Focus group - Questions to answer

Focus group - questions to answer: 

What were the key points that the focus group have told you about your pilot?

The key points we have learnt as a group from the focus group was the positive feedback of our pilot. I think most of the focus group would agree that they found the CCTV footage, a strong part of the pilot and how it helped them understand of what the thriller was about. It was very difficult to make the audience establish what the thriller was about, because of the locations we had to use at school, it didn't really make it clear that we were trying to establish it was a bank robbery. 

Did they understand what the film was about?

Overall we got a lot of positive feed back in the terms that they established that it was about a robbery. It was unclear to them however, who the different characters were such as: the policemen outside they thought were robbers looking out to check it was clear to proceed with the robbery.  However, we will be able to make the different characters clear to them when we use costume and props as we will have the correct police uniforms for the different types of policemen and black hoodies and balaclavas for the robbers, to clearly distinguish between them.

Were they thrilled, if so what by, if not, why not?

We had a lot of positive feedback on the CCTV shots as they said that this made the situation clear and created suspense. They also liked the close-up on the policeman’s eyes as this also created anticipation. They did say however, that some shots were too long and resulted in the tension, suspense and sense of isolation being lost. Also they thought that the cast was too young and immature as one of the actors was laughing and this took away from the verisimilitude of the piece.

Were there any aspects of the film that they criticised if so what?

They did not understand Fady (the policeman down the alley way) his body language was awkward and fidgety and his facial expression was also nervous and suspicious as his eyes were looking around resulted in them thinking that he was a robber. This highlighted to us that we will have to rehearse with the cast to make sure that we do not give off the wrong impression. Also they didn’t have a positive feed back on some of our shot lengths. For example they said that some of our shots were too long and resulted in them loosing interest and not being thrilled by the piece.

How are you going to improve the shooting, mise en scene and editing of your thriller to make it more effective?

For the policeman outside the bank we need to determine what shots we can use to establish that they are in similar locations outside the bank to create a realistic and believable atmosphere. We also realised how important our costumes are to help distinguish between characters and create verisimilitude. It was also brought to my attention that the cast is hugely important as if they do not look like their particular character or old enough it is not believable and results in the audience being unable to fall into the world of the thriller. We will also reconsider the shot lengths so that the audience will not lose interest and use them to our advantage to help create the theme of isolation and claustrophobia to create an authentic and accurate atmosphere. We are also going to include another prop: Walky-talkies in the scene of the robbers inside the van. Not only will this create a more realistic atmosphere but it will also give the robbers something to do inside the van and result in this scene not being as awkward and having some meaning to it.