Audience Research - Initial Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire that I came up with for our audience research, which I will post on to Livejournal and give to people over MSN so that they can fill it in. Also, other members of the group that have access to Facebook can post it on to their profile for their friends to access and complete for our research. We decided to use the internet as a means of investigating our audience and their views on thriller films because we can reach people who are outside of the college. This way, we can find out a larger amount of opinions, from people of more varied age groups.

• Are you male or female?
Male [ ] Female [ ]

• How old are you?
Under 15 [ ] 15 – 17 [ ] 18 – 21 [ ] 22 – 25 [ ] Over 25 [ ]

• What kind of films do you enjoy watching? (Put an x in all the boxes that apply)
Romantic [ ] Thriller [ ] Comedy [ ] Crime [ ] War [ ] Fantasy and Sci-Fi [ ] Action [ ]
Drama [ ] Historical [ ] Horror [ ] Musical [ ] Westerns [ ]

• How much violence can you tolerate in a film?
None [ ] Very little [ ] Moderate [ ] A lot [ ] Excessive [ ]

• Which sub-genre of thriller, if any, are you most interested in? (Put an x in all the boxes that apply)
Action [ ] Crime [ ] Disaster [ ] Drama [ ] Erotic [ ] Legal [ ] Medical [ ] Political [ ] Psychological [ ]
Spy [ ] Technological [ ] Religious [ ] None [ ] Other [ ]

• What are your reasons for this choice?

• Does the opening sequence of a film affect your interest in the film itself?
Yes [ ] No [ ]

• Can you give an example of a memorable opening sequence and explain why it appeals to you?

• Do you think that retaining a sense of enigma, i.e. questions left unanswered, in the title sequence is an important part in keeping the audience interested?
Yes [ ] No [ ]

• How do you find out about new film releases? (Put an x in all the boxes that apply)
Internet [ ] Trailers on TV [ ] Trailers at the cinema [ ] Billboards and posters [ ] Magazine reviews (such as Empire) [ ]

• For our project, we are looking to create the opening title sequence to a thriller film in a style typical of graphic novel adaptations. Out of these films, which do you think has the most effective opening?

Sin City [ ] The Spirit [ ] Watchmen [ ] 300 [ ] Blade II [ ]

• Why does it appeal to you?

• In films such as Se7en and the remake of Dawn of The Dead, montages of different shots are used in the title sequence to give the viewer an insight into what they can expect in the rest of the film. Do you think that this makes for an interesting opening sequence, as it shows enough to give the audience a feel of what is to come but doesn't give them the whole story?
Yes [ ] No [ ]

• Do you agree that music is important in changing and establishing the mood of a film?
Yes [ ] No [ ]

• Do you think it's effective to have music playing over a title sequence that doesn't relate to or fit with what is happening on the screen? For example, gentle, classical music playing whilst someone is being murdered.
Yes [ ] No [ ]

Other ways of carrying out audience research would be to hand out the questionnaires to members of the college and have them put them anonymously into a collection box or to carry out one-to-one interviews with students where we ask them the questions and fill in the form ourselves. By using the internet, the process is less time-consuming and easier for both parties. We can collect the data received quickly and the participants can fill it out quickly, without forgetting to hand it in or disrupting lesson times.