In order to ensure we are designing our film opening to the requirements, needs and wants of our target audience we carried out some market research through survey monkey. (https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/GBVM6RR) We constructed 10 questions regarding preferences of a film opening and received over 200 responses. This was the outcome and results of our survey:
Question 1 – What is your gender?
Question 2 – What is your age?
Question 3 – What is your favourite film genre?
Question 5 – Rank these according to the features of a film opening that are most important to you. 1 being the most important
Question 6 – How likely are you to turn off a film if the opening is a disappointment?
Question 7 – How many films, on average, do you watch a month?
Question 8 – Are you more likely to watch a film in the cinema or on another platform such as Netflix or Amazon Prime?
Question 9 – Where do you hear about new films?
Question 10 – Which TWO age certificates are you most likely to watch?
Question 1 – What is your gender?
- Our results from this question concluded that 66% of people answering the question were female, and 33% were male.
- This helps us when deciding on other features of the film as the majority of people who answered were female meaning our film, if we base it on our survey, will be targeted more towards females and we have more information on this audience.
Question 2 – What is your age?
- The most common age category who answered our survey were those under 18 with 39%, then it was 45-54 with 25% & then it was 18-24 with 15%.
- This shows us that altogether 54% of people who answered were under 18-24 which shows us that the majority that answered were of a younger generation which will help us understand what younger people enjoy helping us come up with a specific target audience and appeal for this age group.
Question 3 – What is your favourite film genre?
- Our results showed us that overall 28% of people preferred to watch comedy as their genre of film and 12% preferred thriller. These were the two most common results.
- Although 28% said comedy was their favourite, after looking through these results, we decided that comedy would be too hard to film and get right as it could end up not being funny at all and ruining our film altogether. Also 12% still preferred thriller which would be easier to film making our film better altogether.
- If a clear majority had chosen comedy, my group would have considered doing comedy more, but as there was no clear majority, it made it easier for us to then decide.
- We chose to look at why people preferred thriller as this is our chosen genre and we could find what conventions people enjoyed.
- Two people said they enjoy thrillers as it keeps them on the edge of their seat.
- Another said they enjoy the twists and turns of the plot.
- One said they enjoy the intensity of thrillers
- Another said they enjoy thrillers as it makes you question everything around you for at least a day or two
- This shows my group that we really need to draw the audience in with our story line and keep them on the edge of the seat including a thrilling storyline.
Question 5 – Rank these according to the features of a film opening that are most important to you. 1 being the most important
- Our group chose to ask this question so we could see what people value the most in a film opening so we could make it as specific to our target audience as possible
- The most popular feature was Music – this shows us that we need to make sure we chose specific music which will help draw the audience in from the moment they watch it and keep them engaged throughout
- The next most important feature was introduction to characters – we can withdraw from this that our film opening needs to include a clear introduction to characters so it is clear to our audience who is in the film.
- The next was dialogue – Although this came as slightly less important we will still consider including dialogue however not many thriller films use dialogue in their opening so it may not fit all the same conventions
- Lastly, our survey showed us that voiceovers were the least important to them with only 6 votes – Although this was the least popular of features, many thriller films include this as it builds tension and mystery and can sound quite eerie.
Question 6 – How likely are you to turn off a film if the opening is a disappointment?
- We asked this so we could see if our audience have to be kept engaged right from the start of the film
- Our results showed us that 31% of people were likely to turn off the film and 26% said maybe. This shows us that we need to make sure the audience are kept engaged from the start, following all the conventions of a thriller film.
Question 7 – How many films, on average, do you watch a month?
- This shows us if our audience frequently watches films and if there is any correlation to their other answers.
- 44% of people said they watch 1-3 films a month and 30% said they watch 4-6 films a month.
- This shows us that the people who answered the survey frequently watch films so they know what they’re talking about then answering the questions.
Question 8 – Are you more likely to watch a film in the cinema or on another platform such as Netflix or Amazon Prime?
- There was a clear majority in this answer with 84% of people saying they watch films on other platforms
- This tells my group that we need to focus less on distribution towards cinemas but make sure we promote it more on social media so people are more aware of it.
Question 9 – Where do you hear about new films?
- The majority of our answers were on social media with 53% of votes which tells us that social media will be our most important platform in promoting our film as it’s where the majority of people get information on films.
- Television was the next most popular category which tells us we need to make sure we produce an eye catching poster and trailer that could be shown on TV as well as social media
Question 10 – Which TWO age certificates are you most likely to watch?
- The two most popular age certificates were 15 and 18 altogether having 132 votes between them
- As thriller is our genre, this helps us by showing that it’s the most popular genre and thriller films are most commonly 15s or 18s
- This means that we can apply all the conventions of thriller films to our film opening and keeping with the most popular age certificates.