The Questionnaire

6 small questions...

             I wanted to try and get a much wider group of opinions from a wider range of people, rather than just interviewing a few peers and teachers. As such I put together a Questionnaire and I sent it to 25 different people. Surprisingly they actually all responded and gave both interesting and expected responses. The youngest person surveyed was my niece, who is 14, and the oldest was my grandmother, who is 73.

Question 1 - What is your age?

There were 25 people surveyed, These were the ratio's that we received back;

14 to 16 Years =  3
17 to 20 Years = 12
20 to 40 Years =  6
40 to 60 Years =  3
60+ Years old  =  1

This is important because it gives as an idea of what age demographics like a particular thing. It also shows that we collected information from a very wide range of people. I felt that this was important because film is a thing that all ages can enjoy and thus all ages should be taken into account. However, i did try to ask more people from the target demographic of Thriller films, which is usually 16 - 25 year olds, this is why there is a disproportionate amount of these people when compared to the rest of the age groups. 

Question 2 - What is your favorite genre of film?

I felt that this question is important because we can cross reference it with the differing ages of people involved. The majority of people favored Comedy films over any other, telling me that it a genre that appeals to wide range of people and ages, however, comedy is a very subjective thing that will differ between people. Meaning that while a lot of people like comedy in general, not all of them will like the same 'type' of comedy, i.e. Slapstick humor rather than dark humor. Fortunately, the next most highly favored genre is Thriller, the genre that my group is currently filming. Predictably, the majority of these people were in the
17 - 25 year age bracket.

Question 3 - How often do you watch films?

I wanted to try to understand who watches film more than I already did. To try and do this I wanted to see how often these people watched films. Interestingly, both the top and bottom ends(Oldest and youngest people) of the spectrum rarely watched films at all. The majority of people who watch a lot of films are the younger crowd, such as 15 to 19 year olds. This is because of their larger amount of free time as well as how almost all of their income is disposable. This is once again beneficial for me because it tells me that my target audience is also the largest consumer of films.

Question 4 - When watching a Thriller film, what do yo want it to make you feel emotionally?
This one is impossible to show on a graph so I will instead use my 4 favorite quotes from the people surveyed.

Miranda Sharre - 16 - "When I watch a Thriller I want to be one the edge of my seat he whole time, never knowing what will happen next."

Chris Smith - 17 - "*Sigh*...Thrilled...i suppose."

Glynis Ferriby - 73 - "I would want a mystery, with a little bit a scary thrown in there to keep me on my toes."

Kim Keeping - 23 - "I much prefer creepy to scary, plant an idea and let the imagination do the rest."

This was a very fun area to look at because it got to get a glimpse into the personalities of the people as well as get their opinions in their own words. I find that this will be very useful, especially Kim Keeping's post because it gives me an excellent idea on how to piece together the final product. The idea that the unknown is scarier that than the actual monster. The question is better than the answer. I opens a whole new range of opportunities that I plan to exploit during editing.

Question 5 - How do you usually hear about a film

The majority of people found films by seeing a TV advert about them, or they saw an ad on YouTube or Facebook. I wanted to find this out because I needed to see how I could market my project to people. Unfortunately I am not able to advertise using either of these two methods because they are both far too expensive. Posters will also require for me to make them, print them, and put them around my area. This is far too time consuming and costly for a student film like ours. Therefore the film would almost entirely be spread by word of mouth of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The reason I am considering this at all is because it relates to one of the final evaluation questions which I will complete at the very end of the blog.

Question 6 - Do you find that you can usually predict the outcome of films?

I felt that this is important because one of the most important elements of suspense is surprise. Without surprise there is no scare or tension. I wanted to try and see how adept people were at guessing plot points before they happen. Unfortunately, the data that I got back is rather useless. It tells me the approx. half of the population are good at predicting the outcomes of films. I believe that this ties into the use of cliches as well as bad plot twists. If i'm to take anything away from this it will be to try to be unpredictable, try to film the unexpected. So that the audience will be surprised, achieving the desired affect on them.