INITIAL AUDIENCE RESEARCH: Survey

Question sheet

This week we did a survey to see if out target audience (primarily male aged 15-24) would be interested in our film idea:

• We showed them clips form 7 social realist films
• Cathy Come Home, Tyrannosaur, This is England, '71, Billy Elliot, Submarine, Slumdog Millionaire
• We gave them a question sheet about the clips
• Asked them to fill in their age/gender (almost all of them were a part of our target demographic)
  

  

  The questions were presented to ppts in a table
  format, but these were the questions

WHAT WE FOUND

• Name the film: 
• they couldn't name most of the films
• most recognised Billy Elliot and Slumdog Millionaire, which makes sense as these were the 2 most commercially successful.
• Genre:
• we suspected a teenage audience would use the word 'drama' to describe most of the films, with hybrid exceptions '71 and Submarine probably being labelled as action/romcom. 
• This was true for the most part, though 2 recognised the social realist theme. 
• Slumdog Millionaire was thought to be a Bollywood production by a few of the participants (which makes sense as the majority of Indian films are Bollywood films), but the majority labelled it as rom-com/drama.
• Would they want to see more of the films: 
• almost no one said they wanted to continue watching Cathy Come Home or Tyrannosaur, 
• more girls than Boys said they would want to continue Billy Elliot (probably because the ballet plot line is too 'girly'). 
• '71 was the most popular among participants that they said they would want to continue because of the genre, but Slumdog Millionaire was also a popular choice.
• Had they seen any other films/tv shows that seemed similar:
• Only a few participants named similar films/tv shows they had seen
• This is England, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Book Thief and Inglorious Bastards were some that were mentioned 
• But most said they had watched similar things
• this is positive feedback as it shows that though our target audience may not have been familiar with the clips we showed, they do have some interest in the genre
• Had they been to the cinema to see any films like these:
• only 1 participant had been to the cinema to see a social realist film (Slumdog Millionaire)
• This makes sense, as discussed in other posts low-budget indie films which tend to be more likely to explore heavy social realist themes are less commercially successful than studio/comedy films and therefore have a more difficult time with theatrical distribution
• Even The Journeyman, which we are taking lots of influence from, was screened at an indie film festival (The British and Irish Film festival)

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