Feedback from Film Treatments

Research – Focus Group

I spoke to 2 focus groups and pitched them the idea of my film using my film treatment 1. The first group consisted of similar ages, 16-17. The second group consisted more of university students, ages from 19-23.

First Group Feedback

• Positives
• “sounds like an exciting concept”
• More interesting premise for an action film
• Multi genre makes it more interesting
• Exiting and fast paced, good slightly different take on a heist
• Negatives
• Seems to draw a great deal of “influence from other films”
• Confusing narrative
• Very hard to film and too ambitious
• Perhaps too generic, not really original
• “Not a film I would be interested in watching” – 16 year old female

Second Group Feedback

• Positives
• Genre that is popular and mainstream
• The idea of intertwining stories is more interesting
• Elements of humour keep audience interested
• Easy to relate to as the characters are regular people
• Negatives
• Perhaps too simplistic
• “hard to pull off”
• Draws too much influence from popular British gangster films
• Seems too “Guy Ritchie”
• Some of the names of the characters do not really work
• Not new or original, it’s been done before

Changes to make after Focus Groups

I went away and decided to completely the change the ideas and concept of the film. It was too hard to make and was too much influenced by other films. I kept in mind the positive feedback about intertwining storylines and making it fast paced and a different take on a heist which is how I came up with a more economic based storyline. The focus groups were useful in making me understand that careful thought was needed to plan out my film rather than a fleeting idea.