A focus group format let's the people get actual feedback to their product whatever it may be as opposed to just question and answers like a regular survey.
Getting feedback is one thing. But having focus groups make artistic decisions is quite another.
Unfortunately, Darren's post is no longer here to give my post its full context. But let's lay out a hypothetical situation (that really isn't all that hypothetical because it actually happens all the time
). Say a studio shows a film to a focus group. The group's feedback shows that they may not like a particular character or the direction the film's storyline takes or perhaps how the film ends, so the studio pressures the people behind the film to make changes to suit that group. Where is the respect for the original artistic vision? True, the changes might result in the film becoming more financially successful. But where's the respect for artistic success? And chances are there could be an audience out there who would understand and appreciate what the film was originally trying to say. But the sad thing is that audience will never get the chence if the studio forces the film to be alterred to suit the focus group's opinion.
That was the point I was trying to make.
It really had little to do with marketing the film.
However, so far as marketing goes, there's always going to be a market for any film. It might be big, or it might be small. But these days the studios are almost exclusively obsessed with marketing all films to the same audience with the hope of reaping the biggest profits rather than allowing a film to find its own niche. So few niche films are allowed to be made - well, unless the people behind them are willing to scrape the money together on their own and go into hock way over their heads. And that is actually a shame.
So, how did most of this relate to the DS pilot? Well, Darren had originally mentioned that the networks were spending this time showing their pilots to various focus groups for feedback and then possibly tweaking them accordingly. But my hope is that the WB DS pilot won't be so subjected to "creativity by committee" (which is what focus groups basically amount to) that it will lose all essence of what PJ Hogan, John Wells, DC and Mark Verheiden had originally envisioned...