Red Bullet

Evaluation of focus group for Main Task

In order, for my group to have a focus group we had to match consent forms which are shown on previous blog post. This allowed our participants to understand what they were taking part in which made it ethical as we were given on consent therefore not putting participant under pressure as such.

We, meaning my group and I, collaborated together to discuss who we wanted to add into our focus group, we decided we’d like to have both males and females so the answers weren’t bias. We believed it was important to add males and females so we could collect a variety of answers and not just males giving their opinions or vice versa, this therefore helped to have a range of answers as well as according to their gender.

Our focus group size was also big as it was a focus group of 11 people, this was important to have a big group as it allowed us to get a variety of thoughts and opinions across others. This was also useful as it helped other participants who weren’t necessarily speaking to get involved as they may have disagreed with what their friend may have said and therefore expressed their own opinion or explain why they thought others were wrong.

Along, with our focus group, Jess and I believed it was important for us to be asking questions therefore we were both able to pick up each other’s mistakes, as well as this it also allowed our questions to be in more detailed as we were using 2 brains to ask the questions than one. Essentially we were both there to help if one got stuck in answering or adding on to a participants answer. I believe this was a good way of asking and finding out answers because it showed we both worked well together whilst Beth was recording us as we went along.

We were happy with the final outcome as everyone contributed at least once and if we saw a person looked uncomfortable, we discretely directed a question at them in order to allow everyone in our focus group to give their opinion. Also, we believe our focus group was successful as we had structured but open questions that we asked and we managed to ask every question and get a appropriate answer to all. This was useful as it helped us to come to conclusions such as the name of title and how the main character or other characters should dress, also by using structured questions implies you won’t go off topic because there is a sat format so open questions are allowed as it provides qualitative data to collect which is a more detailed way of collecting data.

However, our focus group were talkative at times which effected our filming as its very hard to sometimes understand what participants are saying, this therefore makes it hard for us as a group to use this source of filming because we find it hard to understand. So, in the future if I were to do a focus group again id make sure participants weren’t talking over one another. I’d put this into place by adding a policy of what is expected of them in a consent form so they were aware of how to behave.

Also, if I were to do the focus group again id spent more time on creating questions in order to get accurate and detailed responses to questions. As this would be much more helpful when coming to planning the main task and will help my group and I understand what is expected from our target audience to create the best possible opening sequence that we possibly could.

Overall, I am quite impressed with my focus group as it helped my group and I to make final decisions on what we were unsure on, filming the focus group is also very useful as when in doubt we can always relate back to the filming to have a greater understanding of what the participant is aiming to express than if they were to answer the questions in a written format.

Focus Group for Main Task

Consent form for focus group

We created a consent form for our participants who were going to take part in our focus group discussion. By making a consent form implies we are allowing our participants to understand what they are being filmed for and what is it being used for, in this case to allow my group to come to a final decision on what we are going to include in our opening sequence.

Our consent form
As you are aware, we are researching into further depth about action films and its audience and how it creates an impact throughout the film. This is in order to create a successful opening scene for our AS media coursework and therefore is only used for educational purposes.

We are therefore creating a focus group in which will communicate in discussion the chosen topic on action films and any sub genres that may be important, thus, the discussion is based on opinions and therefore are no right or wrong answers.

By signing, you agree that you are comfortable with the footage of the discussion to be placed publicly online purely for educational purposes, if you are uncomfortable in doing so, please do not sign however any attendance will be much appreciated within doing so.

Signed:


Dated:

Character Profiles for our main task

In our plot there is to be 3 different characters that are visible.  A woman that is getting away with stolen files, a man who is going after her and a news reporter. In media it is important that the outfits worn are suitable and connote what you want them to connote so the audience can take things from the outfits and make judgements from stereotypes that might exist in their minds.

Character 1; Thief (Jamie)

The women that is taking the files is a pretty much normal girl however very intelligent which is made clear by the fact she has stolen the confidential files in the first place as not many people would easily be able to do this so it clearly took some skill this is shown within the news report.

For this characters general look we thought Jess would be suitable for the role as she has a simplistic, appealing look as she has brown hair which is quite basic nothing too out of the ordinary. This could reflect the male gaze theory.  We have also been able to challenge expectations as you may not expect a pretty quiet petite girl to get away with stealing government files, she shows masculinity as we have given this character a unisex name, making her connote dominance and control, showing that she may not be as emotional as him challenging stereotypes as the romance within the film would typically be led by the woman.

We decided that the costumes for her when she is getting up in the morning should just be normal pyjamas and a dressing gown as this is what would typically be worn by most normal people in the morning. For later on in the day when it is the chase scene we thought a mixture between sporty clothes and normal clothes would be good it shows the character to be quite prepared and also goes along with the way she is just a normal girl it was also suitable for a chase scene as it meant easy movement.

Character 2: Chaser (Hunter)

Character 2 is the man that is going after the thief we decided he had to come across as very professional but possibly with a weak spot and later on this flaw is shown to be where the thief comes in and he falls in love with her. He also needed to be presented as intelligent especially working for a government agency thus creating the main basis of our films.

We decided Laurence would be a good choice of actor for this character having done GCSE drama and being very good at it. He also had the right kind of look. He is quite tall, good looking enough and in good shape giving him the right look for a government agent and possibly appealing the female audience.


For his indoor scene he would also be wearing pyjamas but nothing too silly as this would take away from the professionalism of him just simple plain colours he would also have bed hair so it gave off the impression he had just woken up. We decided the suitable dress for him was a suit as this looks very professional and is what a typical agent would wear. We would slick back   his hair adding to the professionalism and add some sunglasses this would add mystery and not give away his identity at times as easily and would show him to have less emotion especially if you cannot see his eyes which would help in giving a serious tone.

Character 3: News Reporter

Where the news reporter was considered, we dressed her in formal attire to portray concern and importance. We thought I would be great for this role as I  have had experience within the news as she studied it within my GCSE’s and therefore  know how to be portrayed. We also came to the conclusion that I would suit the role of a news reporter as they are often well put together as it is television and a serious programme.


I was dressed smartly, a whole outfit wasn’t important as you could only see the top half of my body so a shirt was a good idea and my makeup was natural also suitable for the news scene, If it had been overdone it would not have given the serious tone we would want. My hair was left down and was straight and showing her to be sensible and informative.