Target audience research

by Danielle Goff

What is your age?

The majority of the people that answered my questionnaire were between the ages of 17-20, with 11-16 covering the rest of the sample of people. This was a helpful tool for my target audience research as my desired audience for my social realism film/intro are people between the ages of 15-20. So the responses I received would help me relate to my target audience within my post production and development process.

What is your gender?

The majority of people I asked were male, this was interesting as my film features a female protagonist. Conventionally the female population would relate to a protagonist of their own gender, but interestingly when I did ask the public (a question that wasnt included in my questionnaire) if they would be interested in watching a female main character, and the majority of the sample answered yes. I also referenced the list of favourite films, and fish tank was mentioned by a male. As it features a female protagonist and it appeals to the male population it reassured me that my intro idea would still attract an audience.

Inception

What is your favourite film?

Pulp Fiction Fish Tank 300 Memento

Forrest Gump

Slumdog Millionaire

500 Days Of Summer

Shawshank Saving Pirates Of The Redemption Private Ryan Carribean

Friends With Benefits

The Dark Knight Stepbrothers Pearl Harbour

Lord Of The Rings

City Of God Attack The Block

What is your favourite film genre?

34% of the people I asked said that comedy was their favourite film genre, with action/adventure coming in second (22%) and drama in third place with 16%. Social realism only takes up 6% of my samples choice but is interestingly more than the genre sci-fi. I think this speaks for the majority of young peoples view, even my own, as social realism is, a lot of the time, quite a harrowing, and emotionally traumatic genre of film-making. Some of the younger generation of our society might not have the emotional tools to watch and enjoy social realism films for their substance.

What is your social class?

This is one of the most important questions I asked my sample, as it is one of the key areas of representation. My target social class audience is working class, as this film would relate to a lot of working class issues. However my main character (Marnie) is from a middle class background, so both the reaction from working and middle classes combined would give me a clear idea on how to structure my film intro, for my suited audience. It is interesting to look at their self-evaluations, as it is almost economic standing vs. self perception.

Which County do you live in?

Surrey is the most common answer from my results, with London also being represented. This is another important question as it relates to regional identity, another key area of representation. As I live in London myself I believe that will have an effect on my representation of certain issues, as they could be interpreted differently throughout different areas of the UK.

Do you understand the term Social Realism?

I asked this question to set up a platform on which to establish how successful my film would be within this age bracket, as many people dont accept films that they dont understand, and social realism isnt a very well known film genre. However I was a little sceptical that 64% of the people I asked actually knew what Social Realism meant so I decided to ask if they enjoyed watching Social Realism films, and I listed a few to see what the response was to example of Social Realism.

Do you enjoy watching Social Realism films (This is England, Kidulthood, Billy Elliott)
As I said before I didnt believe that the majority of the people I asked actually understood the term social realism, so by showing examples in this question allowed my target audience to identify exactly what film genre I was referring to. This also allowed me to identify whether the teen audience was the correct target for my film, as if they didnt like similar (by genre, not by narrative) films mine might not appeal to them.

Out of the following how do you mostly consume films?

I wanted to see what the most popular medium for consuming films was, as this would effect the way I distributed my film. TV was a popular answer, channels like the BBC and Channel 4 often help produce or promote social realism films. Another popular choice was the Internet, I consciously made a digital film because most people consume films digitally now, through the internet and this would make it easier to distribute to my intended target audience.