Survey Results and Analysis

I decided to conduct a survey in order to gain a feel of what my target audience would prefer to see in a music videos and whether they thought that more could be done within the industry to become more modern and inclusive rather than focusing on sales and popularity. I wanted to particularly draw attention to stereotyping, generalisation, sexual imagery and other aspects which are common within the production of music videos especially within my chosen genre on drum and bass- I feel that this is due to the target audience being with a younger audience who are seen to be more promiscuous or sexually active.

I set out 8 questions for my survey which I felt were most relevant to my production and editing processes, however I did find it difficult to find large groups of participants for this- this could be due to people's disinterest or scepticism in clicking on an unknown link.

insights into the participants of my survey, the completion rate, and the
average time spent on the survey.

 Question One

 The data for the first question displays that the participants were equally split between the three available choices. I feel that although this doesn't particularly give an answer to my question, this could potentially have a silver lining, as to me, this conveys that most audiences would hold mixed opinions regarding the types of music videos that they like which leaves a lot of room for creative freedom.



Question 2

This question was one which I felt was obvious within regards to the survey, as it gives me some outlook into whether people go out of their way to view music videos related to the artists that they follow and enjoy, or whether people would prefer to stream music. The data showed that the majority of the participants in the survey did go out of their way to view music videos online.


Question 3

 Again, this is a question which I felt was natural to ask the audience, as if I was producing this video for an artist in reality, I would need to know which platforms people prefer to use to view music videos in order to know where to post this content for people to view and access; this is important as the video is produced in order to provide a visual aspect for an artist audience, and also works as promotion and marketing for the artist themselves as it means that they can get more reach. The data showed that the majority of my participants use YouTube to find and to view music videos which would make YouTube an obvious choice to upload my video. Other websites such as vimeo could be considered, and the streaming site Spotify also feature short videos with Artist's music.

Question 4

 With this question, I wanted to explore the concept that production studios often exploit stereotypes and generalisations within their music videos. I find personally that music videos tend to be shoehorned into specific genres which can often generalise and stereotype the artist and their music unintentionally in order to gain more views and a bigger audience, For example, videos from artists such as Slipknot might use shock value and gory imagery associated with gothic culture as the studio wants to convey a darker reality or meaning to it's viewer. I asked my participants whether they believed that music videos could sometimes generalise or stereotype certain artists or genres in order to attract a wider audience, with the vast majority agreeing that this occurs frequently within this area of film. Taking away from this data, I will be conscious within the production of my own music video to steer away from generalising or stereotyping either my artist or any of my target audience, as I feel that it is important to convey my compositions in a way which is inoffensive, and appeasing to everybody.

Question 5

Similarly to the last question, I decided to voice this question to my audience in order to gain a feel for what I should include in my music video and what I should avoid. I had predicted this question to return a different result, as I personally feel that the music industry often relies heavily on sexual imagery, and especially the female form within music videos and in order to sell products. However, the vast majority of the participants involved believed that this was not the case. This result could be biased due to having larger groups of males participating in the survey, this may also be true for a biased female to male ratio.

I have decided to conduct some further research into the use of sexual imagery and objectification in music videos as I have a feeling that my data may be inaccurate, and I'd also like to take into account the development of music videos within the past decade.


Question 6:

II felt again, that this was an important question to put to my audience due to recent allegations from many artist's that production companies have directly opposed their personal beliefs, or even changed the content of the video in order to convey a completely different message to the track itself.

A recent example of this would be Meghan Trainor's video for her song 'Me Too'; the production company handling the editing for Meghan's song used software to pull in her waist and thighs to fit to the 'hour-glass' figure that many men perceive to be 'the perfect figure'; this went against her personal beliefs and the message that she tries to convey to her fans about body positivity and self-love. Speaking out about the situation, she said that "I cried when I saw the video", and on social media denounced the video, and had it removed and re-uploaded without the retouching stating "I never approved of the final cut" (Caroline Framke,2016)
I found that the results leant more towards agreeing that studios, producers and directors should be more aware of the artist's needs and desires within the production process rather than focussing on aspects that may inflate sales alone so that the artist is happy with the representation of their music and so that the film accurately portrays the messages conveyed in the song.

Question 7:

Within this question, I just wanted to obtain a feel for what my target audience preferred the content of a music video to focus on as I have a few abstract ideas that I would like to tie into the production of my music video such as the use of contemporary dance and sudden shifts between full colour and monochromatic footage. Overall the results showed that many people do enjoy the usage of interesting and abstract ideas within music videos, meaning that I would feel comfortable going ahead with these concepts during shooting and editing.



Question 8:

As many studios are renowned for over-using concepts which sell such as sex, I wanted to see whether people thought this was a primary objective over the music industry in today's climate, and whether the industry should do more to move away from those ideals. I worded the question in a way that I felt appropriately conveyed this, asking my participants whether they thought that monetary gain was held in higher value than the artist's message. Overall the results project that the participants agreed with me that studios should do more to appeal to the values of the artists rather than focusing on sex and even paid product placement in videos for monetary appeal. In my own video, this means that I will do my best to avoid the promotion of products (product placement) or the over-usage of concepts such as sex and alcohol in my video which are often exploited by big production studios.



Summary:

Overall, I have found that the results of my survey to be both helpful and reassuring within the planning process of my music video; following the correlation of my results, I have decided to continue with a narrative based video as I feel that this route allows me to create a relatable and emotive production within the time that the track allows me to do so. Keeping this basic narrative of a girl losing herself after a break-up allows me to focus more on bringing more advanced technical elements to both the shooting and editing processes of my video, such as shooting in different locations but using the same long shot and camera positioning so that I am able to keep the video flowing between locations whilst keeping a sense of balance to the viewer, switching between monochromatic and full colour shots, adding jump cuts to the video, and creating the effect of the passage of time to the viewer. Keeping the choreography simple, yet contemporary gives the video a new level of abstract depth, as contemporary dance is an art form which aims to tell a story through visual movement and can be altered to be repetitive in order to flow from frame to frame. It is also  clear from my survey that I should try to avoid certain subjects such as sexual imagery, product placement, and anything that might be related to tactics of monetary gain rather than appealing to the artist, their beliefs and their fans as this is something which has recently proven to be highly controversial and it is also something which I personally feel strongly about within the music industry.



Bibliography:

• Framke, C., (2016), 'Meghan Trainor claims she took down her music video due to egregious retouching. Not everyone is convinced', Vox Magazine, available from: https://www.vox.com/2016/5/10/11652258/meghan-trainor-photoshop-me-too-video