Focus Group Results:
The focus group included some females and males from different ages that watched three scenes from the film Hot Fuzz and in the end, they filled a questionnaire with the following questions (along with the multiple choices and their responses):
1) Your age:
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Under 18: 8
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18-29: 2
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45+: 0
2) Your gender:
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Male: 10
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Female: 3
3) Three scenes shown but which one was offensive?
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Old man on the farm: 3
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REASONS: (18-29 MALE) generalises all farmers to be the same, (UNDER 18 FEMALE) funny moment no one understood, (18-29 MALE) his accent made fun of people in small towns.
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The church turret in the head: 2
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REASONS: (UNDER 18 MALE) it was too violent, (UNDER 18 MALE) it was very violent.
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The ending: 6
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REASONS: (UNDER 18 FEMALE) lots of actions and guns, (UNDER 18 FEMALE) pastor using offensive language, (UNDER 18 FEMALE) pastor using offensive language, (UNDER 18 MALE) doctor’s should help themselves when hurt, (UNDER 18 MALE) it has a lot of exciting action in the end.
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None of them: 3
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REASONS: (30-44 MALE) it’s hard to be offended with something far ridicules.
4) How offensive did you find the language (least is 1 & 5 is greatest)?
AGES: MALE: FEMALE:
Under 18 1,4,3,4 1,3
18-29 2,2 0
30-44 3,3,1 0
45+ 0 0
5) Which classification would you think to be appropriate for Hot Fuzz:
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U: 0
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PG: 0
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12: 1
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12A: 2
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15: 8
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18: 2
6) If you were a policeman, would you be offended by the way the police are portrayed?
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YES: 5
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NO: 7
7) Are the stereotypes of the police presented in the film accurate?
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YES: 3
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NO: 10
8) Did you find the film funny?
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YES: 12
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NO: 0
9) Which one was your favourite character?
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Sgt Angel: 2
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The farmer with guns: 6
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Danny: 5
10) Was the film what you expected it to be after looking at the poster?
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YES: 7
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NO: 6
In question 3, three people thought that none of the scenes were offensive which a 30-44 year old male stated that “it’s hard to be offended with something far ridicules” and this suggests that because the film was very exaggerated, it was difficult to take it serious with all the comedic atmosphere but this could also depend on the person since he’s a male and an adult, he could be used to seeing such things or worse. Two people chose the church turret in the head because of its violence and both were the under 18 and male possibly still indicating that the older you are, the more you’ll be exposed with these scenes so it’s not as surprising or bad compared to the young people. The old man in the farm was chosen by two 18-29 males and a female under 18 because it “generalises all farmers to be the same” which means that the stereotype was offensive to most of the young people. The ending was voted the most as the scene that was offensive by 6 people and the people that gave a comment were all three females and two males that were all under 18, and the reason given was: the use of many weapons, all the shooting and the inappropriate language and also because of “the pastor was using offensive language”.
In question 4, the respondents under 18 (males) gave a score of 4 as the language being very offensive on contrary to the older ages which makes us think about the fact of it being more normal for older people to be used to the strong language compared to the young adults.
In question 5, the classification most chosen was 15 possibly because the violence was very comic and some respondents couldn’t take it seriously.
In question 6, they responded more ‘no’ than ‘yes’ when asked if they would be offended with the way that the police officers are portrayed as. This suggests that the reason could be because Sergeant Angel seemed like a very smart and a capable police officer.
In question 7, most of the respondents chose ‘no’ than ‘yes’ to stereotypes of the police being presented in the film accurately. This could be because the police officers apart from Nicholas Angel, were not really smart and they were also kind.
In question 8, all the respondents found the film funny for the obvious reasons of it being a very good comedic film that is quite silly but intelligent.
In question 9, six respondents preferred the farmer with guns over Sergeant Angel and Danny probably because his ‘accent’ was very hilarious since no one could understand him.
In question 10, the respondents were indecisive whether the film was how they expected the film to be when they looked at the poster and this could be because of its background, the characters, accessories etc.
The focus group included individuals from different customs, personality and lives (and also some are older than others) therefore it results to everybody either decoding the same thing, similar or completely different. When I look at Stuart Hall’s theory, my thoughts are that most of the respondents viewed the film in a preferred reading and we can see this particularly in question 8 because everyone thought the film was funny and one of the genres of the film is comedy. Some respondents also viewed it in negotiated reading because they either found some parts offensive while others not so much. Opposition reading could have been done by some respondents due them thinking more about their own meaning than the meaning that was inserted in the film. If we pay attention to Roland Barthes theory, the respondents could have also seen the connotations in the film meaning that they could have seen a seen with much meaning that it showed.