T.G321
Audience Research
Primary
I created a questionnaire, which can be found here, and asked people to complete it.
The results of the questionnaire gave us information about our target audience's expectations, and thriller conventions that it dislikes, such as the use of certain stereotypes. We will use this information when planning the storyline, and how the characters and location should be represented.
We also gained information on which film company logos had had the most memorable impact on our target audience; this will help us when designing an ident and logo.
"What's the most dated stereotype?"
"Are flashbacks usually successful?"
"Think of thriller films. What words come into your head?"
"Favourite film company logo?"
Secondary
The NRS (National Readership Survey) has created a categorisation method known as ABC1, which is useful when approaching demographics by social class; this can be applied to the moviegoing audience.
In 2006, an estimated 29% of all UK adults were in grade C1, making it the most populous class; just 4% were in grade A, making it the least common.
As part of the planning stage for our film, we will need to consider which classes we want it to appeal to, which is almost a measure of how "mainstream" we intend it to be – most likely B/C1, i.e. a very mainstream audience – as well as how the appeal will be created. By deciding on a target demographic profile, we will be able to contemplate how we would advertise our film, for example when to air television adverts, and on what channels, or if an advertising campaign in specific newspapers would be more suitable.