Focus, Post #8

My class was a part of a focus group created by Heart of The Lakes (heartofthelakes.org). They took people's stories and passions and wrapped the importance of nature as their focus. As I was a part of this focus group I was excited to learn how one functions, and happy about how a beneficial this experience has been for myself. For one it helps me see things as a viewer better. Two, I can get an idea of what to do if I need to make a focus group for myself. And three, this was inspirational to see people in Michigan making money in the film industry, and learning about some of their struggles they had when making some of the videos. This was truly a great experience!

In the focus group, we were given the instructions to look out for the following things as we watched each short video; emotion, soundtrack, visual, highpoint, change, and other. So, as we watched, for example, we would have to comment on how we felt about the video (happy, sad, mad), how the soundtrack was (or maybe how it felt wrong or was too loud, or even distracting), we had to comment on if anything was visually pleasing or unpleasing, parts that we enjoyed, write down things we would like to change and how, and another comments…

For the most part, the videos shown in class were well done and only needed a little tweaking. Most were very beautiful and made you want to enjoy nature (which was their main goal). On the other hand, one was focused on veterans more than nature and helping them which was a little distracting from their point. In another video, there was an annoying bass or beat that kept me distracted from the video. So, the little things mattered and we had to give our own feedback as a viewer to help them see things in a new light.

This helps the focus group people greatly. By telling them what the viewer thinks or needs to be changed or just tweaked. But not only did this help them but it helped me learn how to better dissect films and learn what goes behind not only making a short film but what a focus group does. I’m sure if I continue to go down this path of becoming a filmmaker that I will need to conduct several focus groups myself, so this was very interesting to do and reflect on.

Last I found this very interesting how people in Michigan, not just California, Toronto, or New York… have jobs in film, but it’s local and you can still make money near home. It’s inspirational seeing these everyday people talking about their jobs of filmmaking and the struggles they had in production to postproduction. Also from marketing to branding and creating a relationship by interacting with their viewers (even from their focus groups). Which I did get hooked and I want to see them succeed.

Overall focus groups are great and I would highly recommend people to join one. There is always some way you can benefit from them and in the end, you’re helping someone out. Others may need to do one for themselves. You may need to do one for work or in a group project, and who knows maybe it can help you grow as an individual as you try something new. I know I did.