Rough Cut - Miss Miller

Audience feedback is very important for a production, in my case a music video as it allows the group to analyse the strengths and weaknesses within our music video. Also the feedback from our target audience (17-25 year olds) will give us an opportunity to iron out all the flaws and problems with our production, which will help us decide on the changes and improvements that will need to occur when finalising the final cut of our music video. A rough cut for a media production is essential in the production as it gives the producers an insight of what the final outcome will look like. Also, the rough cut highlights what needs to be done or changed, but also allows feedback from audiences, so that there could be improvements made to make our video successful. My rough cut is for my group's music video; Wings by Sharna Rae. 

Youtube link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-is9Dan8Yo

The feedback given to our rough cut will help benefit our production and the music industry because it gives us an opportunity to show our target audience what we have made so far and allow us to gain criticism so that we make changes to it, to make it conventional for the target audience. Also, if we were in the music industry, the rough cut would give the production team a rough idea on what the final outcome would look like, and also the professionals will decide on what improvements need to be made as well as promote the artist further through the successful final cut, which will increase the sales and make them gain a higher profit for the media conglomerate (Record Label). 

The ways in which we received our feedback was from youtube and in class. The video uploading site;youtube, is the online platform where we uploaded our music video's rough cut. This was because it includes a comment section, where our audiences/viewers can comment their feedback whether good or criticisms underneath our video. The other way we received feedback for our rough cut was in class, where we had to go around to each groups Mac and evaluate their music video so far, therefore we got feedback from our peers. Furthermore, we received feedback from our teachers, who watched our rough cut on a hard drive, then gave us key points on what they liked and what we needed to get a higher grade. Lastly, we gained feedback from 'Boy Better Know' rappers in our lesson, where they came in and watched our music video to see what we have done so far.

The feedback we received from the rappers was that the video was good, and the narrative was understood clearly, so they knew what the artist was singing about. Also, they said that the relationship was believable and the happy memories were clearly conveyed, and that the locations we chose for singing e.g field were authentic and good. As we showed them our video when it was barely finished, we told them about what we were planning on adding into our video and when we mentioned we were planning on having dancers in our video, this was alarming for them. The criticism that we received after revealing that we wanted dancers in our video to convey the relationship more in the performance side, they both rejected the idea and told us to keep the video more about the relationship and only about the couple. This was very insightful and we did take into account their criticisms by not having dancers within our music video and just have the narrative and artist singing portray the complicated relationship.

Our next feedback was from our peers in our media class, who we showed our video to and asked for positives and criticism. This was beneficial because our class includes the ages 17/18 who are in the our target audience range 17-25, which means that their opinions on our music video are representative to what the target audience would expect in an indie video. The feedback we received was that our narrative was clear and the shots in the fireworks scene were creative. However, some said that the shots of the artist opening the memory box were a bit grainy. We asked our teacher if she thought the shots were grainy, and she stated that the little grain is conventional to the indie genre, so we decided to keep the memory box scenes the same. 


From our youtube comments there were comments that were positive. Firstly this person commented positively about how the "story fitted the song really well", therefore implying that we used Goodwin's theory of visuals matching lyrics well. This was nice to know as we wanted to make sure the visuals and song matched well so that the audience know the hidden meanings behind it and follow the narrative well, therefore engaging their attention. However, the negative feedback we received from Lorez was that the shot of the artist's girlfriend pushing her away whilst being on the phone was unclear and random to be placed there, making it quite confusing as in the video the audience just saw happy scenes of them in the same location and costume. The reason to why we added that particular scene there, was because we wanted show the contrast of the good and bad sides of the relationship within that moment. However, since it was confusing in that specific place we decided to take on board the feedback and replace the footage with another so that it doesn't confuse the audience. We could understand what the comment meant by it being confusing because they see the couple being happy in the same scene, and in that small moment it was just too random and unclear. So instead we discussed this and decided to shoot another scene to show the relationship in a negative light with different mise en scene. 

Our next comment was from Jamie and it was very insightful and helpful. His positive feedback was that we did " a great job syncing the video with the lyrics" and that the artist showed a "great performance", as well as our use of cinematography was excellent. We were pleased with this comment cause again it showed that we did incorporate Goodwin's theory well as more than one person have said that we did good in matching the visuals to the lyrics. Therefore, making us feel proud in actually included some of our research into our music video. Also, the fact that he mentioned our use of cinematography was nice to know as well, because this means that our shots were not standard and quite creative therefore not boring for the audience to watch. However, the only criticism we got from Jamie was that the use of speeding some of the clips was slightly overused. This was interesting to know as we did think the different paces of the shots were good in showing how time flies. But we did understand where Jamie was coming from and did discuss what we were going to do from this feedback.

Our next feedback was from Zaina who gave us a fully detailed explanation on what went well and what to do better. The positives she said about our rough cut was that we used "amazing camera shots" especially the pull focus clips. Also she stated how we used good mise en scene, through setting and costume. She said how the costumes in our music video linked with the fashion that is conventional to the indie genre. Furthermore she added how the rewinded time lapse at the beginning was "Excellent" because it gave the audience a snapshot of what to expect in the music video without giving too much away, therefor making her want to see what happened during the couple's relationship. We were chuffed by this feedback as it illustrates how we carefully considered what would be conventional to the indie genre e.g costumes and settings, which shows were on the right track on making an overall conventional successful indie music video. The criticism that we received from Zaina was that the video did not have much negative aspects of the relationship, therefore lacking the understanding of the narrative that we want to portray which is to show the complicated relationship. Also, she then when to add how the acting of the artists partner could improve, as she states there were some times where she looked awkward or didn't express enough emotion. We took this on board and discussed with each other whether to take upon her suggestion of re filming them bits, so that we show the narrative successfully and clearly more. 

The main changes that we will make to our music video based on the comments we received are to; show more negative aspects of the relationship so that the audience understand the narrative were trying to showcase better, re consider our use of editing specifically the fast paced shots so that it is not over used, another is to make the music video all about the couple and not have extras within our video as we initially planned to and finally an action we need to do is to actually finish filming the music video as there were some gaps in our rough cut with no footage.