Before deciding how to mould and promote our artist, we started our project with a questionnaire which we distributed to our target audience. This is the questionnaire.
1. Select your gender
Male Female
2. Select your age
13-15 16-18 19-21 22+
3. Name your favourite 3 artists/bands?
4. Which artist would you be MOST LIKELY to listen to based on genre and style?
Arctic Monkeys Rihanna Foo Fighters Olly Murs JLS 50 Cent None
5. How would you define your favourite music genre?
6. Is there a particular sub-genre which you like more than other elements of the above genre?
7. What appeals to you about this genre/sub-genre?
Lyrics Beats/Instruments Fashion Culture It's popular
8. Which music channels do you watch regularly?
I don't have/watch music channels MTV Hits MTV Base MTV Rock MTV Dance MTV Classics
9. How do you consume music?
Free downloads Purchasing physical CDs Getting free CDs from festivals Online Purchase and Download (iTunes etc)
10. How much would you estimate that you spend on music in an average year?
Nothing Less than £15 £16-30 £31-45 £46-70 £71-£100 £100-150 £151-300 £301-500 £500-1000 Over £1000
This video explains how feedback from our questionnaire allowed us to make inferences about the promotion methods which would be most effective, and how we could portray our artist to appeal to our target audience.
Feedback On Initial Idea
The general consensus from our media studies classmates and our teacher were that our song choice was excellent. This is because the song was appropriate (no excessive expletives) and was fitting as the song is called 'I'm 17' and all of us were 17 at the time. People also felt that the upbeat tempo of the song would work well and suit us as a group, especially as in our preliminary task, Manan and I came up with some fun ideas for our 'CD Is Dead' video which was also very upbeat. This showed our creativity and ability to perform in a video of this nature. Another reason that people liked our choice is because the song was a hybrid genre (rap/indie) which meant the video could also be a hybrid and possibly incorporate ideas and conventions of both these genres. Our initial ideas included many shots of Josh rapping to the camera on the streets and in the music booth, something which people agreed would fit well with the genre, feel and content of the song.
Concerns were raised however about a lack of depth and creativity in our video, as apart from Josh rapping to the camera in numerous locations, we had no other major shot ideas, with the exception of a shot or two of Josh trying to use a fake I.D to enter a club (an idea which we later abandoned after failing to achieve permission to film at the desired location). People also felt that our narrative would be weak if it just consisted of a visual interpretation of the lyrics (drinking, walking, going into college).
Based on the above feedback we decided to keep the ideas for Josh rapping to the camera on the streets and in the music booth, but decided that rather than making the college shots and the drinking shots part of a narrative, to just add them in as extra shots or performance shots. We also agreed that we would have to use a variety of editing techniques and camera skills in order to keep the footage exciting, as a 3 minute video mainly consisting of a performer rapping in different locations is likely to get boring unless editing is fast and efficient, and camera shots and effects are used carefully to enhance the impact of some scenes.
Rough Cut Feedback
This is the feedback we got from our peers and teachers based on our first almost complete rough cut, as quoted from an earlier feedback post on my blog.
The Good
- People liked the extreme close-up of Josh's eyes at 0:05 as it looked professional.
- The high-angle shot at 0:18-0:20 followed by the low-angle shot from 0:20-0:23 praised as it showed a variety of shots.
- The very quick longshot of Josh at 0:24 was also singled out as it was cut to the beat nicely.
- Josh was also praised for his performance in this cut. We anticipated that there was a lack of enthusiasm or creativity in the performance in our first cut so we were glad that this improvement was picked up on in the second cut, for example with Josh's dancing at 0:54
- The shot of Josh in the music booth at 1:03 and 1:14 also went down well as people liked the way the camera was shaking and the performance was becoming more energetic as the song also became more intense at this stage.
- Josh drinking at 1:09 produced a few laughs, as intended.
- We were also told that the longshot of the dogs at 1:31 went well with the beat.
- The very short shot of Josh jumping a fence at 1:38 was also singled out as a good shot.
- Concerns were raised about the lip syncing during the close-up of Josh at 0:36 to 0:38.
- The shot from 2:07 to 2:14 was criticised for being possibly too long, and would look better with another quick shot in the middle at around 2:10.
- People said that as the outro plays from around 2:50 to 3:10 people wouldn't mind seeing Josh dancing again.
- Obviously concerns were also raised about the general missing spaces in footage but we fully intend to fill all the gaps!
This is the first rough cut which I produced, complete with a director's commentary containing information on how we used our feedback and why we chose to use certain shots, effects and editing techniques. I have attempted here to amend the aforementioned criticisms on our first group cut.
Despite adjusting the audio, the absence of a microphone during recording means that some of the director's commentary is hard to hear, so here is a written version of the main feedback points, as quoted from an earlier post on my blog.
- People liked the shots of the dogs. To be honest I'm not sure where they went, I do not remember taking them out, but I will gladly invite them back in for my final cut.
- There was a close up, low angle shot of Josh lip syncing for the lyrics at 2:35 which was left out of this cut, but apparently it was good and should be used in the final cut.
- The blur effect at 1:09 did not go down as well as expected. It was supposed to portray that Josh was tipsy from the alcohol but it ended up looking like a poorly focused shot in actual fact.
- Josh appears to poorly lip sync during the booth shots at 2:39 and 2:42 and at the start of the 2:47 shot, so I plan to cut out the first two, and only keep the end of the 2:47 shot.
Based on this feedback I continued the editing process and completed a final cut which corrected any flaws which had been picked up on by viewers of our previous cuts. In this director's commentary we again explain why we chose to use some shots, how they are effective and how this cut is different from the rough cut.
To gather feedback on my final cut I posted the link via Twitter, as I felt I could exploit my large following on there to reach a wide audience. The tweet that I sent out to my followers can be seen below.
I gave an hour for people to leave comments before screen grabbing the feedback I recieved via youtube comments. As one can see, the overall consensus was that the video and performance was good and was especially fitting for our genre, but maybe the video lacked creativity in terms of location or concept. The feedback can be seen first hand in the 'View all comments' section here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX1VC3-mPCk
Digipak and Magazine Advert Feedback
As can be seen further back on my blog, while we were creating our video we also created a digipak and a magazine advert for our artist's debut album. These projects were consistently worked on and updated based on feedback from our class peers and teachers. In this video Josh and Manan respectively speak on how feedback changed the look of both our digipak and our magazine advert.
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