The document summarizes feedback from a focus group on a music video for the song "First Love" by The Maccabees. The group of 6 people aged 16-25 understood the non-linear narrative and felt it fit well with conventions of indie rock videos. They agreed the video suited the indie rock genre through costumes, actors, and shots used. Some felt more scenes showing the protagonist with his lover who caused the breakup were needed to better convey the story. Lighting and inclusion of more band images in promotional materials could also be improved. Overall, the unconventional elements like handwriting engaged the target audience well.

2. For our music video for the song ‘First Love-
The Maccabees’, we held a focus group in
order to gather feedback on it. We asked 10
questions to a group of 6 people within our
target audience – 16 to 25 year olds. We chose
to question people from our target audience so
that we can find out if our music video draws
them in correctly and to find out whether we
do actually appeal to the audience the Indie
Rock is dominantly aimed at.

3. The Narrative…
The narrative of the music video is about a young
couple’s aim to move on after separating. The 6
people in the group understood the narrative. Using
a non-linear that wasn’t in chronological order it
added an abstract look to the video and drew in the
viewer a great deal as it is a usual convention for
Indie Rock videos.

4. We also used this idea to show each character’s
confusion. Although we chose to do a non-
chronological narrative the audience
commented that this was a good idea because
it reminded them of how happy the
protagonists were previously compared to the
feelings they’re experiencing after the breakup.
This taught us that sticking to this music video
convention of the Indie Rock genre was a good
idea.

5. The Genre…
The focus group also agreed that the music video
did suit the genre of music. The feedback said that
the costumes, choice of actors and pace of shots
were the main elements of the music video that
made the music suit the genre correctly. However
the issue was raised that perhaps more shots of
Harry should have featured displaying him with
his lover on the side ‘Alexa’ who caused the
breakup so the story was told a bit more clearly.

6. Originally, during the initial ideas stage, we
planned to display Harry and Alexa together.
Although, when shooting the music video, lack
of time meant that we could not display this as
successfully as we planned. This being
said, the audience did still agree that the story
was clear and conventional to the genre as
Indie Rock videos leave you thinking.

7. The Mise-En-Scene…
The focus group mentioned that the colours used
throughout the video clearly displayed the type of
characters portrayed in the video as antagonist Alexa
wore black displaying her bad and villain like
character. Where as, innocent girl Abbie was placed
in bright pastel colours in order to display the bright
and positive character. This told us that we had the
right ideas with costumes as the characters were
dressed appropriately to who they are portrayed to be
in the video. However the issue was raised that there
could have been more low lighting in the video in
order to display the type of feel each shot/scene has.
Even though the bath scene involved relatively low
lighting, other shots lacked this idea.

8. We discussed this after the focus group and we
said that if we could do some shots again we
would have shot some point of view shots making
sure that low lighting was involved or even
manipulating the lighting on Final Cut-Pro. We
would have to experiment first though because
this does run the risk of reducing the quality of the
music video and making it look more amateur.
This taught us that the use of lighting could have
been improved although the choice of costume
worked well in order to engage the viewer.

9. The Verisimilitude…
The focus group agreed that the Mise En Scene and
characters did create a good sense of verisimilitude and were
generally worked well towards the representation of the
genre. The main protagonists Abbie and Harry each created a
sense of verisimilitude as people of there age are usually in a
relationship however many do not work out. The reactions of
the characters in the situations weren’t extremely realistic
however we was not aiming to make their reactions realistic
as we wanted this to draw in the viewer and create a sense of
humour, for example Harry dropping the biscuits and crying
in his bed. These are very important aspects of the video as
this causes the audience to feel empathy for the characters.

10. It was said that the Mise En Scene was good because it
seemed natural and suited the main protagonist, the genre
and the message that the music video gave. The Mise En
Scene also gave a good sense of verisimilitude because
the settings/locations were ordinary settings that ordinary
people come across on a daily basis. As well as being the
location that the majority of the target audience live. On
the subject of this, the props and décor of the house scene
was very realistic and modern, suiting the correct time
that the video was set in. This taught us that location
scouting is important and that every aspect featured
within the scenes add to the verisimilitude and are
strongly recognised by the audience.

11. The Ancillary tasks…
The focus group said that the magazine advertisement strongly
suits the genre – indie rock. The simple layout and lack of content
adds a laid back feel to the advert, which is conventional for indie
rock. It was also commented on that the idea of using the star rating
from NME magazine was very significant as it strongly
exaggerates the conventions of indie rock advertisments. The
digipak created was commented on as extremely good and suited
the genre, due to the hand writing design and bright colours also
fitting the name of the album ‘Colour It In’. This strongly appeals
to the target audience as they are easily drawn to the text. It was
suggested that maybe more images of the band could have been
included however in this case we stepped away from the usual
convention by not exposing the band as much compared to other
digi-paks although, this still does work well.

12. The continuing house style that runs through the
ancillary tasks was explained to be very useful by
the audience as they commented that the album
would be very easy to recognise on a shelf after
seeing the advertisment. This taught us exactly
what the audience would have wanted to see
within the ancillary tasks and if we could revisit
the digi-pak we would have added a greater
number of images of the band in order to expose
them to their audience although it was said that the
ancillary tasks do full very well into the indie rock
genre.

13. The Conclusion…
Overall, we learnt that our choice of using a conventional
narrative for the music video was a good idea as it allowed
the audience to gain a connection with the characters and
respond to their emotions. As well as allowing them to
understand the story a lot more. The use of lighting could
have been better in the video in order to add a sense of
emotion to the much more morbid scenes in order to cause
the audience to understand the feelings the character has. We
are very happy that the unconventional feature of hand
writing in both the digi-pak and advertisement turned out to
be a good choice because it was a risk. It could have resulted
in us not appealing to the target audience, but this was not the
case.

14. If we had the chance to improve the ancillary tasks we would
choose to put a greater number of images in the digi-pak in
order to show the audience what the band looks like and also
showing the sort of style they represent in order inspire the
audience .If we had a chance to re-shoot the music video we
would involve the character Alexa a greater amount in order
to display the storyline much more clearly for the
audience.This would be good for the audience as this may
contribute towards them gaining a greater opinion of the
characters. The feedback on location taught us that location is
very significant within the music video along with props as
this suggests to the audience whether the video is realistic
and believable or not.