Qualitative Data Analysis

The research we have carried out has narrowed down our BSR film concept as we have some improvements we want to make. For example, the suggestion of the character Becca being younger has made us reconsider her character a lot. We have decided to make her the younger age of 15 as before she was 16 which is the legal age in the UK for sex. We think this makes what happens to Becca a lot more shocking, and it would be easier for us to show her as a much more innocent character at this age. This will show her at her first important stage of school, working towards her GCSE's and the fact that she becomes pregnant turns her world upside down. The idea that her pregnancy could affect her education means there is more at stake and when she has no support from her single father it seems like the world has given up on her. This is a good moment to have where it seems everything is against her, before something can get better. 

Another suggestion was to think about how the rape is presented to the audience, as it was a concern how people would take it. We are currently in the process of thinking of ways to show this scene in an effective but less visual way. We like the way a scene is shown in the film "Nil by Mouth" where you can hear the abuse but not actually see it. This is how I would like to present this scene, so it is still shown in a true perspective but the audience cannot see it happening as we agree it is a very sensitive topic and our viewers may find it disturbing. This ties in with having an age cap on who can view our film which is something we need to consider. 

The research we have carried out has developed our film idea as we now know which other BSR films are our target audience's favourites. The most common responses from participants in our research being "Kidulthood" and "Bend It Like Beckham". This allows us to study these films in particular and maybe consider elements of those films in our own. Many participants liked the storyline of Kidulthood. Parts of the storyline are quite similar to our own, with bullying being shown strongly through the character Katie's suicide. Kidulthood is also based around our target audience's age which is why I think it's quite popular, as they are all in school. We also want to see if we can develop the culture of our character Becca as we found that participants who like Bend it like Beckham enjoyed the cultural element of the film and how it shows how people can be treated differently through culture and gender, but on the side of the main character's own family, other people accepting the indian girl's love of football but her family not being supportive of her dream career. This shows how certain things can be expected of someone of a different culture or gender but that they're just as capable. This is something I think we should try and weave into our film concept whether it is making Becca, a strong believer of Christianity or something else. This should allow us to appeal to wider audiences if there is a cultural element. Also because Becca is a girl, this is a relevant film as it is based around girls and how they can be treated differently. In our film's context, girls would be call names for having sex, but for boys it is glorified and supported. Bend it like Beckham is all about fitting in and how it can be really hard, so this is what I think we need to show in our film. 

The research has narrowed down our BSR film concept as we do not feel like we have to change our initial film idea as everyone we spoke to liked our film idea. There are small things we want to change, like the age of Becca but we now know there is interest from our target audience for this film and it appeals to them. We think the idea is relevant as people like that we are showing the character as being vulnerable, becoming pregnant not through her own choice, and then the judgement against her from people at her school. The main thing that makes it relevant is that the bullying is mostly online through social media, and in recent years many teenage suicides have been caused through keyboard warriors not realising the psychological and physical harm it can cause. It is also relevant as teenage pregnancies become more common through teenagers being exposed to things they never used to be.


The research we have carried out gave us lots of information, mostly positive showing that our initial film idea is suitable to our target audience but has enabled us to find out things to keep the same, what to change or consider and therefore makes us more aware of the preferences of our target audience and how to adapt the film concept around them.