Evaluation Question 3

Before I started my video, I had to decide on my target demographic for my production. My chosen genre was indie rock, so I knew I would have to aim it towards teenagers as the genre is popular in this demographic. I created a questionnaire to find out what my demographic wanted or expected from a music video.

I learned that in order to appeal to my target audience, I had to create an abstract narrative using an enigma code with a unique diegesis to gain their attention. I did experience an issue, however, of useless joke answers which I could not use as they provided no insight. This means that when I created a questionnaire for my evaluation, I sent it to people I knew would give serious answers. Another thing I learned was that star image was important to my video, leading my to include numerous close-ups of my singer in my video. One answer in particular said they expected something unique for a video, which lead me to come to the conclusion that I could subvert many expectations and still attract my target demographic.

During the construction phase, I also received feedback. This was, in a way, more useful as the feedback was instant ad related to what I was currently creating. An example from the creation of my video was a lack of lip-sync. Although I wanted to focus more on the aesthetic and meaning in the world through close-ups, low angle shots of the sky and mise-en-scene, I still needed lip sync. I added a tracking, close-up shot (another idea was to include more moving camera as a lot of the cinematography is static) of the protagonist lip syncing. This actually helped as it showed his emotion, linking to the emotional pleasure I aimed to generate with my video. Other feedback said that the second chorus should have its own footage, as recycling the first chorus’ sequence took away from the idea of a journey. This gave me a large gap to expand and explore the narrative and conflict with.

Feedback on my poster taught me that my original poster was lacking detail. With this feedback, I added more details (URLs, social media, reviews) and had a realistic, suitable poster. Another large bit of feedback involved the band name (Imagine Dragons) and its placement on the poster. Originally, I had it placed on the image normally. I received feedback, however, that it would seem more natural if I wrapped it around the wheel arch. My second ancillary task (the digipack) also received feedback about the number of songs. I increased the number and made it feel more realistic.

After the creation of my video, I created another questionnaire to get feedback on whether or not I managed to do what I intended. I learned that the visuals and effects used were unique and attracted my demographic, while the cinematography highlighted the meaning of the song. I also learned that I achieved an oppositional reading of my video. I had interpretations about finding true power, letting go of a bad experience and escaping society incase of an epidemic. I also had some answers where people could not understand the video upon first viewing, telling me that my enigma code worked and created a need to rewatch the video.I also learned that my demographic found it appropriate for the song, linking to surrealism and darkness, and the target audience as it links to surrealist internet culture which teens are involved in and can be motivational.