Focus Group Discussions

Focus Group Discussions

The main idea for the final production is a short film extract from the Modern Noir genre of Art house subject theme. It's about two detectives keeping the city safe from villains and antagonists; this follows the conventional Noir genre, as there is a binary opposition between good and bad.

Key Quotes:

“Binary opposition between forces"

“Too many Hollywood key elements”

“Research the special effects as it will be an important element to the success”

“Play with the narrative structure”

“A non-linear narrative will make more intellectual demands on the audience”

“Reset time so you know what happens”

“Time is the centre of the whole thing, the narrative will revolve around time”

Discussions like this are very useful, as they will bring forward issues and new ideas that were no thought of before. My group presented the idea to our classmates; we explained our concept and general narrative. In addition, we to link to the subject theme, which is Art House to the production idea, stated the codes of conventions. One element of the idea that was unique is that one of the characters contains powers that could play around with time and one suggestion was to make the concept of time as the main proposal from the extract. The way our group explained the powers of time is that it would only be used in conflict with the antagonists especially in fight scenes. What’s also strange is that only one of the protagonists has a supernatural power and his partner is the intelligent role of the two. This gives an opportunity for different audiences of different personalities to relate to either on of the heroes due to the opposite personalities. The role for the superpower character is seen as dominant and powerful in the narrative on the other hand the other role for the detective is seen as wise and as a leader. The intertwined partnership between the two character types will spark a sense of personal identification and visceral pleasures. Another key concept is by playing with the narrative structure of the film to reinforce the key concept of time and break the convention rules for continuity; this will be constructed in the postproduction aspect of the project. The ability to break the common conventions is the beauty of the Art house genre, the extract will start will start with the disequilibrium from Todorv’s theory to grab the viewers attention. The overall result of the focus group was very positive as it refined the overall concept as well as brought forward problems. 

The target audience plays a large part into making this production successful. Our extract film will be target for 15 year olds to 28 year olds, this because we are seeking a 15-rating certificate from the British Broad of Film Classification and because the actors are from the same age range resulting to the viewer identifying with the characters. This is to attract young teenagers to visit Art House cinemas rather than traditional multiplex screens such as Vue cinemas. Since this is an Art House film it will still appeal to audiences over the targeted ages so this will not stop them from viewing and enjoying the production. We could estimate that 70% of the viewers would be male and the 30% female predicted by the amount of male characters in the entire production. The targeted class bracket stands in the ABC1 category however because it would be viewed in Art House cinemas it would be more likely viewed by the middle to upper class consumers. Mostly likely fit in the Aspires and Succeeders groups according to Young and Rubicam’s theory.