Audience Research - Initial Survey

Despite recently allowing my entire life to be consumed by ICT coursework, I have managed to collect some information regarding audience's interests in regards to music videos. Productivity, on MY Media blog!?

I put up a survey on Polldaddy and asked people online to fill it out over the last week, so here are some numbers for your enjoyment. I too contributed a response to this, purely because I am a consumer of music as well, making my opinion count as much as others (to an extent...).

With the exception of the final question all of these were multiple choice for the sake of making things easier to process. Hey ho, let's go!

The first question aimed to find what draws people into a video the most. There's a definite favour towards seeing stories being acted out, which suggests that my coursework video should have a strong narrative element. Some people had no preference, which could leave some creative decisions being based solely on what feels right as opposed to having to match a specific kind of direction.

I have to say I am surprised there was so little interest in the performance element of a video, especially as my background knowledge of the industry includes how much time and money is spent on building up the public image of the artist. This result could also dispute Goodwin's theory which suggests that labels want to push the artist's image in music videos (through plenty of screen time/close-ups) - whilst it's hard to deny that this happens, these findings could suggest that it doesn't have much effect in the long run.

Fairly indecisive for the most part, though I'm sure this is down to how vague my question was. Out of those who did make a decision, it seems that light-hearted videos were far more popular - possibly suggesting that people prefer watching videos which are a bit of fun to accompany a song they like, as opposed to actually appreciating more about the video's production or looking for conceptual ideas.

Very one-sided here, though I feel my question may have been a little leading. If we look at the raw figures, however, we could interpret that people care more about the concepts/ideas behind a video than flashy effects - which suggests that the coursework piece should have an interesting idea behind it, and can't rely purely on complex cinematography and editing techniques.

These results are particularly indecisive, yet I did have a suggestion in the process of carrying out this research which said this should have had a "depends on the song" option. Which makes sense. From the way in which most of the results are "I am not too bothered" I think we can interpret it as needing to be in context with the song and the concept of the video.

So... this is the one where I just asked everyone to tell me a video they like. Let's look at them one by one.

Go With The Flow - Queens of the Stone Age

This is completely rendered in a vector-like style, which is interesting to note. There's a lot of performance in this, though it is by the animated versions of the band members. There's also a lot of sexual imagery (Goodwin's voyeurism point) - I actually had to check the Wikipedia page to see whether it was actually there or if it was me being twelve. Judging by the article, it's the former.

Never Gonna Give You Up - Rick Astley

...

I know this wasn't a serious opinion; this is the problem with collecting information from the internet. But regardless, this is nearly all performance. There's also some voyeurism of the female form, which is very mild by today's standards.

Stay (Faraway, So Close!) - U2

I can't in all honesty say I understand what was going on in this video. A lot of it seemed conceptual - even the performance element seems conceptual in itself, as though it's symbolising a relationship of kinds? I don't really know. The greyscale filming seems to work in the video's favour when it comes to setting the tone.

Я очень рад, ведь я, наконец, возвращаюсь домой - Eduard Khil

UGH.

Porcelain - Moby

Eyes freak me out so this was a chore to watch. Contrary to the preference in earlier findings, the basis of this video is the feathered cut effect and the way it is edited together. There's no narrative here from what I can make out, the focus seems to be the eye (I'm guessing this is meant to symbolise... something?) and the lip-sync/keyboard performance.

Eyes Wide Open - Gotye

There's a definite narrative going on here, which fits earlier findings regarding preference. There's also some noticeable links between the lyrics and what we're seeing on screen, particularly during the "eyes wide open" parts.

Book of Good Life - The Maccabeats

First thing worth mentioning is the novelty value of this video - it's not trying to be taken too seriously, which fits in with earlier findings about light-hearted videos being more popular. This revolves around a combination of both performance, and the narrative fitting in around the lyrical theme of the "good life".

For The First Time - The Script

Again, this is a mixture of narrative and performance - in regards to the performance, this is a case of the narrative acting out the exact story which is being told through the lyrics. Considering that the first question's responses said that having the video act out a story is popular I'm not surprised this made it in.

Creep - Radiohead

Can't say I'm familiar with this acoustic version of the song, but anyways - I think this can only really stand as a narrative-based video, and even that's limited. For the first half of the video nothing happens, then we get a story based on "man runs away, woman chases him". Yeah. It's interesting this has come up as from what I can tell there is no performance, which backs up the earlier finding that people don't see performance works as much of a priority.

Party In Your Bedroom - Cash Cash

I wonder who mentioned this? Again, this has both performance and narrative aspects - the band are performing which appears to be the 'centre' of the video, whilst they are also introduced to us as characters which acts as a kind of sub-narrative. This narrative doesn't appear to have any link to the lyrics regardless of interpretation - we're shown an actual party, whereas none of the interpretations out there mention an actual party. On the note of interpretations, although a lot comments online come across as "it's Cash Cash so it must be about sex" I generally remember that Jean Paul and Alex are nerds and so there's a good chance it is actually about being on the computer all night...

-HM.

FotL Recreation - Raw Takes

THIS WAS FUN. This video features each of our takes when staging a recreation of the Sheena Is A T-shirt Salesman video. Apologies for the lengthly delay at the beginning and end of each shot; because the camera was placed up high on a stand on a table I had to climb up each time to turn record on/off (HEALTH AND SAFETY: I didn't die).

First (0:00) - This didn't really work, but it was useful for giving everyone an idea of what we were going to be doing. We had a problem near the start where Mr. E had mis-judged when to start (this was unavoidable the first time - as he had to face away from the screen at this point it was a case of guesstimating when his part would come in). Also, mine and Sarah's banner got ripped a bit too early this round.

Second (2:55) - Not as many obvious errors, but we can still see a little uncertainty as to direction; again, it was just a case of everyone getting used to what was going on, so a few little mistakes are unavoidable.

Third (5:53) - Seemed to go much better! It's clear that me and Sarah had needed to start repairing signs by this point, but oh well.

Fourth (8:46) - I feel really confident about this take - I have to say during the first banner part I am looking particularly awkward not sure what part of the sign to hold, but that probably won't be as noticeable when at full speed.

Fifth (11:33) - Not as confident as with the fourth but this still went pretty well.

I'll have a go at putting these at double speed later on to see which looks best to decide which take to use. Couple of problems I've noticed:

a) Camera angle - the room we were filming in is significantly smaller than the one in the original video, so we had to improvise in regards to where the camera went.

b) Writing on the signs - it's pretty difficult to read the writing on the signs me and Sarah are holding up; this is something I hadn't thought through when making them. Had I not been such a cheapskate and actually printed them this wouldn't have been an issue (or at least bought a felt pen of some kind), but yeah.

c) Cast's eyes - We had the Slowpoke Remix playing on the laptop, which was positioned on the table underneath the camera/tripod, and I think every one of us is guilty of making it apparent we're looking at the screen at some point in each shot (I know I definitely did, especially when I was holding the second sign up each time because I needed to time that little duck thing). This was because we were unfamiliar with the directions beyond "copy what they're doing", so in the future it will be necessary to ensure everyone knows what they need to do from memory, rather than using a video reference.

d) I am lip-syncing when I shouldn't be. This is a habit because I know the song. An annoying habit I need to kill.

-HM.

FotL Recreation - Signs

So, we're filming tomorrow, and there's one major aspect which we need to get in the video to have the right effect - and that is, of course, the signs to be held up by the 'blue men'.

It annoys me that it's not possible to get proper recreations put together, but unfortunately I do not own or have access to a printing firm. Instead, I've had to do the next best thing and create copies by hand. Yeah...

I started this using just printer paper and black pens (going by what was available), and an hour and a half (and half a rainforest) later I think I have everything covered -

I've reinforced the joints with some good ol' tape, with the exception of the "You don't know them but they're cool" sheets as they need to be ripped. There are two of those, meaning we have two attempts before having to stick them back together with tape. I also plan on bringing more paper with me for if disaster should strike in any way.

Also, other things from my checklist -
- Camera is charged
- Camera has space free on its internal memory
- I have extra necessities packed should they be needed - drumsticks/guitar straps/picks.

Let's see how this goes tomorrow.
-HM.

Animated Storyboard: WIP

In the Mac room right now - I've just spent what seems like forever (but in actual fact was about 45 minutes) moving spiders around in FCP and now the thing is in the process of backing up today's work. I thought it'd be a good idea to upload the stills I have together so far just to prove stuff is actually happening...

I'll explain the thought processes/creative decisions about the different aspects once the thing is finished, but for the time being you can admire my wonderful still PNGs (two are JPG, because I fail at exporting things from PowerPoint! Oh well.).

Another spider

Because I left my memory stick downstairs. D'oh. (I'm aware you can't see it here. Fun.).

Future of the Left video uberslooooooowwwwwwwwww

Resource we're likely to find useful when filming the recreation prelim -

 

Video for INTERACTIVITY. Because passively sitting back and staring at a video is more interactive than sitting closer and reading something for yourself. Right?

This is the song and video at 50% speed. The idea I had here is that it'll work as a reference to show the cast before filming so everyone has a rough idea as to what to do, as well as acting as an audio and visual reference whilst filming (will probably play through Sir's laptop as it's the biggest screen we'll be able to get hold of in the small room, providing he doesn't get in a fight with it beforehand).

Some things to note -

- The speed. Is still a little faster than natural movement, but I decided to keep it at exactly 50% slower so it's easier to edit together in post production. Will have to employ a little creative artistic license to cover for this. I was originally going to use 25% as mentioned before, but at 25% it appeared unnatural,  which would kill the accuracy of the finished product.
- Jumps. It's still very jumpy - originally I wasn't sure if the jumps were an illusion from the speed modification or altered artificially afterwards, but the slowed down version confirms it is the latter. We'll have to just film it naturally and then leave me to do some trickery in iMovie/FCP. I have a couple of ideas on how to tackle this, but I'll cover more about that once I've actually tried testing 'em.

I now need to acquire some people to be band members and men in blue. This could be challenging.

-HM.

Playback Speed (or how I can't mime)

[COPYPASTA FROM MY OLD BLOG]
So... my prelim task involves directing a recreation of this -

The general direction is going to need some work, but on top of that there's a couple of additional things which will need addressing - the speed, and the frame jumps.

First thing I'm looking at is the speed. By the looks of it they've used the common tactic of recording it at a slower pace then speeding it up in post production (this process is in fact the opposite of a portal as it alters the momentum. Slow thing goes in, speedy thing comes out). Thought I'd have a go at testing this out -

 

Here I changed the speed by 50%, but to match the speed of the FotL video I'd be inclined to go at 25%. 

Big problem which is instantly noticeable in my demo - the miming needs to be spot on to work. Mine is far from it; this is because it's extremely difficult to 'play' a song at a different tempo than what you're used to. 

Although I don't know who I'm going to be borrowing for the recreation (or who'll be playing what), as soon as we're sorted we'll need to actually practice the song a lot, as opposed to doing what I did and just thinking "what the hell" and getting on with it. 

On that note - Sir, do you know where one could find tabs for the song? I tried looking the other day and didn't have much luck, and my interpretation skills aren't all that. 

-HM.