1. Focus group for previous version of music video
Once I had created a rough version of my music video I presented it to a focus group of 10
people, 5 boys and 5 girls. They all watched my music video together twice from the
beginning to the end. I then asked them for their feedback. I wanted to know if they liked
the video, what they didn’t like about the video and if I could make any improvements.
Al of the group agreed that I should have the songs name at the begging of the music video
instead of launching straight into the scene with the car driving. They said “it will let the
audience know the name of the song and ease them into it”. Holly suggested that I used a
fade in transition to make the change from song title to car scene smoother and less abrupt.
I will definitely use this idea in my video.
A majority of the group 7 out of 10 said ‘you should get rid of some of the shoe scenes and
add other clips in”. David said “The shoes are cool but it gets a bit boring after a while seeing
the person walking everywhere you need different clips.” Another student ‘Lydia’ pointed
out that the walking scenes with the shoes were very shaky so didn’t professional. I instantly
decided to remove the scenes with the shows as they received only negative feedback and
the quality of filming was not as good as I would have liked. I would have re-filmed one of
the shoe scene as I really wanted a pair of converse to feature in my music video but
unfortunately I knew I didn’t have enough time so had to remove the clips and make do
without which was disappointing for me.
I have learned to make sure that when you are filming to keep the camera steady and do
more than one shot of that scene to make sure you have a few good clips to fall back on.
Some improvements were suggested by the focus group to help my video suit their tastes a
little better. Jess suggested “I think your video would be a lot more alternative if you did
something weird or surreal in it. I’ve noticed that in other music videos like yours they do
that.” After the session I decided to play around with some of the software on Premiere Pro.
On the scene of the cars on the motorway driving at night, I copied the same clip but
reversed it so the cars were going backwards. I gained inspiration for this from the Coldplay
music video for ‘The Scientist’ where the whole video is shot backwards. I felt this gave my
video a very surreal look and matched the alternative theme I was going for.
A final improvement was a group decision. Everyone believed that you didn’t get to see
enough of the girl in the music video (Emily) or her face. Then decided to remove some of
the landscape scenes and replace them with shots of Emily like the one where she’s about
to cross at the lights and then turns to face the camera.
I have realised how important this focus group was to me and without their opinion my
music video might have been less well received. This proves the ‘uses and gratifications
theory’ correct in my case. That the audience (consumers) actually control what the media
produce. This was seen in my work as I changed my music video to their tastes as I was
creating something for them so ultimately they controlled and helped create the final
product of my music video.