Focus group 22/4/2015

I held a focus group on Wednesday 22nd April as primary research for my music video production. This was conducted in front of a group of 8 A2 film studies students from the college. I found this very helpful as I now have a better understanding of what an audience wants and what they would find more visually pleasing.
I felt that I had conducted enough research to present my ideas to a focus group, which was an excellent opportunity to see what ideas people had and how they would impact my ideas for a music video. The focus group as a whole was successful with regard to attaining opinions and progressing ideas. However, I feel that a little more organisation would have helped me to gather more accurate questions (for example, asking more in-depth questions). The focus group provided my research with a good primary source which my work may otherwise have lacked. However, something I would ensure if I were to conduct a focus group again is recording the groups conversation and note taking, as I forgot to record and decided to only make brief notes which I didn't find too helpful upon review, and had to do most of my write-up from memory.

Focus group questions and answers:
(The focus group is shown a segment from Ben Howard's 'Oats in the Water')

1. Do you prefer fast paced and energetic, or slow paced and easy to watch music videos?
- 4 preferred fast paced and energetic
- 4 preferred slow paced and easy to watch
2. Do you link the visuals with song lyrics when watching a music video?
- Yes, seeing visuals that correlate with the lyrics at that particular moment is pleasing to an audience and helps them to understand what is happening/the songs concept

3. From the previous clip, what do you find pleasing about the concept and visuals?

- The black and white edit of the footage
- The speed and motion of the footage
4. From the previous clip, what do you think would improve it in regards to concept and visuals?
- More experimentation required
- More people involved, with an arranged narrative
- More action and movement (people)
5. From the previous clip, do you think that the pace of the song relates well with the visuals?
- The visuals were too 'boring' and didn't completely relate to the songs lyrics
6. Can you suggest any music videos that stand out to you?
- Ed Sheeran (Thinking Out Loud)
- Sia (Elastic Heart)

Overall, the focus group opposed my original ideas to create an abstract music video based around moving nature. There was an average response on people who preferred past paced compare to slow paced. Music videos were best responded to when the visuals matched the song lyrics, as it helped them to understand what was happening and the songs concept. From a video I showed to them based around something that I aimed to re-create, they liked the black and white edit of it, but felt that more experimentation, human presence and action/movement would improve it. They did not find the concept and visuals to their taste, and found it boring.
However when I asked them to reference any music videos that they favoured, the response was mainly modern pop songs and not of the same genre that I have researched. The audience of the focus group were aged 17-18, and until I gather the results of my questionnaire, I do not know my exact target audience and feel that the focus group were more interested in contemporary pop songs rather than abstract visual music videos.