Focus Group Video

Analysis of my Focus Group:

I had 5 student participants in my focus group, aged 17-18, which fits within the age group my trailer is going to be targeted at. I included a mixed group of males and females, to avoid gender bias and instead analyse both answers in order to make my trailer appeal to both genders. The focus group were great discussing and voicing there opinions and this will really help me in the planing and production of my trailer, I will analyse each of there answers below to give me a clearer picture of how the results have been summarized.

1- Do you prefer horror or thriller films? Or a hybrid horror/thriller?

This question was important to see if i was targeting my questions at the right mixture of people, because they had different opinions and answer i felt the hybrid genre was a good choice and suitable to question this group of people. They commented they preferred the narrative of a thriller because it was more psychological, giving them things to think about and consider. They felt horrors could get boring, as they're all quite the same, which makes horror films quite predictable. 

2- Do you prefer the trailer to give away a lot or a little?

The main answer here was that the focus group preferred the trailer to give away a little, but would like to include some of the peak bits of the narrative in order to excite and engage the viewers. Overall it was decided, the right balance needed to be acheived for the trailer to fulfill its purpose of attracting the audience. 

3- What codes and conventions do you expect to see in a horror film?

-Intense music-

-fast pace editing-

-blood and gore-

-low key lighting-

-colour representation- dark, dull gloomy colours (reds/blacks)- 

4- Do the codes and conventions of a horror differ from a thriller?

-horror conventions more set-

-differentiate one thriller from another-

-editng is different-

-they both however often have dark, sinister storylines-

-low key lighting-

-colour representations,dark, dull gloomy colours-

5- What locations do you expect to see in a) horror b) thriller?

Horror:

Abandoned houses

Road-Trips

Isolated Locations

Woods

Graveyards

secluded mansions

Thriller:

more modern story line so locations need to be more realistic, fit into everyday life so the narrative becomes more believable and has a sense of realism.

6- Is the film rating important when watching these genre films?

Overall, people found the age rating only meant the content would be deemed inappropriate for younger audience and this mainly included violence and language therefore they felt the age rating of an 18, wouldn't be any more scary then a 12. 

7- Favourite films!!

-Sinister-

-The Shining-

-The Conjuring-

-Silence of the Lambs-

-Psycho-

-Dr. strange love-

8- What do you expect to see in the narrative of these genres?

Jump scares!! 

Fake scares, to build the audience up to put them on the edge of their seat.

Varying opinions of whether it should be based on a true story