Audience Focus Group

The focus group involved each group discussing what their ideas were such as what their 30 minute narrative was along with what the 3 minute extract would consist of and where it would appear in the film. We also briefly covered the genre of our films, locations and characters etc. Each group then received feedback from everyone else in the room. 

Feedback

• Good story line. 
• Consider getting a lot of actors for the church scene.
• Consider accessing locations (permission) , such as church, mental hospital. 
• Seems like a classic horror film - "positive way". 
• "Try and have an original twist to your film". 
• Be careful when filming outdoor scenes - wind noises.  
• Make sure everyone is wearing similar costumes.
• Use of drug possessing character - positive influence in reality as it may prevent people from actually doing drugs. 

 Learner Response 

From this focus group activity we have learnt that we need to consider quite a lot of factors for our film. The main factor would be having a good story line in order to captivate our audience and keep them intrigued at all times. Furthermore, as our film genre is horror, from the feedback we got back, we need to consider having a twist in the film in order to make it stand out from other horror films. One other main thing we have learnt from this focus group is recognizing whether we would be able to get access to public places such as the church and the hospital and thinking realistically when it comes to shooting the scenes and getting the number of characters we need. Therefore, we have decided to take all these things into consideration and clearly plan out and research whether the shoots/scenes we wish to include in our production can be filmed without any issues.

Target Audience

The target audience for our film will be 60% females and 40% males. The majority will be females due to the fact that the main protagonist “Amelia” is a girl. Furthermore, females enjoy horror movies in comparison to males. Also, the film has an aspect of drama linked to it which also intrigues females far more than males. However, since the story is based around a teenage girl and the ‘teenage life’ some males (particularly teenage boys) may enjoy the film due to the involvement of parties, drugs etc. In addition to that, the age range for the film would be 15-25+, we believe that due to the fact the film mildly explores family life combined with teenage life this may appeal to some parents, maybe even 20-25 year olds who may be starting their own family so may want an insight into how teenagers are. Additionally, since the brief was to attract a different audience compared to what arthouse cinemas usually attract we thought that horror would be the best genre to go for since that’s what teenagers and young adults enjoy the most. Whereas the older generation wouldn’t be as impressed by it or wouldn’t enjoy it as much, considering it involves drugs. However, the film does follow a drama aspect too with a plot twist as mentioned before therefore it may appeal to older people hence the ‘25+’. Furthermore, arthouse cinemas usually attract middle-class audiences therefore we chose to make our film based around a working-class girl to not only attract working-class people but to also give middle-class people an insight into the working-class life. Additionally, the education level therefore does not have to be of high standards neither do they have to be employed in a high status job. This film is widely aimed at normal part-time working-class families and their teenage kids since that is not the norm at an arthouse cinema. Our film sends an important message to our audience about taking drugs and the consequences of taking them in which may prevent the younger generation in taking them.  Also, the concept of being raped after a party will also help teenagers realise the implications/consequences linked with trusting a stranger and girls would be the core target audience since they would emotionally engage with the film due to scenes like the rape scene. On the other hand, when looking at psychographics groups we came to conclude that the film would not appeal to the resigned group since they follow a strict lifestyle and would not enjoy watching a film based around a teenage girl and they definitely wouldn't be pleased by the horror genre due to their chauvinist values oriented to the past and their Resigned roles. Furthermore, the film would greatly attract mainstreamers since horror is a popular genre and they tend to follow the mass. The film would mildly appeal to succeeders and aspirers but only a minority since they care about their image and status quo therefore wouldn't want to go out of their way to watch a film based around a working-class teenage girl. Finally, the film would appeal to explorers, strugglers and reformers because the explorers enjoy to explore different things which means they would enjoy to follow the journey of a girl and learn new things through a film. Whereas strugglers would relate with the character Amelia since she goes through a great ordeal of struggles throughout the film.