Audience Research

General Questionnaire

Kerry took a general questionnaire to explore the audiences views on film and music so that Kerry can improve and think about her thriller opening. By taking this questionnaire Kerry has now developed a helpful audience profile. It will help us when creating our opening as it means that we have more knowledge on the type of music and films people prefer and how to capture their attention when watching my thriller opening. The results show that different age ranges and genders influence peoples likes and dislikes. Below shows the questions Kerry asked in my questionnaire.

1.)What film genre do you prefer?  

2.) What age bracket do you fall into?

3.) Do you buy films online?

4.) How often do you go to the cinema?

5.) Are you male or female?

6.)What is your favourite film?

7.)Who is your favourite actor?

8.) Do you own more than five  DVDs?

9.) What genre of music do you listen to most?

10.) What was the last film you saw?

From completing this questionnaire Kerry found that the younger people she surveyed preferred rock and pop music and owned more DVDs and brought more films online. Whereas the older people she surveyed went to the cinema more and preferred more romantic and comedy films. She gave out her questionnaire to 15 people and received a variety of results, however she found similar results to those of similar ages. This could show that nowadays the media around us has changed and influenced us differently. Kerry has learnt that when creating our film we need to take into consideration our target audience because if we don't refer to what they want to watch it wont appeal to them. This task has helped her to understand that we need to make sure our film will captivate our target audience. From these results she will develop this further into a specific questionnaire as well as a one to one interview.

Specific Questionnaire

I have taken a Specific questionnaire to find out more about our target audience and their interest in the thriller genre. I have videoed a few people being interviewed and asked them questions about thriller films, what they find effective and what they think of our ideas for our production.                                                

This questionnaire will help us with creating our thriller film opening as we now know what our target audience is looking for in a thriller opening. Below is the video of the interview and list of questions asked.                                                      

Emily also interviewed two other people for our specific questionnaire in which she found out that thriller films can be a but too scary for some people and they prefer thriller films like 'dexter' as they are more interesting and not so tensed and scary. To view Emily's interview >>Click Here<<
The results we got from this interview were quite interesting and very helpful to us. I found out that not everyone likes the thriller genre but for the people who do, some prefer the horror thrillers that involve murder, violence and creepy and gruesome scenes. I found out that people are kept engaged when there is a twist to the film, and when there's a lot of action. Also the audience like it when the film is very tensed but when I interviewed someone they said no because they do not really like the thriller genre. I also found out that the audience find it more effective when there is music in the opening as it can create tension and suspense and that it can sometimes be effective if an over voice is used at some point in the opening.

From this questionnaire I have learnt that most people do like the thriller genre and the people that do are more or less round the same age, it is mostly teenagers and young adults who watch thriller films. This questionnaire will help us in our production as we have now got useful information about our target audience, we know what elements we need to include to make our thriller opening appealing and effective.

Tuesday, 28 September 2010

One to One interviews

For my one to one interviews Lauren wrote out 12 questions to do with the thriller genre and asked three people to answer each question. Her original idea was to film every one's answers however nobody wanted to be put in front of a camera so she changed her idea to writing the answers down to the questions which she was asking her peers. She interviewed three people which come from different age groups; one from the elderly, one from middle age and lastly a teenager, by Lauren doing this our group can see the age group who are mostly interested in thrillers and who we should base our target audience on.

To the left, Lauren has taken a picture of the questions which  she asked, as they are not clear. They are:
1. Name?
2. How old are you?
3. Do you enjoy watching films?
4. What do you think of the thriller genre?
5. When you watch thrillers do you understand the storyline?
6. What types of thrillers do you enjoy more, action or horror?
7. In thrillers, stalkers and murders are usually men, would you find a film more interesting if it was a woman?
8. Our idea is (She then explained) what do you think of this idea?
9. Would you be interested to go to the cinema to see this film?

10. What part of a film captures your most attention, beginning, middle or end?
11. If a thriller is set in a dark environment do you find this more intense?
12. Do you like films which are mysterious and leave you guessing?

The first person who she interviewed was Tracy who is 43 years old. From Tracy's interview she found out that she enjoys watching films and that Thriller is her favourite genre so was interested to hear my idea of a storyline. Tracy prefers to watch horror thrillers rather than actions as they interest her more, and says that she will only understand the storyline depending on how good it has been directed. From this we will have to take into consideration of how we are going to direct our film so that everyone will understand our storyline.

When she asked Tracy the idea which we have in mind for our film she found it very interesting as she said it leaves her with questions which she wants answered which would make her carry on watching the film. Lauren have found out that it would be best to set a thriller in a dark environment as it sets up more tension.

Secondly Lauren interviewed someone from the older age group of 63. From interviewing this person, she has found out that elderly people do not really enjoy watching up to date films which in our case means that it wouldn't be a good idea to base our target audience on elderly people as most do not like to watch thrillers.
Pat was interested in the idea which we have in mind for our thriller opening as she said that she would be interested to see the outcome, however she also said that the way we film it would have to grab her attention to make her want to carry on watching as she doesn't usually watch many thrillers.

Pat commented that the most interesting part of a film which captures her attention the most is the ending  as it concludes the story, in this case we would not have to take this into consideration as we are only filming the opening sequence.

Lastly Lauren interviewed Keeley, who is a teenager of our age group. Keeley is 14 years old and is very interested in films which are only aimed at her age group. This shows that it would be a very good idea to aim our opening of our films at teenagers as we would mainly know what they would be interested in.
Keeley likes the thriller genre as she likes films which make her jump a lot, this could be taken into consideration when we make our opening as we should make it heart racing and jumpy to keep the audience engaged. Keeley didn't like the idea of us having a stalker as a woman as she is used to watching a man committing a crime so she therefore thinks that the woman would just be 'crazy.'

When she asked Keeley what she thought of our idea she replied 'I think it sounds very good and interesting, i would pay to watch the film. I also think that your setting sounds good, scary and dark.'

When she asked if she likes films which are mysterious and leave you guessing, she replied no because she would like to know whats going on and doesn't like cliff hangers. When making our opening sequence however Lauren thinks that it would be a good idea to leave a cliff hanger as it will make the audience want to watch the rest of the film.