Devising the piece: Focus Group

FOCUS GROUPS 

Definition: a group of people assembled to participate in a discussion about a product before it is launched, or to provide feedback on a political campaign, television series, etc.

IDEAS

As a group we developed several different ideas to do with focus groups. We looked at adverts that Lidl and Dove have previously done where they compare products to each other or do a survey to do with certain products and we thought of doing something similar. Having a would you rather game where you compare two different extremes and see which one people would like best. This was our original idea that we came up with and we started to build it up as the thought process went on. We wanted to use a couple of Bretch techniques to create the V effect: We established different techniques such as song, placards and narration. We were also pretty avid on having different stereotyping characters that would have placards on saying their inner and outer meanings.

We first established the two Essex Girls - one who is very sexual in her voice and body language and on her front placard it says that she is an extroverted sexually aware young woman and on the back of her the placard will say "virgin". The second Essex girl had her placard named "Joey Essex Dumb" and make her so oblivious to all that is going on around her - she will believe anything you say! And on the back of her placard we were going write "scared of rejection". She is dumb but kind and never wants to be alone, she makes her self dumb so that people will like her. We wanted to show that the target audience of the product is not like everyone else.

We we wanted to then juxtapose the two Essex girls with two "nerdy girls". We wanted one of the Nerdy girls to be extremely rude and on her placard it would say "if no one is as clever as me then they are not worth speaking to". And on the back placard we wanted it to say "really insecure". The other nerd was a star trek, star wars, doctor who, science loving girl who is an avid member of green peace and she is kind and lovely but also incredibly annoying with her dorky side - she likes to correct everyone, on the placard on her back will be "never want to be seen as a failure". By developing these characters more we could establish the V effect when coming to performing. The placards would explain the character's inner and outer self and would intrigue the audience more.

The final character we had to come up with ideas for the only male character - the man selling the stuff. We wanted him to be cocky and self aware and just a right old dic....degrading masoginistic bum. We would open the scene with him talking about selling the products and really expressing the need and want he has for selling the products and the fact he only wants to make money and to exploit the girls. On his front placard it said "an egotistical man" and on the back "a man who needs money for his sick mum".

The next step in this process was to establish the to extreme comparisons we were going to ask the focus group - they started off being:

Katy Prices Boobs  or Anorexic chest

Umpa Lumpa or Irish Albino

Pig fat poison injected face or 90 year old crackling cooger

Brazilian wax or Caveman mayhem 

The Essex girls obviously answer all the ones on the left and the nerdy girls first of all question what he is asking and go against the status quo. 

At first we thought this was a good idea but after performing we understood that it was just becoming dull and not giving the performance that much interest. So we then went on to develop it further with the feedback given. 
Breaking the forth wall and pausing the performance were two things that were suggested and we will defiantly make those more aware in the performance. We also advised to make the items the company are selling less repulsive and more appealing so instead of Katy Price's boobs we could go for "succulent bouncy balloons" Instead of Umpa Lumpa you could say "gorgeous Brazilian tan". By making the products sound more attractive you can establish this sense of positivity and fakeness. To make the products more visible to the audience we were going to show them around, having people standing on the table advertising how wonderful the products are. 

PAUSING - We thought that every time that someone says anything negative about the product they are trying to sell that Vlad pauses the scene and changes their words around to make them like the project and if they still refuse to like it he then twists their words even more so and poses them to be negative people. 

This is the starter for our piece and with further development and rehearsing I think it could be really successful. 

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