Using a flip camera I went and asked 5 people from my target audience some questions relating to everything I'm working on. I asked them all the same questions and here are the results:
DOM
GILL
GEORGIA
MAC
JONNY
All of the people I spoke to range from an age range of 16 - 18. I think I should probably have spoken to people slightly older as even though these people fit into the target audience age range, they represent only that small age group and not necessarily people in their twenties. I also think I should have started off the interviews asking whether or not they like Psychological thrillers as otherwise I don't think it really helped me, for example, Adam. The popular choice for least favourite genre is 'Rom-Com' which is interesting, but i think it was mostly because of the people (boys in particular) that i asked.. obviously Rom-coms don't really target teenage boys. The most important result for me from these interviews was that when I described to them briefly what my plot was about they all said they would be interested in seeing it; whether or not they said they liked my genre of film or not. Jonny even said 'Yes, because it's just like Donny Darko' which could be taken both ways. Firstly that the idea isn't original and has been done bigger and better than before; Or that the idea is as good a standard as this successful popular film. I'm more inclined to think he meant the conventions of the film, the twist at the end that i mentioned which is a popular feature in Psychological Thrillers. When I asked about the age of actors - whether it would help viewers relate to a film, most of my interviewee's said either no or that it doesn't really bother them. This interested me, as I would have said yes; I think i relate to a film much more if the actors are my age because it makes me feel more involved in a film. When I asked them what a good trailer would include the answers were quite useful. Based on their opinions I should make my trailer action packed and exciting; play popular music and leave the viewers guessing what will happen. Nobody told me that Psychological Thrillers were their favourite genre of film but, most of them said they liked those sort of films and the ones that they stated were their favourites are ones that I have looked at and aspire to.
The results from these interviews were quite helpful to me as a bit of market research and I'm glad I did them. It's given me more of an idea what people want from trailers.
