Rough Cut 1 and Feedback

My Music Video 

Rough Cut 1 and Feedback

It is important to experiment with ideas and concepts for the proposed music video in order to understand how the finished product may look; sometimes planned footage is underwhelming, other times it works perfectly. I decided to start shooting the narratives of the music video first so that I could inspect the quality of the narratives in conjunction with the song and lyrics. Above is the music video's first rough cut. To test the accuracy of my previous planning, I took some initial shots from my storyboard to see how they would translate in real footage and after editing. The rough cut focuses on the narratives within the music video, and therefore contains no performance shots as of yet.

Feedback

• "The story lines were easy to follow. It was clear that one person was training for something, running, and the other person was learning to ride a bike". - Female, 12

• "I could understand the concepts of the narratives but there were no clear motives for why the characters were doing what they were doing, so it all seemed a bit pointless". - Female, 18

• "It was good but I feel that the cuts are really slow and it makes it a bit boring to watch. There seems to be too many black screens for too long".  - Male, 18

• "I want to know what happens during the next half of the song. Its almost like the build-up and ending came already". - Male, 75

• "A performance from an artiste would make it a lot more interesting". - Male, 45

• "The shot at the beginning is a bit blurry but I like the narrative concepts. They seem to link with the song lyrics because both of the characters look like they are trying". - Female, 47

What have I learnt?

After completing my first rough cut and getting feedback I have learnt that the narratives, which are central to my original music video idea, are easy to understand and follow and fit well with the song choice. However, it was also suggested that a motive for character's actions (i.e. learning to ride a bike and training for a marathon) are too ambiguous at the moment. 

The feedback also suggests that although the narratives are well constructed, the editing lets it down because it is too slow and thus boring. Some of the shots could be of better quality in terms of professionalism, and the narrative moves on too quickly. 

What should I do to improve?

Thanks to the good-quality and honest feedback, my plan of action is relevant. I will keep the narrative concepts the same because they proved popular; there will be a character learning to ride a bike and a character who is training to run a marathon. At the start of the music video, however, I will plan for there to be some shots which would give the audience a clue for what motivates the characters (for instance, watching a marathon on TV or attending a marathon in real life and being inspired). 

To increase the pace of the editing, and therefore the excitement of the music video, I know I will need more footage. I will add a performance aspect with an artiste singing the song, and I will film some cutaways for extra footage just in case I need to fill any unplanned gaps. In the meantime, I will plan some re-shoots of the shots that did not look professional (the opening one of the first rough cut).