Rough Cut

Rough Cut

Noserings & Shoestrings Rough Cut

A rough cut is extremely vital in the production of a music video. This is because it allows us as a group to view the first draft of our music video and reflect upon the decisions we have already made. It therefore gives us the opportunity to improve on the rough cut we have created as we may decide to edit certain shots or add or remove certain effects or transitions from the rough cut we created. In turn we may then be able to create a more visually appealing music video that appeals to our target audience.

Audience feedback is paramount when creating a music video. This is so that as group we all understand the strengths and weaknesses of the elements within our music video, which could include things such as; lighting, mise-en-scene and framing. By learning this, we can improve upon the music video we have initially created and therefore it would be more likely for us to create a final music video that is more appealing to our target audience. This is because we would be employing elements that are appealing to our specific target audience and also the genre of our music video. 

As a group we exported our rough cut of our music video and uploaded it onto YouTube. We then shared the link to our rough cut music video on Facebook as we believed this would gain us vital feedback, as Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites. This allowed us to gain audience feedback through the comment section on our rough cut. In addition to this we conducted short interviews with individuals who had watched our rough cut of our music video. Through the YouTube comments and interviews we gained feedback regarding the elements of our music video that they enjoyed the most and those that we could improve upon. 

Also through sharing the link of our music video on Facebook we personally received a number of comments based on it. My group member Daisy Morecroft received a comment from a female aged 18 who stated that the artists in our music video reminded her of the artist 'Ellie Goulding'. This was taken within our group as extremely positive feedback due to Ellie Goulding being a highly known artist within the indie genre. Therefore we all believed we had successfully executed our artists image to be conventional to the indie genre. In addition to this a the female was aged 18 she falls into our target audience category of females aged 16-25 and therefore we feel as though she has provided us with an extremely accurate response of how our target audience would respond to our artists image.

My group member, Daisy, also received a comment saying that our music video was 'unreal'. This suggested to us that we successfully followed codes and conventions of the indie genre, to create a music video that is appealing to our target audience. The screenshot of the comment illustrates that our audience often consume media on their mobile device. This therefore provides evidence that mobile devices are important in consuming media as we found out during the primary research we conducted prior to the creation of our music video. In addition to this Daisy received a further comment saying that our music video is 'brilliant'. This therefore further encourages us as a group that we have successfully created a conventional music video that is highly appealing to our target audience.  

In addition to the positive comments Daisy received she also was provided with some suggestions of improvements we could make on our music video. A male aged 17 sent a message to Daisy suggesting that we export our final music video in a different format so that the quality of our music video will be enhanced once we upload it on the internet. From receiving this piece of feedback, as a group we decided that we would experiment with this format once our final music video is complete and then compare the quality.
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In addition to this the same male made a suggesting regarding the contrast of our rough cut video. He stated that we should contrast the performance shots and also some of the outdoor shots so that they flow evenly which would improve the quality and appearance of the music video overall. He provided a screenshot of a performance shot after adjusting the contrast settings to convey to us how adjusting the contrast would effect the quality of our music video. It was evident that in doing this the quality of our music video would drastically increase and therefore as a group we decided we would experiment with adjusting the contrast of some of our camera shots with our final music video.  

In addition to Daisys feedback she received on Facebook I received a variety of verbal feedback from people that I had shown our rough cut music video to. Some of the feedback we received through interviews were as follows;

A female aged 40, who however is outside of our target audience, found our music video highly appealing, although she stated she would generally listen to the indie genre music she believes we created a conventional music video to that genre. She also suggested that we alter the zoom shot of the artists boyfriend. This was because it zooms into his chest more than to his face which is irrelevant and does not provide the audience with a visual of the boyfriend. I highly agree with this comment as I believe it is paramount to include high quality, professional camera shots into our music video to enhance the likelihood of it being appealing to our target audience.

During an interview I conducted with a male aged 19 he suggested that we should crop the mid camera shots of our artists performance. This is due to a different coloured wall being evident on the right side of the shot which reduces the quality of the shot as unnecessary iconography is present. We discussed this feedback as a group and agreed with the comment made and in turn we will make the necessary adjustments for our final music video to increase the quality of our performance shots.

Another individual I interviewed who was a female aged 25, also commented on the contrast element within our music video. In addition to the earlier comments we received regarding contrast she commented on the fact that the current varying contrast makes the music video lack a consistent flow. This is due to similar shots in the same location being of extremely different contrasts and therefore not linking consistently together (as seen in the images below). As we received more than one comment on the contrast element of our music video, as a group we decided that we will definitely alter the contrast of our music video to enhance how it appeals to our target audience.

 

Receiving feedback from viewers of our rough cut of our music video will assist us on an extremely high level with finalising our final music video. This is due to being given both positive and constructive criticism regarding our music video. Through receiving this it has notified us of elements that we do not need to alter in our music video and those that we do to increase the quality and appeal of our music video on our target audience. Therefore without receiving feedback on our music video we would not be aware of whether we have created a successfully conventional music video to the indie genre, and therefore whether we successfully completed the task we was given.