Victoria Bird's Blog: Evaluation 3- What have you learned from your audience feedback?

1. Presenting you initial ideas to the class- Conceptual phase

In September I presented my 3 initial ideas to the class, they were ideas that I developed over the summer. The students and teachers gave me feedback for each idea which I recorded on my phone to listen back to later to take notes from. The form of presentation were my blog posts, they had all the graphics and information needed to present effectively.

Music Video Idea #1!

Feedback that I got from idea #1:

The video may not have had enough content to fill 3minutes.
Would quickly become repetitive
Animation plans were interesting and would add visual interest although for the amount of time they were going to fill, the amount of time that were going to spent on them wouldn't really be worth it

Music Video Idea #2!

Feedback that I got from idea #2:

Would be cool and unique mixing modern and vintage styles.
Although casting would be an issue with with a mostly younger pool of actors to cast from
Might be easier to change the song to a different artist so that it can be easier to cast for them.

Music Video Idea #3!

Feedback that I got from idea #3:

The running aspect makes it more interesting to watch
Idea is very generic in boy band videos
Maybe should include a love interest or larger cast than just the band

What I take from all of this feedback is that they ideas need to be rethought out a little bit more to progress. It brought up points that people like and dislike and that I like and dislike. Then I could proceed to decided which idea I liked the most and then begin to develop that idea. Phil suggested that I keep it simple and but add things with visual interest. To conclude, I decided that idea #2 was my favourite and that a better song for this idea would be ‘Dream Lover’- Bobby Darin

After this Phil was then able to form the groups that he saw fit by taking into account our different ideas. Once together as a group we combinded all our ideas and started to prepare the best two of you concepts to refine and develop further. The feedback we got from our individual presentations helped us decided which one of our three ideas was the best, for example mine being number 2. Then we were left with four (for each member of the group) different ideas which we could then discuss and develop briefly before choosing the best two out of those four.

These two songs were ‘Out of Space’ - The Prodigy and ‘Dream Lover’ - Bobby Darin

2. Pitching to luke- Pitching final concept

The Powerpoint we presented

Our next step in collecting audience feedback was a group pitch of both ideas to Luke and Phil. For this we prepared a PowerPoint with visuals and ideas so that he could help us make a final decision on which concept that we were going to produce. As well as also helping us develop that idea slightly further and open up different ways that we can take the concept.

Feedback for idea #1- ‘Out Of Space’

The time lapse option of the guys on the sofa could take really long time to shoot for the amount of footage we would get out of it.
As well as that we could divide the shots. Firstly, time lapse all the people moving around the two guys with out them in the shot. Secondly, keep the camera in the same place, put the two guys in their position and then film their sequence. Then mask around it.
There isn't a clear message in our video and it is a little bit random, although that does fit with the song.
Have a really solid idea for production and not rely on the edit to make the video good
Add more to the individual scenes and develop
Dancing scene could look really cool
The track is too dangerous for our videos plan
The track will get taken down if uploaded to YouTube, Vimeo is an option.
This would be easier to do if we changed the song.

Feedback for idea #2- ‘Dream Lover’

He suggested scrapping the idea of the music video within the music video and just shooting a music video in the style of the 50s
This would include black and white, correct size framing and the 50s video definition
He also said that it could be a pastiche style video
Costume and props are very important
Phil suggested that we could use a modern indie song and then put that song in a 50s look

As a group we have collectively decided that idea #1 is the one we want to go forward with. We decided that we would have to change the song to something less popular that might not get taken down. We would also have to develop our ideas and get a clearer picture of what we would actually be shoot and the logistics of it.

The ideas really developed and changed since the feedback from Luke. Because the song was too popular, we sat down together to look for songs that we could replace with The Prodigy song. The song that we decided to choose was ‘Glowed Yo’ by KAYTRANADA. We thought that if we could adapt the idea slight to fit whilst keeping the main concept.

We decided to scrap the idea of outer space, but still keeping the idea of 'dreamy' and 'trippy'. We thought that replacing the space themed things we UV lights and neon glows would be more appropriate.

For example, in the first element we would have had a lip sync of a boy walking though hanging sphere decorated like planets, we did change to glowing neon balls

3. Screening your test video to your class/teacher - Prototype stage

The third stage of the audience feedback processes was after we had completed our full test shoot of the video which we would then show to the class and ask for their opinions on how we could develop it even more. Obviously, there would be limitations to our test video as we would not have the same amount of time, equipment or help like we would on the shoot day, but it was important for us to get the video as close to the original as possible. This would allow us to get the most accurate feedback and change

what needed to be changed efficiently and concisely.

After collecting my feedback, the I used a table to write this out clearly so that I could refer back to it during the process. There was the main comments section that stated the feedback we got and then a response which was my response to the comment. How we were going to fix the problem or if we chose not to change what they suggested.

This is the feedback that I collected:

COMMENT	RESPONSE
Well casted. The lead suits the role that he has to play. Strong performance from Franek. He holds his own, quite interesting to look at himself. Although he could smile less	Rehearse the lead actor. Look out for him being less smiley and looking directly at the camera. Tune up his performance. Specifically do the 200% rehearsal a few times before the shoot.
For the element with the dancer, it could look really boring after a while as it quite repetitive.	We should think about expanding this a bit more, they suggested using different shot types, different colours for the screen. In addition to this we are going to edit this section to make it more interesting which will be left for post prod.
They look like extras not really contributing to the shot much. Could have the extras doing different things other than dancing.	The extras need to be more into it. Figure out actions that the individual actors could do to make there always be interesting things to look for the audience. This prevents repetitiveness and make the whole scene look like less of a music video shoot and more of a hangout. Phil also said specifically to consider having some of the cast not dancing but rather doing something like pouring drinks or chatting. This is something that we will have to talk about a group.
Content wise, it is a little bit thin. Think about different shots, maybe lens, something needs to be a bit different. We see everything early on. Arch in the strands, makes what we are seeing interesting whilst keep the initial idea.	Although our animatic was close to the final product, there are still a lot of features that were left out of the product. This will hopefully increase the content. We will also consider with the group using different types of shots, lenses and/or technical effects that we could have included which again would bring an alternate interest to the video.
Consider we would use slow motion	To transition from normal speed to slow motion we considered having shooting someone pouring a drink that we could slow down as the drink is pouring.

The way we used this was that made sure that we effectively noted down all the key points from the audio that I recorded. Then we contemplated all of this a group, dividing what should be changed and then how we could develop and change this.

An example of this is the feedback that we got about our dancer and that element. In the real product we added an echo effect in Adobe After effects to make the video more visual intriguing and solve the original issue that 'it could look boring and repetitive'

The Test shoot

The final video:

4. Holding a focus group to get feedback on your final cut of your video and rough cut- Audience testing at rough cut stage.

We organised a focus group to get feedback from our peers on what we were doing correctly. Unlike our other audience feedback collection sessions, we presented all 3 products (digipak, website and music video). We printed out copies of the digipak for the focus group, we asked one of the members of the group to operate the website and the

Open ended questions we designed

This was the first time we were given feedback for all of these projects together as interlinked products. The key aspects of the feedback that we received.

Digipak

Hard on the eyes
The colours are quite confusing
Titles at back are too small
The name doesn't suit the artist
Add something on the spine of the digipak
The digipak could be more linked to the other two products.

Website

The website goes well with digipak
The website suggests that the artist is a rapper
Easy usage
Improve the gallery section of the website, it doesn't work well with the rest of the website

Music video

Colour scheme is consistent

The feedback that they gave us for the music video wasn't very much, but there was only a certain amount that we could do with feedback for the video because we had already shot all of the footage and we couldn't go back and reshoot to change something. There were several things that we had to do in the space of time between the focus group and the submission of the video which is what we worked on and why there are differences between the two videos. So we decided our main focus was to work the with feedback that they gave us for the website and digipack. These ideas were still malleable and could easily be adjusted.

WEBSITE CHANGES

1) Changing the social section

the focus group told me that the social section of the website wasn't super clear and to make them stand out more. I changed the colour of the box to a lighter pink so that the black of the icons would contrast more.

2) The glowing video at the top could fit more with the digipack, may change it to a picture of him

I took out this video and replaced it with on the continuous line drawings that were used on the digipack.

I took the original picture of the drawing and used photoshop to make it more animated, change the colour and take out the background. This would make it fit into the websites aesthetic more.

Original

Edited

3) Some more pictures in the gallery

Before the focus group I wasn't happy with the gallery as I felt like it looked completely out of place so I decided to change the whole thing anyway. I took all the images off and re-edited them to fit more into the key representations of the star image that we had agreed on. I took inspiration out of ASAP Rocky's albums and covers so that it would fit the genre conventions of rap.

What I did was I took the photographs that we took originally from the photoshoot and used photoshop to colour them to look like these photographs and to fit into the aesthetic of the website. This is the first photo I came up with.

WEBSITE BEFORE THE FOCUS GROUP

WEBSITE FINISHED

DIGIPACK (Photographs taken from Alec)

The changes we made to the digipack were quite significant. This is because the feedback that we go from the focus group was a bit extensive. This called for Alec to do a complete remodel of the pack. On his blog he documented the process.

1) Font

The first thing he said is that the album didn't really fit the genre which is crucial for making this product successful. First he changed the font, rather than just taking the font off of the website. The font we were using gave it more of a futuristic look, when really we wanted it to look street. He took a handwritten approach to make it look more like a casual graffiti look.

2) Parental Advisory

To make it more like a hip hop digipack, we also added the parental advisory sign. This is because of the explicit nature of the genre.

3) Colour Scheme

The colour scheme of purple has already been discussed quite a lot. We wanted to add even more to the campaign therefore we made the whole digipack various shades of purple. Because of leading artists like A$AP Rocky popularising the purple shade due to its reference to lean.

4) Front cover picture

We have changed the image to connote the rap genre even more. This is because this image is now holding up the middle finger and smoking. This is gives the artist more angst and anti authoritarian appeal.

DIGIPACK BEFORE

DIGIPACK FINISHED

MUSIC VIDEO

Our Music Video didn't use any of the feedback that we were given from the focus group, just because there wasn't much to give. We already knew that we just needed to keep working on the product and refining some of the cuts. The group had already decided what we needed to do in the last week for submission so we didn't need the focus group to tell us. This is one way where we didn't use audience feedback to our advantage. There is, I feel, a significant difference between the before product and after product purely just because we had more time.

MUSIC VIDEO BEFORE