The document summarizes the responses to 10 questions about a music video. For question 1, responses indicated the video created a happy atmosphere through bright colors, though the intended mood was more solemn. Question 2 responses said the video successfully reflected the genre and feel of the song. For question 3, responses indicated the video would make people want to buy the artist's album. The video gave impressions of the singer being a country or serious artist. The intended target audience of older teens and young adults was received with some contradiction. Most responses understood the themes of loss and moving on portrayed in the video. Some elements like jump cuts and fonts were noted but not distracting. Responses were positive about wanting to follow the artist and see promotional materials

1. By Deanna Hammond-Blackburn

2. Question 1: What mood/atmosphere did the
video create for you?
•
•
This first question had a few different responses,•
but the main emotional response was a happy
atmosphere. People said that the reason for this
was due to the bright colours, one person said
that ‘the filter creates a warm feeling.’ This is
interesting as the mood we were going for was
more solemn in the beginning and then happier
later on, however the colours in the video are
bright. We edited the colours to make the video
seem somewhat more dream like, to show the
singer’s state of uncertainty and confusion, so
perhaps more desaturation would have helped •
here.
The other most common responses to the video
were of ‘heartbreak and then moving on’ and
solemn/sad. These moods were more to what we
were aiming for in the editing, so I feel that
overall we managed to convey the atmosphere
well.
The responses to this question were all
positive; everyone thought that the music
video reflected the genre and the feel of the
song. The reason for this that people said was
due to the video being slow, and ‘the
transitions made it more emotional which goes
with the song.’ Overall I feel that we did this
very effectively and that our uses of transitions
wasn’t overdone, and challenging this
convention worked well for us.
Another reason that someone said made the
video effective was the way the video reflected
the lyrics. I agree with this and feel that
Goodwin’s theory about the relationships
between the visuals and lyrics and the visuals
and the music can easily be applied to our
video.
Question 2:
Did you feel the music video reflected the genre
and feel of the song? Did they go together?

3. Question 3: Did you feel the video
advertised the artist/song? Would it make
you want to buy his album, for example?
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question was very positive;
The overall response to this
a lot of people said that they would buy his album and
that the video did a good job of advertising the artist.
People also said that we had ‘created an artist with a
look which suits the genre’ and that ‘the artist had a
distinct style which gave him a good image’ so it is clear
that our costume and make up was effective. Another
response said that ‘the performance clips advertised his
wide range of talent’. This shows that our storyboarding
and framing combined with the costume and star image
worked together very well and would promote our artist
productively.

4. Question 4: What impression did the video give
you of the singer?
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
The impressions of the artist were quite
varied in the answers, however the main
impression was of a country singer. This
fits in somewhat with our genre, although
to improve this we could have included
less countryside shots or changed his
image slightly.
Another impression was that he is a
serious artist, or a ‘tender individual’ as
someone replied. This is good as we didn’t
want him to have any associations with
genres such as pop, as they are more
ostentatious and happy-go-lucky, and
these impressions fit more with the indie
genre.

The intended target audience
seemed quite ambiguous to our
small audience as the responses
were contradictory. There were
slightly more people who thought
that the people this video would
appeal to were young adults or
older teens. This is good as our
target audience was older teens and
young adults, ranging from 16-30
years old.
Question 5: What sort of person would you say this
video appeals to?

5. Question 6: Did you understand the story of the video? Or
perhaps any themes that cropped up in the both the song
and the video? Could you see links between the lyrics and
what was shown on screen?
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

There was a mixed response to this part of the questionnaire, as
there seemed to be some confusion on the narrative elements of the
video. However most people found that they could understand it
and the main theme that they interpreted was one of a great loss.
This is good as our story followed the artist as he felt the loss and
heartbreak of breaking up with his girlfriend, and then the more
positive emotions of moving on whilst treasuring the past
memories. Most of the responses said they followed this, so I think
the narrative was portrayed well and the narrative was combined
effectively with the other elements.
One person even specifically said that ‘the driving home bit was
portrayed creatively’. Goodwin’s theory can be applied even more
here as the link between the lyrics and the visuals are strong.

6. Question 7: Did anything jar or take
you out of the video for a second?




Most of the answers to this part of the questionnaire said that there wasn’t
anything in the video that made them jar out of the video which is overall
acceptable. However there were a few more specific examples, the ‘font
for the title’, ‘his singing’ and the ‘jump cuts in trees’.
The typography in our video I think fits the genre and the style of our
artist very well, as the serif font and sophisticated elegant style is very
common in the indie genre and fits with our star image. Therefore I feel
that this comment is insignificant.
The jump cuts following the artist through the trees were specifically
edited in such a way that it ‘jars’ the audience, the intention here was to
confuse the audience so they could understand the confusion the artist is
going through. This clearly is effective to the point where the audience
must become much more of an active audience in order to follow the story
further.

7. Question 8: Did the video make you want to
follow the artist’s progress further, for example
by watching more of his music videos?



This question got a lot of positive feedback
and most people saying that they would
follow the artist’s progress, along with
comments about the video being well done
and nice to watch.
One person commented saying that they
would be more interested in a happier song;
this would be something to note if we were
to promote the artist further.
A few said that they wouldn’t follow his
progress, and the only reason for this was ‘it
was a lot of walking and not much
explanation’. The walking in the video was
necessary due to the common convention of
the indie genre to show a journey, and the
fact that this viewer needs an ‘explanation’
suggests that they need to learn to be more
active in their viewing of some media texts,
and therefore makes their comment
counterproductive.

All of the answers to this question
stated that they definitely expected
to see the artist on a promotional
poster or album cover, and most
said that they expected to see him in
a field/rural location or a location
seen in the video, for example the
barn or trees. This is good as we
will be able to create effective
synergy with the promotional
poster, the album covers and the
music video, which will then
ultimately help to develop the star
image.
Question 9:
What would you expect to be on a promotional
poster or the album cover?

8. Question 9: Could you see this artist becoming
internationally famous?
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
The responses to this were 50/50 in
deciding whether our artist could achieve
international fame. In the responses that
said yes, some comments were made on
him having ‘good style’, while another
said that he ‘needs his image developing’.
I feel that in order to become
internationally famous we would have to
develop his style to further portray his
musical style and make him become more
distinct.
A more negative comment mentioned
him being ‘not socially relevant in this
modern society’. In order for him to
become an international star we would
have to include more intertextuality and
focus on more relevant situations. This
could also apply to him becoming just a
national star.


Again, this question brought up a very
mixed collection of answers. A few
people said no, and that it left them
wondering about ‘what happened at the
end’ or ‘what it was actually about’. This
again relates to the audience being active
or passive; to understand the video they
should watch it more than once, which is
effective at promoting the artist and also
creating word of mouth, as these people
would ask their friends about it and their
friends would then watch the video etc.
Despite this, the overall feedback was
more positive, with comments on the
video leaving the audience ‘very
emotive’ and allowing them to
‘connect/sympathise with the artist.’
Question 10: Did the video leave you thinking
about the story and the artist afterwards?