G321 Foundation Portfolio: Audience Research

Conducting Audience Research...

“Excellent” research into a potential target audience is actually quite simple - it means demonstrating that you have considered 5 things:

1. Who you audience might be (demographics)

2. What types of media they currently engage with (films, TV shows, music etc)

3. Why they like those films/media (audience pleasures)

4. What they think of your opening sequence idea.

5. How your findings for the above 4 questions will influence your own production... how you will cater to your audience’s needs/desires?

How to do it... Option 1: Questionnaire.

Design a questionnaire with around 5-10 questions which investigates some of the following:

· Age/gender of audience

· How they see themselves as a film audience member (Movie buff? Casual audience? Goes to cinema but other people choose what to see?... try not to simply ask how often they go the cinema which doesn’t really tell you much about them)

· Favourite genres/favourite films – why?

· Favourite directors?

· Favourite/memorable film sequence – why?

· Favourite actors? – why?

· Other media (favourite TV shows/music/games)

· Write your opening sequence idea down in a couple of lines – then ask for some feedback.... this last one will be the most telling.

Once you’ve collated your responses to the questionnaire – write a short report which summarises what you have learnt about your audience. The points you make will depend on how you interpret the responses.

How to do it... Option 2: "Talking Heads"

Do exactly as above, only instead of keeping it paper-based, pose the questions to individuals or pairs of people on camera then edit their answers together question by question... upload to Youtube, embed to your blog and post a summary of your findings.