Focus Group:
In this focus group the first minute is Zara introducing the producers of the film and who everyone is and the rest is her explaining the plot of the story for the focus group to have a clear understanding of the film. Me and Zara take turns to read the questions as we thought it would be better and interactive so it's not just me and her talking for 5 minutes each for the whole video. Then after the story has been explained I then proceed to read the first question out to our group, the question being "what specific ideas do you like about Mandy the doll?" Faz then gives us an answer saying it is unique with Meri agreeing saying it is not common to predict in a film for a teacher possess a doll she also says it keeps you on the edge to see what will happen next as it is not cliché and is an original idea. Fajar then adds on also saying it is unique and what is unique about it which gives me and Zara the impression that, that specific part of students being possessed by a doll which is being controlled by a teacher is the unique selling point of our film and happens to be what they like and find most interesting.
Zara then reads the second question as everyone has distributed their thoughts of the plot so far. The second question is "what would be the best and most suitable location to film this?" Everyone then agrees together saying the school, which is good, so we have a clear decision of what location to choose as there's only one option. Zara then improvises and builds onto the question asking if it should be filmed in a forest and Faz replies saying yes some scenes should be filmed in a forest, I then kept this in mind for feedback and thought to myself that this is a good idea to have more than one location to give it that spooky effect to go with the story line as well as keeping the audience engaged and not just staying in one area. Aleena says we should do a mixture of both locations and Meri adds on saying we should have scenes or a collage of us going/travelling to the school to let our audience know we are in an unknown abandoned area (which is where the school is located) to lead up to the school scenes. She also evaluates saying we shouldn't just film us walking to the school we should build it up with different scenes to cause suspense.
The third question read by me is "in your opinion what would be the best age range to rate this movie". Instantly Atalaya says 12 and Fajar disagrees and replies saying 15 and evaluates on her answer saying as the movie involves torturing from a doll it should be higher up because of that which is understandable and me and Zara agree, a few others agree, Meri then inputs her opinion saying if you want the age rating to be lower put it as 12 but with parental guidance which is a good suggestion that helps me and Zara on what to do if we want the rating lower. Zara then asks the overall rating that it should be so Fajar and Faz both say 15 and everyone agrees.
The next question is "what ideas would you add to this thriller film and why?" Meri answers with adding more characters as it is a school settings so she feels like we would need a lot more kids if not getting more kids as characters then focus it on a group of kids that are friends to make it easier. She then says to have a main character and we established that is what we have done and Fajar asks if that child has parents as some kids in the school are orphans and so as Meri gets an understanding of that part of the story she says it out loud for reassurance and we say yes.
The next question is "are there any ideas in the film that you disagree with or don't like if so, why?" Meri responds with how it might be hard to act like we are in a school with orphans as it sounds like a more of a younger age to be, to elaborate on this she means it would be hard for us to have kids that are orphans in the school as kids as whoever we are going to use for characters for the kids in the thriller are going to be our age not actual kids which will be difficult to make them look like kids and says it is something we would need to take into consideration. Fajar also adds on saying if we are going to have a scene of parents dropping their kids off and the orphans coming to the school we are going to have actual adults to play that role whilst dropping them off. She then also says if there's going to be a lot of people and kids your going to have to get a lot of kids for that so she suggested a slight change to our story line and change the bunch of kids to a group of friends perhaps teenagers walking through a forest(still having that spookiness to it from the original plot) and for them to come across this abandoned school and when they pass to doll in the school is when it starts torturing and following them, which me and Zara took into consideration and agreed to change the beginning of the story to this as having a lot of kids would be difficult to manage.
The next question being "do you think this will be easier to film in school if not, why?" Meri answers by saying it is self explanatory to film in the school as the main part and most of it is in a school and that we would have to focus on the editing side of it not when actually filming so when we edit we would make the scenery look realistic and gloomy to fit the scenario more and Fajar agrees.
Question 7 is "would you add anymore characters to the film, if so why?" Atalaya comes with a fast reply saying that there should be a kid that betrays the other kids and by everyone's reaction it is clearly a good interesting idea to do which me and Zara are considering in terms of plot twists. Meri adds on saying that as there is a main character there could be another kid bullying him just for them both to find out they are the only normal ones in the school as everyone else is going crazy and acting abnormal and the two figure it out together to escape.
Question is 8 " if this was an actual film would you guys watch it?" Faz answers yes and everyone else agrees also saying yes showing actual interest and truthfulness in their answers to this question.
The next question is "is there any ideas you would change in the film? for example if there is anything that could be better" Fajar says she feels like again the same thing with the parent situation to change that up and have a friend group of kids instead.
Question 10 is " Should the doll have any characteristics? other than turning the other students into dolls" Atalaya says to not make them creepy looking. Faz says you could use them as slaves which me and Zara agree to. Meri said instead of possess dolls have them act like robots with the idea/theory of stimulation and suggests another plot twist for the end to be an illusion so make them look human but you can tell something is off by the way they move. Fajar then adds a question about the doll she asks if someone is going to act out as the doll and we answered with how we are going to get a doll and green screen it which will be difficult and Zara says if that doesn't work well we will have to use a person to act as the doll. Harleen asks a question saying if the school is a boarding school Zara replies saying yes you don't leave those with parents get picked up in the holidays and some parents don't bother coming so those with parents don't get tortured as much as they don't actually believe that the other kids are getting tortured so the orphans get treated differently in a bad way as they don't have parents. Alena adds on with another question saying how the teacher possesses and controls the doll don't the other teachers find out and we reply saying there is only one teacher as its a private school. Fajar has a suggestion for the acting part for the doll she says she thinks we should have a human form of the doll when teasing and messing around with the kids to scare them and when they look back they see a normal toy doll sitting on the floor starring at them and everyone agrees she says she feels it would be slightly easier for us this way so we wont have to continuously move the doll as it is more difficult that way.
Overall with all the feedback being given within the video me and Zara have discussed that we will take on what the focus group have said with their opinions, thoughts and ideas on our film that are to change for the better as they are better and improved ideas and some ideas said make it easier for us to deal with when filming which is very helpful.
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