Friday 8 April 2011

Screening of 'Lights' Pop Promotion: Audience Feedback

The importance of screening our pop promotion to a sample audience is crucial for the success of our task. Without the knowledge of what are potential audience think of our production, we're left blind to some key factors we may need to change and with a set of fresh eyes viewing our piece, we can get an honest, unbiased opinion.

Kira and myself have held several screenings of our pop promotion in various stages. We've held them in college, in public places we both frequent and shown the video to friends, family and those who fit our target audience criteria. Overall, the response has been resoundingly positive.

From this research, we've found that people really enjoy our idea. We've had numerous comments telling us that our video displays an 80's edge which works really well with the music both lyrically and melodically. When asked, people also confirmed that our pop promo fits the codes and conventions of a pop video; "It reminds me of Little Boots - it really fits electronic sound of the music but also comes across as quite soft and innocent" we were told. This made us really happy as that quote really summed up what we were attempting to achieve with this. Some other feedback included that the way we took 'Lights' literally was a nice, subtle touch as it fitted in well with the lyrics and mood of the song; especially when the out of focus shots were featured (which were favoured by lot of the audience). Overall, the audience agreed that the music video showcased the band really well and the pace, mood and tone of the video fitted in nicely with the music.

We received some really helpful criticism during a few of the screenings which was what we were looking for. Someone commented on the fact that I was introduced into the video much too late, which, when was pointed out seemed completely obvious. Feedback such as that, from fresh eyes, is absolutely vital. We were also told that some more 'out of focus' shots (which the audience loved) could be introduced sooner in the video- and some more shots of the band posing.

Though the sample audience said the pace of the video suited the music, two people commented that more cuts in the chorus (especially when 'calling' is repeated three times) would make the video look more energetic which was excellent feedback that really helped shape our product.

Some technical feedback (mainly from our media class) included some affirmations about the cinematography used, especially in the narrative. They really liked the framing of shots - especially in the scene featuring the bridge. The editing was also commented on favourably. People really liked how we layered shots of the camera taking pictures over Kira and also how we layered the bokeh lights over shots of the band. We were told the editing looked quite professional which shocked us a bit (in a good way!) and that the overall style of our video really just 'spoke' the song.

After our screenings of the pop promo, we took all information on board and considered the constructive criticism of our sample audiences. We ended up slightly tweaking quite a number of parts that were commented on such as the introduction of myself at the start, more out of focus shots and posing. We included more close-ups of the band and made the pace slightly faster too which helped the tone of the video tremendously. I'm thankful to everyone we screened the video to and really grateful for their comments; I can't stress enough how important this task was so were able to tailor our video to our target audiences needs.

Post by Ben Halliday

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