Audience Survey Evaluation of Results

I created a questionnaire on monkeysurvey.net in which I asked ten questions to reveal the demographics and needs of our target audience.

These are the results we received from thirty participants:

From our first question, we discovered that the majority of the participants were aged thirteen to seventeen, though 30% were also aged eighteen to twenty four, and so our target audience will be aged fifteen to twenty. This question was essential as it reveals the demographics of our audience, which will affect the audience needs, and so will affect our teaser trailer as we aim for it to appeal to our target audience.

 The results of this question revealed another aspect of the demographics of our target audience - their gender. The results show that roughly 75% of our respondents were female, and so our target audience will mostly consist of females, and so we will choose to make the protagonist as we can make the assumption that conventionally, a female audience enjoy and are more likely to watch a film featuring a protagonist they can relate to.
However, we know that to assume could have a negative effect on our target audience, and so I have decided to also actually ask the respondents what gender they would prefer the protagonist to be. As expected, the majority of participants (just under 60%) would prefer a female protagonist. However, over twenty percent also stated that they would not mind the protagonist's gender as long as they were actually represented, and from this we can conclude that representation of characters, particularly of gender, is an important aspect of films, and is considered important by the audience. Therefore, for our teaser trailer we shall ensure to present our protagonist accurately.

 The next question allowed us to discover that 30% of our participants do not watch social realist films, which could be due to an ignorance of the genre, or could simply be a dislike for them. However, in our first question, it was found that eighty percent of our respondents were not within our target audience, and this question's results found that a large majority of our audience watch films of this genre either once a month or once a year. This tells us that our teaser trailer will have a very niche target audience, and so it is essential that we respond to their needs and interests.

 This was a question which required the audience to respond on their own, as it was not a selection but an opinion based question. Of the thirty participants, twenty six responded to this question, and most responded in the same fashion. A large majority stated that the confrontation of society's issues is what they enjoyed most about this genre, as it allowed them to reflect on society so that they could then actively attempt to address these issues. This links to audience theory, as it reveals that our audience will most likely be an active audience.

 From the results, it is clear that the accurate portrayal of reality is the aspect our target audience most appreciates about social realism, and so in our teaser trailer we will endeavour to ensure that we accurately portray the reality of the issue we are presenting - how societal pressures regarding body
image affect young teenage girls.

 This question counters the previous, and aims to reveal what we should attempt to exclude from our teaser trailer. The results revealed that the largest complaint that most of our respondents made about films in the social realist is that they can be boring. However, one other issue that was brought up was the suggestion that the problems considered in the film are very rarely solved, which makes the films very negative. We could try to combat this by having a resolved ending for our film - however, as we are only making a teaser trailer we will want to make the end enigmatic, though we could imply that the ending may be either positive or negative.

 Also, some of the participants stated that the films were too violent, and so we will ensure to exclude any violence from our teaser trailer, as this does not totally relate to the issue we wish to discuss.

 This question was created with the purpose of revealing when we should consider filming. An equal amount of participants suggested afternoon or evening, and also stated that they did not mind at which time, which gives us a little more freedom. One respondent revealed that the time in which they are filmed should reflect the mood of the film, hence using pathetic fallacy. For our filming, we are likely to film between midday and afternoon, as this will offer the best lighting for the trailer. however, our outdoor scenes will be filmed later in the day to reflect a darker tone.

 These results imply that our target audience would prefer for our film to be set on an estate, and so I will scout one such location to consider the advantages and disadvantages to discover whether it would be suitable for us to film there. Also, some respondents said that the setting should depend on the subject of the film, and so we will take this into consideration when choosing our location.

 The final question regards a very important aspect of our trailer and our website. Social media will have a major role in the film, and as the results show that Facebook was used by the highest percentage of our respondents we will endeavour to include this in our teaser trailer. We could also consider using twitter and youtube, as these were also popular sites with our target audience.

Evaluation
This questionnaire has allowed us to decide on some major aspects of our teaser trailer, and has told us what to include and what to avoid in order to comply with audience needs. However, this questionnaire could have been presented to a larger audience in order to obtain a more accurate portrayal of our target audience, and more questions that were increasingly specific could have been asked in order to elaborate on some of the questions we chose to include. Some of the questions were very open, which meant that some participants skipped these questions, and so we could have included some generic options as well as an 'other - please specify' option.
Overall, this questionnaire will be extremely useful for creating our teaser trailer as it has revealed our target audience, who we can now endeavour to appeal to.

Target Audience Survey

In order to conduct some market research into our target audience, I have decided to create a short survey on MonkeySurvey.co.uk, which will investigate into the demographics of the audience and will tell us the audience needs, so that our trailer can be as appealing as possible.

I have decided to direct this questionnaire to thirty individuals, as our target audience is very niche. However, I will include some people who fall outside of our directed audience so that we are aware of all of the possibilities, and to gain more information.

The ten questions I will include are;

What is your age? This is a standard question that reveals the basic demographic of our target audience. We aim for our trailer to appeal to teenagers, mostly aged 15-20, as this is our directed audience. People within this age group will have differing interests to those who are perhaps older (e.g. are aged 30-40), or who are younger (5-14), and so I will include a few participants from these age groups to create a broader spectrum, and to also become more aware of what not to include.This will also allow us to identify our age rating.

What is your gender? This is also a standard question to reveal demographics. Stereotypically, males and females differ in their interests. Often, in the media, it is conventional for males to be presented as being interested in violence and action, whereas society expects females to be more interested in aesthetics and romance. We will use this question in order to determine the gender of the protagonist, as male audiences conventionally prefer and male protagonist, and female audiences prefer a female protagonist.

What gender do you prefer the main character in a film to be? Although, as aforementioned, it is conventionally thought that males and females have differing interests which affects what the gender of the protagonist should be, I chose to include this question as I am aware that different people have different interests, and that to assume would be a disadvantage for our film, as it may end up going against what the audience would like to see. I will include male, female and other, as in modern day society there are certain beliefs on gender that we must account for in order to get an accurate representation of our target audience.



How often do you watch social realist films? This question is more specific, as it directly addresses our chosen genre. The results of this question could be scrutinised to suggest how large or niche our target audience is, and will also tell us if our target audience are more or less likely to watch films of this genre. For this question, I will include examples of films in this genre so that the audience are aware of the genre we are referring to.

What do you like about social realist films? This is a broad question, and focuses on the opinions of our directed audience. The results will tell us the aspects of this genre that they enjoy, and so we will include more of these aspects to ensure our trailer appeals to the target audience.

What do you dislike about social realist films? This works to counter the previous question, and will reveal the aspects we should perhaps avoid, or should endeavour to prevent, for our trailer.

At what time do you prefer a social realist film to be set in? This is a very basic question which is once again specific to genre. It will reveal the timing and lighting in which we should aim to film our trailer.


What setting do you prefer a social realist film to be set in? This is again a very basic question and is similar to the previous, as this too will determine the timing of filming, but also the location. The results will reveal the conventional settings for films in this genre.

What social media do you use? This is the last question and is very important, as we plan for social media to be a large aspect of our film trailer. Not only will this tell us the social media our target audience use, but it will also illustrate the social media we should aim to include within our trailer, and will even affect our website.





Evaluation
I have endeavoured to ensure that I have not included any closed questions, as these are restrictive and do not offer a true representation of our directed audience as they limit the responses. For those which are selection questions, I will include several categories that cover the entire spectrum so that it is not impossible to answer, as no possible answer will be missed out, and the categories, such as for age, will not overlap with one another in order to avoid confusion.