What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Focus Group / Screening Survey
The below questions where taken and analysed from our focus group survey in which we screened our trailer to 14 individuals. Below is also a copy of one completed survey.
Focus Group / Screening Survey
The below questions where taken and analysed from our focus group survey in which we screened our trailer to 14 individuals. Below is also a copy of one completed survey.
Gender?
Age?
The majority being 17/18 which is right in
the middle of our target age. This is good as we can get feedback primarily
from our target audience and then a few extra parts of research from our niche
audience.
Which genres do you like?
Comedy – 10
Thriller – 8
Action – 7
Sci-Fi – 6
Documentary – 5
Horror – 4
Drama – 2
Romance – 1
Animated – 1
The most popular genre in our focus group
was comedy, with 10 people saying comedy. Horror was fairly far down on our
list, with only 4 people saying they liked to watch them. However it as still
above a few other genres, for example romance and drama. We think we can put
this down to the fact that Horror is a fairly strange genre in that you watch
it because it makes you nervous and gives you thrills, not because you enjoy
it, and possibly because of the open ended nature of the question they might
not have thought to write down Horror.
Which types of films interest you most?
Big budget – 10
Low budget/Indie – 6
No preference – 1
The majority of our focus group were
interested in big budget films, with a fair few also interested in indie/low
budget films and one person having no preference. This works well for us as our
film would have aspects of a big budget Hollywood film, like famous actors and
glossy special effects. It also has aspects of low budget/indie films as it’s
all shot in one location, the woods, and obviously looks low budget as we had
no money to work with.
What influences you to see a film the
most?
Trailer – 12
Actors – 6
Reviews – 5
Poster – 4
Directors – 3
Awards – 2
Friend’s recommendation – 2
Everyone agreed that the most important
marketing aspect of a film is the trailer. This is perfect as our main task is
our trailer. We were however surprised to see that a poster was so far down on
the list, under actors and reviews. This isn’t too big an issue because we have
showcased our actors massively, in the trailer graphics and the poster, as well
as having our magazine cover focus solely on the main actor. It’s also not a
problem having reviews be more important than the poster as our magazine would
have reviews in it. We were also glad to see that awards were far down on the
list and not many people let that influence them to see a film as it’s not
typical of horror films to even have awards and we hadn’t included any in any
of our products.
What genre do you think our film was?
Horror (undefined) – 8
Horror (Thriller) – 4
Horror (Psychological) – 2
Horror (Slasher) – 1
Everyone answered that our film was of the
Horror genre which was perfect as we know for sure that we conveyed the genre
perfectly. However the subgenre of our film was a little bit less stated. The
majority of the people didn’t even state a subgenre, perhaps for lack of
knowledge of the horror subgenres. However of the people who did state a
subgenre, Horror (Thriller) was the most popular, which is great as this is the
exact subgenre we were going for. We could put the fact that 3 other people put
subgenres that weren’t our own down to the fact they couldn’t differentiate
between the Horror subgenres.
Was the narrative clear?
All but two people in this question stated
that the narrative was clear. One of the people who said that it wasn’t clear was
confused as to whether anyone died or not, which isn’t really a problem with
the narrative as it’s typical with horror trailers not to actually show any
death and to leave some mystery about it. Another one was asking what they were
running from, which again is fine because it leaves a sense of mystery and you
weren’t meant to know what was in the woods. They did also however ask whether
our main actor, the ghost hunter, was a teacher or a cop. This is a slight
problem as we thought it would be clear he was a ghost hunter and the hero,
however it was only one person who was confused so it should be okay to
discount it.
What aspects of the trailer persuade you
to watch the film?
Camerawork – 9
Sound effects – 7
Soundtrack – 4
Location – 2
Actors/Characters – 2
The highest rated aspect of my film was the
camerawork. This is typical in most horror films to have interesting/different
camerawork that draws viewers in. The second and third most commonly said
answers where sound effects and soundtrack. This is very typical of horror
films in that what makes it a horror film is usually the sound effects and the
soundtrack so this is perfect that our sound aspects have created such a
positive impact on the audience.
If you could change the film what
aspects of it would you change?
The majority of our focus group didn’t
actually answer this question, which we are going to take as a good sign in
that they didn’t think anything needed to be changed. A couple of people
mentioned the voice over sound needed to be better quality which we already
knew was a problem in our editing and despite putting a few effects on the
audio and changing the background noise etc. it still didn’t sound perfect. A
few other people were asking about the romantic relationship between the two
main characters and why that was an aspect as they’ve only just met. This may
not have been too clear for the audience but in our heads the almost kiss shot
at the end was fairly far through the film and in that case they wouldn’t have
only just met and it would have made more sense so we think this isn’t a huge
problem in the actual film, just maybe slightly in the trailer.
Online Survey
As well as doing this survey for our focus group we also had an online survey for anyone to complete. We advertised this on our film's Facebook page as well as both of our own.
The online survey had very similar questions to the focus group survey however with slight differences such as the online survey had less open ended questions.
Below is a screen capture of how one could fill in the survey.
Gender
We had 9 females and 7 males fill our the online survey this time, which gave us better indication of our female side of the audience, as our focus group was focused mainly on the male side.
Age
We had 7 15-17 year olds and 9 18-24 year olds. This was perfect as this is exactly the age group we were aiming for.
What genre films do you like the most?
The most popular genre of films were comedy and thriller, with half the people who took the survey saying they liked them. The horror genre wasn't that far down the list, with one quarter of people who took the survey saying they liked horror films, and it being the fourth most popular genre of 8. As in our focus group survey we can say this is because of horror being a strange genre to like as it makes you nervous and gives you thrills so people may not say they prefer it but would still enjoy watching it. It could also be due to the fact that more females answered our survey than males, as in our audience research we found horror to be much widely preferred by males.
What influences you to see a film the most?
The most popular ranking of the possible influences was:
1. Trailer
2. Poster
3. Magazine Reviews
4. Awards
5. Actors
6. Directors/Producers
7. Website reviews/Awards
The most popular number one influence was trailer, which is perfect considering our main task is the trailer. We were less surprised with this ranking than with our focus group as we thought that poster would be in the second spot, unlike in the focus group. The only concern with this post is the fact that awards is fairly high up on the list as we didn't include any awards in our trailer or either of our ancillary tasks. This was due to the fact the majority of the horror films we researched never had any awards and most horror films generally don't get awards. However it's still below our main and ancillary tasks so we don't need to take into account too much.
Which types of films interest you the most?
Independent/Arthouse - 10
Hollywood - 8
British - 5
Foreign/Subtitled Films - 4
One person also said they didn't mind where it came from. We are very pleased with these results for this question as our trailer was made with no budget and so must have aspects of indie/arthouse films, as well as trying to give off a Hollywood film, which are our two most popular options. It's also obviously British, letting us reach more of our niche audience.
What genre do you think my film was?
Everyone answered either Horror (Psychological) or Horror (Thriller), with 9 stating the thriller sub genre and 8 stating the psychological sub genre. This was great as we know we portrayed the genre well. The sub genre for our film was a little bit harder for most people to define. As in the focus group, we can put this down to either lack of knowledge of horror sub genres or the lack of ability to differentiate between them.
Was the narrative clear?
Everyone answered yes to this question which was very good feedback, with one respondent even saying "The narrative was very clear but with enough tension and changing of scene within the trailer to intrigue you and not ruin the whole story." which we were very happy to receive and find out that what we were aiming for was reached.
What aspects of my trailer would persuade you to watch the film?
Actors - 8
Camerawork - 7
Lighting - 5
Directors - 4
Editing - 4
Characters - 3
Graphics - 2
Genre - 2
Actors being the highest up this list is perfect for us as we have showcased our actors massively on both the graphics of our trailer and the poster, as well as having our main actor, Conor, on the magazine cover just as himself not as the character he plays in the film, suggesting he's already a famous actor, with the words "Conor Tottenham is back". Camerawork was then second on our list followed by lighting, which confirmed the fact that the stereotypical camerawork/lighting used in most horror films worked in ours. Directors was also fairly high up on the list which is good as we showcased them as well in our trailer and poster, although nowhere near as much.
Magazine and Poster interviews/vox pops
Below is a video in which we interviewed several different people who were in our target audience about our poster and magazine cover. They stated what they liked and disliked as well as saying what worked well and what didn't. We noticed that several of them liked the tagline of the poster, which we added at a very late draft of our poster and so we're glad we included that. We also noticed that they liked the fact the same font was used throughout for our title, which we purposefully decided to do and already thought would work well. We also received positive feedback on the image in the middle of the eye of the poster as well as the blood splatter font of the names at the bottom. There was hardly any negative feedback on the poster and we think the poster went down perfectly. For the magazine a couple of points were made about the main image used, it not being a high enough quality, or not the right picture of the actor. One of them also said they didn't like the use of the gold font but another stated they liked the contrast from black background to the gold font so there were mixed reviews. One person even said if they were to buy a magazine that would be the kind they would buy, which is very good feedback.
Online Survey
As well as doing this survey for our focus group we also had an online survey for anyone to complete. We advertised this on our film's Facebook page as well as both of our own.
The online survey had very similar questions to the focus group survey however with slight differences such as the online survey had less open ended questions.
Below is a screen capture of how one could fill in the survey.
Gender
We had 9 females and 7 males fill our the online survey this time, which gave us better indication of our female side of the audience, as our focus group was focused mainly on the male side.
Age
We had 7 15-17 year olds and 9 18-24 year olds. This was perfect as this is exactly the age group we were aiming for.
What genre films do you like the most?
The most popular genre of films were comedy and thriller, with half the people who took the survey saying they liked them. The horror genre wasn't that far down the list, with one quarter of people who took the survey saying they liked horror films, and it being the fourth most popular genre of 8. As in our focus group survey we can say this is because of horror being a strange genre to like as it makes you nervous and gives you thrills so people may not say they prefer it but would still enjoy watching it. It could also be due to the fact that more females answered our survey than males, as in our audience research we found horror to be much widely preferred by males.
What influences you to see a film the most?
The most popular ranking of the possible influences was:
1. Trailer
2. Poster
3. Magazine Reviews
4. Awards
5. Actors
6. Directors/Producers
7. Website reviews/Awards
The most popular number one influence was trailer, which is perfect considering our main task is the trailer. We were less surprised with this ranking than with our focus group as we thought that poster would be in the second spot, unlike in the focus group. The only concern with this post is the fact that awards is fairly high up on the list as we didn't include any awards in our trailer or either of our ancillary tasks. This was due to the fact the majority of the horror films we researched never had any awards and most horror films generally don't get awards. However it's still below our main and ancillary tasks so we don't need to take into account too much.
Which types of films interest you the most?
Independent/Arthouse - 10
Hollywood - 8
British - 5
Foreign/Subtitled Films - 4
One person also said they didn't mind where it came from. We are very pleased with these results for this question as our trailer was made with no budget and so must have aspects of indie/arthouse films, as well as trying to give off a Hollywood film, which are our two most popular options. It's also obviously British, letting us reach more of our niche audience.
What genre do you think my film was?
Everyone answered either Horror (Psychological) or Horror (Thriller), with 9 stating the thriller sub genre and 8 stating the psychological sub genre. This was great as we know we portrayed the genre well. The sub genre for our film was a little bit harder for most people to define. As in the focus group, we can put this down to either lack of knowledge of horror sub genres or the lack of ability to differentiate between them.
Was the narrative clear?
Everyone answered yes to this question which was very good feedback, with one respondent even saying "The narrative was very clear but with enough tension and changing of scene within the trailer to intrigue you and not ruin the whole story." which we were very happy to receive and find out that what we were aiming for was reached.
What aspects of my trailer would persuade you to watch the film?
Actors - 8
Camerawork - 7
Lighting - 5
Directors - 4
Editing - 4
Characters - 3
Graphics - 2
Genre - 2
Actors being the highest up this list is perfect for us as we have showcased our actors massively on both the graphics of our trailer and the poster, as well as having our main actor, Conor, on the magazine cover just as himself not as the character he plays in the film, suggesting he's already a famous actor, with the words "Conor Tottenham is back". Camerawork was then second on our list followed by lighting, which confirmed the fact that the stereotypical camerawork/lighting used in most horror films worked in ours. Directors was also fairly high up on the list which is good as we showcased them as well in our trailer and poster, although nowhere near as much.
Magazine and Poster interviews/vox pops
Below is a video in which we interviewed several different people who were in our target audience about our poster and magazine cover. They stated what they liked and disliked as well as saying what worked well and what didn't. We noticed that several of them liked the tagline of the poster, which we added at a very late draft of our poster and so we're glad we included that. We also noticed that they liked the fact the same font was used throughout for our title, which we purposefully decided to do and already thought would work well. We also received positive feedback on the image in the middle of the eye of the poster as well as the blood splatter font of the names at the bottom. There was hardly any negative feedback on the poster and we think the poster went down perfectly. For the magazine a couple of points were made about the main image used, it not being a high enough quality, or not the right picture of the actor. One of them also said they didn't like the use of the gold font but another stated they liked the contrast from black background to the gold font so there were mixed reviews. One person even said if they were to buy a magazine that would be the kind they would buy, which is very good feedback.
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