Evaluation Question Three

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Music Video

After completing the draft edit of our music video the group used several methods to recieve audience feedback. First of all, a screening was held to view every group's music video, after I video was seen we asked everyone to give us feedback, including points that they liked and thought worked well and areas that they thought could be improved for the final edit.

Postive Points

1. Lip-syncing was in time with the music and realistic. From this feedback we learnt that made a good decision by Sophie actually singing the lyrics while we filmed the shots because it translated in the lip-synching seeming much more believable in the final edit. As her mouth is moving appropriately to how it would when actually singing rather than small miming movements that would have looked fake.
2. Performance was very believable and the confidence of Sophie, as an actor, was shown, therefore making the character believable and the video interesting to watch. From this feedback we learnt that involving members of the group in the acting of the video made a difference because of the acting experience from GCSE and A Level Drama making the performances believable. This experience allowed confidience in the performance because Sophie is use to adopting a different character and performing it to an audience.
3. The lighting in the music video was appropriate and showed the shots clearly. From this feedback we learnt that small technical details make a difference and if included are noticed as contributing to the overall intentions of the video. We tried to use a range of lighting- bright natural sunlight in the house setting to show the happy style of life the character has lived and contrast with the arguement on screen. Darker, natural light in the streets to reflect a darker mood, stronger character and autumn time of year and bright light with shadows in a black room to create mystery and create a seperate symolic section. Therefore we learnt these creative decisions effectively aided the purpose and narrative of the video.
4. The narrative was easy to follow. From this feedback we learnt that our planning and editing was effective as it ensured the narrative had a clear beginning, middle and end and the idea of a girl changing her personality was clear through the locations, costumes and lighting chosen.
5. Variety of Shots and Camera Movement make the video interesting. From this feedback we learnt that the variety of angles and shots we filmed the sequences from paid off in making the video seam more interesting and avoids it being static and boring. It also demonstrates our ability to control the camera to capture a high quality shot.
6. Well edited that creates the music video style. From this feedback we learnt
7. Black and white worked well and suited the track and narrative. From this feedback
8. Good use of symbolism mannequin. From this feedback

From this session we learnt that the most common areas of praise were the lip-syncing, acting and performance and variety of shots. These comments linked to what the group personally found the strongest aspects of the video so we felt a sense of achievement that others agreed. We also found that the narrative of the troubled relationship and the character changing her personality was clear to the audience and the song choice plus its topic was relatable and enjoyable by a teenage audience both math and female- which was another of our aims.

Constructive Points

1. Pre-song material - the track wasn't appropriate
2. Sophie smiles at the end of the window scene
3. During the Zoom in the arguement sequence the camera distorts
4. Photo album - could be more specific and show who is in them.

From this screening we found that the errors in the video we knew we had to correct for the final edit did not go unnoticed by the audience reinforcing that we definitely needed to remove them to ensure a perfect quality video. These errors were two sections where we had extended the clip a little to much by accident, causing the shots to overrun and show Sophie coming out of role for a second, for the final edit we removed these. In addition, the audience found the white noise annoying in the pre-song material with one comment that it sounded like 'hoovering', therefore we downloaded a new wind sound effect that sounds much softer. Although this sound effect is better than the original, casting over a critical eye over our video I still believe it could sound better as it now sounds a little too windy. However this sound was the best we could find after an exensive search of the internet. The final apsect people picked out to be improved was a section where the camera distorts as it zooms towards the window in the arguement sequence. We were aware of this and for the final edit we tried various methods to remove or hide the error however they brought more attention to it. Therefore it unfortunately remains in the final edit because we thought the rest of the shot was the best quality for acting and controlling the zoom so we did not want to insert any of the other clips we had filmed. It would have also been too much time that we did not have to organise returning to the location to film the one shot. However I believe it is only a small quick error that the rest of the video more than makes up for. The feedback recieved was very postive with the only negatives being small technical errors that we were aware of, therefore the criticisms were fair and tha we agreed with them. The group was happy that the feedback showed a like for the performance and variety of shots included because we aimed to achieve multiple shots to avoid long takes from the start of the project. It is this area that makes our work feel most like a video. In addition each member of the group went away and showed several people the video, asking for comments. The feedback we recieved was similar to in the screening. Therefore only technical errors and faults were criticised rather than the content of the video.

Furthermore, we recieved several comments on Youtube giving us feedback on the video, these are displayed below:

1. Love it guys, fab x from annaneale
2. Love the video, very authentic and realistic. Good use of lighting and really impressive camera angles from AthenaSky093
3. <3>Sockett123
4. Wow factor is huge!!!! Great visual story, amazing lip synch. Loved it!!! from donandgerlinde
5. Wow factor is huge!!!! from donandgerlinde
6. Omg Love this video :) from