Research Report - Kieran Panchal 9652

My main reason for choosing to discount creating a trailer is because generally, the nature of trailers means that it will not allow to create a continuous narrative piece. As previously mentioned, my preferred method of video production involves creating emotional connections with the characters. From my research, i found that most trailers are edited in montage style in order to give a greater overview of the entire film. Doing this would not allow for me to create a sustained engagement with my audience, as there would be too much enigma code to make sense out of the narrative.

In my opinion producing a media text with the main purpose to persuade an audience, generally allows for less opportunity to create a narrative which would in turn create a strong emotional attachment with the audience. From my research of television advertisements, the majority of texts are not based around single, chronological narratives, but instead are montages, focussing primarily on pushing a product upon the audience, rather than telling a story to the audience. Although there are many types of adverts that do allow this, I feel that creating a plot-driven music video would give me more opportunity to connect with the audience, taking them on a journey through story-telling, creating a greater emotional reaction when my product is watched.

Primary Research

When carrying out my primary research, I ensured to gain both quantitative and qualitative data. I did this from receiving responses from approximately 40 respondents, focussing primarily on my target audience - 16-30 year olds of both genders. This primary research revealed a great deal of information about the direction in which i should take my product. As a part of my preliminary planning, I conducted a variety of primary research. One way that I did this was by creating a questionnaire as a means of finding out the preferences of my target audience. My questionnaire contained 14 questions, allowing me to obtain both qualitative and quantitative data, through the use of both open and closed questions. When conducting my research I ensured to ask 40 people, ensuring to focus mostly on my product’s target audience (both male and female 16-25 year olds).

The first question that I asked was the favourite music genre of the respondent. This was important for me, as the song choice is arguably the most important factor in a music video, as it provides the base of the whole product to work around. From analysing the results, I found that the most popular music genre was Indie/Alternative music, followed by ‘Other’. This coincided with my own music genre preference, helping me to narrow down my genre choice to ‘alternative’ and therefore enabling me to decide upon my song choice to Festival by Sigur Rós.

The sample that I asked when carrying out my questionnaire considered the location of the music video to be very important, with the majority of respondents suggesting that it is of 8/10 importance on the Likert scale. Due to this, we have decided to ensure that we prioritise the location of our shoot, and use a particularly unique setting. This means that I will have to pay particular attention to putting as much effort and observation as possible into the location scouting process. It is assumed that this will help to improve the experience of viewing for the audience, as it will help the escapist/fantasy aspect of the narrative come to life. 

82% of my respondents consider listening to music an immersive experience. This means that they believe that watching a music video together with listening to a song is a stimulating experience. This coupled with 95% of respondents suggesting that a well-constructed music video can enhance the listening experience, means that it is particularly important for the music video to enhance the audio. This also means that generally people are appreciative of a well-constructed music video, and believe that the on-screen visuals and use of sound work together as one to create an intensified experience. From analysing these results, I will ensure to plan my video to compliment the audio as much as possible. I will most likely do this in post-production when editing the product, matching and timing the visuals to the sound as much as possible.

The response for the question was exceptionally insightful for me, as I was not yet decided upon a music video type to create prior to this research. The respondents of my questionnaire considered hybrid music video types to be of their preference, with over 20 respondents favouring this option. From this point, it was important for me to narrow down which music video types to combine within my hybrid. I then asked my respondents their opinions on including narrative and performance within music videos, concluding that 87% of respondents consider narrative elements important whilst 60% also favour performance aspects within video. Taking this into account, I decided to create my hybrid product from both performance and narrative video types, in order to 

suit my audience’s content preferences.

This was an imperative question for me as some
of my initial ideas contained fairly explicit content, in the form nudity. I was fond the idea of experimenting with this as it would represent purity and give the impression of freedom. My audience feedback suggests that the vast majority of my viewers would feel comfortable consuming a music video product that would have explicit elements. Of course, this also suggests that there would be certain audience members who may feel uneasy at this prospect. As a result of this, I will ensure to keep the explicit content minimal and will not allow it to be dwelled upon.