The document summarizes feedback received on a music video project from various sources and what was learned from that feedback. Some key points learned include: 1) Music videos on TV tend to have fun or relaxed narratives to engage viewers relaxing after a long day, so an in-depth narrative may not appeal as much to the target audience. 2) Mise-en-scene, or visual elements, need to relate clearly to the subject of the video to maintain continuity and completeness. 3) Not enough general viewers may have been aware of the specific conspiracy theory referenced in the video, so simpler symbolism was used to still engage that audience while connecting with viewers familiar with the theory. 4) The

1. Evaluation question 3
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Piece of feedback Feedback given by What was learnt from the
feedback
The narrative is too harsh for A member of the class during Music videos are played on TV
someone to pay attention to the 25 word pitch music channels as a main part
without having to think too hard of their viewing. People often
watch music channels after a
day at school, work, going out
etc. And generally when they
are relaxing and because of
this, the music videos that get
the most air time tend to be
the ones with fun or relaxed
narratives, and therefore by
using such an in depth
narrative target audiences
may enjoy the video less.
Mise en scene is not relating to Mr smith when watching our Just to start off on this point,
the subject of the video enough first draft we had decided that Mr Smith
did fit into our target
audience, and therefore his
feedback as a teacher and a
member of the target
audience is potentially the
most reliable that we received
in the project.
Without Mise en scene being
accurate to the focus of the
video, it would seem
somehow lacking in
continuity, e.g. there would
not be a continued theme all
the way through the video and
the video would have an
incomplete feeling to it.
Not enough people are actually A member of the class when This was taken on board, as it
aware of the illuminate watching the first draft occurred to us that the fact
conspiracy to make active use of that all three of us were aware
all the effort that is being put into of this conspiracy and
this side of the video happened to end up in the
same group was pure
coincidence, and only a few
other people in the class,
when asked, were aware of
the conspiracy. Also as a side
note, the majority were only
aware of it because of texts
such as “angels and demons”

2. etc.
To retain a key link with
the key audience, but still
have a message to put out to
the rest of the viewers, I used
much simpler symbolism in my
final product. This allows a
closer connection with the
target audience, e.g. those
who understand the deeper
details in the conspiracies;
however it still conveys the
basic meaning to the audience
who do not. An example of
this is the blindfold, as
mentioned in other evaluation
questions: the blindfold
represents a number of things,
the most obvious of which is
the loss of sight – however
this can be perceived as loss of
power, and in this way it
shows that there is something
being hidden, and since the
singer would not put the
blindfold on himself, it further
suggests that there is
someone or something else
involved, e.g. a controlling
power which is actually hiding
something from the singer.
But to take this further, those
who are aware (the target
audience) will be aware that
this is referencing the
illuminate.
The first draft is not clear in its Mr smith when watching the In a video such as a music
narrative, only part of the video first draft video, you can’t use language
tell me what is going on. Some of to convey the narrative, and
the scenes do not show me what therefore getting the plot
is happening, even though there across to the audience and
does seem to be some sort of without speech as an easy way
vague narrative somewhere in of clueing in the viewer, the
there. narrative must be clearer in
every way, which is something
we learnt from this piece of
feedback. We then found two
different ways to tackle this:
first of all, there was the
obvious option of using more
mise en scene, better shots,

3. better continuity, more clear
narrative in general etc.
However, we found another
way of doing this: we tried
using a simple subtitle in more
difficult parts of the video. We
used this in our second
attempt with me and Harley,
but in the end when I decided
to go for a much simpler
video, it was not necessary,
however I would have liked to
have done this if we had used
the original video, as it would
show I have researched
different ways of conveying
the video’s plot and
maintaining a more complex
narrative.
The song itself is four and a half Mr smith when watching the Having realised we had shots
minutes long, which sets a first draft missing, areas where there
challenge for a good video, let was no footage at all etc.
alone giving a 30-60 second What Mr smith had said
introduction actually made the excuse for
us: we had been on a tighter
schedule than anyone else in
the class, trying to edit which
was effectively five and a half
minutes of footage in the
same amount of time in which
others were editing an
average of just three and a
half minutes. Obviously
coming from a teacher such as
Mr Smith we knew we had to
take this on board, as he made
it very clear that our
intentions of creating a 5
minute video were
impractical, unrealistic and
generally unachievable with
the schedule that had been
set. For us to continue with
our original plan of
introducing the song in this
way would have been, in
hindsight, suicidal, as far as
the coursework goes, so we
knew we had to re-do this.
Acting upon this we
completely rewritten what

4. would come to be our second
draft, which was still massively
off the mark from the final
project, but we did cut out the
ridiculously long introduction,
as we knew if we continued to
attempt to incorporate this
into the project, the quality of
the entire music video would
be at stake.
At this point in time the video A friend whilst watching us A friend named Nicky made
seems to be just a load of shots of construct the first draft this brutally honest comment
two guys walking down the in which she basically told us,
street, and if I’m honest I can’t that to her, we were simply
understand how it relates to the sequencing together what Levi
song Strauss would have referred to
as socially recognisable debris,
simply because so far, our
draft still had no context to
her except for the intertextual
references that we had
crammed into it, such as the
bath scene, in which our
protagonist woke up in the
bath as a reference to
inception. Even though we did
end up changing the final
storyboard, Nicky’s comment
was not an influential factor in
this, as Nicky did not have any
knowledge of any of the
relative theories which are
needed to apply to the video,
and therefore she would not
be able to interpret the video
in the intended way anyway.
However, whilst this excused
her not understanding the
relation to the song, it was still
true that we had failed to
organise the information in
the correct, interpretable way,
and this was another reason
why we needed a simpler
narrative.
Intertextual references don’t mix Mr Ford, my other media Mr Ford’s basic point was, that
with a complex narrative very teacher, came and found me after looking through my blog
well in the space of 4 minutes whilst I working in the just to check up on progress,
worth of video computer room after he had noticed an abundance
reviewing several posts on the of intertextual references, and
blog about intertextual no matter how much it

5. references seemed like it would help us,
it was just too much to work
into a video with this much
background behind it. It only
takes a quick glance at some
of the research posts on the
blog to see just how much
detail there is in the
conspiracy, and that was
proving difficult to keep up
with in itself, let alone trying
to fit in 3 or 4 intertextual
references. Again, with Mr
Ford being a teacher I was
always going to take any
advice he gave me, and in the
end we ended up cutting all
references out of it, leaving
more room for simple
symbolism, which would allow
us to refer to the actual
subject of the video rather
than other media texts.
Also, as we are
beginning to study in our
postmodernism theory at the
minute in class, references are
often seen to be potentially
bad tools to use in texts as it
can take the focus away from
the actual meaning, for
example, the intertextual
reference to the riot control
officers in the pretender video
by Foo Fighters (which was
itself a reference to a previous
text) which we had intended
to use in the original
storyboard could have taken
the focus away from the fact
that the illuminate are secretly
controlling the continents of
the world and made the
audience think about the Foo
Fighters.
You need the subtitles to look Several sources, including Mr We asked a multitude of
deliberately like those in battle Smith and Mr Ford people to look over the video
royale so you do not lose the for opinions (mainly friends at
meaning first) and most of these
actually said that the subtitles,
which we had used to aid our

6. narrative, looked more cheesy
and unprofessional, than
clever. We had to bear in mind
our target audience in this
situation, as they also played
an important part in this: we
had asked people from within
and outside our target
audience and not one of them
had realised wear the
reference was from, and
rather thought the subtitles
were just s lazy way of putting
across our narrative. Mr Smith
and Mr Ford both said exactly
the same thing to us: that the
subtitles have to look like
those in the film they were
referencing, otherwise they
would have the previously
mentioned effect on the
audience.
In the end we
decided not to use the
subtitles for a number of
reasons, listed as follows: We
were using a very simple plot
for our final product and
therefore did not need the
subtitles; if the video needs
subtitles, then generally
speaking it must be to
complex (the audience should
be able to follow the plot
without the subtitles); the
subtitles played alongside the
lyrics, which distracted the
audience from doing both,
which is a problem in a video
such as ours when the video
actually is reflecting the lyrics;
No one actually seemed to
recognise the reference, and
therefore, people would
interpret it as something
different, and finally, as
mentioned previously by Mr
Ford, to many references
would crowd our narrative
with other media texts and
“socially recognisable debris”

7. as Strauss would have called
it.
There is too much information Mr Smith In our second video hand in,
involved with the theory for us to we had tried to cram basically
cram it all in through mise en every conspiracy theory since
scene, this would just confuse the the illuminate began in the
audience 1700’s through mise en scene,
e.g. posters on the walls,
checklists of deceased
presidents and artists etc. All
in the agent’s office, and this
was all too much for the
audience to take on in one
video. This was before we
made the choice to go to the
simpler narrative, and it
seemed that in the exact way
we had included very little
relevant mise en scene in the
first video, we had included
far too much in this one, and
had given the audience to
much to think about for them
to enjoy the video.