Today we did our focus group it consisted of 3
males and 3 females who had a go at 3 different ideas:
Books
These were two different books they were presented
in a box with “mini novels” within them. Short parts of the story that no
matter what order you would read them it would still makes sense. The audience
is engaged to create their own story each time the book is read and they have
to choose the order of the smaller books.
The feedback we received from the books were that
the focus group thought they were interesting but wouldn’t want to have a go
with them as they looked confusing and they wouldn’t know where to start. They
also thought they weren’t worth the price as they were: (can anyone remember
the prices of the books?) The focus group also felt they didn’t really
understand the concept behind them and how they would actually work and they
couldn’t think of a time where they would sit down and take the time to read
them.
Story Games
Consequences
With our focus group we played a simple game of
consequences where in a group they all have a piece of paper they write a
location, then pass it on to the next person they then write and action then
the next person writes a characters name then the next writes some dialogue
then the next writes another characters name. Folding the paper over as they go
so the next person cant see what the previous person has wrote.
First and Last
with this game we found 6 first and last lines from different books and we then asked group members to chose one of each a create a middle part. By creating the ‘plot’ in a sense for the starts and ends they had turned from audience participants to the authors.
The general feedback we had from this was that
people enjoyed it and found the final story’s funny and enjoyable to read back.
They seemed to enjoy playing story games instead of going headfirst into a full
storytelling experience.
Online
We had two different websites, Bear 71 and Take
this Lollipop. We asked our participants to look through these websites while
we observed and asked them questions. The websites involved user participation
in already created stories. In bear 71 you navigate your way through a story
and you chose the content you wish to look at. Take this Lollipop, is a
interactive horror short film, and Facebook app which uses Facebook to bring
viewers themselves into the film, through using their pictures and messages
from their own Facebook profiles.
We then went on to give our focus group a
questionnaire asking them about their activities. we also spoke to them during
the activities and wrote down any other information.
Conclusion of Feedback and research.
- Permision
is crucial! Feedback from the questionnaire we did shows this.
- a lot of
people don’t actually get involved because they aren’t sure whats out there.
- Audiences
feel the rights rest with the author therefore they themselves don’t want to ‘tread
on the authors toes’
- Don’t
want to get involved with favorite shows as they prefer to see them unfold
without knowing what is going to happen next.
