Focus Group Report

I have learnt that my current state of my script (draft 2) has strengths as well as weaknesses which I now know of via the help of my focus group.

Firstly, I have learnt that a strength within my script is that I have a strong foundation in terms of characters meaning that they are not too serious nor too silly but are realistic which is a primary base for any story. Not only that, but a number of the people involved in the focus group stated that they were “relatable” which was what I initially sought out to do due to the intended audience being teenagers and the show itself involving teenagers which I feel is vital with my storyline.

Secondly, the setting. From what was said within the Focus group it seems they share quite similar views on this with one of them stating: “it would suit being at night to add mystery and it would give an excuse for the characters to be out since they failed their GCSEs” which shows that the show’s script is providing the right connotations to the reader due to how I originally thought out the scene to be.

Next, I asked the group as to what they would think the characters would dress like from what they have interpreted from the script itself. The majority of the group agreed that the characters would dress rather “poorly” due to them coming across as quite unintelligent with some relating back to the text such as “how it mentions one of them failed their science GCSE” which shows the script is entertaining as to how they remember specific parts which some of the group backed up their answers with. 

Carrying on from that, the group as a whole agreed that they seem very ‘chavy’ due to the words they use and as a result they thought the characters would wear clothing like tracksuits.

However, when asking the group whether they thought the plot was realistic there was some controversy present over whether it is or whether it isn’t, some of the people said it was due to “how the characters are relatable” whereas others argued that it wasn’t “due to them having superpowers” and how there is not explanation for the meteor to land considering it is the first episode that is pitched, that being said I want to make viewers want to continue to watch the show to learn how and why the meteor landed hence why perhaps some of the focus group said it is “realistic with a twist”.

Another talking point within the group was people’s thoughts on each individual character. The group as a whole agreed that Scott comes across as the “leader” due to how the other characters run their ideas by him. However the controversy of the group’s interpretations occur when deciding on the characters; “Josh” and “Liam” as some interpreted as Josh as the unintelligent one and others thinking Liam is the unintelligent one, which is not how I wanted my script to come across to the readers and thus will have to be tweaked via the use of more stage directions and directions on how the characters say certain lines such as “(bluntly)”, “(Mockingly)” etc.

I feel that the focus group has been a vital stepping-stone in terms of what weaknesses were present in this current draft of my script and with me now being aware of the weaknesses and I can now address them in order for my script to improve.