Eoin Moylan Advance Portfolio: October 2015

What Did You Aim To Find Out?

Our aim was to find out who our audience is for the video as we asked questions to identify what kind of person it was then asked questions relating to our idea to see if they would like it for example if they like romance music videos or not. We did this in order to mold our idea in order to please our target audience as much as possible.

How did you undertake it?

For our research we carried out a survey on surveymonkey.com and I shared it online and asked some friends to fill it in so I could analyse the data. We also did Vox Pops where we went around the school asking people some questions and recording the responses. This was difficult at times as a lot of people we asked didn’t want to be filmed and took a lot of convincing or just flat out refused.

What do the results suggest?

Survey

From this pie chart we can see that narrative videos are preferred by over 86% of the audience, however 46% of that liked it when it was tied in with elements of performance suggesting to me that this is what I should do for my music video. Be that as it may 40% wanted only narrative and 13% wanted only performance so the majority of my audience (53%) may not want to see both in my video. This means that the majority of viewers would not find this music video appealing, but since I’m doing both it may please them to at least have had some features of it in the final video.

From this bar chart it appears that Beauty and The Beast was a well-liked film as 40% said it was excellent and 20% said it was above average and so a music video where there are some intertextual references would be well received by this audience. Even though we hadn’t considered this before but because the film was so popular we may make our video homage to it whereas before we just used a similar storyline based on the original but now we might take into consideration using similar; camera, editing and mise-en-scene for the video.

We asked our audience what their views on acoustic guitar music were and we found similar results as to their view on Beauty and the Beast where over 72% of the audience said that it was either good or they loved it meaning that our music choice is perfect for this audience. It is clear that the 16-20 year old age group is the right target audience as they liked beauty and the beast, acoustic guitar music and preferred a narrative idea or one with elements of performance and narrative as our video is going to include all these things.

From this we can see that the audiences overwhelmingly prefer fast paced music videos over slow paced. We can use this to our advantage as the music itself is quite fast and upbeat and so our music video will match the tone of the song. There was a small group of people who preferred slow paced music videos but we couldn't be able to make our slow paced to suit them as the beat is just too quick for a slow paced music video. We will consider the pace of the music video is post production to match the beat and just doing that alone should make it fast paced.

Vox Pops

1) Why do you watch music videos?

-easiest way to watch,legally.
-to entertain me
-enjoy music whilst be able to visualise the song
- gives the song more meaning
- music videos have a variety and is a sense of escapism
lets you experience the life of the artist

Overall, from these answers I can determine that my audience watch music videos to feed escapism,social and entertainment aspects of the uses and gratifications theory. Therefore, it is important that my music video has a strong visual to cater towards these needs. I also like the fact my audience look for meanings in songs as my music artist has deep lyrics.

2) Do you like music videos that tell a story or just have interesting visuals?

tell a story, visuals are too repeated,stories are more different

a back story but with entertaining visuals

to keep the mood and enthusiasm towards the song

a story is only good depending on the song, in contrast a song with a good beat would look better with visuals

a music video should tell a story rather than

just pass time, a story lets you connect with the artist

Overall, I have decided to use a narrative style music video because my audience feels they would have better connection with the artist and the meaning of the song itself,where as visuals are too repeated and only pass time.I personally strongly agree with this and look forward to creating a music video with a sense of purpose rather than just for aesthetic reasons.

3) What music video have you watched that you really loved - why?

-Mika Lollipop,

has animation but it unique interms of it adult

humour

-Rihanna and Shikara Can't remember to forget you

because of the beautiful women

-Hayley Kiyoko- Girls like girls

because it has been

shot like a film and has a strong narrative

-Hozier Take me to church

because the video wasnt

based on the title and had a different deeper meaning

-Justin Bieber What do you mean

because it highlights

a strong theme such as trust

-Macklemores Thrift shop

because it was funny

and the actors were using the props associated with the words

literally ( an illustrative/interpretive style music video)

In particular, we see why someone mentioned Shakira's and Rihanna's music video because it was under the male gaze, however as my audience are mostly female, we would make my music artist appealing in the same attractive manner. we also liked that my audience liked strong narrative videos that were based on significant themes such as trust in the Justin Bieber music video, thus ensuring me and my partner that our music video narrative is on the right path.

4) What do you think of my music video idea, any improvements?

Don't conform to the society and make the happy ending on how everyone accepts the beast rather than him turning into a handsome man. Make him still less socially desirable. Let it focus on how people should be considerate of others.
Add more iconography from the film such as teacups
from the film.
It's a great idea and I have no improvements
It's interesting because its a modern twist on a traditional film
It's cute and interesting and I would watch it

We are extremely pleased that my audience enjoy the concept of my music video, however we think it is a good suggestion of making the actors perspective change rather than sticking to the beast transforming into a human. It adds a much more deeper context and highlights the emerging ideology that people are still starting to consider others more. We was also pleased that the male audience liked the audience rather than just the females, therefore we do not feel like I have to manipulate the storyline in any way to fit a masculine approach, because regardless of it being a romantic genre (which is stereo-typically for a female audience), its truly about society and that includes everyone and both genders.

5) Have you ever felt like you did not fit in society?

-Race has been a concern for me because I am Indian. In India I am not Indian and in England I am not English, so its hard to fit somewhere in particular.-I fit into society really well.-I've always fit in.-Occasionally when I make English Literature jokes on poetry referencesbecause I feel as though my hobbies are a minority.
I feel like it is a mixed view on whether my audience identify with not fitting into soceity. However, I still feel like my narrative idea is amazing because I get to give a sense of personal identity for those who do not feel like they fit in, as well as give the other half some education and insight on how they could perhaps alter their views and help those who feel excluded and alone.6) What extra features would make you buy a music artists product rather than illegally downloading it?

-Beside the scenes footage, Bonus songs
- Cheaper price- Reasonable price and proof I support the artistand the special features need to reflect the artist in particular.-Acoustic/remixes of songs already on the track list.- Associated with the album in particular such as a bookletand download to make the purchase more valuable.
In all, my audience are looking for proof that their purchase is valuable. The special features I have chosen from my audiences suggestions are remixes of original songs and perhaps a pullout poster of the artist himself. The audience were mostly concerned about having their money worth spent to stop them from illegally downloading songs. They also wanted things that could not be downloaded as easy which is why I have chosen to do a pullout product like a poster. This is great for those fans that really appreciate the artist in particular too because they can support him by buying his album and placing the posters in the bedrooms for their friends to learn about too, thus supporting the artist via word of mouth.

Are any of your results surprising or conflicting?

One set of data I found surprising was the results we got back from the question regarding what their favourite genre of music video is. There was no clear pattern or favourite as the results were pretty even no genre really took a lead. This made it hard to analyse as it was so even and we couldn't do anything to make it appeal to the mainstream audience as there was none in this regard just a lot of a niche groups. In terms of our voxpops, art first it was conflicting have a mix of people like visuals and narrative, but in the end we felt more connected to a narrative idea. I was particularly surprised at how the male audience felt passion for this narrative rather than just girls.

Are there any reasons why your research could be bias?

One reason why our research could be bias is because I only asked people aged 16-20 years old which is a niche group and doesn't give much range in the data. The ideology of this group would likely all be similar and so not give me any variation in the answers given. It is also not a accurate representation of the population and shows only a small sample of it. Our voxpops were also centered on those of a similar age to us, therefore their views are limited compared to those who are older and perhaps had more experience with society.

How does this affect our product?

From the results of our research we thought we might implements elements of intertextuality and reference Beauty and the Beast as we now know it is well loved so referencing it will be enjoyed by a large audience. We could do this by choice of mise-en-scene for example costume where we dress up the Beauty character in a dress similar to Belle's yellow dress. We also saw that having both performance and narrative is what is wanted by our audience so we are definitely going to do that now as before we were considering just doing short film.