Audience Research & Target Audience

When storyboarding with my partner we knew that audience feedback would be an important part of creating a successful short film. One way in which we have carried out audience research is by using yahoo answers. Two important areas of the film in which we wanted feedback from were the films editing and main character.

The first question I asked was whether our short film should be shot in colour or in monochrome (black and white). The feedback implies that filming in colour would appeal more to a current audience. One response was that " today's audience is largely self important kids (of all ages) who think B& W is yucky." Another stated that using a "Black and white" filter wouldn't "create any effect". Feedback given said that using a monochrome filter would distract from the narrative as it breaks conventions of modern films. Here is a list of the feedback given:

Should a psychological thriller be filmed in black and white?

• No it doesn't "need" to be. Have you seen many psychological thrillers lately? Most of them are in colour. Black and white doesn't create any effect -- the actual storyline and characters do that.
• Why would it have to be in black and white? It depends on the style the director is trying to create.
• It "should" but you have several problems. First, today's audience is largely "self important" kids (of all ages) who think B&W is "yucky. Second, most of your directors today don't think in B&W so they don't use it properly. Third, for today's directors, "thriller" means slasher film. The "psychological" part is a word too big for them to understand. So yes, the best "thrillers" were shot in black and white (with a few notable modern exceptions), but you probably can't do that today.

The second question asked was: Should the main character be male or female? I gave them the basic outline of the plot and asked for feedback to whether a male or female would make a better film. The responses overwhelmingly thought that a male character would make for a more original, intriguing short film.

Should this character be male or female?

·         I think you should make it a guy. Defying convention shows originality and will make your film stand out more.

·         I think male, because it's not stereotypical, so people will be more intrigued.

·         I think a guy would fit perfectly. No one would expect it.There's also a game from Choice of Games Inc. You play the role of a character that is very paranoid. It's kind of a cute little game. I just always pictured my character to be a male, even though I'm a girl!

·         I’ve watched anime like chaos; head and the movie when they try to get a suicidal flat mate so they get strait A's this is a problem in both of these there is a paranoid man, and studying schizophrenics for my degree seeing it in Youtube such as this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGnl8dqEo…
its always pretty interesting, I haven’t seen many female paranoid people, I prefer the male schizophrenics but, its about the character you want and the background information to be honest...

·         I think you should use a male; it'll be more unexpected. I mean, be honest, if you are watching a psychological thriller you most likely expect the guy to be tough and the woman to be weak, even if that is not how you really feel it would happen. It's just the way that those movies normally work out, so you expect it.

·         ummmm.......everybody is answering male and I think its right ...MALE

Although the feedback has shown that a lead male in a psychological thriller would be interesting to some audience members, both my partner and I are unsure how effective it would be.

Although it would subvert the conventions of many media texts it could also cause

many audience members to take oppositional or aberrant readings.

Target Audience

The most obvious market we are targeting are audiences interested in psychological thrillers. Thrillers are often aimed at an older audience as they often contain distressing material. An example of a psychological film aimed at an older audience would be ‘The Shining’. This contains a lot of violence reflecting on the age certificate of the film (18). Many psychological thrillers contain a lot of suggested violence. The age certificates on psychological thrillers are also often fairly high. However, I feel the film my partner and I are planning to create will focus on the psychological element rather than violence. An example of a psychological based film that was rated PG would be ‘A Beautiful Mind’. The psychological issues raised in our text are not going to be explicitly distressing to younger viewers. Therefore I believe the film we are planning to create can be marketed at ages 16-24. Although our film will contain aspects of paranoia and death, these aspects are only going to be implied.