Audience Research

Conducting audience research is extremely important prior to any practical production. It allows for decisions to be made, by the target audience, which is extremely helpful when it comes to achieving positive audience feedback on the finished product. For my audience research, I have put together a 10 question questionnaire to be completed by my target audience of teenage girls. All the following questions have been compiled together in order for my audience to tell me what they want to see. A lot of these questions are those of which I have been unable to decide upon my self, so therefore am asking my audience for their valid opinions. With the information I receive from the questionnaires, I will make my decisions. These will be based on what the majority indicate. 

1. Please state your age:

2. Gender:

3. When watching a film, do you prefer seeing titles/ credits during the visual film, or at the end? Why?
[The textual analyses I completed as part of my research gave me a mixture of short films with some overlayed titles and some positioned at the end. My preference personally is to position my titles at the end of my film, as I feel that titles often distract audiences from the action. However, as this is a subjective point of view, I have asked my target audience]



4. When watching a film, do you prefer music with lyrics, or music without, why?

[I am really stuck on this. As I feel music with lyrics or music without can make a big difference to the tone on the film. I feel music with lyrics would make it all seem more down-to-earth, but music without lyrics may be more beneficial as it may seem more like a music video otherwise]

5. What are your views on narrative structure? (the order of events in a film). Please circle your answer:

  <> I like a conventional narrative order – starts at the beginning, finishes at the end

  <> I like the story to jump from different time frames, it makes it more exciting

  <> I like a cross between the two, a clear beginning and end, but jumping in the middle
[The narrative structure of my film is linear in the respect that there is a clear ending and beginning, but non-linear in the fact that the sketched memories appear from different time frames. Although I am decided on the "sketching memory" part of my film. The question above was created simply to find out the general consensus, and I can tailor the extent to which the narrative is non-linear based on the responses I receieve]

 6. Please read a rough synopsis of my short film. How would you rate the idea? Can you make any suggestions for improvement?

Typically, my film would follow the theme of heartbreak - a story of a boy who is too shy to tell a girl he loves her, before it's too late. He contemplates telling her, but never does, leaving him heart-broken when she goes off with someone new. Although a cliché story, I am hoping the "sketch" idea will give it more originality. The boy can draw locations, objects that reminded him of her, and moments/dates he remembers, each of the drawings coming to life (cutting to the shot), and then converting back to sketches that the boy then rubs out and re-draws to create the ideal ending - a happy ending, that never really happened.

[The latter question was just to get general feedback on my idea. I do not want to pursue a film project on something my target audience do not like. I am hoping to gain some suggestions to make my film idea more strong as a prospect]

7. What do you think would be an ideal title for my film, considering the synopsis?

<> A Sketch of Love

<> ……………………………… (suggest another)
["A Sketch of Love" is my first and currently only idea for the title of my film. I am hoping that the suggestion option will be taken advantage of by the participants as it would benefit me to have more title options - this way I can do a quick survey on all my ideas, and use the most appropriate/popular]

8. What instrument could you imagine hearing during the film?
[Being a romantic film, I know roughly what kind of genre of music I will be needing in order to make it conventional thus successful - slow paced, piano (soft) music that will suit the storyline. However, I am unsure about what instruments this could involve as guitars, pianos, violins, harps etc..can all produce music in the ways I want them to]

9. What type of activities do you associate as “romantic dates” (conventional and unconventional)
[I will be needing some ideas regarding what to film as the "memories"]

10. What type of clothes/style do you see the characters having?
[I have an idea of how I want to represent my characters (and extrovert girl and introvert boy),but not sure about how to represent them physically, as I know this can be a big part of how a film is portrayed]