The document discusses research conducted on the target audience for a rock music video. A survey found the audience was split 60:40 male to female. It was also found that those aged 17-24 made up most of the responses. The research showed all respondents were white British. Most watch music videos on computers and laptops. Respondents said they like seeing the band playing and having a good time. The research group concluded they would include both staged live performances of a band as well as a narrative to appeal to different preferences and keep the video interesting.

1. Audience
Research

2. From the questionnaire my group
conducted through survey monkey,
we found that our audience would be
a 60:40 split, rounded. With this in
consideration we now have to think
about how we can appeal to both
sexes as it is almost an even split.
This could include using male and
female actors. Therefore the male
gaze has been addressed as well as
an equal representation of gender.
However we feel the need to appeal to
the males in particular as they had the
favouring side of 60%. In addition, we
will include conventions to appeal to
the female audience. However we will
not have to include stereotypes of
females such as using lots of pink and
high street clothing as the female’s
responses given were similar to the
males when giving an opinion on what
they like about a rock video. We will
try to address the male audience by
including masculine props and effects
such as, fire, darkness and heavy
guitars. We also plan to film in the
woods which links back to the first
humans and the idea that the male is
the hunter and he should supply for
the family. This will be shown by the
all male band playing in the woods.

3. From our results of the age question of the
survey we found that we had a wide range
starting from below 17 and 55 and older.
However the results showed that our target
audience would mainly be focussed within the
below 17 and 24 range, as this is were the results
favoured most.
In addition it will be in our interests to mainly
focus on the younger audience as they have
given us more feedback for us to work with and
they make up for the majority of the results.
Now my group can look at what 17-24 year olds
like and what their interests are. Researching in
to this will help us understand what they like and
expect from a music video and how we can
appeal to them, this is why we chose a popular
rock song because it is well know and the band
has been going for a while, therefore older
generation may know of the band and song. Also
the older audience may like the chosen band as
their sound is old school rock and this is
especially portrayed through their new album
‘Hail To The King’. This therefore unties the old
and the young, bringing them together as rock
generally tries to deter from discrimination and it
also gives out the message that no matter how
old you can be a fan of rock therefore we are still
appealing to everyone without discriminating or
leaving people out.

4. The results we received about nationality were all the same;
from our 23 responses. All of these responses where under
the White (British) category. This is a negative and positive
response in one. Firstly, Negative as we do not have a
range of nationalities and we will have to research some
more in how to attract different ethnicities and what may
appeal to them. On the other hand it is positive because
they all answered the same, my group now knows what sort
of target audience we have and we now know to include
conventions that stereotypically go with Britain such as; bad
whether and countryside, this links well for our initial ideas
as we had originally planned to film in a forest/woods to link
with the whole idea of using elements within the rock video
as we found this is a popular convention within the rock
genre. Now we have our results we know this is a definite
plan when filming as it shows regionality and we can now
go forward and really get into detail about how we are going
to film in the woods and how to appeal to our audience.

5. My group felt the need to ask how
our audience accesses music
videos as this will give us a clear
idea of what to include in our
music video because if say mobile
phones was the most popular
result we would have to think
about picture quality and narrative
because when they are on the go
they would want good picture
quality but not too much narrative
that if the miss a bit if the video
they wont understand the rest of
the video. From our result we
found that computers and laptops
was the most popular way to watch
music videos, with television and
mobiles closely following. Knowing
this information we can use these
types of technology in our music
video to relate and appeal to our
audience as these are used by our
target audience . Technology such
as smart phones, laptops and
tablets.
This shows that we are also in the
know of what technology is
available and we can manipulate it
to appeal to the audience.

6. From our results we found that
our audience watch music videos
fairly regularly and therefore our
music video project must be good
in order to get the views we are
aiming for. The results are quite
split but the largest percentage of
people watch music videos
everyday, therefore they will be
aware of what a good music
video consists of. This will either
work in favour of our project or
against it because if the video is
of a high quality and we really
appeal to the audience they will
appreciate all of the effort gone in
to make the music video and
hopefully it will be of a
professional standard. However
this can have an opposite effect
because if we don’t appeal to the
audience and if it doesn’t look
professional then it will reflect
badly. As a group we aim to
make a professional, realistic
product that our target audience
will recognise the metal genre
within the video.

7. Here we asked what appeals to individuals when it comes to
rock videos. Whether they are a fan of the genre or not they
will have an opinion of what looks good and stereotypically
goes with a rock video. A lot of the results were not
particularly useful as there weren't many specific results
about what appeals to the audience. However we did find that
some like to see the band and others like a narrative. Overall
most results said they like to see the band and like to see
them rocking out and having a good time, therefore we will
include this within our video. We will aim to do this by setting
up a staged performance of a local band as they will have the
instruments needed as props. Also because the local band is
of a rock genre, the guitarists already know the guitar solo,
hence making the filming of the staged band more believable.
Which we can then include close ups of the guitar. This will
make our video look a lot more professional as we will use
common rock conventions.

8. From the previous question we found that
the audience was split between a staged
live performance and or a narrative.
Therefore we asked whether the audience
would like to see a live performance as we
have to plan our music video we want to
appeal directly to the target audience to
attract more fans. Listening to the
audiences views will help us in the long run
as we will get a better understanding of
what they like and dislike. Therefore it will
make it easier and more focussed when
planning the storyboard of the video as we
will know what to include and what not to
include.
The majority of results would like to see a
staged live performance as almost 60%
said yes to our question. Therefore we will
include sections of live performances but
not the whole video as there is still the
remaining 40%. My group has to include
another convention in the video as we want
to appeal to as many people as possible. Therefore there has to be a mixture to keep it entertaining for the
audience because the song is quite long there can not be just one convention as the audience will soon lose
interest and we will not be able to apply different techniques and effects to a scene of just a band playing.
although, because we know a majority like to see the band it will definitely be included within our rock video,
mainly to mix the video up and to show the audience what the band looks like, hypothetically as they band we will
use will be imitating Avenged Sevenfold. Showing the band will attract to the female audience as it is a male band,
but also the males as they will be playing instruments. Fans of the rock genre tend to collect posters, t-shirts and
go to many live performances therefore they will know what the band members look like; we have to try and
recreate the style of Avenged Sevenfold as the audience knows what to expect.

9. As a group we had researched different rock videos and found that they
like to mix a staged performance in a secret isolated area with a
narrative to explain to the song, which made it interesting for the viewer.
We also found that the audience sometimes forgets the name of the
band and the song name but can remember the video which they will
explain to their friend and will then recognise what the song was. Music
videos play a crucial part in promoting the song especially when
listening to the song at home whilst its on telly or showing their friends
on their phone via YouTube. Furthermore it is in our interest to make a
memorable video that people will talk about as our audience is of a
younger generation they are stereotypically seen to use social
networking sites and also know to spread news and gossip.
We then asked the question do you like videos with a narrative and
why? We did this to understand why people like narratives and how
important they really are to the viewer. There was a mixed view on this
question which was actually unexpected. However the people who
would like to see a narrative said they liked it because they can relate
the lyrics to the video which then helped them perceive the song better
and could then relate to their own life. Also it is more visually appealing
and interesting. On the flip side people said no because they would
rather see the band and also because once you have seen the video,
you don’t really need to see it again because it just gets boring.

10. From analysing these results me ad my group concluded that we can not directly
appeal to everyone's subjective choices; everyone likes different things. One thing we
did decide on was that we would try our best to include something that everyone will
like whether it be a staged live performance or a narrative. Therefore we are going to
mix a staged performance with a narrative because of the 50:50 split from our
results. We have found that it is difficult to particularly define what the audience
expects from a video, again because everyone is different and likes different types of
genre. However when concluding this, we found that this is what the rock genre is
about such as expressing individuality, being different, speaking your mind and
standing out from the crowd. With this information we now know that the audience will
still appreciate the video because of their like for the song but also because we are
going to try to appeal to as many different interests as possible, aiming to bring
different styles, ages, individuals, likes, interests and preferences together without
trying to clone people in the sense of making everyone the same by liking the same
stuff. We aim to keep individuality whilst uniting the rock genre. Personally, I think
from my research that the rock genre is all about promoting individuality within a
certain style and genre.

11. From our results of this question we found that the
audience actually expect many different things from a
rock video because of how versatile the Rock genre is.
We realise now that maybe we should have narrowed
the question a bit more maybe we could have asked
What do you expect from an Avenged Sevenfold music
video? This would have given us a better understanding
of what the audience expect from our music video and
what we need to include. However, something we have
learnt from this question is that a Rock video has to
show passion, whether it be about what the band is
passionate about or everyday scenarios that can
sometimes get us down. Rock videos are all about
expression and making the audience feel like they aren't
alone. The video gives the audience that sense of
belonging to a group and that they aren't the only
individual who has gone through a bad time.
Some results mentioned being in the dark, anger,
rebellion, seriousness and violence. These results link to
the stereotype of the Rock genre, especially when
people don’t know much about the genre. Rather, fans
of the genre understand the emotion behind this anger,
seriousness and darkness and can connect and relate to
the band as they are expressing what they fan is feeling
through music. Personally I feel that is why Rock fans are
so committed to bands and always would rather go see
them live so they can show their appreciation to the
band who have brought their feelings to light.

12. Most evidently from these results
the audience would like to see a
female in the video, this links to
male gaze as they would like to
see an attractive female within
the narrative. However the
largest result was to see both
male and female in the video.
When coming up with initial ideas
for our video we are now thinking
we should represent and show a
female in the video, we will do
this by making her the main
character within the narrative.
We will then represent the males
by showing the all male band
playing in the woods. This way all
viewers will be happy with the
equal representation of the sexes.
It is especially important to me and my group that equality is evident throughout our video as
Rock is all about forgetting prejudices and coming together as one big rock family. This result has
been particularly helpful as we now know where we can go from here as to selecting actors as
we know we will have a female main actress and a male band. This is going to help us progress
because we now how to thinks about how we are going to equally represent the sexes.