The focus group provided feedback on a trailer for a murder mystery film. Most group members correctly identified the genre and said they would watch the film based on the trailer. However, some shots gave away too much information about the murderer. The group also suggested toning down the dramatic voiceover and including more shots hinting at murder. They enjoyed the establishing shot of the setting, a repeated shot around a fountain that hinted at a death, and a scream at the end.

1. Draft Trailer Focus Group Feedback
Our focus group was made up of 10 people, all of different ages
within the age range of our target audience. The youngest was 15
and the oldest was 50. We also had a mixture of gender in the
group.
1) We asked our focus group if they could identify the genre of the
film from a list of different genres; horror, romance, rom-com,
murder mystery, comedy, thriller, sci fi.100% of our focus group
got it correct, murder mystery, and 2 also said thriller because they
saw it too be a cross of the two genres.
2) Next we asked if they would want to go and watch the film after
seeing the trailer. 8 out of 10 said definitely yes, but 2 said that
although it did spark some interest it would have to be a bit more
provoking to encourage them to go out of their way to see it.
3) Thirdly we asked do you think the trailer contains enough
information to make the narrative clear. All of the focus group said
yes because the shots and voiceover logically fitted together to
explain the storyline. However 3 members of the focus group
noticed that the shot of the pill dropping into the wine glass gave
away the murderer because of the nail varnish which gave away too
much information. This has led us to decide to film this shot again
and put the character in gloves. One person from the focus group
pointed out that it might not fit to have the scene of the guy
passing the knife to the girl across the table in the same location as
the shot where they are both laughing, so we are also going to film
the knife passing shot again at a different location with a more
deadly knife.
4) We then asked the focus group’s opinion of the music, everyone in
the focus group said that they really liked the music because it built
up tension and atmosphere in time with the shots on screen and
because they think it fits really well with the genre and the time
period.
5) Then we asked their opinion on the titles, they were all in
agreement that the first two title were effective but they thought
the third title “Eight guests” wasn’t really needed, they said it

2. would be better in a voice over because the title slows the trailer
down.
6) When asked if the focus group had any improvement they think
would be effective or any other comments they came up with a list
of suggestions of things that they noticed that we could change to
improve our trailer. This is the list:
 The voice over was a bit too over dramatic and could be
toned down a bit because it sounds quite comedic because it’s
so over the top
 Have more shots to suggest murder such as murder weapons
or a hooded killer
 Increase the pace of the trailer by including more shots and
condensing the existing shots
This feedback was helpful however as a group we had already
decided on making these changes. It was good to get confirmation
that the focus group thought our ideas would be successful with
them.
7) Finally we asked what the group liked about the trailer. Here is a
list of the most popular parts of the trailer:
 The tracking shot around the fountain that is repeated with
the dead character on it
 The establishing shot of Shrigley Hall
 The scream at the end
 The link between the drink being poisoned and the drank