The focus group provided valuable feedback on the trailer. All 3 participants enjoyed the trailer and felt the social realism genre was clear. They liked the opening and mysterious ending but felt the title was not emphasized enough. One participant said the editing looked choppy while another thought it flowed well. The feedback will help the producers strengthen the connection to the title and consider the editing in more detail for future projects.

1. QUESTION 3:
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

2. FOCUS GROUP FEEDBACK:

3. QUESTION 1: DID YOU ENJOY THE TRAILER?
Out of the 3 people we asked, all said they enjoyed the trailer giving it a 100%
audience satisfaction. We chose to ask students similar in age to our target
audience, and grade D/E in the social demographic group, in order to get a closer
insight into whether or not the trailer met their satisfactions and gives us an idea
as to how successful our production has been. By asking a focus group of mixed
genders, it immediately gives us a range of answers from people of different
backgrounds, likes and dislikes, to further accentuate our level of audience
satisfaction. A positive comment by one of the participants was that ‘the character
himself presented the genre very well’ which means not only was our choice of
casting a success, but also the genre was clear which are two things we wanted to
enforce throughout the trailer.

4. QUESTION 2: WAS THE GENRE CLEAR?
Our next question focussed on the clarity of the social realism genre with 3/3
participants agreeing that the genre was presented well throughout the trailer. They
said that you could see the social realism genre and that the use of the character
showed this further. Clarity of a genre is important when producing a media text as
audience members want to know when watching a trailer whether or not it will be the
type of film they like and will enjoy. By ensuring this is clear from the start it primarily
attracts the right target audience and satisfies the audience members. I think the
reason behind our trailer portraying a clear social realism genre is due to the amount
of conventions we tried to include within it as we wanted to cater the trailer to the
right audience.

5. QUESTION 3: WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE
PART?
We asked this question to see which specific parts of the trailer our audience
members enjoyed, however their responses were slightly less detailed as we
had hoped. Although we didn’t receive exact moments of the trailer,
participants did confirm that they enjoyed the opening of the trailer and the
end with one response being ‘I like the ending it left a lot of questions to be
asked about the movie’. This infers that we used The Hermeneutic Code to
provide an element of mystery within the trailer that managed to engage the
audience and leave them wanting to know more. The fact that we engaged
audience members and intrigued them provides us with some positive
feedback therefore allowing Oscar and I to know we executed this part of the
production quite well. The enjoyment from the audience shows a
representation of the Hypodermic syringe theory (which states media
representations have direct effects on the attitudes/beliefs/behaviours of
passive audiences) as it was out intention to make the audience want to find
out more and leave them curious.

6. QUESTION 4: DO YOU THINK WE SHOULD
HAVE DONE ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY?
To gain a wider scope of feedback we asked this question in order to find out
whether some of our group choices would have been done differently by other
people. The feedback for this was slightly less positive with all members of the
focus group in agreement that our trailer needed to relate to the title more and
that there was a lack of emphasis of the title as a whole. This is a valid point and
Oscar and I were aware of this lack of emphasis which is a concern we both raised
early on in the production. However, the thought that by giving too much away to
the audience, it would lose the element of engagement and mystery which is
something we wanted to prioritise. For films in the horror or action genre, it is
quite easy to create an action sequence or scary jump shot in order to grab the
audience’ attention, whereas this is harder for a social realism trailer. We tried to
use the lack of information as an attempt to grab attention from the audience yet,
in hindsight, I can now this that this may have led more to their confusion than
engagement. If we were to do this task again, a more direct correlation between
the title and onscreen action is something I would prioritise more.

7. QUESTION 5: WHAT DIDN’T YOU LIKE
ABOUT THE TRAILER?
Due to the fact the criticism of question 4 provided us with a different outlook on our
production, I thought it was be useful to see what specific areas of the trailer our
audience didn’t like to show us what we could improve on next time. One negative
comment by a participant was that we could have included more jump cuts so it looks
less organised. The decision to order the trailer chronologically was done purposefully
to mirror the OCD of our protagonist and to emphasise that his days follow the same
pattern and are reoccurring. Perhaps this message wasn’t quite as clear as we thought
but another comment was that the trailer was ‘too short’ which could suggest if we had
made it slightly longer then this message would have become more evident.

8. QUESTION 6: DO YOU THINK THE TRAILER
FLOWED SMOOTHLY OR WAS THE EDITING
ROUGH?This final question was asked to gather the audience’ thoughts on the precision and
execution of the editing which was done using the FinalCut Pro software. This raised
mixed opinions among the focus group participants as one comment was that the
editing looked ‘choppy’ which contrasted to another view that it ‘flowed quite well’.
These conflicting opinions could be down to the audience members belonging to
different groups in Burton’s social grouping audience theory (which suggests that
audiences are grouped by age, gender, place in society, etc). In hindsight, before
conducting the focus group, it would have been a good idea to learn more about the
participants and their likes/dislikes in order to get more accurate information
therefore if we were to do this again, it would be something to consider. On the
other hand, the focus group then switched their attention to the sound used in the
trailer which they portrayed in a positive light emphasising how good it was. The
way the voice over was edited to coincide with the soundtrack creates a contrapuntal
effect as the jolly non-diegetic music contrasts to the sad and lonely voice of Sam,
our main protagonist. This suggests to the audience that there is more to the
storyline than they initially thought, intriguing them to watch the film to find out
more. Looking back, I am pleased with how the editing of the cinematography and
sound turned out, however at some points, the voice over does fall slightly quieter
therefore if I was to change anything it would be to increase the volume.

9. TARGET AUDIENCE:
A PARTICULAR GROUP AT WHICH A PRODUCT
SUCH AS A FILM OR ADVERTISEMENT IS AIMED
BLUMLER AND KATZ’S USES
AND GRATIFICATIONS
THEORY
• Uses and gratifications theory is an
approach to understanding why and
how people actively seek out exact
media to satisfy specific needs.
DYER’S UTOPIAN SOLUTIONS
THEORY
• Richard Dyer states that people will
respond to a message if it offers
them compensation for the
inadequacies in their own lives.

10. BLUMLER AND KATZ’S USES AND
GRATIFICATIONS THEORY
• The ‘Uses and Gratifications’ theory deals with the effect of people on the
media. The theory focuses on how and why people adopt specific media to
satisfy their needs and describes mass communication, providing an
approach that is audience-centered. Blumler and Katz explain why people
choose and use certain media forms as well as emphasising a limited effect
position; the media have a limited effect on their audiences because their
audiences have the ability to exercise control over their media.Information
• Satisfying curiosity and
general interest
• Learning; self education
• Gaining a sense of
security through
knowledge
• Seeking advice on
practical matters or
opinion and decision
choices
• Finding out about
relevant events in
immediate surroundings,
Personal Identity
• Finding reinforcement for
personal values
• Finding models of
behaviour
• Identifying with another
(in the media)
• Gaining insight into one’s
self
Integration and Social
Interaction
• Gaining insight into the
circumstances of others;
social empathy
• Identifying with others
and gaining a sense of
belonging
• Finding a basis for
conversation and social
interaction
• Having a substitute for
real-life companionship
• Helping to carry out social
Entertainment
• Escapism/diversion from
problems
• Relaxing
• Emotional release
• Getting intrinsic cultural
or aesthetic enjoyment

11. DYER’S UTOPIAN SOLUTIONS THEORY
• Richard Dyer states that people will respond to a media text if it offers them
compensation for the inadequacies in their own lives. Through the media, audiences can
vicariously live their lives and fulfil their wants and needs, leading them to strive to a
utopian life. He believes there are 3 reasons why audiences choose to consume media
products including;
1. Social Tension
2. Absence
3. Inadequacy
The reasons stated above are generated by reality and therefore by consuming media
products, it provides an audience with an escape; a ‘Utopian Solution’. This theory shares
links with the ‘Uses and Gratifications Theory’ as they both suggest that an audience
consume media to satisfy their needs of escaping reality due to it being full of negativity:
presenting the media world as an escape root.

12. In relation to the Uses and Gratifications Theory, I think we have actively used this throughout our
production; satisfying areas within all 4 categories. In the opening of our trailer we use concentrated
exposition to display the definition of OCD on the screen for audience members to read. This enables
audiences’ to learn about a topic they may be unaware of, linking to self-education in the information
category, whilst also gaining an insight into the circumstances of others; creating social empathy. This
creates a better understanding of the minority group which forms an emotional bond to the character
allowing audience members to feel a connection to him and want to follow his journey, possibly resulting
in escapism or a diversion from the problems in their own lives by focusing on the life of another.
Additionally, if an audience member has OCD themselves or a condition similar, there is also the
opportunity for them to be able to identity with someone else and following the story of our protagonist
could allow for them to gain a better insight into themselves.
Moreover, parallels can be drawn between our trailer and Dyer’s Utopian Solutions Theory as it can be
argued part of our synopsis expresses a theme similar to an inadequacy on the table in the previous slide.
The main protagonist in our trailer, Sam, is isolated, lonely and shy therefore when referring to this theory,
a solution for him is to find safety within a society; and as the plot develops audience members would see
this transition take place. However when tailoring the theory to an audience, we have adapted certain
elements of the trailer to ensure is satisfies any inadequacies. For example; in order to avoid confusion we
used concentrated exposition and a voice over to act as a narrative throughout the trailer and aid in
clarifying any questions. The use of a non-diegetic soundtrack prohibits the inadequacy of boredom as it
builds in volume and tempo keeping the audience excited and engaged. And finally, by catering the trailer
to target an audience of young adults/ students, it gives them an opportunity to take a trip to the cinema