Focus Group Feedback

After completing the focus group we gathered all our information and feedback that we received from the group members and we are going to take it all into consideration when we come to filming and producing our trailer. Overall, the focus group was successful and very helpful, allowing us to gain an insight into what are target audience like about our chosen genre and what they would like to see in order to make it unique. So what information did we receive from our focus group?

• Firstly, we received differing opinions on whether or not the narrative should focus on one main character or have a group of characters like in This is England. Some members of the group thought it was best to have a group narrative because if you have one main character, you soon know what he's about and can easily predict what he is going to do. Whereas with a group of characters you never know what could happen next and you are always learning new things about the different characters. However, some believed that a single main character was a better idea as it allows you to build a personal rapport with that character, so you feel more emotionally engaged in the story, for example the film Bronson just focusses solely on Charles Bronson.
• Furthermore, we noticed that the female members of our focus group didn't particularly like the way female characters were portrayed in the way they had little clothes on and were mainly sexual objects instead of women. Female characters are important in order to widen our target audience, however, I think we will only attract a female audience if they play a more significant role, instead of just being objectified. 
• Moreover, when we showed the different trailers to our focus group we discovered that they preferred their trailers not in chronological order as they thought it is much easier to predict what's going to happen when it is in order. They said they would prefer it not to be in chronological order so that it keeps them guessing, not knowing what might happen next. This is England uses a chronological trailer and so the member of the focus group could see what was going to happen at different stages of the film, whereas the film Legend is set in non chronological order making hit harder to predict and doesn't ruin the story.
• We showed our focus group two different British Drama films. This is England has a more relatable story line and narrative to what the audience are used to. On the other hand, Legend is not realistic and is not everyday occurrence. However, the group said they prefer to watch a film which isn't relatable to their every day lives and would watch something which is different and more exciting in order to follow the narrative more closely. 
• Finally, we wanted to have some feedback on the music that we should use. We have noticed that most trailers use music from the decade the film was set in. We got some good ideas, with some people saying that they prefer the music to match the on screen actions, whether that be an upbeat tempo for excitement or a slower tempo for a more depressing image.