Audience Research

Focus Group

Rianne and i chose to do a focus group as it gives a more varied and qualitative response, we can also get a more detailed idea of what our target audience would be interested in, here is the response from our focus group.

The results

Question Or Stimulus Shown	Response from the group
Do you know what a British Social Realism Film is?	No one knew so we outlined our definition of  British Social Realism Film in order for them to understand the following stimulus shown.
Fish Tank trailer was shown and asked what caught their attention.	They liked the aspect that the themes related to real life situations and the fact that older men take advantage of young girls and also were familiar with the location of the film. However the music of the film and felt it was too slow passed for the violent themes shown.
Kidulthood trailer shown and asked what they liked or disliked.	They liked the humour shown and feel as if they can relate or can understand the violence shown. They also thought it touched a lot of sensitive issues which they found interesting. However they found a lot of the shots over dramatic and that is a exaggerated represented representation of corruption of youth.
Submarine trailer shown and asked what they liked or disliked	They liked the fact it was an unusual love story and liked the theme of isolation and thought it was very different however they didn't like the fact it was all in first person and the pace was very slow and preferred the fast pace of the Kidulthood trailer.
London to Brighton trailer shown and asked what they liked or disliked	They did not like the sad themes shown and the hash themes which were portrayed so vividly they thought it was very unappealing however they recognize that things like this happen in the real world.
An Education trailer shown and asked what they liked or disliked	Most of the girls in the focus group liked the romance option and suggested that the audience who are in their early 20’s would like this kind of film but the boys in the focus group did not like the slow pace of the film.
This Is England trailer shown and asked what they liked or disliked	The group liked the history part of the trailer and thought it was interesting and especially liked the soft starting which slowly introduced them to all the themes.
Nowhere Boy trailer shown and asked what they liked or disliked	They really liked the humor aspect and the fact it was based on a reality and showed the life of John Lennon and they were able to relate with the fact character had controlling parents. It rally appealed to them however they said this is a film which they would not pay to watch.
Attack The Block trailer shown and asked what they liked or disliked	They familiarized with the language and liked the action aspect however they found the main plot of the film unrealistic and unappealing.
Four Lions trailer shown and asked what they liked or disliked	Again they liked the humor aspect of the film and said they found that the racism within the film could cause offence to some audience but this film was more targeted towards a particular ethnicity and found a funny side to the serious and sensitive topics shown.
Which Trailer did people prefer?	The majority of the group said attack the block because of the humor side to it and also Four Lions was said for the same reason. However one of the girls said An education as they found it most appealing.
We told them our idea which is briefly about domestic violence case.	They liked the idea and gave some useful suggestions we could use

Meet my audience

Qualitative data analysis

Our brief idea for our British Social Realist film  (yet to be altered): A husband domestically abuses his wife but he is a lawyer who is highly intelligent but his work life is taking over his home life and his wife thinks that it his her fault she is in the wrong as she  and therefore becomes effected so much she sees no wrong in him abusing her. 

1. The concept of humor: In a lot of the responses which we received we noticed that our focus group liked the concept of humor a lot and thought it was a nice touch to all the sensitive issues shown. However comedy is just an element within one theme and is not a theme on its own. Due to our highly sensitive idea for this production we would not be able to take this into account but when we further develop our idea we will be considering it but as we are making an opening sequence it will be difficult to incorporate comedy into the first 2 minutes of an opening sequence.

2. The idea of gang culture: As the age range for our focus group was 16-18 they liked the themes of corruption of youth this may be due to the fact that they are exposed to it and see it in everyday life. However they thought that most of it was exaggerated and most teenagers are not so badly corrupted as was shown, for example in Kidulthood. We may be able to include this idea of corruption of youth into our story line but we would not be able to show it in the opening sequence, if we were we would show perhaps flash backs of his childhood where his corruption of youth leads to his violence later on in life but using flash backs is not a convention of British Social Realism openings.

3. Theme of Romance is popular: Mostly among girls and the audience in the early 20's age range, i think using a element of romance in our film would also touch on the theme on innocence which is important in every British Social Realism film that is made. Also i think that it will interest a large audience as well as our target audience also the target audience is the age in which most relationships are made and a lot of change happens so i think if we have an element of romance in our opening sequence it would engage the audience and also create enigma.

4. The focus group did not like the slow pace: As our target audience is very young they did not like the slow paced films and thought the faster more loud trailers were appealing this shows that a smash mouth opening would be suitable for this target group which we are making our production for. I think it is due to the fact they are young and need something which will grab their attention straight away. The theme which we have chosen is domestic violence and this is something we can create a smash mouth opening for and the audience would also like. 

5. The focus group liked our idea: The fact that the focus group responded positively towards the idea means that our target audience would also be interested in it. They gave suggestions that would enhance their interest further such as the themes of adultery and also that at the end of the opening sequence have the wife scream which would create enigma which is an important convention of a British Social Realist film.