Rationale for Selection of Participants for Focus Group Discussions

1. RATIONALE FOR SELECTION OF PARTICIPANTS FOR FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS(FGDs)

The purpose of Focus Group Discussions is to encourage the participants to discuss their thoughts and opinions in an unrestricted manner with other participants. The open and often fluid discussions typically provide a whole new set of insights regarding the topic under discussion.

Although constrained by the time and resource availability, we tried our best to minimize convenience bias while selecting participants for FGDs. We conducted 2 FGDs with 6 participants each. The typical duration of each FGD was around 45-50 minutes. The selection of participants was done keeping in mind the following factors.

• ACADEMIC DIVERSITY
• GEOGRAPHICAL ORIGIN
• AGE
• GENDER
• PRIOR WORK EXPERIENCE

The participants had the following mix in terms of profiles which accounted for the above criteria-

• We interviewed 7 males and 5 females to have a gender inclusive group with ages varying from 19 to 25.
• The participants were carefully selected so as to have an inclusive representation from all parts of our country. They belonged to Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. This distribution allowed us to remove any biases that might have crept in as a result of the origin of participants.
• 4 participants had prior work experience in the range of 1-2 years before coming to pursue PGP in Management at IIMA.
• It was also ensured that there was no overlap between the IDI participants and the FGD participants.

The academic backgrounds of participants included Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Ceramic Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Commerce, Economics, Physics and Statistics.

INSIGHTS GENERATED FROM FGDs (TRAILER SPECIFIC)

1. DUNKIRK

• The overall opinion about the trailer was that it was successful in presenting a very grim picture which was the characteristic of the evacuation of Dunkirk.
• The participants had no doubt in their minds as to what kind of a movie it was going to be. The overall rating on an average for the trailer was somewhere around 7-9.
• A few participants had prior knowledge of Dunkirk (a World War II event). They were tremendously impressed by the cinematography and the minimalist and sombre music score. They said that probably there would be nothing new in the movie as it is a historical event which is very well documented yet they would want to watch that movie because the trailer captured the theme of the event perfectly.
• For others who did not know about Dunkirk, the things that they liked the most were the breath taking visuals, star studded cast, epic music and the director, Christopher Nolan. All of them knew about the director from his previous works and said that the reference to the director reinforced the idea in their minds that this too should be a good movie like the director’s previous works.
• The participants also felt that probably to someone who does not know about the event or about the director from beforehand, the trailer might not be able to capture their imagination as it does not really set the context of the event from the start. So to someone, the event that is shown might appear as random.
• As a result, the trailer could appear to be targeted towards a very specific set of customers. The participants argued that because of this they might not be able to entice a large number of people but it would strike a perfect chord with those who appreciated these kinds of movies.
• The participants also felt that the trailer was released very early because there was no mention of a specific date of the release of the movie. So some people might actually forget about the movie by the time it releases. To counter this view, some participants believed that the same thing might actually lead to generation of a curiosity and might keep the perspective viewer hooked to the movie’s release.

1. RANGOON

• The overall opinion about the trailer was that it was only an average trailer which could have been good had they started in a better way.
• The participants rated the trailer in the range of 4-8 on a scale of 10 with majority of them converging around 7.
• Some participants liked the trailer in only bits and pieces. They were of the opinion that the portrayal of some of the central characters in the trailer was not interesting enough to really capture their attention.
• They also felt that the trailer was too slow to start off and that the selection of the events to be shown in the trailer did not really ring a bell with them because they were expecting the trailer to show something related to war and action from the start itself.
• It was also discussed that the trailer could not clearly position the movie in their minds. Some of the participants felt that the movie was primarily a love story while some felt that it was essentially a drama while some felt that it was a bad concoction of the two.
• Most of the participants also disliked some of the dialogues that were given prominence in the trailer. They felt that the trailer could have included better dialogues at least because if a trailer has very poor dialogues and they are given prominence in the trailer then it kind of gives a signal to the viewer that probably the movie does not feature good dialogues because people expect the best parts of the movie to be shown in a trailer
• The pace which the trailer picked up in the second half was liked by a majority. The participants felt that the intensity had increased and the background music reinforced the aggressiveness of the characters and the seriousness of the plot.
• Majority of the participants felt that the name of the director came way too late in the trailer. They argued that because Vishal Bhardwaj has a reputation of coming up with brilliant movies and has given so many blockbusters in the past, the trailer should have leveraged on this fact and displayed his name or the names of his previous movies early on in the trailer. This they believed would have helped in capturing the attention of the viewer when the plot of the trailer was still under development.
• The participants felt that the trailer was very patchy and there was no flow in the sequence of events that was being shown.
• A majority of the participants liked a particular song which again was shown late in the trailer and they felt that by that time the trailer might have lost interest of most of its viewers.
• The length of the trailer was a major issue for everyone. They believed that the trailer could have been shorter and they could have shown lesser number of events  while focussing only on the central characters.
• The participants also liked the cast of the movie and were of the opinion that despite the lapses in the trailer, bollywood fans might still go ahead to watch the movie.

1. BADRINATH KI DULHANIYA

• The overall opinion about the trailer was that it was a good trailer which conveyed the content of the movie very effectively.
• The participants rated the trailer in the range of 5-9 on a scale of 10 with majority of them converging around 8.
• Some participants felt that it was a very clichéd love story and that there would be nothing new in the movie as such. Hence they did not really feel like watching the movie after watching the trailer.
• On the other hand, we also had people who actually liked the trailer and were of the opinion that the trailer captures effectively what the movie promises and that they would love to watch this movie because they felt that it was going to be an entertainer.
• Most of the participants liked the cast and the vibrant music. The overall feel of the trailer was very positive.
• Some participants felt that some of the dialogues seemed forced in nature and the UP accent of Hindi that they were trying to copy appeared to be very artificial. That could turn off for a lot of people. The content of the dialogues was good nevertheless.
• The overall setting of the trailer was very bright and the kind of clothes that the cast wore captured the imagination of some of the participants. They specially liked the typical Indian attire that was given prominence in the trailer.
• Majority of the participants liked the catchy song, “Tamma tamma” and they felt that it was the highlight of the trailer. The participants were of the view that the trailer targeted the college going population and young families and it did a pretty good job at that.
• The length of the trailer was acceptable according to majority of the participants because it was entertaining to watch the trailer.

1. THE SOCIAL NETWORK

• The overall opinion about the trailer was that it was a good trailer which captured the intensity of the movie brilliantly.
• The participants rated the trailer in the range of 7-9.5 with majority of them converging around 8.5
• The participants really liked the tagline of the movie, “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies” and felt that this one line set the tone for the trailer.
• The background music complements the events depicted in the movie brilliantly.
•  The participants were of the opinion that the trailer catches the attention of the viewer with some of the familiar features of Facebook being shown at the start itself. Once the viewer gets hooked to the trailer, the trailer builds up on the story of the founder of Facebook.
• Majority of the participants agreed that even though everything about Facebook and how it was founded is publicly available, the way in which the events were depicted aroused interest in the mind of the viewer. Hence, presentation was the key here.
• Some participants argued that the trailer could have mentioned the name of the director, David Fincher in order to catch the attention of the viewer. The others countered by saying that they did not need to do create a connection with a director or with a previous blockbuster because the trailer in itself was so good.
• The length of the trailer, 150 seconds, was appropriate according to everybody. It allowed sufficient time to the narration of the storyline and gave the trailer just enough time to get the viewers really hooked and then leave them wanting for more.
• The participants felt that the movie was going to be a serious one and it would lead to a disclosure of some of the controversial issues and events related to Facebook’s initial years. The possibility that something controversial was going to be revealed in a movie was what piqued the interest of majority of viewers.
• To conclude, majority of the participants felt that just by watching the trailer they felt inclined to go and watch the movie in a theatre even when they did not know much about the story behind Facebook.