The Focus Group
These are the clips that we showed to our focus group:
The Sixth Sense:
We Need To Talk About Kevin
This is our focus group in action:
By doing the focus group we managed to find out a lot more about what our target audience likes and dislikes and now feel much more confident about what we should and shouldn't do in our opening. It was good to do a focus group because it turned into a discussion and we can't always rely on questionnaires because some people may give socially desirable answers or may not do what was completely asked of them.
Q & A
These were the sheets that we gave to our focus group
Questions asked:
When we did our focus group we had a very diverse range of 10 people and all together there were, 7 girls and 3 boys and these are the questions that we gave them and they had to write down the answers in preparation for discussion:
'Personal' for Demographics
1) What are your hobbies?
2) Age
3) Gender
4) How do you usually spend your free time?
5) How often do you watch psychological thrillers?
2) Age
3) Gender
4) How do you usually spend your free time?
5) How often do you watch psychological thrillers?
'We Need To Talk About Kevin' questionnaire: People said what they thought of this opening
1) What are your impressions of this opening scene?
2) What did you like about this opening?
3) What did you dislike about this opening?
4) What are your expectations of a psychological thriller?
5) Did this opening meet your expectations?
'The Sixth Sense' questionnaire: People said what they thought of this opening
1) What are your impressions of this opening scene?
2) What did you like about this opening?
3) What did you dislike about this opening?
4) What are your expectations of a psychological thriller?
5) Did this opening meet your expectations?
These are the answers that were received to the questionnaires:
1) Watching TV, internet, going cinema, shopping, going out with friends, piano, guitar, knitting, drawing, music, films, jogging, free running, gym, reading, tutoring, eating, nail art, make up, walking with dog, zumba, making videos
2) 6 x 17 years old and 4 x 16 years old
3) 7 x female and 3 x male
4) Films, cinema, friends, TV, researching Da Vinci, internet, youtube, jogging, exercise, reading, movies, sleeping, shopping, relaxing
5) Every now and then, not often, often, once a month, once a week, occasionally
1) Music has a tense, mysterious tone which is good because it builds up the atmosphere, introduction of the couple gives a hint of how their relationship may alter/change and be affected as film develops - seems happy to begin with but atmosphere changes to portray sense that something bad will happen when 3rd character comes in, seems like a nice scene when celebrating and relaxed but as an audience we know something is going to go wrong, very exciting,sets scene of film, credits really long which isn't great to sit and watch, starts off normal - contrasts later, foreshadowing, likeable and relate to characters, good, scary, tense, plot twist, shocking, exciting
2) Music and camera develops and sets up atmosphere, violent intro of a psycho character, dramatic music, foreboding music, something wrong, close shot of bulb, shelf and objects at start emphasise scene, clear intro of theme, mystery of what man does and why the ex-patient comes back, background music, good atmosphere which is maintained,questions left unanswered, enigma, twist of someone broke into house, do not see boy in bathroom kill himself but implied, slow conversation contrasts to shooting, how the frame for good work gives info about character- likeable, contrast between normality and disruption, guy half naked shows vulnerability & his body language, likeable characters, attachment to characters straight away, tension and enigma as to why man killed other man, credits fit with music, good introduction, makes you want to know what the rest of the film is going to be like, good build up to scary situation, surprising.
3) Character committing suicide is cliche, credits were way too long, (one person thought the credits were long but good)
4) Deep development of a complex character as they encounter different situations, often involves disturbing scenes and personal emotional battles, slow pace to quick pace, low key lighting, innocent victims, disturbance, eerie music, foreboding, flashing images, thrill you psychologically, normality established before disruption to emphasise change, effective music when disruption occurs, verisimilitude, tense start with plot twist, creepy, mess with your head.
5) - Yes, in the sense it bluntly introduces a psychologically damaged character.
-Yes, because there is a twist and disruption which breaks the equilibrium
-Yes
-Yes, set the tone and pace
-Yes
-Yes
-Yes, because we were given a false belief of safety and everything would be alright
-Yes
-Yes
-Yes
2) What did you like about this opening?
3) What did you dislike about this opening?
4) What are your expectations of a psychological thriller?
5) Did this opening meet your expectations?
These are the answers that were received to the questionnaires:
'Personal'
By asking these questions we found out more about our target audience
2) 6 x 17 years old and 4 x 16 years old
3) 7 x female and 3 x male
4) Films, cinema, friends, TV, researching Da Vinci, internet, youtube, jogging, exercise, reading, movies, sleeping, shopping, relaxing
5) Every now and then, not often, often, once a month, once a week, occasionally
'The Sixth Sense'
1) Music has a tense, mysterious tone which is good because it builds up the atmosphere, introduction of the couple gives a hint of how their relationship may alter/change and be affected as film develops - seems happy to begin with but atmosphere changes to portray sense that something bad will happen when 3rd character comes in, seems like a nice scene when celebrating and relaxed but as an audience we know something is going to go wrong, very exciting,sets scene of film, credits really long which isn't great to sit and watch, starts off normal - contrasts later, foreshadowing, likeable and relate to characters, good, scary, tense, plot twist, shocking, exciting
2) Music and camera develops and sets up atmosphere, violent intro of a psycho character, dramatic music, foreboding music, something wrong, close shot of bulb, shelf and objects at start emphasise scene, clear intro of theme, mystery of what man does and why the ex-patient comes back, background music, good atmosphere which is maintained,questions left unanswered, enigma, twist of someone broke into house, do not see boy in bathroom kill himself but implied, slow conversation contrasts to shooting, how the frame for good work gives info about character- likeable, contrast between normality and disruption, guy half naked shows vulnerability & his body language, likeable characters, attachment to characters straight away, tension and enigma as to why man killed other man, credits fit with music, good introduction, makes you want to know what the rest of the film is going to be like, good build up to scary situation, surprising.
3) Character committing suicide is cliche, credits were way too long, (one person thought the credits were long but good)
4) Deep development of a complex character as they encounter different situations, often involves disturbing scenes and personal emotional battles, slow pace to quick pace, low key lighting, innocent victims, disturbance, eerie music, foreboding, flashing images, thrill you psychologically, normality established before disruption to emphasise change, effective music when disruption occurs, verisimilitude, tense start with plot twist, creepy, mess with your head.
5) - Yes, in the sense it bluntly introduces a psychologically damaged character.
-Yes, because there is a twist and disruption which breaks the equilibrium
-Yes
-Yes, set the tone and pace
-Yes
-Yes
-Yes, because we were given a false belief of safety and everything would be alright
-Yes
-Yes
-Yes
'We Need To Talk About Kevin'
1) Very confusing, creates enigma as to what is going on and why this is very good, music builds up suspense,gloomy tense feeling, good transition from bright light to crowd, build up with curtains adds tension, mysterious, don't know what is going on, doesn't give a lot away which is good, odd, abnormal, random,
2) Interesting, not sure what is happening which leads to making you intrigued, good confusion with the crowd: is it blood, food?, curtains build up tension, good how the red theme continues with the character when introduced-hints at psychological disorder present in one of the characters, camera shots of large crowd but with muffled sounds almost like a dream, quietness keeps your focus, leaves open for interpretations, sounds create enigma, red is effective theme, lack of sound/music is eerie, child singing is creepy but good, lack of people talking, build of anticipation, doesn't give anything away of the plot, unsettling noises, slow camera movements etc, the titles; how it emphasises Kevin and build up if clock ticking
3) Confused,doesn't give many clues to what will happen with the plot, don't find out much about protagonist, child singing is cliche, no idea what was going on, no link between window and mob of people, don't relate to characters unlike the sixth sense, too random at times, awkward silence at very beginning,
4) Conforms to stereotype of children, involves someone with characteristics to do not conform to social norms, mystery but not too confusing,silence, creepy children, slow, dark lighting, plot twist, paranormal occurrences, psychopaths, flashing images,twists and turns, make you jump at times,
5) - Yes, because left room for development and didn't give too much away making it interesting and intriguing.
- Yes, because it set up the scene and focused on one area (window) without explaining, creating mystery, didn't explain a lot meaning not knowing a lot meaning easier to scare and plot twists and surprises because of the lack of knowledge
- Yes, because of suspense, stock settings, eerie
- Yes, it set the tone
- Yes, because messes with your head
- yes, because it was confusing making you want to watch more/all of it to understand it
- Doesn't allow much to be known about what going on
These are examples of the types of answers and how they were written:
2) Interesting, not sure what is happening which leads to making you intrigued, good confusion with the crowd: is it blood, food?, curtains build up tension, good how the red theme continues with the character when introduced-hints at psychological disorder present in one of the characters, camera shots of large crowd but with muffled sounds almost like a dream, quietness keeps your focus, leaves open for interpretations, sounds create enigma, red is effective theme, lack of sound/music is eerie, child singing is creepy but good, lack of people talking, build of anticipation, doesn't give anything away of the plot, unsettling noises, slow camera movements etc, the titles; how it emphasises Kevin and build up if clock ticking
3) Confused,doesn't give many clues to what will happen with the plot, don't find out much about protagonist, child singing is cliche, no idea what was going on, no link between window and mob of people, don't relate to characters unlike the sixth sense, too random at times, awkward silence at very beginning,
4) Conforms to stereotype of children, involves someone with characteristics to do not conform to social norms, mystery but not too confusing,silence, creepy children, slow, dark lighting, plot twist, paranormal occurrences, psychopaths, flashing images,twists and turns, make you jump at times,
5) - Yes, because left room for development and didn't give too much away making it interesting and intriguing.
- Yes, because it set up the scene and focused on one area (window) without explaining, creating mystery, didn't explain a lot meaning not knowing a lot meaning easier to scare and plot twists and surprises because of the lack of knowledge
- Yes, because of suspense, stock settings, eerie
- Yes, it set the tone
- Yes, because messes with your head
- yes, because it was confusing making you want to watch more/all of it to understand it
- Doesn't allow much to be known about what going on
These are examples of the types of answers and how they were written:
A problem with what we did was that we asked the focus group to write their answers on paper and then we would put them on survey monkey, but this did not work so had to result to typing out the answers individually... also on the personal questionnaire, questions 1 and 4 were roughly similar so got similar answers.. also we asked the same question twice on the 'Sixth Sense' and 'Kevin' questionnaire (question 4) we should have done this as one big separate question and answer and also sometimes some people would not fill out every answer. We also should have explained more on what question 1 was asking them on 'Sixth Sense' and 'Kevin' questionnaire because some people would write the wrong sort of things. Apart from a few flaws of the questioning of the focus group, we still managed to find out a fair bit about our target audience and we got a lot of information in general about what they expect from psychological thrillers etc... We now feel much more confident about what we should and shouldn't do in our opening.
We interviewed our 16 year old female friend and asked the same questions, it was good to do this because learnt more about our target audience and got more in depth answers.
Interview With A Friend
We interviewed our 16 year old female friend and asked the same questions, it was good to do this because learnt more about our target audience and got more in depth answers.
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