Audience Research Results

By Sylvia Rogo

The aim of my audience research questionnaire:

Before going straight into creating my advanced portfolio (magazine front cover, poster and trailer for my chosen genre of film). I needed to find out who my target audience were and their specific interests in such media. To do this I

conducted a questionnaire which I distributed to 20 different participants from the age of 16 and over. My questionnaire contained 19 questions with more than half

being quantitative ( tick boxes) to make it easier for my participants to answer and therefore allow me to get more accurate results.

Once I had received all my finished questionnaires from my participants I analysed my findings in the following slides to find out who my audience is. I

then decided to gather a focus group so that I could receive a stronger insight into their views of my chosen genre (horror- stalker/slasher) and how they

feel/think about the different medias that are used as a way of advertising and marketing them.

Aim of my audience research...

Question 1.

What is your gender?

This pie chart shows that out of a total of 20 of my participants 50% were male and 50% were female. I deliberately used this equal proportion of gender so that I could get a representative view from both genders and therefore find out which

(if one or both) I should be targeting for my film.

Quantitative data

Question 2.

What age are you?

I used the same method of equal distributing as in question one for this age question. Again in order to get a representative view between these ages so that I could find out which I should be targeting for my new film. This bar graph shows that there were equally five people in each of my

four age categories

Quantitative data

Question 3.

What is your ethnicity?

Quantitative data

This pie chart shows that 50% of people who answered my questionnaire were Black British, 25% were White British, 15% were British Asian, 10% were mixed British and 0%

were other. This means that my following results may be mostly representative around the views of the Black British culture in which may lead to my target audience being from this

ethnic background.

Question 4.

What is your occupation?

Quantitative data

This bar graph shows that a majority of people that answered my questionnaire are in social-economic groups B to E. In which 35% are unemployed (E) , 30% are mid-professionals (B), 25% are white collar

workers (C1), 5% are skilled workers (C2), 5% are semi/unskilled manual workers (D) and 0% are professionals (A). The fact that a majority of my participants belong to group E will effect my chosen

price for my magazine because if my target audience belong to this group there income is very limited and therefore they may not be willing to pay the mainstream price for such a magazine that is about £3-£4 unless I produce such an appealing magazine front cover that will make them feel they must buy the

magazine even if it means having to save up.

Question 5.

Which is your favorite movie genre ?

Quantitative data

This bar graph shows that the most popular genres of film are (joint) romance and horror/thriller. This could be truly reflecting on the fact that I selected equal amounts of males and females to answer my

questionnaire and stereotypically women prefer the romantic type movies because they are seen as caring emotional characters and genres such as romance allow them to make an association to. Adding to this

my results show 100% of people that selected romance as their favourite genre were female. This means that my chosen genre (horror) may not be of interest to females as to males who are seen as the complete opposite. This graph also shows a joint appreciation for the comedy, action, sci-fi/fantasy and urban drama

genres.

Question 6.

How often do you go and watch movies in the cinemas?

Quantitative data

This graph shows that a large amount of my participants do not go to the cinema regularly to watch movies. The majority answered “only when a really interesting movie is showing” and “special occasions”. Which could be implying that such media is seen as a luxury to many people. Taking this into account 95% of people that ticked these two answers are in

social-economic group E. Analysing this, money could be the main influence to such attendance. The fact that there is no one in my research from social-economic group A backs this up as it shows that this could be down to the costs of such visits in which people from group A should have no problem with and therefore may watch movies in the cinemas on a weekly basis. However the increase in people watching movies on the internet for free, buying pirate copies, using sky

box office can be a reason for this trend in attendance.

Special occasions

Question 7.

Do you make sure you get to the cinemas early enough to watch the trailers that are shown before a movie

starts?

20%

45%

35%

Time arrival to the cinema

Quantitative data

From this pie chart we can see that a lot of people like to get to the cinema early enough before there actual movie starts to watch film trailers (45% answered yes always and 35%

answered only sometimes). Which means that this form of advertising is one a lot of people take interest in. However a minority (20%) said that they don’t arrive early to watch

the trailers.

Question 8.

Would a certain star role in a movie influence you to go and watch that movie?

Quantitative data

As this graph shows, a star role/s in a movie plays an influential part in getting most of my respondents to go and watch that movie as they answered yes to this. At a lower but joint amount of people answered that this does not influence them or depends on the genre of

the movie. So many people answering yes to this question is something I will be taking into consideration when advertising my film in order for me to meet this need of my target

audience.

Question 9.

Have you ever watched a stalker/horror movie?

Quantitative dataQualitative data

The fact that everyone that answered yes to this questions could name at least one horror movie they had seen shows that they didn’t just tick yes for the sake of it.

Some movies named include...

“Jeepers Creepers 2”“Mirrors”“My bloody valentine 3D”“Saw 6”“The haunting in Connecticut”

Etc...

The results from this question show that 90% of people that answered my questionnaire had

watched a horror movie before. This means that a high percentage should have had no problem answering my following questions

about horror movies as even if they have only seen one or a small part they would have

some sort of knowledge of horror movies.

Question 10.

List three different types of characters that you would expect to see in a stalker/horror movie?

Qualitative data

Through this question I wanted to see how aware my audience were of one of the conventions of horror movies. That is to have certain characters that make the narrative

a horror.

Some answers include...“Victim”“White blond female victim”“Stalker”“Killer”“Vampire”“Passer by”“Monsters”“Attempting hero”Etc...

So now that I know what my audience are expecting to see. I will be following this convention for my own portfolio to allow my audience to have no problem in clearly identifying what it is that I am advertising to them.

Question 11.

Which of these aspects would you say stands out to you most and you pay more detailed attention to when watching a stalker/horror

movie?Quantitative data Qualitative data

This graph shows that in a stalker/horror movie, sound effects are what stand out to the audience most as

opposed to the camera angles, settings/props, action and anything other. The fact that no one answered camera

angles shows that horror movies are successfully edited using continuinity editing that is quite smooth and the

audience are unaware is happening.

Here are some examples of qualitative data on reasons to explain why a certain aspect was picked....

- “Really scary horror movies I can only watch with no sound because the sound used in such films makes them even more scarier. I get shivers down my spin just listening to the sound alone”- “sound effects are what give horror movies character” -“dark creepy settings are what stand out to me ”

In order to fulfil the audiences expectations of evoking fright and panic from watching my horror movie trailer. Sound is just one aspect that will be taking into deep consideration as it is the one most recognised by my audience along with conventional- mise-en-scene cinematography and editing.

Question 12.

Rank these forms of marketing on a scale of 1 to 6 (1 being the most influential and 6 the least) that would say convinces you most

to go and watch a movie in the cinema?

16-25: All of my respondents in this age category ranked radio as the lest influential form of marketing

that influences them to go and watch a movie in the cinema (at either 5 or 6). This maybe due to this specific audience prefer more visual media such as TV and print. Taking this into account this age group ranked trailers, the internet and posters as their top three most influential and

word of mouth and interviews were in the middle. 26-35:

I noticed the same trend in this age group as in the 16-25. In which radio was ranked the least influential, trailers, the internet and posters as the most and word of mouth and interviews as in

the middle. 36-45:

In this age category interviews, word of mouth and trailers were ranked the top three most influential. Radio, the internet and posters at the bottom three.

Over 46:Differently to the above age groups people over 46 ranked radio, word of mouth and interviews as their top three most influential forms of marketing. Because of this I now do not think that my

potential target audience lies in this age group as I personally think that advertising a genre such as horror works better visually to allow its purpose of frightening and panicking the audience to

be fulfilled.

Quantitative data

Question 13.

Would a certain director directing a movie influence you to go and watch that movie?

Quantitative data

This bar chart shows that a certain director directing a movie is another highly influential aspect (a lot of the time gets mentioned in film trailers) that gets the majority of my participants to go and watch a movie and is another convention

I will most likely use in my own film trailer because of this result.

Question 14.

Do you buy film magazines?

Quantitative data

Movie magazines are not a popular piece of media as this graph is representing. 70% answered that they don’t buy film magazines and only

30% answered that they do. This may mean that when I am creating my own film magazine front cover, the way in which I present it has to really appeal to

my target audience in order to make them feel that they must buy it.

Question 15.

Name at least one film magazine.Qualitative data

This question was left blank by just less than half of my participants. Which could be down to lack of interest in such specific media. Again the way in which I present my film magazine front cover will have to be in a way such that many people- even those that are not particularly interested in this specific type of media, will have heard or seen and stuck in there mind. I can maybe do this by subverting the conventional appearance and content of movie magazines.

However for those that did answer this question the most popular film magazines mentioned were...

“Empire” “Total film”“Sight and sound”

These three being the most popular, I will analyse how they follow the codes and conventions of a movie magazine to allow me to come up with ways of how I can make my own stand out amongst them.

Question 16.

If you ticked yes to question 14 how often do you buy film magazines?

Of the 30% (6) that ticked yes they do buy film magazines (question 14), all answered that the frequency in which they do this is occasionally. This also shows that this

specific type of media is not very popular amongst my audience. However the fact that 35% of people who answered my questionnaire are in social-economic group E could be the reason for this as film magazines are quite expensive. This means that if my

target audience are in this group the price of my film magazine has to be reasonable to their budget.

Quantitative data

Question 17.

Would the front cover of a movie magazine make you want to go and watch that movie/buy that magazine?

Quantitative data Qualitative data

This graph shows that the presentation of the front cover of a film magazine is extremely important in getting an audience to buy the magazine/going to

the watch the movie being advertised as much more people ticked yes than no to this question.

A very interesting answers given for ticking yes to this question was...

“For such media you have to judge a book by its cover as your not allowed to flick through magazines in a shop. So the only way you can judge you’ll get everything your paying for is by analysing the front cover.”From the majorities point of view this implies that appearance is everything.

A very interesting answers given for ticking no to this question was...“The cost of the magazine matters more to me because I'm a person that doesn’t like to get ripped off by such media because the front cover looking pretty” From the minorities point of view this suggests that quality is more important.

Question 18.

Do you prefer movie magazines that are plain and simple or busy with the content of the magazine?

Quantitative data

From this graph we can see that an equal amount of people prefer the front cover of a film

magazine to be busy with content (50%) or Plain and simple (50%). If my target audience

are spread between these two views then I would have to create a cover that is in the

middle that is not too busy and not too plain in order to please everyone.

Qualitative dataBusy:Reasons for selecting busy include...“You know exactly what your getting”“Looks like more effort and time has gone into producing it”Such comments suggests that this selection of people prefer the cover to look like a lot of time and therefore effort has gone into creating the magazine.

Plain and simple: “So much easier to digest when there is less going on”“More elegant and sophisticated” “Its annoying with too many things on the front and almost confusing because you cant see the main image clearly”A majority of people who selected this answer were female. That can be seen as very stereotypical of this gender to pick.

Question 19.

What do you look for in a movie magazine?

Qualitative data

Many of the qualitative answers given to this question referred to the conventions of movie trailers. For example...“Intense cliff hanger at the end of the trailer that would make me want to go and watch the movie”“Sneak preview of all the best bits”“When the movie will be released, which stars are featured, what( if any) is the USP of the movie and the reason why I should pay to go and view it”

Responses that stood out to me include...“An authentic narrative”“Hype that will give the actually movie justice and make it stand out from others”“Something different to the mainstream”

In order to keep my audience aware that I am advertising a movie I will be following a majority of the convention of film trailers however to make it distinctive I will be including a innovative USP.

Conclusion of questionnaire results From these results I have come to the conclusion that the demographic of my target audience for my advanced portfolio Is mostly men that are age 16 to 35,

of all ethnicities and in social economic group B-E.

I combined the two age groups 16-25 and 26-35 form my research as the results I received from both groups were very similar for example their most influential forms of marketing. I also found from my research that this age group are more

interested in my choice of genre (horror). I did not find a difference /trend in answers between ethnicities so as a result of this I will be advertising to all

ethnic groups. Due to all of my participants being in social-economic group B-E my target audience is therefore in this group.

The majority of people that ticked horror as their favorite movie genre in my questionnaire were male hence I will be targeting this gender. However a small

amount of females are also part of this and I will also be aiming my film at.

My Focus groupAfter finding these results from my questionnaire I decided to gather a focus group of five members of my target audience. Where I was able to further the knowledge I had already gained about them from my questionnaire, through discussing their thoughts and attitudes towards horror movie trailers, posters and film magazine front covers.

How I organised the day:

I held this group discussion in my living room in which the six of us sat in a

circle around my dinning table. I first introduced everyone to each other

explained what the research was for and then gave them the first question to

start discussing. The session lasted an hour in which I had to step in a couple of times when

the conversations started going off topic.

My Focus groupSummary report:

Topic question 1...As an audience do you feel that modern day conventional horror movie trailers do the movie they are advertising complete justice?•“Well yes...they get me to go and watch the movie in cinemas or buy it when it comes out on DVD, by

having a unique element of surprise and cliff-hanger.”•“Taking out the best most scariest bits of the movie for the trailer is what gets me interested in the

movie however sometimes that’s not always the best thing to do as the whole story is told and therefore leaves no reason for you to go and see it in cinemas as you already know what’s going to happen and horror movies are all about that element of surprise not knowing what’s lurking behind the corner and

then being scared half to deaf when you do.”

Topic question 2...What do you look for in a horror movie poster?•“One main image for example of the main victim and main setting in the background that just captures

the narrative and makes you think wow! I have to go and see this movie.”

Topic question 3...What puts you off buying film magazines?•“Price of them...there about £4 aren't they, there just too expensive for me. I can read about behind the

scenes of a movie, reviews on it etc I can get all that information unlimitedly on the internet.”

Thank you for watching