Jess and Sarah: Focus Group

We held our focus group in a classroom at Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School where we had use of a computer, an interactive whiteboard and were unlikely to be disturbed. To begin we played our chosen track to the six teenagers who made up our focus group and then discussed their initial impressions. To make sure we did not influence their ideas we told the focus group nothing of our own opinions and ideas. All the teenagers were familiar with and enjoyed the genre of music we have chosen so represent our target audience.

Once we had collected information about their own impressions and ideas for the video (including questions which asked what they would expect to see in a video of this genre such as a performance as well as specific example for example certain camera shots and mise-en-scene) we explained our own ideas for the music video and showed them our moodboard. Many of the ideas the focus group had come up with were very similar to our own ideas which was a relief! After showing them our moodboard and presenting our ideas the focus group gave their opinions and expanded on our ideas.

Here are the results of our Focus Group:
1. Where do you think a conventional pop/punk video would be set?
"On the streets", "in a studio", "a large open space"

2. What aspects of a conventional music video, for example live performance, would you expect from a video of the pop/punk genre?
"shots of instruments and the band", "something happening, like characters and stuff." (or in media-language: narrative)

3. Are there any camera techniques you would expect to see?
"Close-ups of the singer", "close-ups of the instruments", "shots of the band playing" "movement between different scenes really fast and weird angles."

4. What do you expect the cast to be wearing?
"Black, white and pink clothing because of their name", "skinny jeans", "they would have long hair... with a fringe!", "dark hair". "The artist would be good-looking". "The girls featured in the video would each look different, they would have to be pretty as its a music video", "wearing like, rock/pop style clothes. preppy clothes or emoish, but not too much emo".

5. What examples of lighting would you expect from a pop/punk video?
"Lots of flashing lights", "lights shining into the camera", "normal lighting but quite stark, not very warm"

6. Would you expect a pop/rock video to have special effects or be more natural? elaborate...
"probably special effects. or at least cool camera stuff.", "pop/rock bands like to show off so probably yeah. maybe slow motion or fast motion?", "maybe distorted colours"

7. How would you expect a pop/punk band to be represented?
"rebellious", "cheeky", "fun", "comic", "don't-care attitude", "image concious"

8. How fast-paced would you expect this video to be?
"really fast. the song is fast so the video should be too.", "there should be lots of movement"

9. Would you expect the song to change in any way? for example a moment of silence in the middle to allow for narrative? (e.g. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vLSUdF2d_uI)
"no, the song doesn't sound like it should stop in the middle or anything, i think that would slow the pace.", "maybe a little bit of video before and after the song starts? like, a bit of narrative?"

10. Would you expect a video which followed the lyrical content of the song? Or would you expect a more unconnected series of scenes and situations?
"i don't think it should tell the story of the lyrics in the song. that might be complicated and weird.", "maybe connect them more through the music than the lyrics."

Here are the ideas which our Focus Group came up with, when they listened to the track:
- The video could be over a period of time, for example, the track starts when it is the evening, gets darker as the video progresses and then eventually gets lighter as it turns to morning
- The music video should have aspects of comedy included in the song, for example, the artist could fall ver as he is running down the street, but then roll over as he gets up, as to not break the pace. Also, the artist could make funny shapes as he jumps on a trampoline.
- The artist should be running through most of the video.
- The artist can be running away from something but the audience don't find out what it is until the end.