We only advertised in the sixth form building in our school as we did not want any of our audience to be younger than 16 as we feel they weren’t the right age group for the video. 5 people were aged 17, 2 were aged 16 and 4 were 18 years of age. We thought that this was the suitable age for the music video showing as they would not only appreciate the shots used but also enjoy the music more. We were pleased to discover that there were more males than females. We were not surprised that the majority of viewers were male as most people that listen and appreciate dubstep are male. The pie chart below shows the proportion to male and female:
The second question we asked was:
“What they enjoyed the most after watching the music video”
The majority of people enjoyed listening to the song and gave it 7/11. A quote we received from the questionnaire said “I enjoyed listening to the song itself, at one point I closed my eyes to listen to the song on its own”. I would definitely say dubstep has this effect on people, many people who aren't DJs buy the music and just listen to it as the sound is very unique and has a calming melody to it. Even though we wanting satisfaction from the audience watching the music video, this comment has proved that it is possible to sell this track by itself, which in the music industry would be great. Two people stated that they enjoyed the crossover from the narrative and cuts of the scenes. Similarly, one male said that the bit they enjoyed the most was, “... the accompanying story, which was quite reflective of the lyrics” and another person said that they enjoyed “... the way the video and the beat of the music complimented each other.” Both comments are similar however both show that our idea of linking the visuals to the lyrics has paid off.
The third question 3 asked the audience if there was a "certain scene that they found the most effective"
An audience member commented stating that they found, “The scene where the boys ditch the girl and talk to the other girls” as being the most effective scene. This is probably because we can see that most people can relate to this as one moment in their lives they have either been or been part of 'the third wheel' whereby a third member is always ditched or left out.
Three members of the audience sympathised with the homeless character and stated that the, “Homeless guy” was the most effective scene within the music video, another said, “The teenagers taking pictures of the tramp.” was the most effective. This shows to us that the majority of the audience have morals and that they understood the fact that their is segregation within society and that people below us should not be victimised for who they look like or their status within society. Even though this part of the video had received the most criticism as for many of the viewers, they could not understand the scene as we could not get a shot of the tramp in the bush as he was not available for the shooting so we just had to hope the viewers would use their imagination. In contrast to this shot, a female stated that the most effective scene for her was, “The scene where the boys and girls meet – the part of the music is appropriate and has poignancy.” We were glad with the results for this question as we were optimistic to what they might choose.
Question number 4 was a vital question as it asked the audience if they would consider purchasing or downloading the music track after watching the music video.
The illegal downloading of Dubstep nowadays has meant that many artists struggle making money from their music. Independent record labels try and make ways for their audience to purchase music most notably only releasing it on vinyl which luckily works out well as most people that listen to dubstep are DJs and purchasing music is a habit for them. Fortunately for us, we got more Yes answers than No. 4 people said yes, people said it was a “top tune” and one female said, “I like the song, it’s catchy.” 3 people said no, two of their answers were, “I didn’t like the song enough to buy it” and another one said that “The video was great, but I am more persuaded by the music itself”.
Without the internet especially youtube, Stenchman would of struggled to get his unreleased tracks heard as youtube acts as a platform where users can upload their music and can get their productions heard to a larger crowd. We had 4 people answer 'Unsure' to this question. One person, who obviously liked Dubstep as a genre wrote, “There is a lot of competition for space on my ipod and I don’t think this can compare to other dubstep artists”. A comment from a boy who also chose 'Unsure' said that, “I like the song, but it is not really my genre of music”. This was hard to understand as he obviously liked the song, but felt that he would not buy it because it was not his normal style or genre of music. Its a shame that people are still not branching out to new genres, they just listen to what is given to them This is quite upsetting as it shows that some people do not want to experiment with new styles or genres. Please see the pie chart below that shows the results from this question:
The fifth question asked the audience if they thoughtthe music video fit well and was appropriate to the Dubstep genre?
If the consumer was unfamiliar to the Dubstep genre then it was understandable that they would not be able to answer the question as they would struggle to know actually what a normal dubstep video looks like. We had provided the audience with a closed and open question, where they could mark down Yes, No or Unsure, and then write their reason for their choice, this would add less pressure on them to write a 'correct' answer as they could easily just choose one of the three options. The majority of people circled 'Unsure', most probably because they didnt understand the genre itself, for example, one person said, “I don’t know much about the dubstep genre, so I don’t know”, however, one person who selected Unsure said that, “Dubstep videos should be more partyish and rave-like”. Before constructing the video, Francesca and I had thought about maybe putting on a party and filming it however this wouldnt of fitted in with the pastiche of the song as the song itself is very depressing and sad and having a party would not fit in well. 5 people chose the Yes option, and agreed that it did conform to the Dubstep genre. Someone said that, “The use of black and white with little colour made it more interesting and ‘dubstep’ like”. Another person said that, “The style the video was shot in is very dubstep”.I personally disagree with these statements as they don't really make sense. The style of a video can't be 'dubstep like'. Dubstep indeed has a distinctive sound however what we make around it is completly different. I found this statements very closed minded and quite embaressing to read as I am a dubstep enthusiast and seeing someone who obviously doesnt really know what dubstep is stating that the video is 'dubstep like' pretty hard to understand.
Our seventh question asked who the audience sympathised with the most. I mostly thought that the audience would sympathies most with the rejected girl as I know alot of people have been in that sitatuation feeling abandonment and embaressment, we wanted to portray this and show them that this actually happens to alot of people, not just them. We were correct in our judgement as 8 of the 11 people who took the survey sympathised with Chloe. One of the male’s reasons was because “she gets rejected and left out”, another person said it was because “the two boys abandoned her”. One person sympathised with the female at the very beginning of the video, and two other people sympathised with the homeless man. It is easy for people in the target audience (16-18) to relate to the girl as we have all been in similar situations where we have felt left out or deserted.
Please see the pie chart below that shows the results from this question:
For the tenth and final question, we gave our audience the opportunity to give us some criticisms or comments. We got a variety of feedback. Some people did not write anything however a comment someone left was that the “tramp was too well dressed” and another criticism was that the “lip movements were out of sync with the music”. Both my partner and I knew this was an issue before hand. Our tramp was indeed very well dressed and if the audience looked closer, they could see he still had a reading festival band on - which tramp goes to reading festival? In regards to the lip syncing, I agree that it was out of sync, both my partner and I struggled to put the words in place as our actors couldnt mouth the words on time. We then got a very confused answer as a female said, “What was the message? Especially at the end”. It was good to know that someone had attempted to understand what was the message was, but it was unfortunate to discover that they did not understand in the end. Our best compliment was, “It was awesome! The isolation was really clear the beginning.” It was great to see someone appreciate our work especially that it took ages to complete!
