Focus Group on Short Films

I carried out some research about short films on some focus groups. I asked a group of girls age 17, a group of boys age 17, and a mixed group of people under 15. I showed them 2 different short films and asked them to say what they thought, and see all together which one was the most popular and why. None of the people I asked had any knowledge in the media about camera work, sound or mise-en-scene. Both of the clips were found on Youtube.

These are the short films I showed to them:

:Tick Tock

 

 

 

 

:Memories

 

The film Tick Tock came out as the most popular film.

 

Group 1 - 17 year old girls: Said they liked how the time was reversed in Tick Tock They said it was a clever way of showing the film and it was something they hadn't seen before. They also liked the music used as it reflected the mood of the film all together. However, some of the group said that they found it hard to make sense of what was happening at times, but overall, they liked the idea of the film.

For Memories, they liked how it was in black and white as it reflected well the mood of the film. They also liked how it was put together with the special effects. However, some of them thought it was too short and it would have been better if it was slightly longer.

 

Group 2 - 17 year old boys: They said that they liked the idea of Tick Tock and that it worked well how it was put together. They also said that at some points they found it hard to make sense of and that it wasn't very well explained. They said that it was the kind of video that they would normally watch as it was quite unusual.

They said for Memories, that they didn't really like the idea as much although they said it worked well for what it was.

 

Group 3 - under 15: This group of people found it hard to understand the concept of Tick Tock but they liked the way it was put together with the special effects. They liked the music that was used as it reflected well the mood of the film.

They liked Memories for the message that was shown, and they liked the idea of it being in black and white. They also said that it would be better if it was longer as they liked the idea of it.

 

 

The purpose of carrying out research on a focus group was to see if there were any differences in what people liked in terms of age and gender. It was useful to see what ideas and genres worked better with different groups. I found that the majority of people like something simple and different, but not something that confuses them. They also like how sound and special effects are used in different ways.

 

The main thing that I learned through focus group research was the things that a female audience preferred compared to a male audience. From this I found that a female audience didn't like films that were too complicated to follow, and that they like the use of special effects and music. From what I have learned, I hope that I can use the ideas from the people in my focus group in my own short film.