At the beginning of our production me and my partner decided to make a doodle concept-based music video however we didn't have a solidified depiction of what the illustrations would look like. Using our Pinterest board we collected a diverse array of illustrations and in our first audience survey we asked our target audience which of the illustrations they preferred. The verdict and the tally are below.
Our audience admired this one because the use of colour allowed it to "pop against the page" due to the "graduation of colours involved". This influenced the illustrations in our video to transition through the colours of the rainbow.
Our concept of doodles (and the colours of them) was a frequently raised positive in our second focus group task. One participant commented that "the overlaying symbol theme was a very clever idea and with the song being upbeat I thought this was well captured in the video".
In the music video every illustration was relevant to either the song or the branding or a specific theory. However one comment about illustrations which we received in the primary focus group survey that I kept note of was, one participant said she liked how in the illustration of all the faces seem "very random". In the digipak I wanted to incorporate some not-so-relevant, random overlays. So peaking out from the hedge on the cover is a flag of America and there's a demon overlaying the pelican crossing pole on the middle page. I think these illustrations contribute to the "fun" and "creative flow" vibe demonstrated in our video.
Our second question in the primary focus group survey was about costuming and which style was most popular with our audience. We presented five very different outfits and asked them to choose their favourite. The answer was tie between a sexy outfit which accentuated the female physic and curvaceousness, and the other was a plain normal minimalistic outfit.
We were then faced with the decision of branding and how we wanted to portray Chance The Rapper's identity. We decided we wanted our brand to appeal to the mainstream so we opted for the more casual and common style of the two (the minimalist outfit). I think the outfit was a key contribution to the video being "representative of our London society".
In our primary focus group we then did a multiple choice question of which destination our audience would feel most/least appropriate to film at. The table on the left is most and the right is least:
The most popular locations (with three votes each) were a café and amusement park. The least popular locations were a launderette and public transport. When I asked this question and gathered peoples responses I found that reactions to specific places varied a lot and whilst one location would be one participants favourite, it would be another persons worst. From asking this question we also uncovered significant connotations that people held in respect to locations. For example the launderette was votes joint first for least appropriate places to film and one of our participants, Tarin, described launderettes as grimy and outdated. However the launderette was also voted second top for most appropriate locations and another participant, Endryu, described the vintage-ness and 80's aesthetic demonstrated in launderettes as a positive. We also decided that whilst these ranks do represent what are considered cool places for our audience, they weren't picked in consideration of our video or concept. So whilst a funfair is a cool location, it wouldn't be simple or calm enough to accompany our illustrative overlays and demonstrate refinement.
In our secondary focus group task one participant said a way to improve our video could be to have shot around East London which has a "quirky urban vibe" which our video could have "benefitted from". Whilst I appreciate and agree with this idea, I don't think the use of more locations would have improved our video.
In our second focus group survey the first question asked our audience what they liked about the video and to my happiness, the audience picked up on a number of our creative decisions.
Lucas said that he enjoyed the use of "several different shots, locations, and also times of the day". We were experimental in our production and had fun playing around pre and post production which is what caused us to shoot from various angles and distances. We wanted our brand to fit in with a "Londoner's" aesthetic and also we wanted to show an ordinary person who likes to make music (not a millionaire celebrity) which is what prompted us to use a variety of London locations. We shot during the day and night time because night time seemed appropriate because the song is "All Night" however with low daylight and a desire to be 'normal' and unpretentious (prompting us to not use lighting equipment), we felt it best to additionally shoot in the daytime.
Our video was also praised for the choreographing which helped to "intensify the energy of the music" and Keira said that this energetic movement throughout helped to "enhance the visuals". This statement supports Andrew Goodwin's Six Key Feature theory in that there is a correlation between the music and the visuals. The reason why all the chorus segments are of the actress dancing to the song is because we wanted to reciprocate the grooviness and the upbeat which is demonstrated in the rhythm.
Betsy described our video as owning a "youthful feel" which I think is due to the locations, the fun overlay concept, and the casualness established by the hand-held camera and the mobile phone shot scenes. As I've already discussed outfit and locations added to the identity which we created of a young, fun, Londoner. The overlay concept was targeted at young people because we think that generally, older audiences prefer art which shows refinement or a lot of technical ability, but our overlays were just simple, vibrant, line doodles. The hand-held camera and the lower quality scenes look casual and ordinary and for me as a viewer, if I watch a music video by an established musician but its shot on a mobile phone or hand held camera, the video immediately appeals to me and seems youthful and contemporary as it looks like something any driven youth could also accomplish. Hanan added to this by writing that the iPhone segments came across so "contemporary and youthful".
In regard to our advert and digipak Hanan said she linked the colours as they're "minimalistic". I think the plain whiteness of the overlays allowed us to incorporate the same intense standard of illustrations, however it didn't come off as too much. This was our aim and I would say it came off well as Keira described the overall picture as "simple to the eye but it's actually not too simple and quite detailed".
Another thing about our digipak and advert is we wanted to reinforce the brand and identity. We wanted to communicate the ordinary London youth vibe we had shown in our music video so we were considering shooting either at a high street, on public transport, or at a road crossing. We chose a road crossing because we liked the simplicity of this location and as Sharna said its "representative of our London society". We drew overlays on the portrait photo of the girls face which contributed to her identity as a black girl. We drew baby hairs, makeup, and a cross neckless which contributed to Sharna's statement that this picture "tells a story and is representative". Baby hairs, makeup and a cross neckless are culturally symbollic.
Questions four, five, and six asked our audience what improvements they thing could be made in each of our productions. I think a lot of the feedback we got was potential things we could try out but things we purposely avoided in our final production. For example one participant said an improvement would be to trial "different costumes" however we only wanted two very basic outfits as we didn't want the focus of our audience to be on what she's wearing.
Keira said that we "could have experimented with upside down spinning frames" and used some "zoom in and out" frames, and Hanan contributed to this by saying "maybe add a filter". However I my opinion, if we did more experimentation with our transitions and filters and made those more extravagant there'd be a clash with the overlays and it would be too much.
Sharna encouraged us to use more locations of East London which as I explained earlier I think although this might have been interesting in our video it wouldn't have improved the video as we already incorporated many locations.
The seventh question asked our audience what image the artist gave out and all of the participants more or less described youthfulness and upbeat-ness which I think was expressed with the dancing, outfit, camera work, locations, and vibrant overlays. What was interesting was the further connotations people received from the artist. Hanan described the artists image as very tumblr driven, and like an art student. "Super youthful, super modern and contemporary", which I think was established by the concept illustrative overlays. Betsy described the mood spectated in the artist as "channeling thoughts of life in general" which is interesting... I can't see this connotation but there isn't a right or wrong answer and I like how there's a mixture of interpretations. Abdi's answer reflected the interpretation I also see in our productions. He said "the artists seems like a person lost in time, enjoying life and what's thrown at them". I think one scene which particularly emphasises this is the ending scene where the actress is smiling and dancing in the tube even though people are around her and are simply walking or standing, blank faced, normally, and boringly. This connotes to being "lost in time" and "enjoying life".
Developing a connection and understand our audiences preferences which we achieved in our primary focus group has held a compelling role in the choice making pre and post production and personally, I attribute most of the successes of our video to that practice. So if I was to redo this project or something similar which targeted an audience I'd definetly use a focus group and collect their opinions.
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