Research Blog #2

For this specific research log, I want to discuss and possibly receives some insightful criticisms on my research presentation on focus groups. I would like to brainstorm some important ideas that I’ve been thinking about and writing down the last couple of days. For my presentations, which I have to deliver on November 5^th, my partner and I want to create an actual focus group for our presentation. Traditionally, focus groups are used for qualitative research in which a group people are asked about their opinions, beliefs, perceptions and attitudes towards a specific product. In this focus group, we want to gather about 5-10 students for an afternoon and show them an independent film that was created by independent producer looking for mainstream distribution. 18-35 will be our target demographic and what we are looking for is opportunity to create a research marketing strategy focus group and allow for insightful criticism of the film. However, we want to create a twist on the focus group, as we want the director of the film to be included in the group and we want to use him to stir up conversation, arguments and possible dissension towards the rest of the members of the group. Essentially, I want to create a focus group that reverses the traditional format of a research focus group. However, I’m concerned that this might be a massive undertaking for our 25-minute presentation. Are we creating a complicated research focus group? Should we just create a regular focus group that focuses on possible marketing strategies for the film? However, if we decide to just stick with the traditional format of a research focus group then our questions will be directed towards market theory of low budget independent films.

Secondly, I want to discuss our collaborative research project and include my own ideas for our research question that we have to create. For our project, our group chose the junction triangle as our subject matter. The junction triangle has its roots as a blue- collar community. Three intersecting railway lines surround its heavily industrial factories and graffiti mark buildings. However, the junction has an incredible arts culture that uses its industrial roots of the past to create a distinct cultural identity. A possible research question that I would like to focus on, is how the industrial roots of the past effects its present day arts culture? I want to focus specifically on the junction’s underground arts culture and how cultural identity is formed through their arts community.