Potential Target Audience

After completing our analysis of both our audience questionnaires we wanted to outline our potential target audience for the film trailer that we are going to produce.

Gender:

From looking at the results I collected from question 1 from my audience questionnaire. You can clearly see that the results was fairly evenly distributed between the genders; on the other hand Hayden the other group member received results from the majority being female, this has prevoked us as a group to decide our target audience would be both genders from 17-25 but we will acknowledge that females may pay more interest because of the romantic tragedy element. (explained below)

However after analysing these results we have noticed that there isn't much difference between the two genders, implying that we shouldn't neglect targeting our film trailer at only females. We feel that our hybrid genre which we created to use for our film trailer is made up of individual aspects that are enjoyed by both genders, and therefore we have come to the decision to target our film trailer at both genders

Age:

From looking at the results I collected from question 2 from my audience questionnaire. You can clearly see that most of the people from my sample who answered this questionnaire fit into the age category, '17-25.'

Final Ideas

Below is the Final Ideas Presentation, it was created on Prezi, which is a piece of online software which enables the user to create a presentation that can be very graphically appealing.
Prezi:.

Prezi is uses a single canvas instead of the traditional slide format. Text, images, videos and various other multimedia can be added onto the 'infinite' canvas. The canvas allows users to create non-linear presentations, where users can zoom in and out of a visual map. A path through different objects and frames can be defined, representing the order of the information to be presented. The presentation can be developed in a browser window, then downloaded so that an Internet connection is not needed when showing the presentation.

You have the option to view this presentation in full screen mode by hovering over the 'More' option and selecting 'Full Screen.' You also have the option to zoom in and out on selected parts of this presentation at your own will, however I recommend that you simply click the right arrow to watch our presentation step by step - repeatedly click the right arrow to progress onto the next step, or the left arrow to go back a step.

Film Trailer - Final Ideas on Prezi

(If this application does not load please press link above to be directed to its primary source)

Audience Research

Hayden and I have decided that we are going to create two types or research, one a questionnaire and one an interview of selected members of the public.


Below is the questionnaire that I have designed to retrieve quantitative data from the public, this is important in my mind because then we can see what people are really looking for in a film trailer.


We distributed the questionnaire by using a free survey creation site called Kwik Surveys, we chose this as it has many features we can use such as the analysis tools and the accessibility to embed and create links.


The way we distributed the questionnaire was by using the social networking site Facebook, we used this because me and Hayden both have lots of 'friends' that use the website regularly so that when we sent people the mail and posted a notification with the link to the survey because then a broad range of people would be able to click the link and complete the survey.


The Questionnaire:

Below are the results to the audience research questionnaire, please click the link and view:


- Results




Analysis of Results:


The reason why the questions do not match the titles, for example question 4 is under the title question 3 is because the way the questionnaire was designed a few 'questions' were actually images or titles.




Question One:

This question was to determine what age groups have answered this question as it is vital that every age group is analysed so then we have an insight into what different age groups are looking for.


Question Two:

This was a question to show what gender answered my questionnaire, this is because i asked a range of people that worked out around 50/50 so that the answered would not be biased towards one gender. The people that answered actually was nearly half male and half female so this questionnaire should be unbiased and fair in terms of gender issues.


Question Three:





This question we asked to find out if the audience likes the key points to be conveyed through titles; the results have shown that the majority do like the key points to be conveyed, this is a vital question as it gave me and my group information that we can know how we should create the first scene, this is where 'The Active Audiece' comes into play, because this is a decoding process going on among the active audience who are not just using media for gratification purposes, and they are actively accepting and refining parts of media and breaking it down and looking at the signs inside the text, this is why this question was important because it shows how much the signs in film first scenes and all media influences how you interpret it.


Question Four:





The answer for this questions were mixed but 'the same text' being used as the titles resulted in having more results, this will be taken into consideration when creating the trailer. The fact that they are all spread out is information i can use as it is obviously an aspect that there is no clear one answer.




Question Five:





This question also shows the active audience once again as clearly the majority has decided to choose that an Internal Monologue is the best for a film trailer, this deters actions of what we as a group are going to do as it allows our group to produce a piece of media that the audience have told us that they prefer.




Question Six:

This is clear what the answer the active audience want, this means that a soundtrack is vital for attracting audiences off all ages and all interests.


Question Seven:





These results were mixed and I know straight away that due to the results I should not put the film name 'towards the end' as nobody voted for that.    




Question Eight:





This question gave us mixed results, although we can see that A Blank Screen is slightly more favoured so we will have to consider this when creating our titles. Possibly the audience consider black titles as a 'normal' thing in film production as many films use this technique.







Question Nine:




This answer is clear that the majority of the people asked want the action to be interspersed with actor/director credits, this is possibly because the audience want a trailer that is fast paced and tells them everything that they need.






Question Ten:




This is another clear answer of what the audience want, this is a basic piece of information that the audience clearly want to see so that they know when they can see the film if they are attracted by it.
 Question Eleven:





This question had a clear answer, that the audience think that the use of a soundtrack and sound effects is very effective, this was a vital question is asking on the questionnaire as now I know that the vast majority of the people asked to fill in the survey likes the aspect of soundtracks and sound effects combined.




Question Twelve:







This question has provoked much contrasting ideas with me and my group member, this is because the results were varied, we decided to discard 'Their name displayed over a blank screen'. We decided to use the method of 'Their name placed over footage from within the film' because after analysis of film trailers we have noticed that typically in romantic tragedies and psychological thrillers they use this technique. 


 

Question Thirteen:





This questions results seem to suggest that people when watching a film trailer that they like to see a basic narrative structure of the film, this is so that they can engross into the trailer and understand the basic storyline to give them a good idea of what the film will be about so that they can decide after watching whether or not it is something they want to see.






Question Fourteen:






As Hayden (group member) recieved different results to me on this question we decided to research into the different types of titles being shown on the genre we are creating.

For Romantic films typically titles are shown as Their name placed over footage from within the film

For Thriller typically the titles are shown Their name displayed over a blank screen

For Action or Romance Their name joined by a shot focused on them


For Comedy Their name displayed over a coloured screen






Qualitative Audience Feedback:

This section of the audience feedback will be much more personal, it involves actively interviewing people and asking the open ended questions in hope to recieve personl opinions and answers that are detailed in which we can view and determine what the audiences opinions are of a trailer that they will be shown (Black Swan)


Black Swan:

 

Directed by	Darren Aronofsky
Produced by	Scott Franklin Mike Medavoy Arnold Messer Brian Oliver
Screenplay by	Mark Heyman Andres Heinz John McLaughlin
Story by	Andres Heinz
Starring	Natalie Portman Vincent Cassel Mila Kunis
Music by	Clint Mansell
Cinematography	Matthew Libatique
Editing by	Andrew Weisblum
Distributed by	Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release date(s)	December 3, 2010 (2010-12-03)
Running time	108 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$13 million
Gross revenue	$143,561,708

Questions for Qualitative Audience Feedback (Black Swan Analysis):

1) What genre/s do you think this film is? Please expand on your answer

2) How does the soundtrack contribute to create the right ambiance for the film trailer and reflect its genre?

3) What connotations would you create from the colour of the titles; do you feel this reflects the genre of the film?

4) What themes do you think are present in this film trailer? Do these films reflect the genre?

5) Do you feel this film trailer was successful or not? Please explain your answer

Due to time constraints and the qualitative nature of this audience research we have limited the number of responses to three people, this is because the qualitative feedback is very large and the feedback we have received from the quantitative research has given us a large amount of data that is easily analysed; whereas the qualitative data takes a long time to analyse and because of this we do not have enough time to collate any more results.

We have decided as we think it fits best in our trailer that we are going to use black screen with titles over the top as Hayden had results favouring this.

Qualitative & Quantitative Data

In this post I will be researching how questionnaires collect data, and the best way to collect the data.

Qualitative data methods are ways of collecting data which are concerned with describing meaning, rather than with getting the raw statistics.
What qualitative methods (e.g. case studies and interviews) lose on reliability they gain in terms of validity. Qualitative data provides much more depth in the description of the subject but leaves it unto the person answering to give there own opinion in a narrative format.

The term qualitative data is used to describe a type of information that can be counted or expressed numerically.

Questionnaires are a very quick and easy way of extracting information from a specific targeted group.

Incorporating both Qualitative and Quantitative data into a questionnaire allows both thypes of information to be found, so that when analysing the results you can retrieve statistics and opinions and descriptions.

Below are some aspects of qualitative and quantitative data that I found whilst researching and thought it was relevant to add:

Quantitative Mode	Qualitative Mode
Assumptions Social facts have an objective reality  Primacy of method  Variables can be identified and relationships measured  Etic (outside's point of view)	Assumptions Reality is socially constructed  Primacy of subject matter  Variables are complex, interwoven, and difficult to measure  Emic (insider's point of view)
Purpose Generalizability  Prediction  Causal explanations	Purpose Contextualization  Interpretation  Understanding actors' perspectives
Approach  Begins with hypotheses and theories Manipulation and control  Uses formal instruments  Experimentation  Deductive  Component analysis  Seeks consensus, the norm  Reduces data to numerical indices  Abstract language in write-up	Approach  Ends with hypotheses and grounded theory  Emergence and portrayal  Researcher as instrument  Naturalistic  Inductive  Searches for patterns  Seeks pluralism, complexity  Makes minor use of numerical indices  Descriptive write-up
Researcher Role Detachment and impartiality  Objective portrayal	Researcher Role Personal involvement and partiality  Empathic understanding

Table from Gifted.uconn.edu

Film Trailer Conventions

History of Film Trailers:


Film trailers have been in production for about a century.

The first movie trailer came from the Loews Cinemas company in 1913 for a film called 'The Pleasure Seekers.'

It was a short snippet that played in theaters before the feature film.

Film companies soon started to adopt this trend and this is when the film trailer was born.

ref:


Flm trailers tend to follow the same rules when created, they share the same Conventions normally and these are as follows:


Conventions:

• Voice overs are used to tell the story and give credit information
• The stars of the film are showcased
• Key points are sometimes conveyed through titles,
• Conversations between characters often consist of one-liners,
• Dramatic camera angles may be chosen to show events or characters,
• Action is interspersed with actor or director credits on screen,
• Music plays an important role in creating atmosphere,
• The film's title may not appear until the end,
• The trailer builds to a climax where it ends,
• Montage (a series of shorts from different points in the film , edited together) is often used to highlight the most dramatic, humorous or fast paced aspects of the film.

Structural Conventions:

• Structured around the most appealing aspects of a film without taking conventional narrative order into consideration,
• A selection of clips are chosen to attract the widest possible audience,
• Aim to provide a basic narrative structure in order to guide an audience through the film's storyline.

Typical Setup of a Film Trailer

Opening: establishes setting and introduces the characters

Build-up: Relationships are established, development of characters and their world

Problem: A dilemma or series of complications, characters faced with an obstacle (or several) to overcome

Events: A series of events as characters try to overcome obstacles and solve problems. Further complications may arise in the process

Conclusion:

After researching into film trailer conventions and genre themes, it has become apparent to our group that we need a varied mixture of themes associated with each aspect of our genre, the correct film trailer conventions should be used in order to produce a successful film trailer that can be compared to existing products in the film industry.

Genre Conventions

When an audience views a film trailer they automatically start to analyse and interpret what they see and hear to establish the films genre.

Film trailer conventions and genre themes are intertwined in order to portray these different genres to the audience; for example: one of the main themes of a romance is the love story between the two main characters. A film trailer convention such as the use of a soundtrack; would help to produce the right atmosphere in order to emphasise the relationship and evoke the feeling of  'fear' upon the audience.

The genre of our film - Romantic Tragedy with elements of Psychological Thriller, this means that we had to research into the themes of the individual aspects of our genre, enabling us to gain a higher depth of knowledge of the themes associated with each aspect of our genre; therefore our group will then be able to select themes associated with each of the individual aspects of our genre in order for us to portray our chosen genre to the audience in our film trailer successfully.

Below are the themes associated with the Romance genre:

Themes:

- Typical Happy ending (Pathetic Fallacy)

- Love story

- Usually triangulation - romance is being challenged by person or problem

- Told from point of view of both lovers

- Miscommunication - characters hate each other, then love each other

- Emotional appeal - audience participate in the character’s lives, they are privy to their inner feelings and thoughts

- Main characters are the two romantically involved


Tragedy

Themes:

- The main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances,

- A narrative that portrays or depicts calamitous events and has an unhappy but meaningful ending,

- A disastrous event - especially one involving distressing loss or injury to life,

- A tragic aspect or element.

Psychological Thriller Themes:

- Reality - the quality of realism, characters often try to determine what is true and what is not within the narrative,

- Perception - a person's own interpretation of the world around him through his senses. Often characters misperceive the world around them, or their perceptions are altered by outside factors within the narrative,

- Mind - the human consciousness; the location for personality, thought, reason, memory, intelligence and emotion. The mind is often used as a location for narrative conflict, where characters battle their own minds to reach a new level of understanding or perception,

- Existence/Purpose - the object for which something exists; an aim or a goal humans strive towards to understand their reason for existence. Characters often try to discover what their purpose is in their lives and the narrative's conflict often is a way for the characters to discover this purpose,

- Identity - the definition of one's self. Characters often are confused about or doubt who they are and try to discover their true identity,

- Death - the cessation of life. Characters either fear or have a fascination with death.
Film trailers tend to have recognisable conventions in which an audience would establish that they were watching a film trailer. Some of the more recognisable conventions for film trailers are listed below:

Conventions:
- Voice overs are used to tell the story and give credit information

- The stars of the film are showcased

- Key points are sometimes conveyed through titles,

- Conversations between characters often consist of one-liners,

- Dramatic camera angles may be chosen to show events or characters,

- Action is interspersed with actor or director credits on screen,

- Music plays an important role in creating atmosphere,

- The film's title may not appear until the end,

- The trailer builds to a climax where it ends,

- Montage (a series of shorts from different points in the film , edited together) is often used to highlight the most dramatic, humorous or fast paced aspects of the film.
Structural Conventions:

- Structured around the most appealing aspects of a film without taking conventional narrative order into consideration,

- A selection of clips are chosen to attract the widest possible audience,

- Aim to provide a basic narrative structure in order to guide an audience through the film's storyline.
Opening: establishes setting and introduces the characters.
Build-up: Relationships are established, development of characters and their world.
Problem: A dilemma or series of complications, characters faced with an obstacle (or several) to overcome.
Events: A series of events as characters try to overcome obstacles and solve problems. Further complications may arise in the process.

Our Conclusion:

After researching into film trailer conventions and genre themes, it has become apparent to our group that we need a varied mixture of themes associated with each aspect of our genre, to be intertwined with the appropriate film trailer conventions in order to produce a successful film trailer that can be compared to existing products in the film industry.

Film Trailer Research

Below are some of the film trailers I have viewed to enhance my knowledge of there structure and techniques.





I watched this as it was a very unsuccessful film, this may be due to the fact the trailer was not well created so i viewed it to see what techniques was used.







I watched this trailer as I wanted to see the techniques used in film trailers of romance based films.







I watched this trailer as I wanted to see the techniques used in film trailers of romance based films.







I watched this trailer as I wanted to see the techniques used in film trailers of psychological thriller based films.