Focus Group

As our target audience has a large age range; we decided as a group to undertake several focus groups as it will enable us to have a better understanding of the requirements needed to captivate the audience.
Our first group consisted of students of a similar age range. They were asked a series of open questions that would allow us to have better understanding of what they expect a thriller to consist of. It was then revealed whether they preferred or disliked these conventions; this in turn determined whether or not we would break away from the original thriller conventions.
The second group consisted of adults of a mixed age range. They were also asked the same set of questions, as they are also included in our target audience. However some of the responses we received from this half of our focus group did not correspond with the first group. This resulted in the group having to make some crucial decisions on factors such as location and leading roles.

Questions that were asked
1. Name five thrillers
2. What role would you expect a female to play? Why?
3. What role would you expect a male to play? Why?
4. Would you prefer a male or female protagonist? Why?
5. As the target audience would you prefer the thriller to stick to the typical thriller conventions? – referring to hero, villain, location, story line.
6. Would putting the protagonist’s life or safety at risk have a large effect on the audience to having a happy ending?
7. Could the female play anything other then heroine/ victim.

Our first question was for them to name 5 thrillers; we opened with this to make sure they had a good understanding of what a thriller actually is. Both groups had a firm understanding as they all answered without hesitation.
One of our biggest issues when regarding character lead was whether it was going to be played by a male or a female, yet the response from the focused groups were split. The first group were all behind having a male lead, as they all stereotypically pictured the female as the victim role. Meanwhile the second group suggested having either a female lead/villain as it would be unexpected. This left the final decision to be made by us collectively as a group.
The location was also split as the first group liked the usual conventions of a girl being in a house alone late at night, meanwhile the second group wanted to break away and have a location that was opposed to the traditional one. As a group we had to then discuss which one was the right decision.
Overall the focus group benefited us as we were able to make final decisions as we had gained a better understanding of what our target audience want.

Helen Daniel