Music Video - Audience Feedback and Reflections

Here is the final cut of our music video:

Throughout the editing process, we received feedback from members of our core audience of 16-25 year olds. We responded to some of this feedback by adjusting the video slightly, for example:

This person noticed jarring movement in the band performance. We took this on board and re-edited it slightly to fix the problem.

Here is some more audience feedback we received:

Overall this feedback was positive. Two out of four of the above examples correctly stated that the genre is indie pop, and the other two were not completely incorrect, at least recognising the pop and indie aspects of the genre. This suggests that we were successful in conveying our genre in our music video.

I was worried that our theme of eras was not completely obvious, especially with the 80s and 90s, but everyone we asked understood the concept, suggesting we had conveyed it clearly. Our feedback also shows that our audience responded well to the dance sequences and the modern era especially.

The fact that people we asked liked the modern era could be because it is something that they can identify with, since it is the era we live in and have grown up in - the modern era represents our audience. This is good because a significant part of why people enjoy music or an artist is because they identify with it, and we have possibly created something that people can identify with in some way.

Reflecting on the video myself, I am mostly really happy with it. It turned out better than I expected it to. I liked the range of shot types, such as the ECU of Jacob and the close-ups of the guitar and bass, and the way the footage cuts between the different shots quite smoothly. With music videos generally the editing should not be too noticeable - it should look natural so the audience don't really consciously think about the fact that the footage has cut from one shot to another. I think our music video does this quite well.

Shots I particularly liked

The video is not perfect, though, and there are things I would improve if I could do it again, for example:

- When the footage cuts between the 80s and 90s before transitioning into the 90s scene, Jacob is out of character because when filming we had forgotten about the cutting and thought the earlier part of the shot would not be needed. It isn't especially noticeable because it is very fast-paced but it still bothers me slightly.

Between set-ups: Jacob is looking away from the camera

When the 90s scene properly starts: all of a sudden he is engaged and energetic

- I still wonder if we chose the best selection of eras. While I really liked the 80s scene, I don't think it is especially recognisable as the 80s specifically, and even if it is obviously the 80s, I think there are lots more interesting things we could have done with the 60s. We decided against 60s in the first place because aesthetically it is quite similar to the 50s and 70s, but Saturday Night Fever and disco is specifically and obviously 70s and not 60s, and there are 60s references we could have made that would have clearly differentiated it from the 50s - for example, a reference to the early Beatles, something very recognisable to most people. As the eras are introduced chronologically anyway, I think the era would have been quite obvious.

These are not major problems, however, and overall I am still happy with how the video turned out.