Focus group. How it can help in our production?

This week on Thursday we have to present our product to the focus group and via their comments and suggestions improve their quality. Therefore I need to finish the website production so I can present them a copy which will be the most close linked to the future version. The same work Eden, Dmitry and Harry must do, so we as a group can present them altogether and get the feedback.

These are things which we need to find out during focus group research:

1. do products work with each other?
2. is the website useful?
3. does it correspond to other products and the needs of potential target audience?
4. is music video edited enough or are there any problems with it?
5. how the digipack is related to the music video?
6. will all these three products interest the target audience?

The focus group as I said preciously is a research which will help us to develop the final version of our products and also show weak and strong sides of their production. Therefore during Thursday lesson we as a group are going to ask questions and by recording them and writing up we will be informed about all failures and successes from the viewpoint of individuals in the focus group.

What is a focus group?

Today we learned about focus groups, on Thursday our focus group will take place and we will find out about weaknesses and strengths of our products via communication with potential audience.

During this lesson we looked at two different ways of focus groups research, in both cases focus groups were used in early stages of concept or new products development, so producers may understand the way in which they need to work and what disadvantages their ideas have already, therefore they interact with respondents in an informal way trying by asking opened-ended questions reveal respondent's opinion on the product.

The first research was revealing the opinion of the focus group on new biscuits forms and tastes. It had several problems which we payed attention to and wrote them down, so the on Thursday avoid them and make our research more useful and less bias. First of all, the focus group was not very representative as it consisted mostly of children and their behaviour is unpredictable therefore the researcher can't really rely on them. Also, the rest of the audience are children's mothers who are kind of representative as they are suppliers of food for their children but their opinion is also bias as it depends upon their relationship with a child and the way of raising a particular child, therefore the audience for this research is not representative and it can manage the result, because there is a wide range of other ages who are potential buyers of these biscuits.
However, there are some positive aspects during this research, a researcher was find and friendly, he prepossess to him the whole audience, he joked and therefore children were not shy. Also, the first attempt to this attachment with the audience he has done when he bought biscuits into the room and allow children to eat as much as they can, therefore children were already happy and were not bothering regarding the tension and research in which they are involved.

The second research was targeted mainly on pet owners and tried to reveal their opinion on new pet food. During this video there are two groups of researchers who via collaborating with focus groups ere trying to understand their opinion and realise disadvantage and advantages of products and why some people won't buy it for their pets. In the first one the researcher had already a final idea in his mind, therefore focus group contribution was not useful for him and for the whole group. They were persuading the focus group respondents that the product is excellent and that they must admit it and buy it in future. They were ignoring comments and responses, therefore they was no use of that focus group contribution. The second group worked more with the audience however, they didn't chat with respondents, instead of asking opened-ended questions they were talking a lot to them, trying explain their idea. The main idea of making people by themselves to realise what product is about and get their opinion, they were influencing on their opinion and therefore this focus group research also is useless.

So basically the point of the focus group is to get the info from the focus group about the product, it must be neutral, not biased and to get an objective opinion all questions must be easy built and open-ended so that the focus group can interpret them and answer.

WIX.COM/ STEP 6/ PAGES REINNOVATION

For our presentation on Thursday the website must be nearly done. Therefore I decided to work on Blog and Tour pages.
For this I need to develop an idea of the Blog which will present Gen as a channel person who tells her fans ways of her music development and how she struggles to be more successful. Therefore first three blogs I uploaded are about her music video and album release and also about music video production process as it it very important for fans to know all aspects of her artistic life. The blog will be updated every day and on it she as a singer will share with her fans different types of the information. Also, there is a notice on the website which is related only to extremely crazy fans who are always surfing the web and searching the information about Gen. There is an information about her personal performance in Hurtwood House Theatre on Thursday due to an International Child Protection Day.

Moreover, I tried to develop a personal tour for Gen but it was impossible to do it through ticket sales therefore I found 'Clean Bandit" tour schedule, uploaded it on the website. However, we are not allowed to use the real artist name, therefore through Photoshop I edited this title and wrote Gen Sykes instead the real artist's name.

WIX.COM/ STEP 5/ BACKGROUND

The many on Gen Sykes's website contains out of several links: Home, About, Photos, Music, Tour and Blog. Therefore there have to be 6 backgrounds. The most simple choice is that I can do them all the same but then the audience might feel boring.

Therefore I decided to have a simple green colour of the Home Page and then play around with other. For that purpose I asked Harry to take several photos of Gen profile and sent them to me.

When I received them, I uploaded them on Photoshop and edit there. I added the colourful background which in my opinion works with the whole Gen's style.

However, I decided not to use these theme on every background of the website and therefore I left a blank colour on Photos and Blog pages.


During the focus group research on Thursday I want to ask respondents about the correlation between our three products and especially how colours on the website correspond t the total star image and the music video theme. The amount of different colours in the music videos is varied between

WIX.COM/ STEP 4/ FONT

I presented my website to Phil saying that this is my first draft which is based on the material I found online. I talked about four websites and the research on them. Afterwards, Phil told me that I need to work on the background and fonts. I decided first of all focus on fonts and then work on the background because Harry didn't finish with the photoshoot and I didn't have enough materials to upload on the website and decide which picture to put on the main page as a background. 

Therefore I started to try different fonts on the title and here are several examples:

 

The main problem was to make a website look combined, make it look as a single product so the first difference was that the TITLE OF THE WEBSITE and the TITLE OF THE ALBUM had different fonts. I asked Harry which font he used in production of the digipack and used it for my website title. Also, I decided that that font can be used in every text on the website including the MENU, therefore I changed all the text and this what I finished with as our main web page.

WIX.COM/ STEP 3/ MENU

 Previously I've seen on different websites that the menu is located differently and I know that the menu must be very approachable because it's very important tool used during surfing the internet on different websites. Therefore I need to think about the location of it and also the font so our menu will be seen by the audience and used regularly to transfer from one page on another. I looked at three different popular website of this music industry.

The first one is Ellie Golding website. Her website is very messy and it looks like it was produced by fans. However, there are many points of the menu and the audience can easily surf this website and find what it wants. This menu is located in the middle o the page under the title of the website so this makes it difficult to find. Moreover, the website is done in different purple-pink colour and this is why it's difficult to notice white font of the menu which doesn't work with the rest of the website.
The next website I looked at was Ed Sheeran's website. It is very simple but despite this there is lots of the information and also the manu is located on the clean background, it's not difficult find it and use in future. The menu is on the left side of the page and therefore it takes lots of place. The idea of the font an the colour  of it is very simple and can be used in my website however I don't like the location therefore I will prefer to make it on the top of the page horizontally.

The closest idea of the menu and font to mine had Owl City website, its font and menu are very simple but this doesn't make the website boring, it just makes the surfing simplier and therefore I prefer this type of the menu and will work on it.

WIX.COM/ STEP2/ TEMPLATE

 The first decision I had to make was the template of the future website. I found four different types of design and all of them are suitable for our theme.

The first one is a Lorde's website and it has a simple home page because it's just a website to represent a new album "Pure Heroine" therefore there are no links to other pages and it has only 7 links to other social networks like Twitter or Instagram, but they are separate from the website. Therefore this template can't be used in our production. However, I like the idea of the big photo used as a background therefore I asked Harry to take some pics this type so then I can use them in the website production.

The second one website of Foxes I liked because of its simple idea and bright colour. Also, my group has made just one video and one album therefore the representation of them both on the main page is very provocative and can attract the audience to look deeper into the website if the "front cover" will interest them. Therefore, I decided to have this template as the main one for my website production and keep this idea in mind. 

Next two templates do not present any bright ideas and design however, the Glasser website made me think about the font of the website and the colour of title. Moreover, I decide to play around with background on the third step of production. As we can see, on their main page the video is in the middle, so the attention is payed to it before the audience moves to the next page however, there is also a photo with an artist which is done in extravagant style and also can interest the audience in the website. 

The last website I looked at was Owl City website which has a traditional template represented on the WIX.com. However, its content is very big, they have plenty of videos and photos as well as blogs and chat with their fans. Moreover, their website consists of different fonts and colours. I didn't like it because it look like a mess. There are lots of information which is irrelevant and the structure is not simple and clear, it's difficult to find the right info and the audience can find it's useless.

WIX.COM / STEP 1

During this lesson I managed to start working on our website in WIX.COM, however I do not have any opportunities to present the final piece until Harry will finish with photos which I need to upload on the website so it can represent our artist.

This is how I started working on the website. I decided first of all to decide on the structure and font, so then it will be easier to renovate it and add some photos.

I have worked already in wix.com last year so therefore it is much easier for me this time.  I hope that the progress will be seen soon because the website development is very important for our group's work for this project.

I chose a Music Video Website Template as the format is right for our project. There is enough space for adding links like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and other social networks through which we can promote our new star. Moreover, it is very important that users can listen to her songs online through Soundcoud.com and watch her performances and music videos online through Youtube.com. All these information I'm targeted to post during this week and start up our website so then fans can decide whether or not it is useful and comfortable to use.

Research into similar star image

Using WIX.COM our group need to produce a website which will be promoting Gen as a new star. The target audience are people who are interested in electro-pop music and can become real fans aged 15-25. Therefore this categorisation of people influences the design of the website and other extra products.

Firstly, I searched for artists who are similar in their music style and life style at all to Gen. I decided to work in the electro-pop and pop music industries so then the research can be not so spread.



Earlier, in our group we discussed that artists like Lorde, Soko, Ellie Golding and Taylor Swift are similar to Gen in their star image, appearance and the performance style. Therefore I had already some boarders in-between which me have to create Gen's image.



The deep research into these artists music career and their distribution campaigns, I realised that the closest to our artist is Lorde. Her website is extra ordinate and I took it as a model for our future website.

This lesson I used to find all the possible information and examples which then I can use to develop a website which will be recognised as successful for our final piece presentation. While I was doing this, Dmitry and Eden were working in editing suit and Harry was working on the digipack idea. 

Shooting day evaluation.

Today was the day X. We had 9 hours and during this time we needed to incorporate our ideas into useful in future footage and film everything what is possible in studio. We had everything prepared and were sure about the shooting as we came yesterday to the studio and talked to the light designer and builders. They made a major work and produced everything we needed for our music production. We chat a lot about our ideas with them so basically they knew what we were expecting and tried their best to embody our thoughts into reality. However, there was one problem which need to be solved quickly. We have ordered petals, the blossom which had to arrive on Saturday, 1st November, but there was a delay in 20 days therefore we should invent something what could replace the blossom. Phil and Eden decided to make confetti by themselves so it can be thrown up during the shooting and create the feeling of the snow falling down.

We made a shot list so during the shooting we could control what we need to do, be sure not to forget any important shots.

Shot list:

Mirror set

• Jen (singer) wide shot
• Jen close up
• Jen long shot
• Jen middle shot ( head and shoulder)
• Maria (cello player) wide shot
• Maria string close up
• bow close up
• Jacob (violin) wide shot
• Jacob close up
• string close up

Blue set

• Jen wide shot
• Jen close up
• Maria and Jacob close up
• Maria and Jacob wide shot
• Dancers (Natasha and Romani) wide shot
• Dancers close up
• Dancers slow motion close up
• Dancers body pic close up ( arms, legs, eyes)

Purple-dotted set

• Jen wide shot
• Jen close up
• Maria close up
• Maria wide shot
• Maria and Jacob close up
• Maria and Jacob wide shot

The real situation was completely different to our planning. Despite the shot list and schedule we were filming regarding what we see in front of the camera and how it works or not. Therefore the mirror set was at the end changed, for Jen close-up shots we built from these walls a small room and hand from the ceiling several light bulb. Therefore, our idea was changed and instead of an infinity room with a huge amount of small lights we had a small mirror room with 5 variously coloured lightbulbs.

We didn't divide our roles really however each of us had an important task which influence the whole development process. I was responsible for the make up and style therefore I spent half of the shooting day in the classroom, inventing different hair and make up styles for dancer, singer and cello player. However, I also took part in shooting and composition making, Dmitry and I decided whether or not we need to shoot players in the blue set with confetti and how they needed to be located around the set. Moreover, we all as a group decided on the lighting and I'm happy to notice that in this questions we felt into step.

We spent a lot of time on the first set therefore the major problem for us during this day was the lack of time, and therefore after lunch we decided to work faster and without any changes in the schedule. This decision helped us to save lot of time, moreover I assume that actors were already prepared for the shooing and they had enough rest so for the rest 3 hours we managed to finish other two sets. 

Personally, I believe, that the most successful shot was the close up of instrument players in the purple shot, I liked the background and the way we placed them in the set, Maria was sitting in front of Jacob and we can see her eyes watching the bow and his face looking straight. This shot is very artistic in my point of view and shows how the music and the set are greatly connected. All actors, dancers and players worked greatly, they were prepared and respondent with understanding to all comments, therefore we managed to finish on time and didn't spent lot of time on arguments. We, 
as a group were pleased with the work they've done during this shooting day and thanked them a lot.