Audience research - Survey

This is my survey;
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JT9FPWQ

Below are the questions I asked and an analysis of the results. My intention was to establish who my target audience is and find out what their preferences are.

1) Do you like Mac Demarco?

As you can see, Mac Demarco is not an artist known by all, only 35% (19 out of 55) had heard of him. However, of those, 68% said they liked him. This shows the impact he has on those who have heard his music. I believe Mac demarcus listeners are committed enough to want to watch the music video we make.

2) How old are you?

As you can see, our survey was extremely biased when it came to age sample. We received data almost exclusively from 17 and 18 year olds, as we sent the survey to our own year group. We must bare this in mind when analysing results, although at least our year group fits (just!) within our target audience age bracket of 18-40.

3) What gender are you?

Our sample was successful in collecting information equally from both genders, this will help us to aim our video at all, maximising our appeal. This was a decision we made when we discovered (from YouGov) that Mac Demarco's fans are no more likely to be male or female. This is the right decision as by looking at individual responses to our survey we found male and females enjoy Mac Demarco's music equally.

4) How many times a week, roughly, do you watch music videos?

From the SurveyMonkey tool which allowed us to review specific responses, we found that those who said they enjoy Mac Demarco were just as, if not more likely to watch music videos regularly. This is a good sign as it means we will have a good audience with a music video for one of his songs.

5) What types of music videos do yo like to watch? (Tick all relevant.)

Our survey found Pop, Rock, 80's and 90's to be the most popular type of music video amongst all those we asked. Using the individual responses tool, we found amongst those who said they enjoyed both Mac Demarco and music videos, Pop and 80's seemed to be the most popular. This is incredibly useful as it allows us to know what music videos we should take influence and inspiration from when making ours. By taking conventions from 80's and pop style videos, we may be able to maximise our success in satisfying our target audience.

6) What do you think makes a good music video? (Tick all relevant.)

Originality, location, relationship to music & lyrics, narrative, and performance were deemed most important by those we surveyed. Around 70% believed originality and location to be important. We will take all these categories into close consideration as we are trying to appeal all music fans in our age group, not just those who have previously enjoyed Mac Demarco's music. We will prioritise and make our product align with these clear preferences of the audience. Even more so with Mac Demarco fans, originality stood out as the clear priority.

Summary

From this survey research, we were unfortunately unable to evaluate the age of our target market due to our restricted sample, therefore we will rely on YouGov's stats that ages 18-40 enjoy Mac Demarco the most. Every other question gave us lots of useful information for our music video. We found that Mac Demarco was a good artist to choose as many of his fans enjoy music videos. We found that these fans are equally male and female, reinforcing the YouGov results that we should in no way restrict the video to one gender or the other. We found that 80's and pop style videos were popular amongst his fans, suggesting that our video should take influence from them, one reason why the older age group, 25-39, will make up our primary target audience while 18-24 year olds are less likely to be 80's fans, making them our secondary audience. One idea is that by shooting on an old camera or by using a filter that replicated this we could secure an 80's look and appeal to this audience. We should also look at conventions of pop when developing our video idea. Our final question concludes that we should focus on originality and location alongside the other highlighted attributes. We believe our current idea is ideal; it is original, connects to the music & lyrics, has an interesting narrative and we want our location to be as eye-catching as possible. We should consider adding performance as it is clearly popular.

Aside from age, this survey was very successful and worthwhile. We will consider the results carefully when making future decisions, maximising the appeal to our audience.

Audience research - YouGov

From the YouGov website, we have found British fans of Mac Demarco are most likely to be aged 25-39. He is also popular in the 18-24 age group which will make up our secondary audience. This means we must appeal to an adult audience by representing or presenting situations, narratives or characters which we feel will be entertaining for people in their 30's, 20's and late teens.

 Statistics showed gender is irrelevant, with it almost being a 50/50 split. This means to be successful we should create a video which appeals to both men and women. We will avoid focusing on things which are stereotypically appealing to either men or women alone and instead create something universally enjoyable.

Class is also almost insignificant, with more working class people being the largest group but the upper classes not far behind. If possible, we should ensure we make it enjoyable for all social groups to maximise success.

Many fans of Mac Demarco were found to have a lower spare income, less than £125 a month.

From this research, our target audience for the music video is likely to be people of all genders and all classes. AS the largest audience group, our primary audience will be people aged 25-39. The secondary audience will be those aged aged 18-24.

Idea Pitch

Reasons to be cheerful

This was the pitch for my music video idea

What went well
I covered most aspects (or lack of!) for the idea, including performance, narrative, props, pros/ cons and acting. I feel I explained the idea thoroughly and people understood the concept. The showing of the pictures alongside the music at the start gave my audience an idea of the concept before I began to explain it, I feel a good use of time while they listened to the song. It was a novelty decision, but I think it was enjoyed. I was successful in giving specific examples to support my explanation throughout. The idea itself way fun and interesting.

What could have gone better
Album cover/ advertising for the project was not considered, and the lack of a target audience would cause problems. The cons somewhat outweighed the pros, and I don't feel I was fully behind this idea becoming a reality, perhaps I should have worked harder to come up with an idea I was passionate about. I could have spoken more directly to the audience, standing up without a page of prompts to hold their attention better. Finally I should have checked the photos worked on the TV screen before the pitch, and should have explained better that I wanted the pictures scrolled along or done it myself. However, this did not have a negative effect on the pitch as a whole.


Overall
I believe the pitch went okay and the idea was received somewhat well by the audience. I liked the idea of making this somewhat novelty music video, but I will not be producing it due to a lack of target audience, artistic opportunity or a true narrative.

Reasons to be cheerful - Ian Dury.

Here is a carefully researched collection of images to hep you gather an understanding of the important historical cultural context of the song before I introduce my idea. I ask you kindly to focus on the lyrics of the song and attempt to explore the deeper meaning with this complex piece of music. Thank you

Ian Dury

Reasons to be cheerful, part three. 

https://youtu.be/CIMNXogXnvE 

 

:)

 

 

                                                                              

                                                                     

This satirical video would consist of entirely lyric related visuals. Things from Ian dury's list, perhaps one from each line or verse, would be presented as they appear in the song. This would be done mainly by a main narrator, lip syncing the song as he goes. The things and places listen in the song could be presented in multiple ways. For example;

1) Literal action or object. In many of the things listed, it would be possible to act out, use or wear. "yellow socks" and "health service glasses" could be worn, "phoning up a buddy" and drinking "the juice of a carrot" could be acted, "nanny goats" could be petted and "boats" could be launched. I could go on. These could be filmed as long shots, close ups or tracking shots for those which involve movement or action. Towards the end the amount of items represented could increase and they could be merged into continual tracking shots of the actor walking, with objects in frame overlapping or being put in the same circumstance together. For example "All other mammals plus equal votes" could emerge into a scene in which a group of mammels are then pointed to a voting booth, given suffragist banners or ballot paper.

2) Unless libe guinea pigs are on hand and RSPCA are distracted, the toy mammels we would use brings me to another example. Miniature models, toys, satire props or pictures could be used to present that which couldn't literally appear in the clip. "Take your mum to paris" could be an over the shoulder shotm of two people, the son or daughter pointing to a page in a tongue in cheek brochure we have made for trips to paris. Alternatively, steriotypical berets, baguettes and a low quality green screen of the eiffel tower would do the trick. His many musical references could simply be the actor with the appropriate CD or record in hand, enjoying the music. The less entertaining lines can only feature for a couple of seconds while more entertaining scenarious involving multiple references can be drawn out for slightly longer.

This video would have a light hearted feel to it, a few minutes of innocent fun to make any warm blooded viewer smile. Part of the entertainment may come from guessing or attempting to keep track of the more obscure references - just as I am sure some of you were confused about one or two of the pictures I put up in the first verse.

Depending on which version I would use (As of i've found 3 main ones) there is a sax solo, a guitar solo, or both. In these musical interludes I would film live performance of friends I know who play the sax or the guitar. This could be done in the style of the existing music video, but could be intermingles with interruptions from things on the list in a childish attempt to be funny.

Locations will evidently vary throughout the video. The actor will most likely be Male but aside from that there are very few required or desired qualities. Fundamentally, the narrative is a simple listing of reasons to be cheerful in the world, a cheery celebration of the little things in life. 
        

Preliminary ideas

Ian Dury;

-Reasons to be cheerful - Fast paced video following the video tightly, showing everythuing inn a variety of ways, 1) acrualyl doing them 2) picturexs of them in a file at desk flicking through pointing 3) walking continuously getting passed the object. Rotate bertween these three throughout.

-Sweet Gene Vincent - Satire funeral. Sadness and slow paced reality in firdst section / once song shifts so does video, resurrection and live performance. Extreme past paced close ups of relevent things when song describes the man. "white shirt, black shoes" etc.

The Specials;

- Too much too young - Satire! Baby themed items, dressing up and lots of lip syncing, tight link to lyrics.

- Youre wondering now - Female actor, been broken up with by man, song adressing her, sad one following her actions.

The Clash;

- Magnificent seven - Day of depressing life, degrading gradually towards end in some way? Imaginary events at each scene where man snaps and goes off rails, then back to reality each time.

- Guns of Brixton - Tongue in cheek dramatic dark haunting

- Should I stay or should I go? - Satire, relationship, showing different outcomes?