Audience Research - Focus Group Analysis

In this shot they where reacting to a comment made by one of the group out loud about the close up of the girls belly in The Most Beautiful Man In The World. This tells me a lot about the group, within the first two shots they where already unfocused on the film and laughing amongst themselves. 

In this screenshot they where actually getting really into the film the mood in the room became studious and they became silent as they watched intently. This allowed me to conclude that a film with only one line of dialogue could really engage this audience with my film if I get my technical elements right. 

Here they where laughing at the one line of dialogue in the film, It completely broke there two minutes of intense viewing and after this they retained this jokey mentality until the end of the film. Marilyn Milgrim had already stated that dialogue is the one thing that could wreck a short film and that most of the things you learn to unite the film should be through visuals and sounds. 

At this point I changed the DVD to About A Girl

At the start of the film I observed that one member of the group couldn't quite understand the heavy accent of the girl in the film. This could linked to the biometrics of him and the girl in the film, He might find it hard to recognise the regional identity of the protagonist. After the initial misunderstanding the group watched the film with only a few jokey comments made by members of the group to one another. 

This is the reaction of the group to the final shocking scene of About A Girl. As you can see some of the group seem to be shocked (boy in the white hoodie and body warmer) with others find it funny. The boy in the grey hoodie is sitting very laid back suggesting that he is slightly disinterested, He's also laughing suggesting he found it inenvertaly humorous.

At the end of the film I proceed to ask the group some questions to gain some qualitative research in my overall Target Audience Research. I think that the answers they give to questions face to face are a lot more valid because there is room for discussion and explanation that there isn't on questionaires or contextual research. I asked them the following:

In this shot they where reacting to a comment made by one of the group out loud about the close up of the girls belly in The Most Beautiful Man In The World. This tells me a lot about the group, within the first two shots they where already unfocused on the film and laughing amongst themselves. 


In this screenshot they where actually getting really into the film the mood in the room became studious and they became silent as they watched intently. This allowed me to conclude that a film with only one line of dialogue could really engage this audience with my film if I get my technical elements right. 

Here they where laughing at the one line of dialogue in the film, It completely broke there two minutes of intense viewing and after this they retained this jokey mentality until the end of the film. Marilyn Milgrim had already stated that dialogue is the one thing that could wreck a short film and that most of the things you learn to unite the film should be through visuals and sounds. 

At this point I changed the DVD to About A Girl

At the start of the film I observed that one member of the group couldn't quite understand the heavy accent of the girl in the film. This could linked to the biometrics of him and the girl in the film, He might find it hard to recognise the regional identity of the protagonist. After the initial misunderstanding the group watched the film with only a few jokey comments made by members of the group to one another. 

This is the reaction of the group to the final shocking scene of About A Girl. As you can see some of the group seem to be shocked (boy in the white hoodie and body warmer) with others find it funny. The boy in the grey hoodie is sitting very laid back suggesting that he is slightly disinterested, He's also laughing suggesting he found it inenvertaly humorous.

At the end of the film I proceed to ask the group some questions to gain some qualitative research in my overall Target Audience Research. I think that the answers they give to questions face to face are a lot more valid because there is room for discussion and explanation that there isn't on questionaires or contextual research. I asked them the following:

In this shot they where reacting to a comment made by one of the group out loud about the close up of the girls belly in The Most Beautiful Man In The World. This tells me a lot about the group, within the first two shots they where already unfocused on the film and laughing amongst themselves. 

In this screenshot they where actually getting really into the film the mood in the room became studious and they became silent as they watched intently. This allowed me to conclude that a film with only one line of dialogue could really engage this audience with my film if I get my technical elements right. 

Here they where laughing at the one line of dialogue in the film, It completely broke there two minutes of intense viewing and after this they retained this jokey mentality until the end of the film. Marilyn Milgrim had already stated that dialogue is the one thing that could wreck a short film and that most of the things you learn to unite the film should be through visuals and sounds. 

At this point I changed the DVD to About A Girl

At the start of the film I observed that one member of the group couldn't quite understand the heavy accent of the girl in the film. This could linked to the biometrics of him and the girl in the film, He might find it hard to recognise the regional identity of the protagonist. After the initial misunderstanding the group watched the film with only a few jokey comments made by members of the group to one another. 

This is the reaction of the group to the final shocking scene of About A Girl. As you can see some of the group seem to be shocked (boy in the white hoodie and body warmer) with others find it funny. The boy in the grey hoodie is sitting very laid back suggesting that he is slightly disinterested, He's also laughing suggesting he found it inenvertaly humorous.

At the end of the film I proceed to ask the group some questions to gain some qualitative research in my overall Target Audience Research. I think that the answers they give to questions face to face are a lot more valid because there is room for discussion and explanation that there isn't on questionaires or contextual research. I asked them the following:

In this shot they where reacting to a comment made by one of the group out loud about the close up of the girls belly in The Most Beautiful Man In The World. This tells me a lot about the group, within the first two shots they where already unfocused on the film and laughing amongst themselves. 


In this screenshot they where actually getting really into the film the mood in the room became studious and they became silent as they watched intently. This allowed me to conclude that a film with only one line of dialogue could really engage this audience with my film if I get my technical elements right. 

Here they where laughing at the one line of dialogue in the film, It completely broke there two minutes of intense viewing and after this they retained this jokey mentality until the end of the film. Marilyn Milgrim had already stated that dialogue is the one thing that could wreck a short film and that most of the things you learn to unite the film should be through visuals and sounds. 

At this point I changed the DVD to About A Girl

At the start of the film I observed that one member of the group couldn't quite understand the heavy accent of the girl in the film. This could linked to the biometrics of him and the girl in the film, He might find it hard to recognise the regional identity of the protagonist. After the initial misunderstanding the group watched the film with only a few jokey comments made by members of the group to one another. 

This is the reaction of the group to the final shocking scene of About A Girl. As you can see some of the group seem to be shocked (boy in the white hoodie and body warmer) with others find it funny. The boy in the grey hoodie is sitting very laid back suggesting that he is slightly disinterested, He's also laughing suggesting he found it inenvertaly humorous.

At the end of the film I proceed to ask the group some questions to gain some qualitative research in my overall Target Audience Research. I think that the answers they give to questions face to face are a lot more valid because there is room for discussion and explanation that there isn't on questionaires or contextual research. I asked them the following:

In this shot they where reacting to a comment made by one of the group out loud about the close up of the girls belly in The Most Beautiful Man In The World. This tells me a lot about the group, within the first two shots they where already unfocused on the film and laughing amongst themselves. 


In this screenshot they where actually getting really into the film the mood in the room became studious and they became silent as they watched intently. This allowed me to conclude that a film with only one line of dialogue could really engage this audience with my film if I get my technical elements right. 

Here they where laughing at the one line of dialogue in the film, It completely broke there two minutes of intense viewing and after this they retained this jokey mentality until the end of the film. Marilyn Milgrim had already stated that dialogue is the one thing that could wreck a short film and that most of the things you learn to unite the film should be through visuals and sounds. 

At this point I changed the DVD to About A Girl

At the start of the film I observed that one member of the group couldn't quite understand the heavy accent of the girl in the film. This could linked to the biometrics of him and the girl in the film, He might find it hard to recognise the regional identity of the protagonist. After the initial misunderstanding the group watched the film with only a few jokey comments made by members of the group to one another. 

This is the reaction of the group to the final shocking scene of About A Girl. As you can see some of the group seem to be shocked (boy in the white hoodie and body warmer) with others find it funny. The boy in the grey hoodie is sitting very laid back suggesting that he is slightly disinterested, He's also laughing suggesting he found it inenvertaly humorous.

At the end of the film I proceed to ask the group some questions to gain some qualitative research in my overall Target Audience Research. I think that the answers they give to questions face to face are a lot more valid because there is room for discussion and explanation that there isn't on questionaires or contextual research. I asked them the following:

In this shot they where reacting to a comment made by one of the group out loud about the close up of the girls belly in The Most Beautiful Man In The World. This tells me a lot about the group, within the first two shots they where already unfocused on the film and laughing amongst themselves. 


In this screenshot they where actually getting really into the film the mood in the room became studious and they became silent as they watched intently. This allowed me to conclude that a film with only one line of dialogue could really engage this audience with my film if I get my technical elements right. 

Here they where laughing at the one line of dialogue in the film, It completely broke there two minutes of intense viewing and after this they retained this jokey mentality until the end of the film. Marilyn Milgrim had already stated that dialogue is the one thing that could wreck a short film and that most of the things you learn to unite the film should be through visuals and sounds. 

At this point I changed the DVD to About A Girl

At the start of the film I observed that one member of the group couldn't quite understand the heavy accent of the girl in the film. This could linked to the biometrics of him and the girl in the film, He might find it hard to recognise the regional identity of the protagonist. After the initial misunderstanding the group watched the film with only a few jokey comments made by members of the group to one another. 

This is the reaction of the group to the final shocking scene of About A Girl. As you can see some of the group seem to be shocked (boy in the white hoodie and body warmer) with others find it funny. The boy in the grey hoodie is sitting very laid back suggesting that he is slightly disinterested, He's also laughing suggesting he found it inenvertaly humorous.

At the end of the film I proceed to ask the group some questions to gain some qualitative research in my overall Target Audience Research. I think that the answers they give to questions face to face are a lot more valid because there is room for discussion and explanation that there isn't on questionaires or contextual research. I asked them the following:

In this shot they where reacting to a comment made by one of the group out loud about the close up of the girls belly in The Most Beautiful Man In The World. This tells me a lot about the group, within the first two shots they where already unfocused on the film and laughing amongst themselves. 

In this screenshot they where actually getting really into the film the mood in the room became studious and they became silent as they watched intently. This allowed me to conclude that a film with only one line of dialogue could really engage this audience with my film if I get my technical elements right. 

Here they where laughing at the one line of dialogue in the film, It completely broke there two minutes of intense viewing and after this they retained this jokey mentality until the end of the film. Marilyn Milgrim had already stated that dialogue is the one thing that could wreck a short film and that most of the things you learn to unite the film should be through visuals and sounds. 

At this point I changed the DVD to About A Girl

At the start of the film I observed that one member of the group couldn't quite understand the heavy accent of the girl in the film. This could linked to the biometrics of him and the girl in the film, He might find it hard to recognise the regional identity of the protagonist. After the initial misunderstanding the group watched the film with only a few jokey comments made by members of the group to one another. 

This is the reaction of the group to the final shocking scene of About A Girl. As you can see some of the group seem to be shocked (boy in the white hoodie and body warmer) with others find it funny. The boy in the grey hoodie is sitting very laid back suggesting that he is slightly disinterested, He's also laughing suggesting he found it inenvertaly humorous.

At the end of the film I proceed to ask the group some questions to gain some qualitative research in my overall Target Audience Research. I think that the answers they give to questions face to face are a lot more valid because there is room for discussion and explanation that there isn't on questionaires or contextual research. I asked them the following:

In this shot they where reacting to a comment made by one of the group out loud about the close up of the girls belly in The Most Beautiful Man In The World. This tells me a lot about the group, within the first two shots they where already unfocused on the film and laughing amongst themselves. 

In this screenshot they where actually getting really into the film the mood in the room became studious and they became silent as they watched intently. This allowed me to conclude that a film with only one line of dialogue could really engage this audience with my film if I get my technical elements right. 

Here they where laughing at the one line of dialogue in the film, It completely broke there two minutes of intense viewing and after this they retained this jokey mentality until the end of the film. Marilyn Milgrim had already stated that dialogue is the one thing that could wreck a short film and that most of the things you learn to unite the film should be through visuals and sounds. 

At this point I changed the DVD to About A Girl

At the start of the film I observed that one member of the group couldn't quite understand the heavy accent of the girl in the film. This could linked to the biometrics of him and the girl in the film, He might find it hard to recognise the regional identity of the protagonist. After the initial misunderstanding the group watched the film with only a few jokey comments made by members of the group to one another. 

This is the reaction of the group to the final shocking scene of About A Girl. As you can see some of the group seem to be shocked (boy in the white hoodie and body warmer) with others find it funny. The boy in the grey hoodie is sitting very laid back suggesting that he is slightly disinterested, He's also laughing suggesting he found it inenvertaly humorous.

At the end of the film I proceed to ask the group some questions to gain some qualitative research in my overall Target Audience Research. I think that the answers they give to questions face to face are a lot more valid because there is room for discussion and explanation that there isn't on questionaires or contextual research. I asked them the following:

After looking at my online research I found that alot of my online audience where aged 15-20. In fact 100% of the people on my online survey that was plugged through varieties of Twitter and Facebook stated that they where in that age group. I’d already learnt through my contextual research of audience that alot of short film directors where uploading there films online as means of exposure and I planned to find my audience there. Now I felt that my surveys had reenforced my view that I had any audience online and also told me abit about there age range. It was at this point I decided to get together two groups of this age groups to view films. I also decided that observing the reactions to certain scenes and films would help me determine even more about my own demographic. This was a way of me getting qualitative research instead of quantitate.

      The boys group was held first and I showed them two films, The Most Beautiful Man In The World and About A Girl. I choose these films because although they have some similar themes and issues they are also very different in terms of narrative, character codes and technical elements. I hoped that the boys would have watched the films carefully and have been able to pick out things that lead to there reasoning as to what the films where about. Although they did manage to give me some basic themes and issues as well as opinions they had of the films, during the viewings they acted very rowdy and seemed to depend on each other for answers. Here are some screen shots from the recording:

Which Film did you prefer? 

They all agreed together on the second one, I think this showed that they seemed to follow the others opinions abit more than the girls did. 

After confirming the second one was there favourite one person commented "The first one was just downy" The use of this colloquial slang shows that they where disintrested in making serious educated comments. In asking this question I hoped that I'd gain an incite into whether or not the audience could depict a film and generate reasoning for choices. I think it is however too early to say whether or not this will effect the film I make. 

What did you like about the second one?

I got a mixture of answers one was "You get more into it" I think that this response controdicts Milgrims point about minium speach. I think that this shows that if done correctly then speach can actually help to engage an audience such as this alot more.

I also got an answer saying "It had a twist at the end" I think that this was a key point about the audience, the shock value had made the film significantly better in this viewers eyes. This kind of shock clearly made the film memorable to the viewer because it was such a visual message. The more open to interetations of Most Beautiful Man In The World might have been missed by this group because of a lack of concentraction and analysis in the viewing. Another member of the audience then said "I think the first one was trying to overcomplicate what the message was." This direct qoute clearly renforces my view that perhaps this audience wasn't willing to look out for less transluent meanings.

What did you think the message for the first one was?

Again here I got a varity of unsort unserious comments such as:

"Pedos"

"Little girls going out"

"Trading bugs for dogs"

One of the only serious answers I got was "Misconception of the mum thinking the man is a pedo" This answer does have some thought put into it suggesting that although throughout they had been inconsistant they may have still gathered some level of macro meaning.

Have you ever watched any short films?

"Disney Shorts"

"Animated ones on youtube" This is a answer that fits nicely next to my contextual research. In that I concluded that www.youtube.com might have been a place to watch short films but the viewers will tend to take it less seriously. I had shown short films to an audiene that use YouTube and they had reacted in a very causal mannor.

Do you think these films have a big audience?

(Group Response) "No"

Do you think theres anything that could widen the audience?

"If the topless guy was someone famous"

"If it was longer.. And an actual film" I think this comment quite clearly shows that this perticular member of the group was unsold on the ideas of short films.

One person did however say "Marketing" As I found out in my contextual reasearch alot for short films don't have the money to budget and if they do it'll often be through funding given through schemes such as the BFI's Print And Advertising Fund. Perhaps that marketing is something that I should think more about when producing my own marketing campaign.

"drug taking" and "downy parents" where again answers that suggested they could understand some issues but didn't want to intelligently explain or classify them. I did however get the answer of "Neglect" which is a massive macro theme. To have got this shows that some members of the group really could create macro meaning in there head even if they didn't realise they where themselves.

 To watch the full recording of the boys focus group click here.

They said this focused throughout the whole film. This is taken from the line of dialogue in The Most Beautiful Man In The World, In comparison to the boys a much more serious mood in the room. And continued to stay this was through the rest of the film. They shared no thoughts to each other as to what they thought of the film.

Changed the DVD to "About A Girl"


They laughed at the girl sing Britney Spears in the introduction. I think that this scene is meant to hold some humourous value and it is therefore an appropriate time to laugh, The girls group where however much quicker to recompose themselves than the boys group.


During the final scene of About A Girl almost all of them watched intently, I think they appreciated the shock value of it and the girl in middle even turned her head away from the screen. Unlike the boys this was a much more discreet way to avoid watching the scene, she didn't interrupt the rest of the group like the boys did with there loud interruptions.

Like the boys I asked the girls some questions for my qualitative research.

Did anyone have one they preferred?

"I preferred the first one"

Why did you prefer the first one?

"I thought it was more interesting, like when she kept talking it got boring" I think that this shows that at least some of the group agreed with elements raised by film theorist Marylin Milgrim who I studied in my contextual research. She stated in her work that a short should have minimal dialogue. Like the boys I asked this question to see if the girls could depict a educated answer. Although it was basic it didn't have relevance and reasoning unlike the boys. 

Anyone else?

"I liked the second one because there was no talking in the first one" Unlike the boys two members of the girls group had instantly disagreed over views, I think that this shows they really thought about what they'd watched and evaluated there thoughts. This comment however not only went against another member of the group but also Marylin Milgrim. I think that to weigh up what an audience would prefer you have to think about the experience that Milgrim has with film, I still believe her view that a film should have minimal dialogue but accept that the one line in The Most Beautiful Man In The World was too little for this audience. 

What did you think the first one was about?

"Was it about a little girl that like, she wasn't, the mum didn't really care about her very much then when she went and got comfier with that man she got bait happier but then her mum told her to come back." This is one response was more extended than any answers to boys gave me. Despite the fact that she only described the narrative she did start to pick up on themes of neglect when she said "the mum didn't really care about her very much" Although she didn't name the themes she did show a basic understanding of it. 

Who did you think the man was?

"Was it her dad?"

Okay so did anyone think it might have been a pedophile?

"Oh yeah I did, I thought to myself that's abit dodgy."  These answers again proved the girls had thought about there own thoughts on the films and weren't going to just follow what the rest of the group was saying. 

Does anyone have anything to say about the second one? Did anyone know what it was about?

"It was bait disturbing"

Okay so the end bit was abit shocking, Did you like that about it?

"No, thats just awkward" 

Anyone else?

"Yeah it was unexpected I didn't know what it was then I was like woah" This is making me question my ending and whether I should attempt a more drastic shock ending. 

Have you ever watched short films before?

(Group response) "No"

Would you watch one again?

"It would depend what its about" I think that this has impacted the decisions I'm going to make because I'll try to make sure there is a more recognisable problem for the character, like the disability being physical rather than mental. 

Would that be something that you can relate to like something that relates to you? Molly I know you do horseriding so would you be intrested in that for an example

"Yeah I would if it was about horses." This is a little bit of a reference to the retorichal triangle. If the director got the representation of the issue right then the audience could be formed of people intrested in the topic. Leading me to the decision that using a theme or character relatable to this audience will make for a better film. I think that making my main character Rob a bit older will make him more easily be relatable to my audience. 

In conclusion the girls group where alot better than the boys. They where more appreicative of the films, and where much more independent in there responses, I think this has renforced my view that my target audience could be in this age range. However it has made me realise this group of people is very split with the majority of people failing to understand macro meaning. I feel that the quantaitve response I've got from these focus groups has cemented my view that this is my audience.

To view the full video of the girls focus group click here.

The Girls group was alot more calm and assertive towards the films. I showed them the same ones and they watched intently throughout, with only a few appropriate occations where odd looks where shared. I had hoped that they would have been more curious about themes and issues and that unlike the boys they would think more indepdently about what they themselves thought of the films. Below is a breakdown of my observations during the viewings

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