In response to understanding the correct process of a focus
group, we need to generate questions and approaches in preparation for our
focus group. For example, I firstly accept a focus group is not made to gain
approval, as this opinionative trial isn’t going to affect our mark. Therefore,
it is of use to gain criticism towards our product to beneficially help us to
make and develop better results. Lastly, I understand a focus group is only
necessary if one is prepared to make changes and alters otherwise audience’s
feedback and gathered opinions are irrelevant and a waste of time. Due to this,
these are the questions we generated to help gain improvement and refinement towards
our products during the manufacturing process.
After
discussing the primality and importance of a focus group, I understand the
responsibility of presenting rough versions of all three of our products, such
as showing our unfinished video, CD Digipak and also our website.
As I am aware and thoroughly understand, Fran is responsible
for producing a rough cut of our CD Digipak, Harvey has taken on the
fundamental process of completing the video and finally I am in charge of dealing
with the website. Therefore, in preparation, Fran printed several physical copies
of the CD Digipak in order for our focus group to clearly attend to detail and
similarly have a feel for the ancillary product. Similarly, we gathered an
unfinished copy of the video on our memory stick, and finally I published a rough
cut of our website through the software Wix.
As we are constantly working on our products, having discussions within our group and therefore developing, altering and experimenting with our work, all three products have significantly, and beneficially changed and will continue to change throughout the production.
CD Digipak:
Website:
Music Video:
Considering our
products weren’t completely finished, it gave our focus group an insight into
our final outcomes. However, we constantly considered the incorrect photos and
amount of colour within our products. Due to this, we will be showing our focus
group all three rough cut versions of our products and asking them beneficial
created questions and concerns regarding our work.
Throughout our production for
completing our three products, my group and I are thoroughly engrossed within
creating our ancillary outcomes, such as our CD Digipak and website. Although I
am only constructing and forming the website for our artist, SIOUX, I am always
serving help where needed for both Fran and Harvey. As I understand this is a
group effort, we are all constantly opinionating our ideas towards each
product, and raising beneficial suggestions or concerns regarding them. For
instance, as I appreciate Fran is completing the CD Digipak, I occasionally question
some decisions made, for example, regarding the choice of colour for the front of
the Digipak or the selection of image on the back. This is beneficial for all
members of my group, as I am foreseeing it from an outside view and similarly
towards ideas for our music video. This structure and plan works well as all
members of my group get on successfully and we all have the same intentions and
aims.
However, I understand as we are
all captivated within creating our own products to our best standard, constantly
viewing them, making altering changes and concluding decisions where necessary,
it is sometimes good to allow suggestions and alternatives in which we don’t think
about as we are working so close and repetitively to our product. Therefore, I understand
the importance of completing a focus group.
A focus group is holds many
purposes. For instance, a focus group is a trial to show our products on people
who have never seen them before. It helps give an insight into whether we are
on the right track, if we are currently communicating the ideas we intend to and
if we are meeting our demands. Similarly, a focus group helps to gain observations
in which we were unaware of and similarly suggestions about how to potentially
refine our intentions further, making them more effective.
Alongside understanding the
purpose of a focus group, I carried out further research to gain critical and valuable
information. For example, usually people that take part in a focus group are
paid, therefore, it is an expensive process to conduct hence why companies
place a value on the data received. A focus group simply gathers information on
how to make/develop a product more effectively, asking for opinions and thoughts
along our journey. Similarly, it is fundamental to understand a focus group is
tested during the manufacture process of our products, making it clear to
others that the group is directed at a stage before the products are finalised;
therefore, if necessary the products can be easily altered. Lastly, it is significant
to note, a focus group should require participants that reflect the target
audience of our products.
Due to this, as a class we
observed a source from ‘The Simpsons’ consisting of a focus group.
However, immediately we note some potential problems, such as:
The source only includes closed questions, making it difficult to expand upon answers, therefore the response from the audience was vague and ineffective.
Secondly, the clip doesn’t reveal a lot of information about the product, preventing the audience from making accurate judgement upon the product. Due to this, the opinions offered were confusing as they were unsure whether they liked the products or disliked them.
Therefore, from evaluating the
negatives and problems from this focus group, I now understand the crucial
aspects of raising the correct questions and an effective approach. For instance,
to receive a qualitative response, we need to include questions that are open, leading,
directing and queries that contain a value of judgement.
Rolling on
with our music video, Harvey is constantly working on editing our video. For
instance, he has made effective progress in completing and finalising the final
bits of the next rough performance cut, allowing the rough lip sync cut to be
weaved and intertwined with other interesting and entertaining footage from
shoot day. However, when Harvey was finishing the second cut, he struggled to
find footage which hadn’t previously been used when creating this performance cut
as he wanted the viewer’s eyes to look at fresh and new clips throughout,
instead of the video becoming repetitive and tedious. Therefore, due to this,
Harvey came up with idea of introducing the audience to being shown more detail
about the cast members and focus upon them and not just our main artist, therefore
he used the method of blink intercuts.
As
Harvey, Fran and I want the video to be efficiently flowing, we suggested
Harvey using the idea of cutting the footage with the beat of the music
throughout most of the elements in our video. This will therefore allow and
bring our video to a collective and strong force and not fall random in
elements or in the edit.
Similarly, Harvey is embracing the type of editing called
the beat drop, as this allows the editing to the drop of the songs beat with an
element. For instance, Harvey used the element of Luca and Xaviar skateboarding
in time with the beat of the song, reaching its potential climax both within
the track and within the action. However, this might alter or change as it doesn’t
fit as well as we had hoped.
However, this is the video so far:
Harvey has progressively made the video more interesting and effective and therefore his next step is to generally clean the music video up. This is one of the last things in the editing process, as the teachers are reasonably pleased at this moment in editing and Harvey, Fran and I are happy with the results so far. Harvey has planned and is constantly thinking of ideas to clean his cut, as he doesn’t want to waste any time when going to the edit suit to clean and finalise the video. For instance, Harvey wishes to subtract parts of the rapid snare-drum edits of the fast cuts as he feels they are becoming repetitive and tedious for viewers. As these fast, rapid editing cuts are very impressive, we don’t want to over use them as then they will become less and less effective if over used. Similarly, to this, Harvey wants to make the spray painting edits longer as he feels it will work better with the track and make more sense. Lastly, Harvey, Fran and I all agree to see if there are any more interesting angles or unique shots captured on shoot day before we bring the video to a clean close.
