Focus Group

This is the PowerPoint I created with the help of Conor, that identifies the questions that we plan to ask (which we formed as a group) and video that we plan to show our focus group. 
We are doing this in order to get a detailed response from them on how we can improve different aspects of our film, or the ways in which we could present our film to our audience that will maintain our strong desires for realism (for example: their views on the types of settings that would be the most appropriate for our 'happy scenes' and 'violent scenes'.

Also we want to find out how they would react to our ideas if they see them in film and if our ideas such as Sarah's voice over is an effective idea or if we should re-evaluate or introduce another narrative format.

Focus Group

Sonny, Conor and I planned a focus group and I got three people to participate in our focus group  (2 girls and a boy). Lauryn couldn't do it with us because she was not free when we were and so did her focus group during her free period and we did ours after school. In our focus group Conor asked the questions, whilst I switched the slides and Sonny filmed with the use of the Mac computers.
The response we got was extremely useful because the focus group members liked practically all our ideas- though one of our focus group members stated that our idea of a field was too cliche and it would be more realistic and more representative of lovers in modern day society if we changed our setting to a more recognised one of couples on dates (such as a cafe) instead of the old fashioned 'field, flowers and sunshine' cliche idea.
One of the members also stated points and gave suggestions and advice that we were going to expand on later such as the purpose of  the "fairytale" theme in the voice over. The member stated how fairytales are an unrealistic aspect of life, drummed into practically every child across the country, as well as the opposite to reality- this was the whole point of Sarah's Voice-over. 
Sonny was then supposed to edit the filming a bit to make it all flow together and then upload it to YouTube;  but due to a technical glitch the YouTube video would not upload and then it wouldn't work on YouTube. 

So then we decided to analyse  Lauryn's focus group instead...

• The members of the focus group stated that they liked "hooks" within an opening sequence, they want "something quite big to happen" for them to be drawn in and continue to watch the film because it makes them want to watch more and leaves them wondering why has that event happened and this therefore draws them in. We will try and keep this in mind when we are filming and editing our production.
• They liked the fact that James will never be shown and Ciani linked his silhouette appearance with the psychological element of our genre.
• They felt that the voice-over acted as another format of our enigma code, because it made them wonder "why is she [Sarah]saying that." Also, they commented on how the voice-over helped to establish Sarah's character, without giving too much of the plot away. 
• They stated that the happy scenes should occur in areas that are busy and filled with people who are also happy and that due to the nature of violence and the generalised (stereotypical) view that acts of violence occur in private, it would be best if the setting was an enclosed one. {It was a good thing that the focus group said this because it shows that their ideas and views are quite similar to ours and as a result the film would appeal to them- as a group we had decided that the setting of the violent scene would be their house. We just need to make sure that we surpass their expectations and not be too obvious in the way we create our production, we need to make sure it's different, as this will create intrigue within our audience, who most likely do not want to watch the same kind of films over and over again- perhaps we need to create a twist.}
• Each member had a different perspective on the kind of music that we should use: The first thought that it wold be best if the music was synchronous/parallel with the footage shown, the second thought that a more asynchronous/contrapuntal music would work better because it would highlight the overall meaning of the voice-over and emphasise the facade of the happy scenes especially. The third member though that it would be best to have the music at a low volume in order to maintain the audience's focus on the images on their screen and not derail from the importance of what they are being shown- she felt the music should be intense, but not draw the audience's attention away from the moving images and the main character (Sarah) too much.

Their overall comments and advice were really useful and helpful and the fact that they liked practically all our ideas, gives us confidence to continue with our production (in the format that we currently are) knowing that it will appeal to our target audience. 
We will try to keep them all in mind and apply the ones that we can to our production in order to produce the best and most appealing opening sequence for our target audience.




Ms.Butler fixed the technical problem of our focus group clip, and the clip is now on YouTube, but unfortunately the sound is terrible and the image is poor. This is because we had switched off the lights and as a result the focus group members can not be seen clearly.