Below is a video constructed to collect just some of the audience feedback that we had gathered, to help us evaluate our music video.
Audience Feedback Sheets
Below, I have compiled and summarised a few of the
constructive comments that we received when we showed our music video to Year
10 and Year 11 media students (detailed previously in our ‘Creative Arts Evening’ blog). We asked the
pupils to fill out a questionnaire which asked: ‘was the constructed mise-en-scene
effective?’; ‘was the target audience catered for?’; ‘did you enjoy it?’. We
also asked them to write down their age and gender to help us make an informed
decision on whether we had effectively constructed and subsequently entertained
our target audience demographic with our music video.
(Gender / Age)
Male / 16
+ Splitscreen is good
+ Similar to a real music video
+ Appeals to teenagers of either gender
– Unclear narrative at times
Male / 16
+ Narrative is open – the stalker could be an alter ego?
+ Understood narrative
Female / 16
+ Good song choice
- Too many burning photos
Male / 15
+ Abstract narrative
+ Good lip-syncing
Female / 16
+ Appeals to target audience (teens); I enjoyed it
Male / 15
+ Good lip-syncing
- ‘Headbanging’ is ‘cringey’
+ Feels like an original music video
Male / 15
+ Good lighting
+ Good setting
Female / 15
- Too horrifying for kids
+ Good mise-en-scene
Male / 16
+ Crossfade worked well with story
Male / 16
+ Lighting and flashing images were effective
Female / 15
+ Paint on wall is good
+ Characters and costume suit song
+ Words in song relate to shots
- Some scenes could be longer
Further Audience Feedback
After collecting the above evidence to positively suggest that we had entertained our target audience with our music video, I also asked a University student, studying Film Studies, to analyse and evaluate our music video (feedback found beneath this paragraph), in order to collect a more detailed audience analysis of our video. This feedback was essential to help us understand that the methods that we as a group employed to construct the mise-en-scene of the video were noticed by the audience. This particular evaluation below helped us realise our narrative's potential - we had crafted a narrative that engaged audiences through 'Reception Theory' - the idea that different audience members take away different things from media texts - our narrative could be interpreted in different ways. Indeed, our text was polysemic - the 'spooky' character of Joanna, 'the stalker', was said to be the lead-singer's alter-ego, while others said she was merely a jealous villain. Despite the fact that it is a open-narrative within a music video, the video still manages to conform to Toderov's 'cycle of equilibrium' - the equilibrium of the band performing disrupted by the unsettling image of their pictures being burned by another character. Further, Vladmir Propp's 'character function's theory could be applied to these characters; the band are shown together, smiling, positively interacting - the heroes, while the 'stalker' is presented with unnatural and unsettling lighting, in a dark, confined room - going 'crazy' - the villain.
"The video used quick, changing images / shots to compliment the fast pace of the song. The directors of the video did not hover on the same image for more than 2 seconds; if they did, the video would not have worked.
I liked the use of synchronised sound, which was used occasionally - but not overused - throughout the song. At the start, the song was literally 'kicked' into life, with the lead singer performing a jump-kick, just as the guitars and drums began.
There were two things going on throughout the video: 1) the shots of the band performing the song, and 2) the creepy young girl in the darkened room, consumed by jealousy for the band's lead singer. This story reflected the 'misery business' of the songs' lyrics. I liked that this wasn't a literal representation of the lyrics; it could have been easy and predictable to have showed someone crying / throwing a tantrum to reflect their 'misery'. However, this story was very clever, and much more subtle than that. By having this brooding girl confined to a darkened room, with very little light, immediately enveloped her in a sinister, menacing shroud. The video also used some fuzzy black and white shots of this girl, which enforced this dark, uneasy atmosphere. She was surrounded by loads of photos of the band, which she had collected herself, presumably, a result of her horrible obsession with the singer.
I kept watching the video with interest, for I feared what terrible climax awaited, as this girl was so clearly unhinged, and harboured such hatred towards the singer. Indeed, her setting alight to the photographs of the lead singer was not only a powerful image - not least because the fire often provided the only light in the darkened room (a technique known as chiaroscuro / light and dark), but this act fuelled my fears of a climatic ending.
The fact that these shots of fire ripping through photographs was used throughout the video only heightened the suspense. The removing of the wig was a very haunting image, and the hallucinatory (?) shots of the girl and the singer confronting each other continued to move this story forwards, without losing my interest / lessening the suspense.
In my opinion, the song had quite a rough, crude quality to it, and I felt this was reflected in the choice of location - an old warehouse, with a single, stark light source. There was clearly no glamour here. The cold, harsh, minimal palette used throughout the video further complimented the song; I am thinking here of the black graffiti spelling the band's name on the white wall, at the start of the video; the white walls and black pipes of the warehouse; and the darkened interior inhabited by the jealous girl.
The video gave a strong impression of the 'brand' of the band / what this band is about: from this video, I can see Paramore are a no-frills, gritty young band, whose songs address dark, meaty themes, such as jealousy, despair, and obsession.
Overall, this was a very crisp, professional video, which followed the conventions of a music video: shots of the band performing, and a side-story to compliment the song. It employed media tools such as splitscreens, synchronised sound, slow-motion shots etc., to good effect. It is testament to the makers of the video that I found myself enjoying, and even gripped by video, even though I do not like the song. The quick, ever-changing shots helped, as did the powerful, spooky images of the jealous girl, whose actions, and potential actions, kept me gripped."
- Michael Winter, Film Studies Student
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