Focus Group Results...

Having had a lengthy discussion with four fans of the genre, we have managed to come up with a lot of new ideas and have been given much positive criticism to think about. These are some of the key points raised during the discussion:

• 'shold be mostly happy, upbeat video'
• 'image of man on a train/bus comes to mind'
• 'similar to daft punk in terms of pace and rhythm'
• 'should definitely be disjuncture'
• 'not too keen on idea of clown in chase sequence as it doesn't 'fit well with the song''
• 'idea of clown is good but song isn't much of a 'chase song''
• 'fast cuts and shaky camera would work with drums in the song'
• 'should have visual motifs, i.e. something audience can relate to'
• 'clown should show flashes of his sinister side'
• 'may be a good idea to use stop motion as too much happyness may look cheesy'
• 'can invisage bright colours and lighting, daylight, etc.'
• 'can see someone doing a fast, funky dance'

We were also given the following suggestions of videos to look at which they thought were similar to this song and it's fast pace:

• Daft Punk - 'around the world'
• Fatboy Slim - 'weapon of choice'

One of the most eye-opening criticisms we came across was that the length of our song (4:43) could be an issue, and i can't halp but agree... Having said that, it seems we have a LOT of ideas so far - we just need to think up a way to fuse them all together into one video. Also, because we have a narraative based idea, i think it would be possible for us to make full use of the time available.

Our target audience appeared to like the idea of a playful, light-hearted video involving a clown. However, it seems that some of them also like the idea of a clown showing it's sinister side as clowns often have this sort of image. (Visual motif). Because of this, i see no reason why the clown shouldn't show both it's sinister side and it's playful side. If we do it in daytime, we can use shadows to make him look sinister. Also, our song has a few key changes which could be cues for the clown's persona to change.

Personally, i think we should still go with the idea of a man chasing a clown while the clown looks back laughing. Having watched 'weapon of choice' by Fatboy Slim', i think the man chasing should be wearing a suit as it would contrast well with his location and the silly image of the clown. I'm not sure about including any dancing mostly because it will look too cheesy unless we get someone REALLY good at dancing... and even then, it's not relevant to the narrrative.

Pull Focuses and jump cuts are something i definitely think we should use as the song is quite long and the more clever camera work and editing we use (e.g. overcranking and undercranking) the more it will maintain the audience's attention. Also, this is conventional of such narrative based videos - they feel more like short films.

Please put up a post with any new ideas or feedback you have asap!! xoxoxoxo