We handed out questionnaires to our focus group to answer questions on our influential music videos to gain an incite to what they like and disliked about them.
Questions Asked:
Runaway Love – Ludacris
1) Whilst watching Runaway love by Ludacris, which of the three girls did you feel more empathy towards and why? If none, why not?
2) Did you like the Narrative performance style music video for Runaway Love?
3) Do you feel like the different storylines and characters worked or was it confusing for you?
Running with the Wild Things – Against the Current
1) Running with the wild things by Against the Current is a very cinematic video with a narrative performance style. What shots in particular involving camerawork, editing or mise-en-scene did you most enjoy and why?
2) Did you like the idea of foreshadowing the ending of the music video (where they end up in jail) at the start and throughout the music video?
3) In the video there is a transition in locations from the dark warehouse to a lightly coloured house and room. Do you think this worked? Showing two contrasting locations?
Maps – Maroon 5
1) At the start of Maps performed by Maroon 5 there is a short cinematic intro to build part of the story do you think this was beneficial in engaging the audience and to keep them watching the video?
2) The music video for maps is not continuous as the events can be seen in the reverse order that they happened, was the story line easy to make out or was it confusing?
3) The transitions through to the next scenes aren’t really conventional and usually involve some sort of light or camera movement to blend into the next scene. Was this effective in making the music video run smoothly and did you like it? If not, why?
4) Diegetic sounds from the characters world can be heard in the music video (IE. When Adam is in his car or at the hospital) was this effective in building an atmosphere and keeping you engaged in the video?
Feedback:
Runaway Love - Ludacris
The questions we asked where all about the story line and narrative performance of the video. This is because our music video relies heavily on an emotional story line with a narrative performance.
The first question asks them "which of the three girls did you feel more empathy towards and why?" this was an important question to ask to understand what caused them to feel empathetic to any of the girls as they had different back stories.
Many people said they felt a lot of empathy for the girl that was being domestically abused. however one person said "it's all a bit slick and polished" so they felt it could have been a bit more gritty to build more emotion.
Overall, many People did feel emotions towards the girls but because of the abuse many said that they couldn't relate or feel empathetic towards them.
Running with the Wild Things - Against the Current
The key aspect we asked about for this video was the cinematic shots and mise-en-scene. The reason we asked this was because our music video is going to rely on cinematic shots and location to build an atmosphere. The main question we asked was "What shots in particular involving camerawork, editing or mise-en-scene did you most enjoy and why?" this helped us understand what a group of individuals both like and dislike about the video and can also help us work out our target audience.
Amongst all of the responses, the most common responses where to do with the close ups of both the lead signer and the other band members, with one person saying "it had a lot of emotion".
one person in particular said that they "Loved the insert clips inbetween the normal clips (referring to the warehouse scene and the burglary) and the constant moving of the camera rather than static shots made it appealing to watch". This is good as our music video will contain many follow shots where the camera will be moving, we will also be including a few close ups for emotion and story setting.
Maps - Maroon 5
Maps is a very influential film for our own music video ideas as it really build a story at the beginning and is very cinematic to watch.
Many people said that the short cinematic scene at the start was very effective at building a story and helped them engage with the video.
We also loved the unconventional transitions from scene to scene and thought this would be a good area to ask about as we would like to do something similar in our music video. We asked:
"The transitions through to the next scenes aren’t really conventional and usually involve some sort of light or camera movement to blend into the next scene. Was this effective in making the music video run smoothly and did you like it? If not, why? "
One of our favourite responses was that "it was effective because of the fact it made everything quicker and smoother making the video more intense and better to watch". this was a great response as that is what we are aiming to achieve in our music video. one person even said that they "like the way the light transitions also symbolise a flashback".
Furthermore, with this this video we also wanted to ask our audience about the diegetic sounds that could be heard throughout the video, due to it being a cinematic narrative, and our music video will also include diegetic sounds from our characters world.
"Diegetic sounds from the characters world can be heard in the music video (IE. When Adam is in his car or at the hospital) was this effective in building an atmosphere and keeping you engaged in the video?"
the responses to this question where very positive with everyone saying that it set the atmosphere and really engaged the audience with the characters world. one response that we really took into consideration was "This was great for creating atmosphere but can be annoying at points when you want to focus on the lyrics of the song". we found this really helpful and to prevent this from happening we decide to limit the amount of diegetic sounds in our video, but the sounds will also be over and instrumental section of the song.
