Audience Research Focus Groups

Audience Research Focus Groups

A brief introduction to what the focus group involved
A list of key quotes from the focus group recording (you don't need to identify who said each quote and using bullet points is fine)
What you learned from the discussion and how this will impact on your final product. Particularly important is any changes you plan to make as a result of audience feedback.
A detailed breakdown of the target audience for your film now you have completed some audience research: gender, age, social class, education/employment, race/ethnicity, psychographics etc.

The focus group was a feedback session between the members that are in the production of our film "Out Of Mind" and the other peers in the classroom. We as the producers of our film explained our film pitch to our peers and from this we got feedback which would help us improve our film and vice versa. The feedback involved questions being asked to us based on what we revealed to our colleagues which allowed us to identify our areas of improvement and contemplate on some of the opinions that were brought up. 

As a group we changed our initial narrative as a result of a brief discussion with our teacher telling us "the whole narrative is in the 3 minutes and the 30 minute narrative may not be as interesting because non of the main ideas were in there and it would be confusing," and our uncertainty of whether or not to stick with this narrative. Our initial clip was to have two story-lines based on two separate people that come together based on their experience which makes them intertwine. The first story-line was to have a black female have a white baby and as a result of this people kidnap her and take her baby and she goes on a search to find her child. Also, her partner breaks up with her as a result to him thinking that she was cheating on him because of the race of her baby. The second storytelling was to have a female lose her parents as a result to them being run over and her becoming mentally unstable. The two would have come together as friends based on their experience throughout the narrative. Only until the end, our film would have shown a flashback on how they became friends (this being that the female that has the child's partner, in his rage, after the birth of his child runs over the other females parents) and this is the part of the film we would have based our 3 minute clip on. From this, we decided to change our film idea instead of developing it as the 30 minute narrative of our initial film would not have made sense to the audience and would have been slightly cliche. 


Our new narrative therefore is what we felt more confident with and focused on. A few of the key quotes that were suggested in the focus group were: 

• "Where and how were we planning to film the car crash?"
• "What would the lighting be like?" 
• "Would most of the 3 minutes be flashbacks?"
• "Would it be better making the opening 3 minutes instead of the ending 3 minutes?
• "If we make the last 3 minutes how will be communicate the main character?"
• "Do we think we'll be able to fit all the scenes in that 3 minutes?"
• "Do we want to make the first, middle or ending 3 minutes?"

From this discussion we developed our film around these ideas as we as a team thought that this would develop our 3 minute clip and make it more understandable to the audience and also more easy for us to construct. Instead of trying to visually construct a car crash we developed this by firstly basing it in a hospital room with the noises of the crash against a black screen and then showing our protagonist in a hospital room. From the rules and legislation's of filming in a hospital we then decided to change this to a close up of her eyes and noises of a car crash and then showing her leaving the hospital entrance. Another thing we developed based on the audience feedback was the section of our film that we were going to record. Instead of recording the ending of the film, we decided to record the beginning so that the audience would have a better understanding of what is happening as if we constructed the ending of the film, the narrative may be misunderstood. Baring in mind the feedback of us being able to fit all the scenes in the 3 minutes, we decided to minimise some of the script and the events to ensure that our film does not go over the maximum time allowed. 


DEMOGRAPHICS

Our target audience for our film "Out Of Mind" would mostly be aged 12 - 28 year's olds as it had been made evident that that this particular age group would be more attracted to the genre of mystery, thriller and Sci-Fi. In addition to this, it is also proven that most "15-24 year olds made up the largest proportion of the UK cinema audience, at 31%."  (http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-audiences-2015-11.pdf)  and as we aim for our film to reach as much as an audience as possible, we investigated on a close scale what to add in our film so that it would be able to reach a wider audience and not appeal to a particularly small age group even though it may appeal to more of a female audience than a male audience.
From our film idea, we interpreted that the main audience is most likely to be female as there are variables in our film that may not be as attractive to a male audience. These things include our film production not being action saturated or having any sexual references, this therefore, showed us that our film would appeal to more of a female audience. Also, taking into consideration that there is more of an emotional storyline based upon the breaking of relationships and the forming of friendships which is more likely to impact a female rather than a male. 
We aim "Out Of Mind" to be accessible for all social classes and ethnicities. This is because as this is a 30 minute film and will be shot over a course of locations and include a range of different people, this versatility in our film would mirror our potential target audience, making sure that it appeals to a range of people regardless of their social class or ethnicity as our two main characters are going to be of different races, including their friends. Also, as this is a low-end budgeted film, the income of the audience would not be as dependable because our film would be very affordable.
The geographical location of our audience is most likely to be based in the United Kingdom as this is a British film production and also is more of a niche project meaning that this would not appeal to perhaps an audience in China.
The values, attitudes and lifestyle of our audience is most likely to be more of an experiencer (They have a lot of energy, which they pour into physical exercise and social activities) as when consumers watch a film, they are more likely to watch it with another person therefore showing that this type of project is most likely to be viewed be experiencers as they indulge in social gatherings. 

PSYCHOGRAPHICS

Explorers are most likely to be the psychographic group that our audience belong to. This being that they:

• Seek discovery
• Adapt the characteristics of energy, individualism, and experience.
• They values difference and adventure. 
• Brand choice highlights satisfaction, and instant effect. 
• They are the first to try new brands.
• Most likely to be younger demographics - students. 

Our film "Out Of Mind" would appeal to a range of these characteristics as it includes mystery which will reach the satisfaction of the consumers as it is something new on the market of films, appeals to quite a young age of people and watching a new film would enhance their experiences.