Focus Group Summary of Final Product

As part of our market research we created a focus group where we published a rough draft of our final music video, for people to comment on it. In the focus group we asked participants to answer several questions, these are listed below.

1) How effective are the special effects used?2) Is the narrative easy to understand/relatable?3) What improvements would you make to the video?4) How effective is the use of flashbacks scenes and are they clear?5) Is the indie/alternative genre conveyed well?

This first question was in relation to the special effects we used and how effective they were. People commented on the reverse sequence we used at the end of the video, they said it was something that they’d never really seen before in music videos and added something unique. Some participants also stated that the special effects were quite minimal and simplistic and did not distract from the overall narrative of the video, which was a positive thing. One participant said the effects help to ‘amplify the atmosphere’, which is something we intended to do, especially in the present day scenes by adding the ‘luma’ effect.

The next question focused on the narrative and whether it was easy to understand. Participants generally said that the simplicity of the narrative made it easy to understand and the way the video was edited meant the story was easy to follow. One participant also commented that the fact that there were only 2 characters involved in the video meant that it was easy to understand. Also, the fact that the characters were of a similar age to the target audience meant that it was relatable.

We then asked participants to suggest any improvements they would make to the video. One response we received was that the scenes shot in the pub were too dark compared to the other shots, which slightly affected the quality. This is something we were aware of when filming and is something we have tried to improve in later drafts of the video. Another participant said that the quality of the video needed to be more consistent, as certain shots were of a higher quality than others, due to the exposure.

Another question we asked was in relation to the flashbacks throughout the video. Participants generally agreed that the use of flashbacks scenes were highly effective and made the video appear more professional looking. Someone said that the use of flashbacks was very useful in explaining the narrative, as the audience is able to clearly see why the girl is so upset. Another participant stated that using flashbacks makes the audience sympathise with the girl and therefore make the audience feel more connected to the video.

The final question we asked the participants was about how well the indie/alternative genre was conveyed. Overall people said that this was done very well, which is something we wanted to do from the start of production, in order to meet our target audiences needs. People generally stated that the use of costume and narrative helped convey the genre effectively.

Overall the response we received for our music video was extremely positive. People stated that the video was realistic and professional looking, mainly due to the special effects used and simple narrative. From conductions our focus group we realised that the quality of video used is extremely

important, as participants noticed that some scenes were of different quality to others. Therefore, if improvements were made to the video