Vox Pop

Once we had completed our focus group, we felt as though we could have asked more of the male population and specify more about our idea. We then decided to carry out a vox pop where we asked several people what they thought of our two ideas we had for our narrative and which one would be more suited with our song and genre of music. 

What did you aim to find out with your research?

By carrying out a initial focus group, our vox pop has helped us get a larger sample which we can compare our original answers to. Doing a vox pop meant we asked more boys than we did in our focus group where we only had one male. This helped us get an idea of what both genders think about our idea and how we could improve it to be aimed at both genders

How did you undertake it?

We went round the school asking people of a similar age range, and asked them several questions about our idea, what they thought about it and which idea they preferred out of our two ideas for our narrative. This helped us get an idea of which narrative we should go for and why people felt that idea would be better for our targeted audience and this also helped us get their opinions in more depth

What do the results suggest? 

The results we got back were a mixture of positive and negative. People in the vox pop said that they didn't want to see anything too cheesy and unrealistic and it should be kept to a simple story line with simple locations and performances. People also said that they felt our second idea would be more suited as the first idea could be seen as too unrealistic and may not work and be suitable for our genre of music. Comparing it to the people in the focus group who said it should be more like a typical love story and narrative where it is conventional of the pop/indie genre which we felt could be quite boring and over done.

Are any of your results surprising or conflicting?

I don't think the answers we received were surprising as i feel like our second idea for the narrative was more developed and clear compared to our first one which was a bit vague. I felt as though people could give more feedback on our second idea which has helped us get and understanding of what they would expect to see and what they would personally like to watch in a indie music video. 

Is there any reason for bias answers?

I think the main reason people may have gave bias answers would be due to them wanting to fit with what we wanted them to say, however we would rather give their real opinion so we could use their answers to help improve our overall idea. I also think that people have an idea of a artist in their head who is already in the music industry (e.g. Ed Sheeran) and this may have shaped their answers which could have influenced how well they responded to these questions

How does this affect what we will do with our music video?

Their answers have helped us get more of an idea of what we should avoid and what sounds good and will be effective if we use it in our music video. I feel as though the results we got back from our focus group and vox pop told us overall that it shouldn't be cheesy or cliche but it should subvert some convetions of the indie genre and have a unique twist which is still realistic and relatable for our targeted audience. 

Blog Reflections: Week 6

This week we started analysing 3 different products, this included:

Digipak's

Music Video's

Magazine Advert's

We split this work between us as we had to look at 3 of each products. This helped us manage this piece of work better as it was fairly split up. I mainly looked at the digipaks and the magazine adverts whereas my partner focused more on the music videos. When analyzing the digipaks i looked at the colours used, how the artist had been branded, any stereotypes present, the representation of the artist and how they are being shown through the several panels of their individual digipaks.  I also spoke about what i liked about each digipak and how it has inspired me to use something like that in my own digipak.

I also looked at magazine advertisements for 3 different artists. I spoke about the positioning, the conventions used, how the artist has been branded, the use of colours, the typography and how this all represented the artist. I also said what i liked about the magazine advert and how i could use some of their visual ideas in our final idea for our magazine advert. 

We also filmed another focus group as we wanted to find out more about what people thought of our song choice, our ideas and what they expect to see. This helped us get an idea of what people thought of our song and visual ideas and how we could translate their feedback onto our work and improve or make any changes depending on what they thought. 

Our Focus Group

Our Focus group consisted of 5 females and 1 male, we carried this out as we wanted to find out what people thought about our ideas, who they think would be suitable to play the roles, the locations and how we could develop or alter our main idea 

Part One:

Part Two:

From our focus group we received mix feedback for our idea. When we played the song to them they all gave positive feedback as they really enjoyed the tempo and the lyrics to the song. (4:03) We first got them to give their initial thoughts and how they might interpret this song in their own way before we told them our idea. 

The things they were coming out with was on how they expected the boy to look, and how they like how meaningful the song is which is not normally seen as it is the women normally singing about love. Our focus group said that they would expect our music video to be shot in natural places for example brick lane or on a field as they felt that this matched the tone of the song the best (4:39). They also said that they would expect to see the artist playing a guitar and he wouldn't be over dressed and would come across as quite simplistic. 

Our focus group said that they would want there to a be a mixture of both the artist and the female character to be shown throughout the music video. They said that they would want the female character to be seen at points throughout the song but she shouldn't be shown the whole way through. I think this makes sense as the focus should be kept on the artist and having to much involvement of the female could take this away. (4:59)

Our focus group also said that they felt the artist is most like Ed Sheeran as he has a similar persona and his music is most like this artist. This helped us get an idea of what characteristics we should have for our artist and how we could make him appear similar to Ed Sheeran.(8:31)They also said who they thought would be suitable for the role of the female in the narrative, and what they expect her to look like. Most of them said that they could imagine the girl being pretty and cute looking rather than being seen as a sexual object that we normally see in most music videos. (5:15) (0:29)

We then told them our idea and they gave use feedback on how they felt our idea would work and where we could improve. Some people in our focus group said that we should add a different ending to what we normally see in most music videos and there should be a twist to help keep the audience involved and interested in what is being shown(6:29). For example make it as if the women he is in love with is a lesbian etc. However our focus group did say that they felt that our idea would be good if we kept it to a typical love story instead of trying to be too different as they still find this enjoyable to watch.

Another bit of feedback we received was that maybe we should not make the artist look like someone typically seen in a indie music video. For example they said to use someone who looks like they should be in a music video of a rap song. However i don't agree with this as we are doing both performance and narrative, and we want the artist to look like how the artist sounds. I think that maybe if it was just narrative we could include any two characters to play the relationship but as we are using performance in our music video it wouldn't work well and could make it seem unrealistic. (6:42)

Survey Analysis

We then created another survey using the same software (www.surveymonkey.com), we made up 10 questions which will help us get an idea of what people think of our idea, any improvements and what the people prefer to see in a music video. We posted the survey onto social networking sites to help get the survey out to a wider audience and too get as many people to fill it in as possible.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3L9DSGR

From this question we found that people most expected to see a narrative which would show a clear story line for the audience to interpret. The next most popular was including a performance in the music video which 8 people had chosen. This tells us that these conventions are typical of a indie music video and it will fit well with our artists song. From these answers i can clearly tell what most people enjoy and which they would least like to see (e.g. parody). This has helped us as a group confirm that we will use a mix of both performance and narrative throughout our music video. From this we can tell narrative may be a bit more important than a performance so the ratio should be more towards a story line and then incorporate performance into the music video

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We asked in our survey what will be most appealing and will grab their attention when watching the music video. Most people said they would most likely enjoy seeing a narrative, seeing the artist playing the guitar and seeing a slight twist in the narrative towards the end. I agree with these choices as i believe that these will work the best in a indie music video. The highest percentage was selected to see the artist singing with a guitar the most as having the artist dance and bright colours wont fit as well with the genre of the music. From this question i know to show my artist playing a guitar and to include a twist in the narrative as this is conventional of a indie music video. 

This question helped us get an idea of what we want the artist to look like. 60% of people who answered the survey said that they would expect to see him in a check shirt and jeans. I agree with this as i think the artist should come across as simple and the focus is more on his voice than his appearance. However 15% of people said they would expect to see the artist in a shirt, trousers and straw hat. I don't agree with this high percentage as this is more stereotypical of a country artist rather than a indie artist. However i now know to make the artist look plain and just like a typical indie artist where they aren't materialistic and focus on their music rather than their appearance  I would show this to the audience by making sure he is wearing a simple top, jeans and just normal trainers but nothing too special and no brands should be worn. This will help brand the artist in a positive way and this will also make him more appeal able to the targeted audience as they will be able to relate to him through personal identity. 

We then wanted to find out about locations, and how important it is to have somewhere suitable. 45% of people said that it wasn't important but it did help. This means that there are probably more important things to think about other than just where the music video is set. This tells us that our chosen locations will make some sort of difference to the audience watching it but there are other factors that the audience will focus on more (e.g. costume, props, lip syncing). From this i will make sure my artist will be positioned in a suitable location which will be clear for the audience and i will also make sure the other conventions in a music video are up to scratch. (e.g. the lip syncing and the guitar playing will be clear and in sync)

The answers we received for this question helped us get an idea of what would be their ideal indie artist. People gave a list of characteristics which included : trendy, passionate, quirky, unique, casual, simplistic.

This helped us get an idea of how we should make the artist come across for the audience, and how the person playing the artist in the music video will act. From doing this i now know to make our artist come across as quite plain (e.g. plain t-shirt, jeans and trainers) but make his music come across as unique 

From our survey we also found out that people liked the sound of our idea. We got some bits of feedback when we asked how we could appeal our idea more to them. 

• People said that we should stick to only 1 or 2 locations so there isn't too much going on, as this could disengage the audience. 
• Add another character or a twist to the story line
• Make sure the narrative relates to the themes( the lyrics match the mood of the music video and what is going on in the video)
• Don't make the music video come across as cheesy and make it have something different compared to a typical indie music video about love.

From getting people to answer this survey i feel as though i have a better understanding of what the audience expect to see and how we could shape our idea to fit with what they want. Personally i feel as though having this feedback will help me make it more appeal able to the audience i am aiming our work at. The main focus that this survey has helped me with is how our artist should come across, this will help us to be able to find someone who can play the role of the artist well and who will look suited to the part. As people have said we should steer away from making it too cheesy and make it have a twist on the end of it. I agree with this as i feel as though we could make it too stereotypical of the indie genre, whereas by adding this we are making it more individual and different to what we normally see. 


With this information we could then go onto create my ideal audience member:


My Audience interpretation-




My Partners Audience interpretation-

Magazine Advert Analysis

I analysed 3 magazine adverts, from 3 different artists. I talked about how the artist was branded, represented and the positioning and conventions of a magazine advertisment.

Music Video Analysis

These Music Videos analysis were done by my partner Tara. She looked at 3 different music videos and spoke about:

-Location
-Colour Pallet
-Camera Language
-Props/Costume
-Representation
-Narrative
-Sound

Digipak Analysis

Me and my partner then looked at Digipaks. I completed two of the digipak's and my partner completed two. We looked at the colours, branding, positioning, meaning and how the artist is being represented in each panel.