Research from survey

1. Audience Research

2. The majority of the people who answered
our survey were male. The reasons for this
could vary: perhaps Bastille’s target
audience is primarily male and their
interest in the survey was provoked by the
band. This may be unlikely however, as the
survey was distributed via social media with
no indication of the band being featured.
All respondents knew was that the survey
was media-related when they saw the link
and decided to answer it. Of course, if
people saw that Bastille were part of the
survey once they had clicked it and weren’t
a fan of the band, they may not have gone
through with the survey.
If we assume that this survey is reflective of
Bastille’s target audience, then we should
tailor the digipak and music video primarily
towards males, while also taking into
account the female fanbase. We could do
this by having a male protagonist in the
music video, with a secondary female
character. In the digipak, we could
incorporate what are considered to be
more male colours, such as dark blues and
reds.

3. Nobody who answered our survey was older
than 24. It is likely that many of the people in
the 17 or younger category were 17, as the
survey was distributed amongst social media to
people our age. This likely restricted the people
who responded to a certain age group, thus our
results may not be reflective of the general
population. However, Bastille is more popular
among people in this age group than with older
people, according to streaming statistics.
Therefore, the answers in this survey will be
more reflective of the target audience. Our
package should be appealing to this age group,
but not restricted to it so the audience is
broadened and older or younger people could
purchase and enjoy it.

4. The weighted average for this question was
3.71. This means that the large majority of
survey participants liked the band, indicating
that they are a popular band among the general
population. 2 participants rated the band as two
stars: this variety in opinion is beneficial to our
survey, as in the later question where
respondents are asked to criticise the band,
these 2 participants are likely to be less biased
than other participants when answering the
question as they aren’t fans of the band and will
be able to provide reasons for this. Participants
who rated the band highly may be more
reluctant to discredit a band they like, and may
hold back in their answers. Of course, the
participants who rated the band low may be
reluctant to provide praise for the band in the
question that asks for good things about
Bastille, but as most participants like Bastille,
this probably won’t affect the results of the
question too badly.

5. The responses to this question were very
informative. From them, we understood what
exactly about the band appealed to audiences.
I’ve selected a few of these answers, which are
displayed on the left, that I feel will be useful
when making creative choices with our package.
It appears that audiences enjoy the similar
themes in the songs and presumably the
associated videos. Therefore, we should aim to
continue Bastille’s style in our music video and
translate the visual style of their releases over to
our digipak.
Another highlight was “relatable narratives”.
This is something we can apply to our video by
having a protagonist with whom audiences can
identify. He could protest or rebel against
societal norms, and the audience will admire
him for his honesty and willingness. We could
incorporate a love theme as well, as this is a key
component of the song and it is one of the most
relatable concepts in music.

6. I’ve selected responses that were among the most
popular and that we can take into consideration
when constructing our package.
The most recurring critique of the band was (what
some of the respondents felt was) the excessive
focus on the lead singer Dan Smith in proportion to
the other members of the band. When
approaching our music video, we could combat this
by either featuring a full band, or by doing the
opposite and excluding the appearance of any and
all band members so as not to focus too much on
the singer. We could use a narrative embodiment
of the singer perhaps as obviously we wouldn’t be
able to have Dan Smith feature in our video. This
might subvert the criticism as the video wouldn’t
explicitly feature Dan Smith.
Another criticism that was common was the
confusing nature of their music and related videos.
This is perhaps due to the surrealist elements and
influences the band incorporate into their music
videos. To avoid this, we could design a more
conventional and straightforward narrative, and
place less focus on the surrealist style.

7. Our survey had an overwhelming response in
favour of narrative over band performance as a
music video main focus. This is perhaps
unexpected, as Bastille’s music videos often blur
the aspects narrative and band performance so
that they are linked. Our survey respondents
may not be reflective of Bastille’s fanbase
however, nevertheless we should take the
answers to this question into consideration. We
could focus primarily on the narrative, and
perhaps intercut this narrative with subjective
shots of the protagonist singing so that both
elements are covered and represented
proportionally adhering to the answers of the
survey.

8. We asked respondents to rank seven music video components in
order of personal importance. The first ranked aspect was Song.
This shows that audiences watch a music video for the song,
rather than for the video itself, i.e. the video is complementary
to the song rather than the other way round. This is something
our group will keep in mind when creating the video, so we
remember that it is an accompaniment to the song rather than a
standalone work.
The second most important aspect according to participants is
narrative. Our group intend to create a narrative-driven music
video so this answer adds credibility to this decision.
Style is the third most important component; this shows that
although this audience views videos as subservient to their
featured songs, they are interested in music videos for the visual
style they utilise. We should try to make our video’s style similar
to that of Bastille’s other videos and also suitable to the song.
Locations and themes are also important to this audience. These
aspects should be reflective of our song. The locations should
convey the feelings present at that point in the song and we
should visually convey the same themes that the song conveys in
its lyrics (while being careful not to reflect these lyrics too
literally; we should expand on these themes rather than
following them).
Costumes and effects were the two least important aspects
according to the answers we received. This is perhaps because
these aspects, when done effectively, are done subtly and often
not noticed by audiences. Therefore, we shouldn’t place less
emphasis on these aspects in our video, but instead ensure that
they are done suitably and effectively, e.g. no over-the-top
effects that would seem out of place.

9. This is the question participants seemed to
struggle the most on, and also the most subject
to personal opinion as no two answers seemed
to match, aside from live band performance.
This suggests that this is something audiences
dislike, though the answer only occurred twice
out of twenty-eight responses, thus we can’t
assume it is reflective of the entire audience.
Other answers included “unrelated narrative”,
which we can avoid by creating a narrative that
mirrors and develops the themes of the song.
“Long intros” were also mentioned, so we need
to make sure our video does not linger too long
before the song starts, and remind ourselves
that audiences view videos primarily for the
song itself. An ideal intro, if we include one,
before the song starts would be 10 seconds long
at most, and it should create or enhance the
mood that the video is trying to convey.

10. This question was almost universally answered
with responses pertaining to the song’s
association with the video. This exemplifies my
previous point about the music video being an
addition to the song. Respondents stated that
music videos help their understanding and
appreciation of the featured song: the lyric/visual
association seemed to be a key part of developing
this appreciation.
One answer said they liked how music videos
strengthened their connection with the artist. To
ensure this with our video, we need to integrate
the band’s iconography and style into the video
so that people can form this connection, which
they could further continue by watching/listening
to Bastille’s other videos/songs.

11. The purpose of this question was to distinguish
Bastille’s most popular videos. The most popular
answer was Pompeii. Whether this is an indicator
of the video’s quality is uncertain, as Pompeii is
Bastille’s most famous song and thus would be the
most seen video by general audiences, and could
potentially be the only Bastille music video seen by
some participants.
We could draw influence from the Pompeii music
video for our own project; perhaps integrating
similar themes or styles to create a thematic
continuity between videos, as we know that
audiences like the music video. Perhaps this
question could have been more useful to us in an
extended form or with an additional question that
asks the participant to elaborate on why it is their
favourite music video, then we would know what
aspects or components are popular among
audiences so we could utilise them in our video.
“Things We Lost In The Fire” was the second most
popular answer: this video has Lynchian surrealist
elements and evocative imagery. If we assume this
is what appealed to these respondents, perhaps
we could draw from the same influences of David
Lynch as Dan Smith did for the band’s video.