Focus Group Review

As mentioned in my intial thoughts on our focus group I have analysed all the candidates thoughts and ideas of which I will sum up in this post.

Overall, I feel as though our focus group was very successful as it has given us a lot of ideas to implement into our trailer and has informed us of what our target audience would like to see in terms of narrative and sound especially. Although, it could have gone better if we had asked the quieter members of the focus group some direct questions to get them involved and give them positive feedback.

Feedback we recieved on what narrative our film should follow split the focus group up. Some thought as though a group narrative could lead to more opportunities and keep the film fresh learning new things about character over a period of time instead of quickly learning the manerisms of one character. However, at the same time it was understood that sometimes this can be confusing and hard to keep track of the characters and their significance the more you introduce. Also, the more characters you have the harder it is to be equally amotionally connected to each of them.

I have learned that trailers that are not in chronological order are a lot more engaging than those that are and are much more preffered as they don't give important plot points away as easily and when you go to watch the film you dont know what will happen after a scene you watched in the trailer. This was decided after we watched the trailer for Legend and because the benefits outweight the drwabacks we have decided that this is how we would like to structure our trailer.

Moreover, I found that the females in our target audience would like to see female characters with a lot more substance and instead of reacting to actions of the male characters they should act on their own thoughts and account. They don't want a female characters strongest contribution to the narrative to be their good looks, as seen in the Bronson trailer, and they would much prefer a similar female character to that in the Legend trailer.

I asked whether our target audience would like a narrative that presented a unique type of life style or one that is more relatable and the majority of candidates said they would like to watch a film that was more exiting than their daily life. Although, I agree with the members of the group who said this I feel as though we would not be able to do this idea justice due to the low budget we are restricted to. A film trailer like Green Street Hooligans would be much more manageable for us and suits our budget fine.

Lastly, we discovered that the genre of music did not neccesarily need to match the genre of film or the time period of which the film is set in. As long as the music fits with the narrative and tries to convey similar emotions then its fine to you music from any genre or time. The way sound is edited into the trailer is also important as it can help draw the attention of its audience at key points. For example, the Legend trailer includes lots of action shots and so the music needs to be energetic and throughout matches actions happening on screen especially when text comes up.

In conclusion, I think that the focus group went very well and that the ideas we recived ,as mentioned ,will be extremely useful when it comes to creating out trailer.

I feel as though we could gather a bit more quantititve data by creating a questionnaire and will definitely be considering producing one.

Focus Group Videos

Focus Group Footage Editing

After holding our focus group, James Scott and I stayed behind after school to upload the footage we had recorded on the Ipad to the Apple Mac in order to cut out any mistakes or waiting around for trailers to play to make it more fluid and decrease to file size so we could upload the video to youtube and present it on our blogs. As the video file was so large we spent most of the time just importing it to Final Cut Pro on the Mac, which meant we had to edit the footage today but it worked out well as it meant all of us were there for the editing process and could listen to the information the focus group provided us with. James Scott and I started the editing off by watching through and cutting out any of the errors we made when presenting the focus group. For example, a slip of the tongue when trying to ask a question.

After we had done that Sam Warren took over and edited out all the points where we were getting the trailer to play by adding transitional flashes, as it was just footage of the focus group watching a screen and their reactions didn't matter as we asked for their opinions after the trailer had finished playing. Lastly Sam added a finsih scene and title which I had to edit as the font was of the wrong proportions and hard to read.

Focus Group Initial thoughts

Sam Warren, James Scott and I held a focus group today using candidates from our target audience to get some thoughts and ideas on why people enjoy watching British Film Dramas and how they could be improved. The feedback we recieved will be analysed and presented at a later date in a blog post as I need some time to go over the footage.

Sam Warren created a PowerPoint presentation with questions on British Film Dramas that we wanted to ask the members of our focus group, with some input from James Scott and I. We gave input on the way certain questions would be asked, how we would present the group with past trailers and what areas we would cover in the questions such as Sound and Editing. We also showed the group three past British Film Drama trailers for the films: Bronson, This is England, Legend. We decided that it would be best to get feedback instantly after watching one trailer before moving onto the next in order to keep it fresh in the candidates minds and not confuse their thoughts on one trailer with that of another. Briefly, I will say that using these past trailers was extremely beneficial at helping to generate conversation and give the members with limited knowledge of British Film Dramas and idea of what they were about e.g. the narrative.

Once we had finished watching each of the trailers we ended the session with three imoportant questions that we needed answering from our target audience. The questions we asked were as follows:

• Would you prefer a group or single narrative structure ?
• What suggestions do you have of a name for our film ?
• What genre of music do you feel is fitting for the British Film Drama ?

Obviously we expanded on each of these questions if they were answered briefly without solid justifications. For example, before asking for suggestions for a name for our film we gave our ideas and ask for their opinions on them. Sam Warren came up with the idea of calling it "Young Breed" I then suggested "Street Life" and James Scott suggested "A Brick Maze".

On the whole I think that the focus group went quite well and was professionally orchestrated by our group to gather as much information from our target audience as possible.

Focus Group Presentation

Letter for Parents

Consent form for Year 13 Focus Group

Conventions of a Film Poster

Posters are another popular way of creating awareness and advertising a product. What makes them very useful for advertising films is that they can be used to promote the film in lots of different locations. Common places for poster to be placed are: outside cinemas, bus stops, billboards, train stations and on buses.

A poster should be eye grabbing and primarily illustration, any text on it should be short and sweet. This textual information may be a quote from the film, the title, BBFC rating, release date and the cast. It should make the viewer want to go an watch the film and uses the ratio of 50:50 text to picture to provide them with enough knowledge of whether or not the film is for them.

As you can see by the two British film drama posters to the left, they do not always use shots from the film and instead use the concept art they have drawn up from the narrative as to make use of their artist and not give anything away before the trailer comes out. An icon is very important to have on a poster because they need them to help understand the genre and this will effect whether they like it or ignore it.

The Suffragette poster shows the main character/icon in the centre foreground behind text which makes her look like a criminal getting a mugshot for breaking the law, giving away hints to the viewer about the narrative.

Starred Up's poster presents the main character stood in the centre of a prison block with no one else around suggesting that despite the number of cells with inmates in them he is in fact alone. This makes the viewer subconsciously question why.

If the film is a large recognisable brand with lots of sequels, the poster does not always need a title of the film which leaves more room for illustration and the release date, which is what people will focus on.

Purpose & History of a Trailer

History

The first movie trailer was released in 1913 for a film called "The Pleasure Seekers" and was created by the Lowes Cinemas company. This was a short promotional video that played before the film. This was so well received by the audience that it was adopted in all other theatres they owned. The company most well known for making these trailers was the National Screen Service

These early trailers consisted of  important scenes from a film with a bit of text.

Purpose

The purpose of a film trailer is to create hype for the film, making people want to see the  rest of the film by getting them interested in small fragments of the narrative. A successful trailer will catch and hold the audiences attention for the limited amount of time it has before another film starts or between a programme on the television.

What has become very popular now after being introduced in the 1960's is the stylised trailers, that includes a montage of different scenes, that are not in any narrative order. This was due to the change of who was in charge of the trailer, which moved away from the Marketing department and to the directors who became more involved.

A trailer must also be memorable and it can do this in many different ways. A popular way this is done is through music and the music does not need to be popular for it to be effective, just as long as it is distinctive and stands out it can be from any genre and any time period. This sometimes very useful as it means you do not need to pay large amounts of money in royalties. This is a very important aspect of any film trailer as it helps set the tone and gets an instant emotional reaction from the viewer.

Ideas for Focus Group

To get more of an idea of our target audiences likes and dislikes on the British Film Drama we have decided to hold a focus group of candidates from the ages 18 - 25.

The reason we decided on this age range is because the content involved in these types of films can be very explicit and inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18, and we were doubtful that any parents would give consent for their child to watch the trailers we plan to show to the focus group as examples. Since the year 13's are all at the bottom of the age range boundary we have decided to use candidates from our media class in the focus group and I have thought about designing a questionnaire to give to people in the middle to high area of our age range and will decide after we have held our focus group.

Audience Profile

Relevant Audience Theories

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Poster Analysis

Green Street Hooligans Trailer analysis

Instantly, Green Street Hooligans puts a different spin on the British Film Drama which does not follow the typical conventions and instead has the main charcter as an American University drop out who originally went to Harvard, an extremely prestigious college in the USA. The trailer opens with a long, static, follow shot of a plane taking off from an airport suggesting that a character has traveled a great distance, which is then reinforced by the next medium shot of the main character "Matt Buckner" walking through a terminal with luggage. The trailer uses a non diegetic, monlogue given by Elijah Wood ,which tells us he is the main character and explains what he is doing so far away from  
the USA. Although this is not used throuhgout the film or trailer it is a good way of introducing an important character without having to add more shots and scenes lengthening the time of the trailer.




Although the production companies are not metioned in this trailer they do show Universals name as it is a much larger well known company that people associate good films with. Oddlot Entertainment on the other hand is not as well known. They also only show the Universal Studios logo for 3 seconds in order to keep the trailer as breef as possible.

The dialogue between the two British characters shows the prejudice of lower, working class footbal supporters toward foreign people when the man in the coat says " I can't take a Yank to football". The slang used and the way they talk presents them as being less educated becuase of the area they are from and you see a lot of this stereotyping in British Film Dramas. However, the trailer goes against this convention slightly by showing one of the men with a large stack of cash ,which suggests he is a successful business man and quite intelligent.

Although, the next shot shows the trailer sliding back into the genre conventions as its a high angle, long shot of the main character and his friend walking down the street also show the lines of terraced houses with really cramped parking for cars. This housing area is typical of a British Film Drama as the houses are small and low cost, another typical setting for these films is on councils estates. One reason people live in these houses is that they cannot generate enough income to move to a new larger area and the majority of people that live in these areas may be or have been involved in crime. Ironically there is a pub at the end of the street in the bottome right corner of the shot ,which is where most of the violence and lack of money comes from that gets them trapped in these areas. The lighting used  is natural and low key giving the area a gloomy and depressing feeling which would explain why the people distract themselves from the scenery by doing other things. The lighting also represents the typical British weather at that time of year being quite damp and dark early.

Additionally, this next mid shot shows how close and bonded together these football supporters are walking shoulder to shoulder down a street with Matt in the foreground next to hsi family friend, followed by other friends in the background. This is fitting because at this point some dialogue from another scene is played where Matt friends calls him "practically family" which is synchronous with their behaviuor in the shot.

Again this tralier shows how the film is following the British Film Drama convention of viloence for violence sake and this can be backed up by what one of the charcters says to Matt about taking his anger about other things out on the other football suporters. As the fighting starts some non diegetic music starts to play that has a very agressive guitar playing along with the punches he throws. Sound effects are also used to fade the voice of his friend out as he tells him to think of someone he hates representing them as irrational and unjustifiably violent.

The Trailer ends by showing the awards it has won from acclaimed festivals that will tell people that the film must be high quality if a body of experienced film addicts have voted on it. This is also true for the short, snappy and memorable reviews that have been given on the film giving more of an insight into what the film is like ,which a reward can't do as effectively. The trailer ends with the films title in a style of font and colour that is aesthetically identical to the environment in which the film takes place, a light grey, warn tarmac looking colour. This leaves the audience with the narrative idea in their head. Lastly, this trailer uses a well known alternative rock groups music which will build hype for the fans of the group to watch the film and listen to new music and get people talking about the film and sharing the trailer.

Green Street Hooligans Poster analysis