I decided to use a questionaire as this would help me in developing my film and making it tailored to the audiences' preferences. I gave this questionnaire to 20 people, 10 female and 10 male. I used these results to help me decide what genre to use for my work
1) How old are you?
12-15 16-17 18-24 25-30 31+
Out of the people I served all of them were in the age range of 16-24. So this will become my target audience as this is the audience group I have resourced information about.
2) Which of these is your favourite film genre?
Horror Thriller Romantic Comedy
40% of those surveyed favourited the horror genre while thrillers and romantic comedies were favourited by 30% each of those surveyed.
3) Why is this your favourite?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Most of those surveyed gave reasons like 'it scared me which is always fun' and 'it made me think more deeply into the storyline'.
4) What do you dislike the most about each genre?
Horror? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thriller? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Romantic Comedy?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The general answer for this question under horror was that sometimes it can be overly predictable and sometimes the gore was too much. For a thriller many of those surveyed said that sometimes it can take too long to get in to. Where as the general answer for romantic comedy is that they can be too stereotypical and 'soppy'. This answer helped me as I could avoid doing the things people disliked in my film opening.
5) What is your favourite film from each of these genres?
Horror? ________________________________________
Thriller? _________________________________________
Romantic Comedy? ___________________________________
For this answer many listed films such as 'Halloween' 'Se7en' and 'Love Actually' as their favourite films for each of the genres. By having this data it allowed me to pick parts from each of the films and be able to use them in creating an opening for which ever genre I chose.
6) What makes you like these 'favourites' the most?
Horror? ________________________________________
Thriller? _________________________________________
Romantic Comedy? ___________________________________
For those who chose horror they generally answered 'it scared me' whereas those who answered thriller simply put 'it made me think and scared me without that much gore' and for those who put romantic comedy answewred 'it made me happy and laugh'.
7) What is the best ending for a Thriller?
A cliff hanger With closure With a twist
Many answered this question with 'A cliff hanger', this gives the impression many of the audience like being made to think what happens at the end opposed to being just given the 'answer' to what happens.
8) Do you prefer a strong female or male protagonist?
Male Female
Many of the females surveyed chose they'd prefer a strong female protagonist conpared to a male, but also some males who were surveyed chose the same option. Knowing this I decided that whichever genre I chose to do I would make sure I had a main female protagonist.
9) Do you like pre-title sequences?
Yes No
Many answered 'yes' for this question, this heavily influenced me into having a pre-title sequence. By having this also it would let the audience get an idea of what the film would be about instead of just having a title sequence which may be unclear.
10) What style of editing do prefer?
Fade Dissolve Choppy
For this question the 20 surveyed put a variety of answers down so not one type of editing came on top. This gave me the idea that many people enjoyed all of the editing style but it depended on the context of which the editing was being used.
