Audience Research Feedback

During todays lunch hour we gathered five students so that we could pitch our track to them with an aim of gaining some helpful feedback in return. Our group consisted of four boys and a girl who we first played our song to and got them to write down any ideas which came in to their mind. We then began to ask some semi-structured questions to the focus group, aiming to get them to respond with as many ideas as possible.

The response to the track itself wasn't overly enthusiastic however the general view of it was that it was a good song and more importantly, they felt like we could make an effective video from it. Previous songs by The Script were talked about which the audience said they enjoyed, imparticular 'The Man Who Can't Be Moved'. We also went on to show the audience some previous videos by The Script to get them thinking about the genre of video.

When coming on to our music video, we first wanted to ask the group what feelings and emotions were evoked throughout the song. The main feedback we got from this was sadness and broken hearted as the song is an emotional one. A response we got was 'dispair' for losing a loved one and this can be shown through chasing the girl. A sense of loneliness is also created in the song which was suggested can be shown through reflection.

A key factor of a music video is the location which can go towards making the video aestetically pleasing. We had various ideas in mind before today however our focus group helped to reinforce these as well as introduce new ones. The main setting which was talked of was a busy city, walking down the street and even on public transport such as an Underground Tube. One member of the focus group suggested losing his girl in a crowd and another talked of the girl actually running away. An idea which I thought to be effective was to film on a rainy day, walking down a city street which adds to the sense of depression. To show the loneliness in the song, a beach was suggested in order to show iscolation. Another idea was to sit in the middle of the road while cars go by however this would not me practical when it comes to filming. Nevertheless, this talk of location did produce a wide range of useful feedback.

We then showed our group a few other videos; Ne-yo's 'Closer' and The Kooks' 'She Moves In Her Own Way' and The Scripts' 'The Man Who Can't Be Moved' as we wanted to find out what sort of things they liked from other videos in which we could so something similar to in ours. Everyone agreed that a narrative based video would be ideal for the song so this helped us to make sure this type of video is 100% what we want to do. There was an undercranking effect in 'The Man Who Can't Be Moved' in which time was sped up with the sky changing from day to night a number of times which the audience felt was very effective. Another suggestion was looking out of windows as this connots thought and wondering where it all went wrong.

We then went on to ask our focus group what they would expect to see in our music video. The main reply was the fact that the man can't get to the girl he loves which can be shown through iscolation. It would be expected that the girl is being missed and a suggestion was to show this by looking at old pictures and home videos as well as various flashbacks including these things. Some suggested few performance pictures however mainly narrative shots with the lead singer lip syncing. One put forward expectations of blurry city lights to show confusion which i feel could be effective. A thought was to be in a cinema with flashbacks coming on the screen haowever this would not be possible due to rules and regulations, no filming would be allowed in a cinema.

We progressed this further, we knew we want to do a narrative video therefore we narrowed the semi-structured interview down slightly to concentrate on what kind of narrative or story comes to mind through the song. This produced a flourish of suggestions which was really helpful because it really got us concentrating on more detailed aspects of the video. We had one media student in the group who added a few technical ideas such as a high percentage of 'meat' shots, undercranking and 360 degree shots.

Other members of our target group then added to what story they could see arising in our video. The mood of the story was mainly said to be a sad and even tragic one with one member saying the singers' love may have even died. Like other videos from The Script, the idea of walking and singing came up from a few people and one suggested this should be in the rain to add to the mood which i feel is a really good idea. Another suggestion was to do it on two trains going in different directions as the singer and his love part. In addition, the video could fade out towards the end to show the end of the story. This question really provided us with some valuable ideas for our video.

At the end of the thirty minute session, we collected in all the notes our audience made throughout in order for us to have their ideas for the future. Notes by the one female of our group i felt were really productive even though not many were heard when our audience was responding which shows the fact they wrote their ideas down was a good idea to do. She talked of the video being one big chase of the singers' girl however he is always too late and keeps on missing her. She talked of a city being the setting, seeing the girl go past in various ways including train, car, stairs and a lift. Another idea from her notes was to show memories of the relationship through flashbacks.

I then looked at some of the comments from the males in our focus group which weren't as in depth however various useful points were raised; A phone call to start the video and a band performance in a square were two ideas from one. One talked more of location and the idea of being on top of a mountain i felt would work well, he also suggested a number of performance shots. Other ideas were a bit more far fetched and less practical such as a sky dive. This may be highly enjoyable however I can't see it happening.

In conclusion, I have looked at what came up most within our focus group. We now know we will definately be going ahead with a narrative video with the majority being performance shots of the lead singer lip syncing and the band playing. Flashbacks also came up to show the fact that the song's about missing his love. Location wise, a city scene came up from everyone with bright lights and rain to show confusion. Some also talked of locations such as a beach or a mountain to show loneliness. I feel that overall, the focus group was highly helpful and informative as it enforced certain ideas we already had as well as introduced really effective new ones in which we will consider to incorperate when creating our music video.