Survey Monkey Results Analysis

Please see Podcast 'Analysing Survey Results' on the sidebar.

Survey Monkey Findings

These are my Survey Monkey findings, i posted 10 questions which i thought would cover the whole spectrum of audience research. 

Question 1. What Age Range do you fall under?
Question 2. How would you label your Character?
Question 3. What Social grade would you give yourself?
Question 4. What is your annual earnings?
Question 5. Select the types of social group you are?
Question 6. What do you enjoy seeing in a film teaser trailer?
Question 7. What is your favourite sub genre of Horror?
Question 8. Does the incentive 'based on a true story' have a positive or negative effect on you?
Question 9. Does review ratings influence your interest in films?
Question 10. Are you Male or Female?

Survey Monkey Initial Ideas

In order to retrieve the most valid information I posted my survey on two websites which would give me responses from a selective but appropriate audience. One of the websites is the popular social networking site Facebook offering my friends ranged from 14-22 year olds which is an ideal audience. I felt I needed to offer my survey out to a more diverse age range so on Horror.com under the forum section I left the hyperlink to my survey this would give me a perfect audience with users on the site ranging from 18+.         

I feel this provides a good response for my survey as the people taking it will be appropriate and knowledgeable in the subject of the survey.

My Thoughts On The Project So Far.

After looking at allot of key stimulus models and background data on my areas of study, I am beginning to establish an idea for what my project will be.  I’m making a film teaser trailer, film poster and film magazine front cover. As a person I am quite a big Horror movie fan, but Horror genre itself falls under many different categories including; splatter, gothic, exploitation, monster, slasher, vampire, werewolf, survival and zombie horror.

But with Horror genre there is nothing worse than seeing something on screen which lacks realistic belief, obviously in some vampire, zombie genre’s its a lot more tricky, but looking into some research regarding tv drama I can apply it to my idea’s of my trailer. The significance of verisimilitude and deigesis is vital; although the reality of the film is diegetic I need to follow the rules of continuity, temporal and spatial coherence in order to give the film some real believability and atmosphere. If the trailer seems to unrealistic and does not follow certain genetic codes and conventions then it will not satisfy the audience’s needs.

I still feel I need to collect more data, but I am planning on configuring a questionnaire through the survey monkey website, this I feel will help determine target audience and further research into what my audience’s need from my film. Going into the research I will have some predictions based on the feedback I will get, if the research I get positively influences the decision to roll with a Horror genre I will have to market my product around the typical representations of Horror fans, the typical representations are people who uphold D and E social grades (typically semi-skilled or unskilled workers and casual or lowest grade workers.) The social value group my represented audience will tend to follow the characteristics of innovators who are self-confident risk takers and disconnected people who try to live in the present now distant from the traditionalists.

My Film trailer will be including narrative structure from theorists like Tsvetan Todorov who clearly labeled how stories work, I will apply his stages of the equilibrium. Apart from the final stage which highlights the ending of a film pretty much.  I will have to be careful when shooting according to the equilibriums because I am doing a teaser trailer, so all stages will have to be subtler. 

Typically I will also have to create emphasis on antagonist showing him/her in a dark moment, whilst not dipping to far into the enigma or cause and effect of the film, or it may defeat the object of a teaser trailer.

I will now start putting in further audience research and after I collect my results I will start drawing up some basic idea’s for the trailer itself and determine exactly what genre I will be following. 

How Technological Advances Have Improved My Area of Study.

The origin of the name ‘film’ came from the fact that photographic film (which was also referred as film stock) being the primary medium for recording and distributing film. Film stock was primarily known for its transparent Cellulose nitrate film base, but this became a hazard due to its flammable state. Now a days film companies still shoot with the 35mm film prints.

The real old fashioned hand cranked cameras and projectors would shoot at a 1000 frames per minute. It is generally cited as a standard silent speed. The renovation of sound film in 1920’s impacted technology, a constant speed was required for the overall sound trend. 24 frames per second were used, as it was most convenient in terms of expenditure and time. Since the late 19^th century more sophisticated film stocks and lens’s has lead to the improvement of quiet camera design, enabling filming in harsh conditions, synchronized sound and allowing sound and action to be recorded at corresponding speed.

An obvious improvement of filming through the years is the multimedia applications used to edit filming; these types of software can also convert films into different formats. Digital methods are a way of restoring films but the obsolescence cycle does make it a poor long-term continuation technique. A pro for digital filming is that the film shot can be edited without using non-linear editing systems, but the trend in digital filming is quite gradual and many still shoot on basic film.

Technology through several media channels has been the source to higher gross. Through the media you can now hold interviews in magazines, extra features for DVD’s (bonus disks), blu ray DVD’s, technological merchandise and many more. All of this contributes towards expanding target audience and giving more to a wider range of audience in different social class’s etc. For example trailers could be broadcasted on terrestrial TV to appeal to regular social class people, then the same trailer could be posted through the format of an iPad in the imbd application to appeal to a higher social business executive class.

 

The impact of the Internet is a big technological change not only for film and trailers but for the overall concept of marketing a film. With social networking sites ad’s on the side of the website allows distributors to create a buzz about the film, certainly when aiming it at the typical 16-24 target audience. Another way the Internet has affected media is You Tube, a site where you can go viral with home made videos or idea’s and receive feedback. Posting film trailers on You Tube has become common now days even to conglomerate film companies and this technique contributes to a great percentage of the market hype.

Legal Restraints in my area's of focus.

In filming teaser trailers there are a variety of features in your clip which will need to be carefully looked over, there are legal issues such as copyright and defamation. Copyright is dangerous territory in any industry now a days and you have to be carefull even making a film clip for a project that you avoid infringement. Defamation also known as slander is the communication of a statement that makes a claim which could give any individual, product, goverment etc a negative image. A famous case of defamtion and libel is the case of 1735 when John Peter Zenger a journalist for New York Weekly journal published a write up which criticised William Cosby (Governor of New York 1735), Zenger was taken to court but the case was eventually decided as not-guilty as Zenger proved that his supossed 'seditious libel' was correct.


Filming in the Uk publically is legal, but in non-public places which restrict commercial filming and photographing sometimes a permit is needed. On a more radical degree, if when filming there is likely to be any explosions or fire arms used then Uk police need to be fully informed and consulted, also permission is needed to portray any police personel.


In America the 'Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)' declared that theatrical trailers should not exceed the length of 2.30, but major production companies are allowed to overrule this term just once per annual year. Internet and home made trailer are excluded from this rule. Green and Red bands are a simple colour code scheme to explain to the audience the approval content of the film. Green bands signify the film has been approved for all audiences. This contributes to broadening target audiences. Red bands symbolize explicit content only for restricted or mature viewers.

In a contract between actors and producers there is a section which states film posters should include a billing block, a billing block is a highly condensed block of writing commonly situated at the bottom of the poster. Having highly condensed writing allows the fit the required writing in, whilst leaving space for detail.

Film Trailer Style Models.

The film trailer is the most decisive point of a movie advertisement campaign, it particulates the audiences level of interest in the film. In mine and many others opinion in order to create a succesful trailer you must follow the Todorov's theory of 'Equilibrium', the strategic order of this theory is pretty much followed by each one of my trailers i have analysed, the stages for this are as follows; Stage 1 the state of equilibrium and how it should be, Stage 2 a disrubtion of the equilibrium, Stage 3 recognizing the disruption of the equilibrium and Stage 4 attempt to fix the equilibrium. There is a Stage 5 but it is not recognizable in film trailers as it acts as a spoiler. Stage 5 is the equilibrium restored.

Paranormal Activity 3 trailer analysis.

The purpose of this trailer is to entice and create nervousness for the audience, also to reminisce to the audience of the previous two films.

The target audience is generally set at 15-25 year olds, the certificate for the other two films was both 15, and surprisingly due to the films denotation and its fear factor. This encouraged more 15-17 year olds to view a film of that calibre whilst they had the chance.

The genre is quite clearly a horror film based on the trailer and the feature film name, its sub genre you would have to agree is mystery, the denotation of darkness in the trailer supports this statement. You can also establish the genre of this film by the hand held camera view, as many horror fans know hand held camera is a tense and effective way of creating fear, films such as Clover field, Blare Witch Project and Rec 1 & 2 both have become successful in using this technique and cemented this way of recording as a horror common convention.

The opening puts emphasis on the way the movie will be shot, from hand-held camera point of view, there is an important opening shot which sets the scene for the movie, the date displayed on the camera reads ‘September 3^rd 1988’ this date was before both Paranormal activity 1 & 2 therefore the trailer’s connotation tells the reader that the latest film will be a prequel.

In-between shots of the trailer there is a transition of static to image and it plays an important part of building fear and tension, the static can relate to films such as Ring which is considered one of the best horror films ever. The trailer also uses many fade out effects to resolute to darkness; also sound waves are slowed down particularly when the girls are laughing to alter it as a sort of demon like cackle which connotes the horror genre. Obvious special effects include the ghostly figures appearing in the trailer. Apart from the effects I have noted down there is not a lot more, effects used are quite diverse as the trailer doesn’t want to spoil some of its best apprehensive moments in the film.

Colour in the trailer is a very grainy simple colourised picture; the production team have used some images in a night vision effect which goes hand in hand with the themes of the film and also adds further dread to the film. There are more dark shot images than any other sort which follows the genetic codes of a horror film trailer.

The narrative in the trailer is perhaps the girl’s father. The narrative is very important as it introduces the characters for the film. When picking out words in the trailer, words like ‘bloody Mary’ and ‘fear’ stand out as momentous to the genre.

The use of text/language promotes the films time period, the font of the text for example ‘OCTOBER’ is in a classic font which symbolizes the date of 1988. The month October which has been picked for release date is very common in Horror blockbusters as the month of October is typically associated with Halloween.

Sound effects are relatively similar to the effects I have stated above and there is a lot of short low pitch noises between shots for that shock sound effect. The noise of the static also plays a big part in the build up of tension.

Rise of The Planet of the Apes trailer analysis.

The purpose of the trailer is to explain the plot summary of the film and also give an insight to the audience of the level of destruction the apes are causing.

After looking into the latest film of the new Planet of the Apes series. The campaign tagline for the film is ‘Whose side are you on?’ uses a technique to interact with the audience, this preposition appeals to a wide target audience for a number of synergetic reasons. The new film also appeals to viewers who enjoyed the previous film in the series; this broadens the target audience because the previous film was produced 10 years ago and the original film which was created in 1968. Furthermore providing a wider target audience was the TV series in 1974 which was successful in both America and Britain, the series was repeated in 1994 on channel 4 in Britain. So not only are a realistic general target audience of 16-24 year olds targeted but from 1968-2001 the series have already established a target audience and market,

The genre is labelled as action, adventure and sci-fi I certainly feel that the way the trailer is sequenced fits the genres very well, I think more so it represents the action side of the film. The fast flowing, quick shots and high tempo speed certainly integrate with the common conventions of an action film trailer. The trailers denotation does also show elements of sci-fi conventions such as the gorilla’s which represent a chemical malfunction of some sort.

The opening shows a location shot in San Francisco over a bridge, this long shot then fades out and there is a medium close up on a gorilla with many others in the background but the centre focus is on the one gorilla. Intentionally the connotation of this shot is to first show the detail and effects used on the gorilla making it seem so realistic and secondly to show the extent and numbers of the apes. After this shot there is a reaction shot to show the weakness and fear through the eyes of a human.

A variety of shot are used in the trailer, most consistently are long shots and low angle shots to represent the Apes power status in the film. Reaction shots are also used which is common in action films.

The obvious special effects used in the trailer are amazing CGI to create the ape’s realistic image and other effects like the explosions used in the trailer highlight its action constituents.

Colour and picture quality in the trailer is at a very high standard; all attention to minor detail is attended to, to help cement the CGI effects.

Narrative in the trailer is very partial as the trailer plays on the fear and suspense which it promotes through fast shots and ‘booming’ sound effects. There is narrative at the end which exclaims the pleading of a human to an ape and the low angle shot on the human which promotes the vulnerability of the human race.

The text used is commonly used in other parts of the Planet of the Apes series so a recognizable text style is established for former fans and the block style dimensional text is bold enough to stand out for new target audiences. The release date is shown in the same style, being a summer blockbuster can captivate a wide audience range.

The sounds effects include explosion sounds, screaming (again proving humans as weak) and the non-diegetic sound played throughout is hard hitting and relative to the film’s genre.

Smurfs trailer analysis.

The purpose of the trailer is to use the power of comedy to entice the audience in watching the film.

The target audience for the film Smurfs is aimed at a younger audience due to its animation appeal, the target audience also appeals to a younger audience because of the Smurfs TV series which was a major success on an international basis. A broader target audience is established because of its family appeal also, children who view the film at the cinema will usually be accompanied by an adult/parent/guardian.

The genre of the film is family adventure but also as the trailer tries to articulate there is a strong sub genre of comedy. The denotation of the trailer clearly fortifies the genre.

The opening to the trailer begins with a magical mystical non-diegetic music which is light hearted and calm, there are landscape shots to show the smurfs peaceful environment. There is a camera pan around the smurf village, until a reaction shot of a smurf shadowed by a high angle shot is shown to signify the danger that these people face.

There are lots of bright vivid colours which appeal to younger audiences and helps illuminate the animation side of the film.  

There is a series of text use in the trailer the first bit is ‘This Summer’ in a blue block like 3d style which is bold and stands out, the blue colour connotes the smurf representations. Followed by this text is ‘From Columbia Pictures’ this is a famous distribution and production company known for movies similar like Stuart Little and Surf’s up, so mentioning that the film has links with a conglomerate company like Columbia Pictures gives the film a first-class reputation. It goes on to say ‘The chase is on’ this implicates its action elements. There is then a sequence of texts which goes ‘Smurfs’ ‘in 3D’ ‘Summer 2011’, stating the film is 3d is a technique used to pull in even more audience because it is a increasingly popular method used by many blockbuster hits.

The voice over plays it’s most significant part in the opening by addressing the audience and explaining the summary of the film. It also speaks out the text which is done to cement what the text actually says.

Dialogue in this trailer contributes a lot to the comedy appeal, the smurfs take part in much of the dialogue and exploit it well to appeal to there younger target audience. The dialogue from the two human characters introduces themselves and also gives the audience an insight to there personalities. The repetition of the word ‘smurf’ catches onto the audience and leaves a message to viewers when the trailer is finished.