2. For our music video for the song ‘First Love-
The Maccabees’, we held a focus group in
order to gather feedback on it. We asked 10
questions to a group of 6 people within our
target audience – 16 to 25 year olds. We
chose to question people from our target
audience so that we can find out if our music
video draws them in correctly and to find out
whether we do actually appeal to the audience
the Indie Rock is dominantly aimed at.

3. The Narrative…
The narrative of the music video is about a young
couple’s aim to move on after separating. The 6
people in the group understood the narrative. Using
a non-linear that wasn’t in chronological order it
added an abstract look to the video and drew in the
viewer a great deal as it is a usual convention for
Indie Rock videos.

4. We also used this idea to show each character’s
confusion. Although we chose to do a non-
chronological narrative the audience
commented that this was a good idea because
it reminded them of how happy the
protagonists were previously compared to the
feelings they’re experiencing after the breakup.
This taught us that sticking to this music video
convention of the Indie Rock genre was a good
idea.

5. The focus group also agreed that the music video
did suit the genre of music. The feedback said that
the costumes, choice of actors and pace of shots
were the main elements of the music video that
made the music suit the genre correctly. However
the issue was raised that perhaps more shots of
Harry should have featured displaying him with
his lover on the side ‘Alexa’ who caused the
breakup so the story was told a bit more clearly.
The Genre…

6. Originally, during the initial ideas stage, we
planned to display Harry and Alexa together.
Although, when shooting the music video, lack
of time meant that we could not display this as
successfully as we planned. This being said,
the audience did still agree that the story was
clear and conventional to the genre as Indie
Rock videos leave you thinking.

7. The Mise-En-Scene…
The focus group mentioned that the colours used
throughout the video clearly displayed the type of
characters portrayed in the video as antagonist
Alexa wore black displaying her bad and villain
like character. Where as, innocent girl Abbie was
placed in bright pastel colours in order to display
the bright and positive character.

8.  This told us that we had the right ideas with
costumes as the characters were dressed
appropriately to who they are portrayed to
be in the video. However the issue was
raised that there could have been more low
lighting in the video in order to display the
type of feel each shot/scene has. Even
though the bath scene involved relatively
low lighting, other shots lacked this idea.

9. We discussed this after the focus group and we
said that if we could do some shots again we
would have shot some point of view shots
making sure that low lighting was involved or
even manipulating the lighting on Final Cut-
Pro.

10.  We would have to experiment first though
because this does run the risk of reducing
the quality of the music video and making it
look more amateur. This taught us that the
use of lighting could have been improved
although the choice of costume worked well
in order to engage the viewer.

11. The focus group agreed that the Mise En Scene
and characters did create a good sense of
verisimilitude and were generally worked well
towards the representation of the genre. The
main protagonists Abbie and Harry each
created a sense of verisimilitude as people of
there age are usually in a relationship however
many do not work out.
The Verisimilitude…

12.  The reactions of the characters in the
situations weren’t extremely realistic
however we was not aiming to make their
reactions realistic as we wanted this to draw
in the viewer and create a sense of humour,
for example Harry dropping the biscuits and
crying in his bed. These are very important
aspects of the video as this causes the
audience to feel empathy for the characters.

13. It was said that the Mise En Scene was good
because it seemed natural and suited the main
protagonist, the genre and the message that the
music video gave. The Mise En Scene also gave a
good sense of verisimilitude because the
settings/locations were ordinary settings that
ordinary people come across on a daily basis.

14.  As well as being the location that the
majority of the target audience live. On the
subject of this, the props and décor of the
house scene was very realistic and modern,
suiting the correct time that the video was
set in. This taught us that location scouting
is important and that every aspect featured
within the scenes add to the verisimilitude
and are strongly recognised by the audience.

15. The Ancillary tasks…
The focus group said that the magazine
advertisement strongly suits the genre – indie
rock. The simple layout and lack of content
adds a laid back feel to the advert, which is
conventional for indie rock. It was also
commented on that the idea of using the star
rating from NME magazine was very
significant as it strongly exaggerates the
conventions of indie rock advertisments.

16.  The digipak created was commented on as
extremely good and suited the genre, due to
the hand writing design and bright colours
also fitting the name of the album ‘Colour It
In’. This strongly appeals to the target
audience as they are easily drawn to the text.

17.  It was suggested that maybe more images of
the band could have been included however
in this case we stepped away from the usual
convention by not exposing the band as
much compared to other digi-paks although,
this still does work well.

18. The continuing house style that runs
through the ancillary tasks was
explained to be very useful by the
audience as they commented that
the album would be very easy to
recognise on a shelf after seeing the
advertisement.

19. This taught us exactly what the
audience would have wanted to see
within the ancillary tasks and if we
could revisit the digi-pak we would
have added a greater number of
images of the band in order to
expose them to their audience
although it was said that the
ancillary tasks do full very well into
the indie rock genre.

20. The Conclusion…
Overall, we learnt that our choice of using a
conventional narrative for the music video was
a good idea as it allowed the audience to gain a
connection with the characters and respond to
their emotions. As well as allowing them to
understand the story a lot more.

21.  The use of lighting could have been better in
the video in order to add a sense of emotion to
the much more morbid scenes in order to cause
the audience to understand the feelings the
character has. We are very happy that the
unconventional feature of hand writing in both
the digi-pak and advertisement turned out to be
a good choice because it was a risk. It could
have resulted in us not appealing to the target
audience, but this was not the case.

22. If we had the chance to improve the ancillary
tasks we would choose to put a greater number
of images in the digi-pak in order to show the
audience what the band looks like and also
showing the sort of style they represent in
order inspire the audience .If we had a chance
to re-shoot the music video we would involve
the character Alexa a greater amount in order
to display the storyline much more clearly for
the audience.

23.  This would be good for the audience as this
may contribute towards them gaining a
greater opinion of the characters. The
feedback on location taught us that location
is very significant within the music video
along with props as this suggests to the
audience whether the video is realistic and
believable or not.