Discussion after focus group

In our lesson today me and my group discussed the feed back that we were given during our focus group, to see what we wanted to change and what we wanted to keep the same. We talked about good points that were rose during the focus group and any new ideas that we may incorporate within our psychological horror trailer.
Our focus group rose some good points about the title name we had chosen which was 'Oppressed', the majority of them didn't know what it meant and others didn't feel that it fitted with our idea and the type of trailer that we are going to create. so one suggestion we were given was to change our name to 'Transfixed', which we have now decided to change our name to because we feel that its more of an appropriate name for our narrative and psychological horror trailer.

The focus group suggested 'Transfixed' because they feel that this describes the characters more for there role and Delaney's obsessive personality which will be hinted throughout the trailer. One individual associated 'Oppressed' with slavery so we don't want the name to put of our target audience, so we decided to change it so it more appropriate. We have changed it so that it will be more understandable to our audience because if a few individuals from our target audience don't understand it then it highly likely no-one else will.  

From questioning the focus group I have discovered that they find a trailer more gripping when identities are concealed more, they prefer this in a horror because it adds anticipation because you don't know who or what to expect. They also said they expect to see a lot of shots of the character but not expressing their identity, they would prefer that to be given away when they actually watch the film itself. So when we start filming I am going to try and do lots of close up shots and long shots. Close up shots because you get details and long shots because you see the subject but you cant tell who they're. 

They also expect the female character to be protected by a male protagonist, they expect her to be screaming and afraid. However some individuals did express that this is not how they want to see a female, and the majority all agreed that it would be more refreshing to have a female protagonist, in order to change stereotypes. They believed that having a female protagonist empathies strength and makes it more enjoyable to watch as it doesn't follow stereotypes. So due to this good feedback about having a feel protagonist we have decided to keep this, as that is what our audience says they would enjoy. 

When the focus group were asked who they expect to be the antagonist the majority of the group said a male character. Which when I think about it the majority of horror films have male antagonist apart from a few exceptions. So they said it would be more interesting and it would encourage them to watch it more because they would like to see it, as it isn't something that you see very often. 

The focus group also suggested that we have an attractive female protagonist, and I think this is due to the male gaze, females like to look at someone to look up to, and males like a good looking female character to admire.

We also asked the focus group what they thought about the setting being in a house, as this is one of the conventions of a psychological horror. They all agreed with each other that it was predictable, however we have decided to keep this because this is one of the conventions we as a group have decided to conform to. So we are still going to film in a house.