What did you learn from your audience feedback?

The feedback received from the audience when we showed them our music video and ancillary products were very positive overall. Everyone liked the video; they thought it was very entertaining and funny. We made a feedback sheet which consisted of 4 questions these were;

1. By looking at our main video and ancillary products, what genre do you think it is?

2. What elements from our video and ancillary tasks reinforce our target audience?

3. What did you like about the video?

4. What improvements would you suggest?

After the viewing, we received the results and started to analyse them.

For the first question, which was about genre, the main response was Hip-Hop, Rap and RnB. We were not surprised by this response because when we first watched Rizzle Kicks’ music video, we thought it was a Hip-Hop genre. Other responses to this question were Pop/Chart music, which is understandable because the song is very main stream with singing in it as well with no explicit language in it. The song actually made the charts in Britain as well so the audience did well to spot the mainstream aspects. Another response from this question was teenage music, which was probably influenced the young actors in the video and the band Rizzle Kicks are relatively young as well, so yet again we were not surprised by this response. Also some people were not sure about the genre which was completely understandable because in our video we didn’t include typical conventions that reinforced a certain type of genre. Overall, for the first question the response was what we expected to be, mainly hip-hop and Rap and like we predicted nobody wrote down British Hip-Hop.

For the second question about the elements that reinforced our target audience, there were a variety of responses which was very good because we wanted to know the audiences’ perspective of our products. A typical fan of our products would be a teenager who studies at college or sixth form and uses the internet on a daily basis to check e-mails, socialise and watch videos. The dress code of the characters were a popular response to this question and we definitely expected this because we deliberately had costumes that represented the mainstream fashion such as the chequered shirts, chinos, short and t-shirts and these elements must have influenced the audiences’ answers. The age of the actors and youthfulness was another big response to this question because our actors looked like they were college students and they way they were mucking around reinforced our young target audience. Humour and comedy were another response to this question which was probably influenced by our ‘drug deal’ scene. We were expecting this response because we wanted that scene to create a lot of humour and it certainly worked. The sunlight effect was surprisingly another big response because we added the effect to add a warm youthful feeling to the video and make it though it was set in the summer but we were very surprised the audience picked it out so credit goes to the audience. The music itself was another response which we were not surprised about because when we first saw the band’s version of our video we instantly thought of the music which represented youthfulness. One member of the audience stated ‘the way in which it was shot, they way in which they acted created a young fresh vibe’. This was a very good and thorough response in my opinion because that was message we were trying to portray that they are young people having some fun and up to some mischief. Overall for this question we were expecting some obvious responses such as the costumes and the age of the actors but the other unexpected responses were an added bonus.

For the third question, which was about what the audience liked, the biggest response was the editing of the video and we were definitely expecting this response because we spent a lot of time and creative thinking went into this. Our purpose was to catch the attention of the audience by using these post-modern editing effects such the text typography, slow motion, lighting effects and the editing of the song and it certainly caught the eye of the audience. The responses about the editing were, that it was very clever and professional and it fitted well with the music and we were very privileged to hear such positive feedback. The audience loved the slow motion part where the man was chasing after the character with the brief case and they found it very funny. Like I said earlier, we wanted this part to be very funny and we knew by using a man with an endomorphic body composition and using the slow motion to see his body parts move was a very funny idea and it certainly worked. The audience noticed that the lip syncing was good because in a mainly performance music video, lip syncing is very important. The audience liked some of the dance moved shown in the video especially my character’s ‘shoulder drop’ which could probably be a trend setter especially for the target audience because the way the character dress and act can certainly influence the audience. The audience also liked the locations used in the video and the digi pack such as the sub-urban estates used to represent the youths having fun around their local estate. Overall, for this question the responses were what we expected because they were the elements we liked about the video as well and the audience seemed to have the same views.

For the final question which was about the improvements, the only response was the rewind part at the end. The main response to this that it went on far too long and when we watched the video again we definitely agreed with the audience. We understood that the length of the rewind might have been boring to watch so if we were to make the video again we would certainly either take out the rewind effect or just speed it up a lot more. The constructive criticism was very helpful and we would like thank the audience for their input.

Audience Feedback

Genre	Target Audience	Likes	Improvements
	Fun, youthful, comedy		Last minute bit repetitive
Hip Hop	Sex, drugs, rock n roll	The geeza who ran after you	More cowbell
Hip Hop/Rap	The actors, clothing and dancing	The sunny effect and the words on screen	Re-wind went on a bit long.
Rap and lots of fun thrown	Teenager and young adults	I liked to see the fun and comedy throughout	None
Hip hop	Costume	Slow motion
		It was very entertaining. Hilarious, good use of effects.
Rap Hip Hop	Sunlight mod	G’s shoulder drop	Get off my phone
Hip hop	The age of actors	Amazing	None
R&B Pop	Loved it – humour, sun blush tones, clever and innovative editing
Pop-Chart music	Funny	10/10
Hilarious so gooood	Jihad is beautiful	Well done fantastic
Hip hop	Fun colourful	Just banter innit	Not make the rewind bit as long at the end
Hip hop	Actors clothing	It all fitted in so well music etc.	No improvements needed.
Hip Hop Teenage Music	Mise en scene, Music, dress code and characters	Editing effects syncing
Not sure	The way in which it was short, the way they acted created a young fresh vibe	Looked very professional – They guys, location and the way the video was edited	It was really good to watch.

New FIlming

New filming location of opening shot.
This includes the vinyl player which will act as the opening scene. This includes a variety of shots of the vinyl player. The very first opening shot will be of G moving the vinyl towards the vinyl player. This shot will be blurred about half way as G spins the vinyl. This will create a interesting effect. This will then cut to  a close up shot of a side shot of the vinyl being pushed onto the player. This is accompanied by a needle drop sound effect to add more realism to the sound. This is then cut to a POV shot of G who just put the vinyl on the player. This is an above birds eye view shot of the vinyl spinning round being played. This is then cut to a slow moving shot of the vinyl player from a longer distance. This will be edited so that is has an interesting light effect on it. It will also include slowly rising white particles to give an interesting effect. It will also include musical notes slowly rising above the vinyl player that will fade in and out. We will keep the original draft shots however we will be getting rid of the alley location because the lighting was not very good. This will be replaced by the new location shots in the living room. I will import all of the shots into Sony Vegas and make sure that all of the shots are synced with the music. I will achieve this by importing the original Rizzle Kicks song, I will then listen carefully to our footage as we had the song playing in the background. I will then make sure that all of the shots are in the exact right positions with the original song. This will make the lip syncing look great and also make it easier to manage all of my clips. Once I have arranged all of my clips to where I want them I will render them. This will create one video file with all of the clips. I will then import this clip into Adobe After Effects where I will edIt the clip to the way we want it.

Todorov Theory Essay

Todorov’s theory has a simple layout to five main parts a typical movie is split into. Each part is often found in films however it can be varied. The traditional first part is an equilibrium which consists of calm where all elements are balanced and peaceful. The second part is the disequilibrium where the original balance is upset. The third part is acknowledgement where the characters realise that the original equilibrium has been disrupted. The fourth part consists of solving where the characters try to fix the problem that has occurred. The fifth part is a new equilibrium which can be the same as the original at the beginning of the film or a new equilibrium that is also balanced.

In my A2 coursework I am creating a music video. The narrative slightly fits into the first four parts of Todorov’s theory. This is because there are 3 men, one is a dealer and the other two are buying from the dealer.

The first part of is the equilibrium that there was a simple drug deal going down with each side of the party happy. The disequilibrium is the drug dealer realising that he has been given fake money. The drug dealer then acknowledges what he must do in order to get his money or drugs back. He realises he has to chase the two customers. The drug dealer then attempts to solve the problem by chasing the two customers.

However Todorov’s theory does not entirely fit to this music video as the drug dealer never actually catches up with the two customers and so a new equilibrium is not met. This shows a prime example of how the theory is used but not completely right showing that there can be variation in the way that it is used.

To comment on my AS coursework simply on the intro of my movie would not work as it does not use Todorov’s theory, however the plot summary that we put in place does use the theory. The plot summary for our film consisted of the fighter being known as a very respected and brilliant fighter – the equilibrium. However he is then beaten badly in a fight – the disequilibrium. He then realises how his reputation has been effected and what he must do in order to gain it back– the acknowledgement.

He then trains very hard to be the best possible fighter he can be to live up to his old reputation – solving. He then beats the fighter that previously beat him regaining his old status and reputation – the new equilibrium which was the same as the original.  

Costume

Shooting Schedule for this week from 03/10/11 - 09/10/11

Permission E-mail to Universal Island Records

To whom it may concern;

We are students who are studying A level media at Gordano School in Portishead near Bristol. As part of our A2 media coursework our task is to create a music video using an existing song.
We would like to use the song 'Down With The Trumpets' by Rizzle Kicks. We were wondering if you would grant us permission to use this song in our video as we would like to upload our final version of our music video onto YouTube.
We would appreciate this very much if you were to grant us permission.

Yours Sincerely,
Jihad Khan and Mark Read