Monday 21 October 2013

Audience Research


Audience Research

I will undertake a questionnaire to a variety of people ranging in age, race and sex. From this research I will be able to categorically define my target audience; the questionnaire will be comprised from these questions:

1)      Age?

2)      Male or female?

3)      What comes to your mind when you think of a rap artist?

4)      Would you prefer the music video to be a story or an artist performance?

5)      Where do you purchase or listen to the music from usually?

6)      On what platform do you usually watch the music videos?

7)      Do you listen to Rap, If so why? And if not why not?

8)      Is it one of your favourite genres of music, if not what is?

9)      What features would you expect to see in a rap video?

10)   Are rap music videos generally funny to you?

11)   Do rap videos evoke emotion for you?

12)   Is rap relatable to you (the audience and fans)?

13)   Are rap video surprising (abstract)?

14)   How long would you expect the video to be?




After my first questionnaire was answered by a media student, I found the questions were far too long, it took the person 5 minutes and 13 seconds to complete, I will next get a non- media student to answer my questions, so I have revised my questionnaire and now I will eliminate some questions, especially the closed questions as these gave me the least amount of information that I could work with, although I am taking these out of the questionnaire I might get a different set of people to answer the closed answer questions as this will mean I will be able to create a quick and simple survey for them to respond to, after I get a non-media student to answer the questionnaire I may have to further change my questionnaire. The questionnaire below is the revised questionnaire, designed to take a short amount of time to complete yet effective in the answers I get:


1)      Age?

2)      Male or female?

3)      What comes to your mind when you think of a rap artist?

4)      Would you prefer the music video to be a story or an artist performance?

5)      Where do you purchase or listen to the music from usually?

6)      On what platform do you usually watch the music videos?

7)      Do you listen to Rap, If so why? And if not why not?

8)      Is it one of your favourite genres of music, if not what is?

9)      What features would you expect to see in a rap video?

10)   How long would you expect the video to be?



Then this is my quick closed answer questionnaire designed for quick effective feedback, from which the answer I will be able to produce a chart


1) Are rap music videos generally funny to you?

2) Do rap videos evoke emotion for you?

3) Is rap relatable to you (the audience and fans)?

4) Are rap video surprising (abstract)?




I have given my new revised questionnaire to a group made up of 1 non-media students, 1 teacher, and 1 media student. When I gave the questionnaire I asked to receive some critics of the questionnaire and with that I had most verbal feedback from the group, the general consensus of the group was that the questions where too vague and that in order for me the get the detailed answers I would like to receive I would have to have a more detailed questions. Before I gave this group the questionnaire I received some critic of the first question, instead of have ‘age?’ I should put age categories so I changed the first to incorporate age groups:



1.      Age please circle:    10-14     15-20      21-25      26-35      36-50      51+


I chose these ages categories based upon the idea that there will be a clear divide in the ideas held by those age categories.



This questionnaire was filled out by a teacher and as you can see the age category selected is not my target audience, this is further reinforced by the answers give: for example question 10) How long would you expect the video to be? The answer I got was too long; this backs up the idea that this is not my target audience, also I got verbal feedback as part of this questionnaire, the teacher found that she does not have time to sit down and watches music video on the internet, instead she puts on the television and watches them whilst ironing, which shows this age group does not see music as a major part of their life, therefore will not spare the time that my target audience would do.








This questionnaire was answered by a media student and the answers I got shows that the age group  I am designing my music video around uses YouTube to access the videos, also they have answered so the questions are actually useful, unlike the questionnaire filled in by the teacher where the answer were not helpful for me, as they did not give me enough answers to work out what my audience wanted. My target audience seems to listen to music more and there own choice unlike the older age category where music is not a part of every day life to them.


The questionnaire below was filled out by a non-media student, this questionnaire showed the audience I am going to aim my music video at uses such sites like YouTube to watch the music videos, and that they use their mobile phone to watch the video, also that they do listen to rap, even though it isn’t one of there favourite genres of music they do enjoy it. Also I got some good feedback for question 8 where they offer some feedback to which I am able to take and possibly add to my final questionnaire. The feedback was good but this means it would turn my question from being an open question into a closed question.




I feel my revised questionnaire is detailed enough to gain answers for me to act upon, this targets not only the social aspect of my audience but the cultural consumption, which will allow me to define my audience, so as it stands my final questionnaire will give me answers that will be specific enough for me to really target the correct audience for my genre and my music:
1)      Age? please circle:    10-14     15-20      21-25      26-35      36-50      51+
2)      Male or female?
3)      What comes to your mind when you think of a rap artist?
4)      Would you prefer the music video to be a story or an artist performance?
5)      Where do you purchase or listen to the music from usually?
6)      On what platform do you usually watch the music videos?
7)      Do you listen to Rap, If so why? And if not why not?
8)      Is it one of your favourite genres of music, if not what is?
9)      What features would you expect to see in a rap video?
10)   How long would you expect the video to be?


I aim to get answers from a majority age of 15-20, with an even mixture of male and females. From the questions I will be able to decide on which platforms I should promote my music video on, and what they will expect to see in the video, and with these answers I’ll be able to modify my product to the specification of my audience, hence more sales/ more views. 

Conventions of exsisting videos


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMfPJT4XjAI  (Frank Ocean - Novacane)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b98qCmhKy-c (Yonkers, Tyler The Creator)


CONVENTIONS

Genre:

·         Money

·         Girls

·         Jewellery

·         drugs

Features in the three music videos:

Costume:

·         Hats

·         Chains

·         Jeans, or shorts

Lighting:

·         Low lighting

Setting:

·         Street, studio & bedroom

·         Only one place

Other:

·         Male

·         Stop singing, lyrics continue

·         Smoking

·         abstract

Editing:

·         No edits (no jump cuts)

Lyrics:

·         No relation from the video to the lyrics



·         Introduction

The three videos are similar in that they all show a single male vocalist  in a single location. This is unusual, previously rap videos have focussed on a male vocalist but long shots show extras in character as fans or friends


The video that I am analysing is ‘rap’ –according to the expected genre of the song and the artist but it isn’t truly rap because it doesn’t contain swearing, except one word. The lyrics don’t follow conventions: money, girls and drugs, this song is about personal things like the death of his brother, President Hoover in style of ‘You can build shelter from the shrapnel of burnt bridges. Word to the sons of Jeff Fort and Larry Hoover.’ He talks about personal issues more than other artists as they rap about the lifestyle that is expected so this doesn’t follow conventions that have been set by other artist, this is known as part of the new generation rap where the lyrics are more complex and have more hidden meanings to then than other rap song lyrics. So this could be displayed through a complex music video, that would break conventions of exsisting music videos of this type of new generation rap or I could stick to exsisting music videos that have only one setting with minimal editing.

Thursday 10 October 2013

Locations

The images are my intial ideas of some locations, the order in which they are in is what i think they should appear in, the edits will work out to be about anywhere from 7-11 seconds long, althought this length of edits isnt conventional i believe that it can work as i will be having a performance happening in each edit. 



 The first 3 locationwill be shot in my colleges recording studio, this will provide an accurate representation of a real recording studio.








This location will either be shot on a flight of stairs or outside the back of a house, the image wont be moving it will be a still image, with the camera in a fix position





The camera will be tilting in this image to give a disorentated and quirky look


This is a simple repeat shot and will help link the music video together by quickly repeating a shot

This will be a shot with a black and white editing in a green room with a black background


This will be a shot from further away but in the same location and the close up


This shot will be a darker shot with low lighting to create a dark look, the shot will pan down