FOCUS GROUP

We gathered a focus group of 6 people to get their views on a short film I had already researched, and to ask a few questions on the plans for our short film.

The short film I showed was An Ordinary Day. Their response to the short was that it had quite a depressing storyline, and this is despite the fact that the short does try to have a happy ending. The group were taken aback by how sad the narrative was at the start, that they walked away from the film remembering this, not the happy ending at all. I deliberately chose this short film to compare their reactions to both happy and sad parts to see which parts they remembered best at the end of the film, and which parts they liked/disliked. They said that they liked the montage sequence at the beginning of the short and that the montage idea worked well for short films. We also discussed the soundtrack of the short and they said that though they thought it was a cheesy piano track it was the only type of music they think would have worked for the film, and the short was cheesy enough by itself so the soundtrack suited it well.

I also asked them about the plans we had in place for our short film. They said that at the end of the film they would prefer to feel uplifted than depressed due to the topic of the short as they wouldn't want to leave the film thinking badly about autism. However if they felt too uplifted and happy about it then it would be far too corny, they suggested the ideal would be a balance.

Overall having the focus group was extremely useful as it highlighted that the feeling that our audience is left with at the end of the film is more vital than I had realised.

tb