Audience research

I decided to conduct some audience research to help me refer back to when I create my own music video. This is the questionnaire that i handed to people;

Question 1

I handed these out to 10 people, half were male and half were female. This was a deliberate choice so I had an even split across the genders so the results weren't biased towards one sex. 

Question 2

8/10 people I handed this to were aged 15-20 and this will be my target audience for my music video as the data i've collected will be relevant to this age and hopefully allow me to make it appealing to 15-20 year olds (my age category)

Question 3

Indie is the most popular music genre with 6/10 people selecting this category. This fits with internet research that I have gathered that younger people (the 15-20 age category) like indie music the most and this is most probably what genre my music video will be from. 

Question 4

Half of the people said that they preferred narrative based music videos, although the other half was split over performance and concept based, with concept based getting one more vote than performance. From this I can take that people prefer watching a narrative based video and this is what mine will be like. 

Question 5

6/10 people said that a good story line was the most important thing in a music video and this fits with the narrative theme being most important. In order to make an effective appealing video I will make sure the narrative features an interesting and gripping story. However, acting and good visual effects were also voted for so I will pay attention to these too

Question 6

The majority of people (8/10) said that it wasn't important to them to see somebody singing the lyrics of the song in the video and so this is something to consider when I decide whether to keep my video purely narrative based or include some performance within it. 

Question 7

From my research I have found out that the majority of people watch music videos 'sometimes'. This means that they are not always watched but are relatively frequently. This means that people do enjoy to watch them and means that the purpose of this whole task will be to create something interesting and appealing for people to watch. 

Overall this research which I have conducted has been very useful because its given me some ideas for my music video and allowed me to learn some key things which will mean, hopefully the majority of people will enjoy it. 

Target audience research - what to research

In order to create a target audience for my own music video I need to explore the different groups of people they are and why one group would be more likely to enjoy a certain style of music video opposed to another.
There are different categories of people which I need to consider and those are mainly related to age and gender.
A demographic is a set of characteristic which describe a group and these could be things such as age, gender, class, ethnicity, location, sexuality and lifestyle. These could be used to identify who and what sorts of people would be interested in what type of music video. For my audience research I will  need to look into different demographics and establish who my target audience would be.

Director inspiration- Sin J. Lee

Sin J. Lee is a music video and film director who lives in the UK. His work is best known for his trademark use of lighting and colour palettes which give his work a contemporary feel. I first found out about this director as he directed the music video 'Boom clap' by Charli XCX and this earned him a BRIT nomination for best music video.

BOOM CLAP- Charli XCX

What I like about this music video is his use of fades and effects to transition shots. It gives the video an arty look and the professional way that it is done is effective and something I would like to achieve in my own music video.

Another thing I like about this video and his direction are the costumes that Charli XCX wears and the locations she is in. Her clothing is modern and contacts between colourful and more monochrome colours and I think this is effective because her clothing fits with the background. For example, when she is in the street, with blue skies and green trees her costume is bright and when she is filmed later at night in a more city environment her costume is black with a silver jacket.

Desire- Years & Years

Something which I really like about this music video is the quick shots which only last about 1-3 seconds between the narrative, the band singing and other artistic shots. This is effective because it keeps the music video fast paced and this fits with the pace of the song. 

(insert gif) 

Another thing which I like about thus video is Lee's use of different camera angles. He uses high and low angle shots as well as close ups, long shots, mid shots and many others. This is effective because it offers new perspectives of the video and also shows technical skill. 

Overall this task has been useful because it has allowed me to start thinking about my music videos and the various components of it, from lighting to camera angles. I will use Sin J. Lees style as inspiration for my video and this will hopefully allow me to create a good video.