First audience viewing and feedback

First viewing of our rough edit to an audience received many good reviews which helped increase the groups confidence as a whole due to our previous ‘scrapping’ of our original narrative idea. Once we had to re-think an idea for more of a performance based narrative and not a conceptual type, the confidence we had had before was beginning to waver due to the music video beginning to feel not as strong as it had been. Therefore our first screening definitely helped to boost it back up to previous levels.

Firstly the overall belief was that it faired well with the genre of pop-punk. That the band was definitely performing to their fullest, such is seen from previous pop-punk bands such as blink 182 and sum 41 (bands that have been analyzed in previous posts) Also an overall sense of achievement was felt once the audience likened it to ‘Newfound Glory’ and the type of music videos they made. This was excellent due to ‘Newfound Glory’ were the band that our band were covering!

There was also agreement that the clothes worn helped to convey a more comfortable approach to a band performance instead of having them wear matching tops or accessories etc which was good to hear, especially as the band had wanted this also. The production values were favoured. The shots used especially the zoom into and out of certain band members performing was enjoyed as again it helped to convey a more comfortable perception of the video as well as creating a point of view approach to the music video and also helped to compete against standard conventions of music videos that are seen today. Due to zooming in and out of band performances is a rarity now.

Mise-en-scene such as location used was favoured throughout. The fact that lighting had been used from the top of the studio and from the back of the performers helped to cast a shadow upon aspects of the bands face as well as giving of a slightly angelic effect upon their skin, causing it to glow.

One piece of cinematography that truly stood out to many was the handheld shot of the lead singer. This was created by giving the camera to the lead singer to hold when performing as if to express the feeling that he is singing to you the viewer and you only.
The chosen narrative to replace our previous idea was to collect a large amount of shots of kissing couples from the general public. This again was to convey a more comfortable/natural approach to the music video which was agreed as a whole from the audience. This certain aspect was considered one of the best parts of the music video.


Editing was suggested as good overall and that the pace of which it was being cut too helped to make the music video a success. Specific parts of the video the audience favoured due to the editing is when the chorus of the song begins to end. In this we chose to cut between the different shots that we had of the band to the quickened beat of the song as the chorus ends and the next verse of the song continues.

Specific improvements that were advised to take were as follows. It wasn’t necessarily the band performance that was required to change but the performance based narrative that we had chosen. Firstly a blur into the shots of our kissing couples was believed to be felt a good idea as this would soften the transition from band performance to kissing couples. Secondly, the colour of the kisses should be different. This was due to the colour of the band performance was mainly of a black backdrop with lighting involved to add character to the shoot. This added a more black and white approach to the performance.

These shots of our kissing couples were full of colour and it was criticised by the audience as creating a slight juxtapositioning to the two different shoots. And lastly there was a desire by all to add more shots of kissing couples as it was felt that there wasn’t enough in the music video.

Overall, not too bad a review for a first viewing of our rough edit!

( Group work by Joshua Featherstone