Pie Charts

Pie charts

We decided to create pie charts to present a more visual and engaging outcome with our feedback rather than just information presented through text, which can appear quite dull.

Our pie charts were created on a simple website in which we had to input our target audience feedback.

It was deliberate that we chose to sample both males and females and we wanted to amount of both genders to be an equal split of 20/20. This therefore allowed us to gain a deeper insight into what both genders liked best in a music video. Although our artist generally appeals to females we also wanted to include males to create a bigger focus/target audience for our own music video production. By using a 20/20 split it also allows us to specify the people we are targeting more so and in an accurate manner to consequently increase the videos appeal

Previous to the primary research we conducted we had a rough outline of who our target audience would consist of: 16-25 year olds (mainly females) We included 5 catergories of ages: 10-16, 17-21, 22-30, 31-40, 41-50. The most popular age brackets were 10-16 (with 10 of our participants being within that age) and 17-21 (being most popular within the participants we sampled which we initially expected) Our chosen artist is aged 19 currently therefore we believe her overall image, music and lyrics (she composes herself) will appeal more greatly to audience members aged 16-25 (a general outlook)

We also decided asking each participant what their favourite genre of music is was fundamental to contributing to the success of of music video production. Ironically, (not planned whatsoever) the Indie genre was most popular amongst our participants with an overwhelming 11/40 people favouring Indie music out of 8 genres provided to chose from. We as a group are fans of the Indie genre as it is very current in the industry. This is mainly because it is known to subvert mainstream conventions which therefore increases its originality. Although many Indie videos are adopt a simplistic approach they are effective as they usually display a relationship between the lyrics and visuals. Also, as Indie was the most popular answer, this will appeal to our target audience and in turn will have a higher chance of becoming a success.

We also decided to ask participants about their preference of bands or solo artists as this gave us an indication as to the types of artists they are interested in and the representation in which they find appealing in order to adopt such opinion in our own production. As evident in the pie chart above, we can see that the majority (28) of participants enjoy listening to solo artists rather than bands.  This therefore implies our music video will be a success as we have chosen to use a solo artists song. It may also mean we attract a larger target audience than we initially expected.

Music videos vary greatly within the industry. This is due to artist representation, record label requirements and the generic conventions associated with the genre selected. When an artist is captured regularly within their music video, it allows the audience to develop a relationship with the artist therefore increasing their popularity, how they relate and their success within the industry as fans may take this opportunity to promote them. 

The majority of our participants stated that they preferred to actually see the artist in the video. The reasons behind this include the following: according to the Indie genre, it is conventional for the artist to be not only present in their video, but to perform the song. We will follow this convention. Furthermore, by having the artist present it allows the audience to believe they are really involved with creating and performing their art form. This is as opposed to a constructed  commodity made for consumerism as mentioned in Dyer's Star theory. Therefore, this creates the impression that they care about their music which therefore makes it more meaningful and makes it more appealing for the target audience. 

Within a music video there are 3 main components which are explored within many videos including performance, narrative and concept. As a group, we all agreed that a strong performance and narrative element work effectively together, therefore, that is what we shall follow. This is evident also within the pie chart displayed above which has allowed us to come to a final decision. 

 After we come to the realisation that this is what our target audience preferred overall, as a group we agreed that a narrative based music video is affective. This is because it will engage the audience as well as giving them a deeper understanding of the song itself as they will visually witness our interpretation of the Indie song. Despite this, we understand that by having a strong narrative element will take the attention away from the artist. However, this is common amongst videos of the Indie genre as artists of the Indie genre are known to wanting to communicate their lyrics and have a stronger focus on it's morals and meaning rather than the focus be on themselves entirely. Therefore, we decided to have a running narrative throughout the song as well as the artist performing the song between frames. This is because it will this allow the audience to see the artist as well as the narrative therefore appealing to a wider target audience.

The results from the first part of the question is evidence that the people we chose to survey prefer a music video that was conventional to its genre rather than employ a diverse style which may be difficult to understand. Below are some of the reasons they had for their opinion:

'I prefer a conventional music video as they are easier to understand. A music video that is too diverse can be confusing.' 

Karis Myers, 17

'Conventional music videos offer visual appeal without taking the focus away from the song and artist. If there is too much going on the audience is unable to connect to the song and artist.' 

Jackie Jarvis, 18

'Diverse music videos are unpredictable. Because they subvert generic conventions, the audience are unable to guess what is going to happen; therefore keeps them engaged as to what is going on.' Charlie Snow, 16

'Music videos that are diverse gives the artist appeal as their image is different from mainstream artists, it gives us something different to watch, someone different to be interested in.' 

Alfie Reynolds, 17

The comments we received are additional and prove there are both positives and negative elements of choosing to create a video conventional to it's genre. The positives included that it is 'easier to understand' which therefore increases the audiences enjoyment/entertainment value. However, the people we questioned believed that videos showing genre characteristics can become 'predictable'  In terms of our chosen genre, we decided that a conventional music video would be most suited as Indie artists typically have simplistic videos of which are mainly focused on the lyrics and the effective narrative in which we feel we can create. In addition to this, the majority of our sample of our target audience stated that they preferred conventional music videos for similar reasons and therefore we will be appealing to our target audience more successfully if we were to adopt such style.

We also asked each participant how they watched music videos on a regular basis whether it be via YouTube, music channels, on their phones or on the artist's website; in which this gives us a better idea as to how to distribute our final product. We want our product to be easily accessible for our target audience. Therefore, a larger amount of our target audience are more likely to find our music video. This will therefore allow us to engage a wider variation of opinion as to how appealing it is, allowing us to effectively evaluate whether the video is successful according to the target audience and how we could improve it if we were to repeat our production process in the future. The majority of our participants answered that YouTube was the most typical distributor that they used to watch music videos. This is the form of distribution we will use as this is what our target audience want us to do, therefore making our video popular as well as easy to access. 

We included this question to establish the style in which our target audience preferred, whether it be simplistic or complex or one that included special effects in the editing process. This allowed us to see what they preferred to have in the content of the video in much more detail rather than just the overall style. We found that 75% of the sample preferred to have a music video that was simple rather than complex. Here are some of the comments in which participants wrote in justifying their opinions:

'Simple music videos provide entertainment for the audience without having to concentrate on the video in order to understand it. It works with the song rather than competing it with it.' Jack Earl, 17

'I prefer music that are simple because they represent the artist as easy to relate to. By having a complex video this presents the artist as extravagant and over the top rather than showing their love of music, a much easier quality to relate to.' Daisy Tuson, 18

'Complex videos are exciting and more engaging. They attract people's attention more because there is more too look at.' Charlotte Watt, 18

'Special effects gives the music video something out of the ordinary, a attribute that other music videos don't have because special effects can be used in different ways, meaning that even if two videos use special effects, both will still be different in content.' Ryan Drinkwater, 17

These additional comments provide us as a group with an outlook as to why our target audience preferred either simple or complex music videos and through this, we were able to establish positives and negatives for both. According to our target audience, music videos which adopt a simplistic approach are complimentary and present the artist to be easy to relate to. However, this may appear boring. On the other hand, our target audience also commented upon special effects and complex videos too. Overall, they stated that complex music videos are far more engaging and can appear diverse which increases their entertainment. In order to compliment our chosen genre and representation of the artist  we have decided to do a simple music video, as this is also conventional to the Indie genre (which also links in with previous questions) Moreover, the  majority of our target audience stated they enjoy simplistic videos in comparison to  videos which employ complex attributes. 

Our chosen artist for our music video production is Nina Nesbitt, an artist of the Indie genre. We wanted to see if our target audience had previously heard of her or her music to know if they had existing perceptions of her. The majority of the sample had not heard of Nina Nesbitt (25 people) which could be perceived as an advantage as this allows us to represent the artist effectively through our own interpretation of her. This also allows the audience to see a short representation of her, encouraging them to build a relationship with the upcoming artist too. Therefore, this gives the artist more publicity and more people are aware of her, therefore increasing her success as an Indie artist.

Participants who answered that they know of Nina Nesbitt is a total of 15/40. We decided asking them a question on her songs would give us a deeper insight to the artists popularity and which song they like the most. 

Our findings suggest that the song 'Stay Out' was most popular. This may be because it reached number 21 in the charts. However, this song already has a pre-existing music video, in which our would been seen as competition and therefore the audience would be constantly comparing. The next most  popular song was 'Noserings & Shoestrings' with 3 people claiming it was their favourite song of hers. This is a good outcome as this song doesn't have an existing music video and therefore would be most suitable to our production. 

This research has undoubtedly assisted us with the planning process for our music video. We purposely created questions which would make our participants think, therefore state an answer true to themselves and in huge detail (evident in our additional comments) We like the fact that by creating pie charts to display our findings quantify's each participants opinion as it gives us a deeper insight to their preferences. By identifying the overall preference it allows us as a group to thoroughly plan our final outcome and hopefully make our creative product appealing to our target audience. From the primary research we conducted, we have drawn attention to these particular points embedded within our findings:

• The Indie genre is most liked amongst our target audience. Therefore, this makes us more confident that people will enjoy our Indie music video as a result

• Our target audience prefer to listen to solo artists rather than bands. This is necessary because that is exactly what we are following with our artist Nina Nesbitt. We have also decided to involve this in our music video as this allows a more intimate relationship between artist and audience as they only have one person to focus on/be interested in (as well as our narrative involving the artist also)

• It is preferred to see the artist present in the music video as this indicates that the song is much more personal to them, and that they are more involved in there work. This suggests that they are also more bothered about their target audience as they want to fulfil their interest. We have decided to have our artist present in the music video so that our audience can connect with them

• Both narrative and performance based music videos are the most liked in comparison to concept. This style is most conventional in the indie genre and therefore it would be suitable to adopt such style

• Conventional music videos are more popular than diverse music video among the target audience as they are easier to understand and allows the audience to focus on the song/artist; an effect in which we wish to create and therefore creating a conventional indie music video

• YouTube is the most popular distributor in which our target audience go to to watch music videos, and therefore when the product is complete we will put it on to YouTube for the majority of our target audience to watch and determine whether it is appealing or not. This will in turn, give us details as to what went right and what went wrong

• Our target audience prefer music videos that are simple, in which this is a convention of an indie music video we will be including to appeal to our target audience as this compliments the song rather than competes with it

• The majority of our target audience haven't heard of Nina Nesbitt, however this allows us the create our own representation of the artist. People who had heard of her most commonly liked 'Stay Out' and 'Noserings and Shoestrings'

 In conclusion, by asking our intended target audience questions regarding elements relevant to our production (distribution, the Indie genre and artist representation to name a few) we were enabled to receive their opinion. By using a large sample of 40 participants of both genders it was effective because it really made us think about how we should intend on planning and pursuing our music video production. Without our primary findings to refer back to we would be unable to understand our target audience, therefore we may have created a video which may not appeal to them or address them in the correct way. We are very pleased about the findings we received and believe it will help us succeed when planning and creating our creative media piece