatrically, but was cited as perhaps not suiting the theme of the music video. He did, however, enjoy our use of colour. There was no issue with the costumes. “Moving forward, we are cautious that we may need to think of a third location (especially in order to tie in our narrative ribbon idea) that is street/New Money/gangsta related - as well as more elements to assure the video isn't boring. However, at the same time, we don't want the video to get cluttered. In terms of further development, we are going to confirm our casting choices and then begin some test shoots to assure we have made the correct casting decision as well as to see whether or not our ideas work and how we can further adapt them to make them more interesting and unique. We are also going to get some inspiration as to how we can make our video more interesting, and also research some additional locations. Although we had a back-up idea prepared to pitch, given our first idea being approved of, there was no need to likewise present that and so we have decided to no longer move forward with developing it. All our attention and focus will now be on our Pray (Empty Gun) idea.” LINK
8. After talking with Luke, we decided to centre our entire music video in one location with multiple sets (an abandoned house) given his fear of the video becoming stagnant and the settings boring, and thus created the concept of a group of girls playing truant and being rebellious as to facilitate such a decision. We also came up with numerous activities for them to do as ultimately the feedback we received was that the video could end up being too simplistic. With so much going on, this would ensure the video was constantly interesting and entertaining for our audiences. We storyboarded this new development and then made an animatic as to better present our idea.
9. After screening the animatic to our class and teacher, we received the following feedback:
10. SCREENING MY ANIMATIC TO MY CLASS AND TEACHER: Taken from the blog post I wrote on the 31st of October, summarising the feedback we received succeeding the screening of our animatic: “After watching the animatic, the general initial feedback was positive: people enjoyed it. … People thought it was very effective. Our use of colour and annotations (as to make clear what was going on within the shots) was very well appreciated, and the fact that it had been successfully edited to our chosen track helped in terms of visualising our final product. One member of the target audience described it as “awesome”, believing that we had a clear and interesting idea. Our music video was well planned out in his opinion and would be very entertaining to watch in its final format. Someone wondered if there was a particular narrative or concept to our piece, but when explained of our anticipation to keep the video as more of an aesthetic piece, he thought it would be successful as the idea that these girls were ‘badass’ came through in the animatic. There was also worry that the lip-syncing sequences would drag and that the rollerskating aspect may not fit with the rest of our music video; also, they questioned as to whether or not we would actually be able to successfully flood the bathroom. The dancing within our video was not disliked, although they thought the idea of comedic ‘bad’ dancing did not quite fit with the rest of our music video. However, the video arch of our music video was enjoyed. Listening to their feedback and developing onwards, we have decided it both most prudent and really rather necessary to film an actual test shoot, trying as best as we can to make the closest possible prototype of what our final product will look like — otherwise, we will not know if the lip-syncing sequences get boring, or if the comedic moments such as with the rollerskating and dancing jars with the rest of the video. … Despite that, however, we are very pleased with the feedback and reception from the audience.” LINK
11. The feedback we received from our class and teacher convinced us that our concept would successfully stand as a music video. This encouraged us to go forward with our idea. After having filmed the video, and made rough cuts of the video, digipak and website — we presented them to a focus group.
12. HOLDING A FOCUS GROUP TO GET FEEDBACK ON THE ROUGH CUTS OF MY VIDEO, DIGIPAK AND HOMEPAGE: Taken from the blog post I wrote on the 3rd of December, summarising the feedback we received succeeding our focus group, and our evaluation of the data received: Feedback regarding the Website: They thought the website was high-end and "exclusive" with many enjoying the colour scheme. However, the images did not mach the style of the digipak; the website alluded to a more Adele, 'soul' styled singer-songwriter rather than the 'bad girl', attitude indie-pop artist as seen from the digipak. They also wanted a more gender-balanced shop, but liked the design of the snake. With the exception of the aforementioned pictures, the website was otherwise viewed as being generally, fairly coherent with the digipak, with some also believing that it was somewhat coherent with the video itself as well. They recommended a spray paint element to be seen on the website as well. Most thought that perhaps the website was 'too refined' for the elements included within the video, and proposed it became more ‘street'. Feedback regarding the Digipak: Our focus group compared the artist to Lorde, Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande. They thought the genre was indie-pop, but may feature a depressing tone or even a rap element. It gave off a high fashion, attitude-heavy 'bad girl' vibe. They recommended including a spray painted element on the digipak given its relevance in the music video, and they also wanted more of a green colour palette to make the products more coherent. The digipak was noted for being different to the website and video, many calling it 'too dark', and the snake elements that were included made very little sense (until they found out what the name meant - the name of 'SIOUX' itself being universally enjoyed by the focus group). Feedback regarding the Video: There was no feedback offered as to how we could improve the video. “In general, the feedback was very positive. Whilst all three products were really enjoyed individually, as a collective they thought unity was lacking, and we (as a group) agree. Moving on from this focus group, we are going to develop our products so that they are incredibly coherent to one another in style and attitude, and to do so, we are going to review our products based off how well they represent our artist's star image qualities: youthful, rebellious, cool and chilled. Specifically, we are going to make the digipak more colourful and less snake-orientated, as otherwise the correct genre and attitude were given off; it simply needs to be more 'youthful' which will be achieved by a more animated and colourful design. Regarding the website, we are going to simplify it further by getting rid of all texts (such as the biography), and instead make it more visually striking. In similar fashion to the digipak, we are going to make it more youthful through colour and animated designs, as well as making it less 'upmarket' in order to reaffirm this 'bad girl' attitude which we showcased in the video. In terms of the video, we are merely going to give it a final polish. We are purposefully going to ignore their recommendation to include more spray painting on the digipak as it is an element within one video of our artist's album and not something which encapsulates or displays her identity or persona.” LINK
13. Our video was liked, and thus the feedback received from our focus group inspired no further changes to the edit. Regarding the digipak and website, our rough cuts were viewed as being too formal and didn’t fit in with the fun-loving carnivalesque and apathetic, ‘cool’, “almost grunge” style of the video. As such, we felt it necessary to adapt them and make them more coherent with our main product.
14. Here are our ultimate three products. We wouldn’t have been able to get to this point without the feedback that we received along the way. Our journey has been possible thanks to constantly keeping in touch with our target audience, as they have enabled us to understand what people like and want to see more of.
