Rough cut - Miss Georgiou

A rough cut is one of, if not the most essential aspect for the production of any media product. It's general use is to gain feedback and analysis from an audience in order to show the producer ways which he/she can improve. Essentially this feedback helps the producer to connect to their target audience; helping them meet certain conventions, relate to the audience and helping them find aspects of the product of which the audience may enjoy and that can be built upon. This will help the company backing the product to increase their sales and gain a reputation within their chosen market.

When aimed to gain feedback for my rough cut I used the video sharing network, YouTube. This was the perfect platform to gain feedback from my selected target audience. It has a comment feature allowing people to easily leave comments of which I can assess and build upon. It is easily accessible from any device and location, this means that I can get a wide range of views upon the features of the video. It has a like /dislike feature, showing the popularity of the video. Also, more importantly, it is often used by my target audience of teenagers and young adults as they often access new music videos through the eva growing forms of social media; this would allow me to further connect and relate to the audience, helping my artist build a relationship with viewers. 

My production consists of a dance music video based upon the song, 'I Know', by Shift K3Y. Through the use of my rough cut, I hoped to assess the views of my target audience.This would help me develop the positives within my video along with also taking n improvements in order to further connect with the audience. Vitally, it also allows me to connect to current trends within the culture of my selected audience, this would update the artists image in a way that could kelp him to build upon his relationships with his audience. Finally, the feedback would also allow me to assess and build upon the conventional aspect of the video with dance conventions often being assessed by dance fans as they also develop conventions of their own of which I could address. 

Comments

Positive feedback:

"The visuals match the rhythm very well" 
- This comment is relating to the cutting of the video. Throughout the editing of the video we aimed to match the visuals of the video with the rhythm of the song. This was done in order to develop a conventional pace to the jump cuts within the video in order to make it match the pace of the song.This pace is very conventional to the dance genre; it is seen within almost every dance song with a past beat aimed to build up a sense of excitement and vibrancy. By matching this pace, we aimed to convey similar emotions of excitement and fun. It is evident that this appealed to the target audience through other comments also mentioning this 'party' atmosphere that was evident within the video. We will aim to build upon this sense of excitement through cutting up various lengthy shots with added effects or colouring and also with the needed footage at the end that will complete the video itself; this will be made to be extremely choppy in order to match the fast pace within this section of the song and maintain the excitement that is evidently enjoyed by the audience and that is currently seen throughout the majority of the video.

"Variety of shots in London and club fit with the genre well"
- This comment is seen to relate to the often referral to a urban setting and the portrayal of an urban nightlife. It is shown through frequent successions of jump cuts and transitions, switching from the long shots of iconic London buildings to shots of the artist within a club or bar setting. The comment itself is relating solely to the evident dance conventions within the video. The use of club setting epitomises these conventions. The dance genre is often seen to revolve around these club settings with the music constantly being played within the venues. By referring to the artist constantly within this setting, we present him as being a very conventional dance artist. This again evidently appeals to the target audience as they enjoy a club setting, being the majority of age groups that are seen to enjoy clubs and bars. Ways in which we will address this is through added club settings, this will be evident within the montage of club settings and will add to the variety of clubs seen in the video itself. I t again builds upon the conventional party lifestyle of the artist which the younger audience would aspire towards.

"Very energetic and made me and Jess want to party!"
- This final comment was certainly made in relation to the referral of iconic features within a nightlife and a club setting. This consists of strobe lighting, close ups of drinks and the use of long shots emphasising the masses of people enjoying themselves. It all helps towards building a vibrant party atmosphere that is conveyed through the visuals. This, again, is highly conventional within the dance genre with artists often aiming to convey this party atmosphere in order to develop feel good, positive emotions alongside the music. The dance fans evidently enjoy this as they refer to their need to 'party!'. This epitomises the aim for our video and shows our success in conveying a fun and contagious party atmosphere. We will build upon this party atmosphere through added pace within the additional footage and additional references to vibrant party settings and connotations.

Constructive feedback:

"could use a bit more colour in certain aspects of the video."
- In my option this is relating to the office settings that mostly occur at the beginning of the video but also continue throughout. These have little effects added to them and could appear to be unconventional to the genre. Also this unconventional presentation of the office setting was used to present the professionalism of the artist and develop upon the narrative as its hows him thinking about his girlfriend and his lifestyle; its could be seen as boring and controversial to the exciting and vibrant emotions that the dance fans expect within a dance video. In order to address this, the group and I will edit the office settings in order to build upon the pace and the conventionality of the scene. This will probably include added tints, jump cuts and flashing effects. It should add to the dance conventions of which the audience evidently enjoy, as seen through the positive comments stated above.

"could improve by making the narrative more clear"
- This is relating to the missing section of footage towards the end of the video. This missing section means that the narrative of the video does not make total sense as the decision that the artist is evidently making between his friends, his party lifestyle and his girlfriend with a more settled, yet dull, lifestyle does not come to conclusion. This would have easily confused the viewer. However, this will be easily ratified by the addition of new footage at the end of the video. This added footage will clarify the artists decision to leave his girlfriend and enjoy the party lifestyle with his friends. This clarity of the decision will be shown through footage of the artist and his girlfriend as the artist constantly looks away to flashes of a club setting and party environment; it will be ended with the artist and his girlfriend walking in separate paths to signify his decision. This portrayal of the artists decision would comply to the conventions of the dance genre as it shows the artist to be closely related to the party lifestyle that the music revolves around. It would also appeal to the target audience as they may aspire to be as closely related to such a fun and exciting lifestyle.

"the only thing i'd say is the made up club scene needs to be edited more"
- This comment is made in referral to the fabricated bar setting in which the artist is evidently shown to be enjoying himself with his close friends. The scene itself was fabricated in a studio with one neon light and evident curtains in the background. It could mean that the setting itself looks to be less professional and less aesthetically pleasing; this was made evident within the comments. The negative comments made about the bar setting forced me and my partner into large amounts of editing, focused upon the bar setting. This included added strobe lighting, effects used to darken and black out the background plus added contrast used to make the images more luminous and crisp; this helped to highlight the neon lighting. Overall this vastly helped make the scene look more realistic. It certainly helps make the video look more professional and asthically pleasing; plus, the highlighting of colour and added lighting also helps appeal to dance conventions as they add to the vibrancy within the party atmosphere in the video. It would appeal to the audience as they can aspire towards the artists presentation by wanting to be as closely connected with such a high quality nightlife.