During our rough cut screening on March 24th, we created feedback forms and distributed them to our audience. A total of 27 forms were returned, and I summarised the response scores on a chart.

The averages of the five questions were respectively 7.7, 7.1, 7.3, 7.6 and 8.0 (2 significant figures). Average results ranged between 7-8 possibly due to the tendency of participants to default towards selecting 7 on a questionnaires with 1-10 scales. Nevertheless, this provides us with sufficient practical insight into our areas of success and improvement.

The first question ‘did you like the song choice and genre’ received the second highest average score (7.7), which suggests that my audience profile in Blog 8 was accurate, and our song choice as well as overall creative direction succeeded in attracting the initial interest of our young target audience demographic.

The second question ‘did the music video have a clear, coherent structure’ received the lowest average score (7.1). This was a partial result of the limited polish in our storyboard during planning phase, particularly regarding the pace, shot correspondence and flow continuity of the music video, which creates a slightly disjointed viewing experience for audiences. Moreover, our music video was a hip-hop genre performance video, which conventionally incorporates more improvisational aspects compared to other genres and music video types. This likely resulted in the audience gaining the impression that our music video had a less clear creative vision than other groups which produced narrative and conceptual music videos.

The third question ‘did the music video maintain your interest from beginning to end’ received the second lowest average score (7.3). A potential contributing factor is the slight mediocrity of our filming locations. Shots filmed in everyday locations such as apartments and parks would have less visual appeal than other group’s choices which included holiday resorts and historical sites. Another factor is the low variation in our editing pace. In the rough cut, most shots were edited using a consistent pace which is unsuitable for the laid-back atmosphere created by our song. When combined, these factors make it more likely for our audience to lose focus when viewing our music video.

The fourth question ‘how would you rate the quality of filming’ received the third highest average score (7.6), suggesting that the overall quality of our footage met audience expectations. Throughout filming, I constantly checked our footage to make sure the lens was stable and camera movements were smooth, which paid off in the rough cut.

The fifth question ‘how would you rate the quality of editing’ received the highest average score (8.0). This indicates that the rough screening audience was especially satisfied with our editing, which is most likely due to the wide range of special effects and cut-out transitions that Dima utilised in the music video.

Overall, the feedback form reflects that our song choice and filming/editing was successful. Nevertheless, lower average scores for the second and third questions demonstrate that the quality of our planning negatively impacted the overall quality of the music video.

Personally speaking, my limited prior knowledge regarding music video production resulted in my lack of attention towards the pace and transitions in our music video. In retrospect, producing more iterations of the storyboard using feedback would allow me to establish a stronger overall vision over the music video, which would also improve the quality and coherency in shot design.

Planning: Next Steps

As producer of the group, I summarised feedback for and from individual group members to indicate what we needed to work on.

As producer, my primary focus would be to redesign our weaker shots and accordingly produce storyboards to follow in our next filming session. Storyboarding my newer ideas would make communication prior to filming more efficient. In particular, I will increase the shot variety (e.g. close up shots using a macro lens) and camera movements in my shot design to suit Dima’s editing needs and attract the attention of our audience. Furthermore, I need to pay extra focus to the editing pace of the music video to ensure that we have a varied pace throughout the video. Specifically, the first verse should have a faster pace than the second verse to attract the initial attention of the audiences and draw them into the music video.

Being a drama student, Bobby is familiar with acting onstage but can be slightly tense when acting on camera. Therefore he should focus on rehearsing his action sequences with particular attention to walking poses and hand placement, which would reduce the awkwardness in some of his shots.

Since the editing aspect was well-received by the audience, Dima should pay continued attention towards maintaining the smooth quality of our transitions. Moreover, he should spend time on completing the special effects employed in our music video (e.g. comic effect, lyric overlay effect). A further step would be to colour-grade the music video to improve the visual finish.

Richard is our main cameraman. Having prior experience with static photography, he needs to focus on introducing dynamic camera movements in our new shots and could experiment more with different shot sizes and angles. As director, he could also provide me with creative input regarding the composition of our weaker shots in order to reach further improvement in quality.