3. What have you learnt from audience feedback?

There were many ways in which I got my audience feedback. The use of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter as well as comments on YouTube contributed to my audience feedback. I managed to Skype with a few people to see their opinions, additionally meeting up with people. After I uploaded my video to YouTube, I shared it on Twitter and Facebook and Cover Drive shared it to all their followers on both Twitter and Facebook. 

YouTube comments:

The people I asked I made sure there was some variety to see different opinions on the music video. The first person I asked was a girl aged 19 who lives in the Caribbean who is familiar with Cover Drive’s music. I thought her feedback would be useful as she knows about the Caribbean culture and has knowledge on media. Afterwards I met up with two girls who were in the music video, age 17 who lives in London and familiar with Cover Drive’s music but unfamiliar with media. The two girls in London I had asked a few different questions to the girl in St Maarten as from this such as ‘What music video station would you see this on?’ I asked this as I could make sure it met my target audience in terms of institution of music videos. 


                                      

I then asked a male age 17 that I asked on Facebook who was not very familiar with Cover Drive or the genre. This gave me interesting results. By asking a male, I wanted to see if my video would attract more female attention or male.

1. What was your overall opinion on the music video?

“It was pretty good; it had the feel of a professional music video (not too much video of landscape and not too much close up) but a very energetic music video overall that had a good high quality feel to it, well edited”

2. How did you find the concept of the music video?

“Well to begin with, the type of music was very foreign sounding (cant remember which country it was you visited, Barbados?), and the style of video did portray the country and its vibe very well, and both video and music matched very well

The concept of the video is a bit ambiguous, a bit more footage abroad (again which ever country it was) would have been nice, to try and emphasis the way your trying to almost link the two countries and their culture”

3. Do you think the visuals of the video portrayed the song well? Why?

“Yes, the editing matched the music very well. The editing sped up and slowed down in time with the music and kept in time with the music therefore it did all link. Again the music did match the material of the video, as it had the feel of the culture and country portrayed”

4. What are the weaknesses of the video?

“The shot with the graffiti wall got a bit 'same old' after a little while also I think you should’ve worn more brightly coloured clothing to match the culture a bit better”

5. How did the video work well? E.G locations, camera angle/shots, colours…

“Again the editing was spot on. Most of them were quite full of colour the camera angles were very good, as I think each angle was explored also the 'hand held' camera feel worked quite well”

6. How could the video be improved?

“You could have had a slightly larger selection of locations for just 'filling' shots, but I know that’s hard in the UK but most of the locations worked well.”

7. Do you think the album cover portrays the genre of music? How?

“YES!!!! It’s very colourful, and portrays the colourful culture in the music video. The floral patterns are also quite foreign and exotic. Also the flag gives another big hint! But I also like the graffiti style of text, as it was featured in the video a lot, also graffiti is also typically found in types of foreign countries portrayed in the video”

8. By looking at the magazine advert, how does this show that it is a magazine advert for an album?

“Because it says 'in stores now' and 'single' i would have guessed it was a album especially 'hit single' other than that, there is not much on it to say that its anything else”

His feedback was very useful as he made comments that I wouldn't have thought of and was very honest. 

Lastly, I was lucky to Skype with Cover Drive to ask them the questions to get their feedback. Unfortunately they didn’t want me to film them so I wrote down what they said.

1.     What was your overall opinion on the music video?

Amanda: I really loved the video, I think you did a great job! You filmed it so well!

2.     How did you find the concept of the music video?

T-Ray: We really loved the idea because that is what our music is about and we’ve spent so much time in London and we’re from Barbados so I think it worked really well.

3.     Being the artists of the song, if you were to do film a music video for Bajan Style, would you have a similar concept or something different?

Amanda: Well, we would have it more heavy on Barbados because its very Bajan but as you live in London you managed to pull it off. But it was a really good idea, we could never think of anything like that.

4.     What are the weaknesses of the music video?

Amanda: well I think just adding a bit more fun because we’re all about fun but of course you were quite limited. But for us we would add in shots of us hanging out and by the beach and things like that but still think everything you did was really good.

5.     How did the video work well? (strengths)

T-Ray: the colours were great because we’re a very colourful band. The flags looked really good, the mural…

Amanda: it was very urban and you gave a lot of attitude, it was really good! It was like a Urban Caribbean video.

6.     Does the video aim to its target audience? How?

Amanda: our target audience is very broad, it ranges from like ages 12 and up like we also have fans who are at University so it varies

T-Ray: even grandparents!

Amanda: but yes you definitely aimed towards the target audience.

7.     Do you think the album cover portrays the genre of music? Why?

Amanda: I loved it! The colours were very Caribbean and the pose you did was really cool with the flag! It was cool and sexy.

T-Ray: you looked like an island girl! 

After gathering all this feedback, I have learnt different things about my music video. It seems that the music video overall was successful to people who were familiar with the genre and the song and people who were not so familiar with it. The strengths in my music video seemed to be the location of the graffiti mise-en-scene with the use of colours and the editing as well like the cuts on the beat and the overall concept. However what I learnt that I could improve on would be a change of scenery every few shots rather than just the graffiti and the mural for the whole video of my solo shots. This is because people may have found it to be a bit boring as it got closer towards the end and could have had some more shots in another place where I wouldn’t have to mime to the camera. So this way I could show a more fun side of the video. To the male viewer, it seems that it was harder for him to understand the music video as he wasn’t very familiar with the genre. His feedback was very useful as it showed that people who weren’t too familiar with the genre found it harder to pick up the differences in the countries as there weren’t too many shots of Barbados and London to show that sense of fusion. Cover Drive’s feedback was very useful as they seemed very impressed with the music video and what I accomplished with my limited resources. They overall liked my idea of the fusion of cultures but for them, they would have just filmed it strictly in Barbados. In comparison to Kristen from St Maarten, who thought that filming it in London was a good idea as it is encouraging people who are not Bajan to do it ‘Bajan Style’ as to her, filming it in Barbados wouldn’t make much sense. So I have mixed opinions on the location of whole music video but overall, I got quite a lot of positive feedback.

In terms of ancillary products, my album artwork and magazine advert seemed to have been very successful as everyone I asked thought it looked professional and was creative. They all liked the colours that were used as it wasn't too much exposure on the blue and yellow but had a small tint of colour on the main image. They all felt that the album cover portrays the genre of music because of the colours and the simple background. For the magazine advert, the typical codes and conventions were used and therefore people were able to recognise that it was a magazine advert for an album cover. For example by having the record label logo in the bottom corner and the release of the album, it shows that the advert was advertising an album.